Pathway to Japanese Literature

1

One Sunday afternoon, Tange Satoko-chan, Kimura Midori-chan, and Nozaki Sayuri-chan were walking hand in hand through a quiet street in Setagaya Ward on their way back from visiting a friend’s house.
All three were close friends in their third year of elementary school.

“Oh!”

Satoko-chan froze in shock at whatever she had seen.

Midori-chan and Sayuri-chan were startled too, gazing in the direction Satoko-chan was staring.

Then, right in the middle of the road, something strange began to unfold.
The iron lid of the manhole across the way creaked and groaned as it lifted.
Was there someone inside the manhole?

The manhole cover now stood fully open.
From beneath it emerged a man clad in a black cloak.
He wore a wide-brimmed jet-black hat, large round glasses perched on his face, a mustache stiffly upturned at both ends, and a triangular black goatee.

He looked like a Western demon—a sinister man.
The man crawled out of the manhole, stood up straight on the ground, looked toward the three girls, and grinned slyly.
Then, fluttering his black cloak like a bat, he began walking off into the distance.

“He’s suspicious. Hey, let’s all follow that man!”

Midori-chan said in a small voice.
Midori-chan’s older brother Toshio-kun was a member of the Boy Detectives Club, so Midori-chan also liked that sort of detective-like stuff.
Satoko-chan and Sayuri-chan had a habit of obeying whatever Midori-chan said, so the three of them went on following the man in the black cloak.

The black-cloaked figure passed through the open field and entered the forest beyond.
On the outskirts of Setagaya Ward lay both cultivated fields and woods.
Since it was daytime, venturing into the forest held little terror.
Driven by morbid curiosity, the three girls trailed after him without hesitation.

There in the forest stood an aged Western-style mansion.

“Oh! That’s a haunted house!”

“Oh my, that’s terrifying! What should we do?”

The Western-style mansion had once been inhabited by Westerners but was now abandoned and known in the area as a haunted house.

Since they lived nearby, they knew it well.

It was said that someone had seen a red ghost light gliding smoothly from a second-floor window of the Western-style mansion at night.
There were also rumors that an eerie woman’s weeping voice could be heard coming from inside the deserted Western-style mansion.

Just as the three girls were about to flee, something astonishing occurred.

To their astonishment, the man in the black cloak was smoothly scaling the outer wall of the Western-style mansion! Despite there being no ladder, he climbed up like a snake and vanished into the second-floor window.

The three shuddered and were about to bolt when a shrill scream rang out from the direction of the Western-style mansion.

When they heard that, all three involuntarily turned around.
From the second-floor window, a white face was peeking.
The face was letting out a piercing scream.
Because it was far away, they couldn’t see clearly, but she appeared to be a bob-haired girl around the same age as the three.
The girl was screaming as though she were about to be killed.

“It must be that man in the black cloak tormenting her.”

The three of them all thought the same thing.

The girl at the window had been struggling to escape from someone’s grasp, but was finally dragged relentlessly backward and vanished from view.
At that moment, the crying voice abruptly stopped—perhaps because the man had covered someone’s mouth.

The three dashed off frantically.
And though they each returned to their nearby homes, Midori-chan immediately reported this incident to her father and older brother Toshio-kun.

“What a missed opportunity.
If I’d been there, I would’ve grabbed that clue for sure.”

Toshio-kun of the Boy Detectives Club said regretfully.

Midori-chan’s father called the police, so officers rushed to the Western-style mansion in the forest and searched inside, but it was completely vacant, with not a trace of anyone to be found.
What on earth could this man in the black cloak—resembling a Western demon—be?
And what became of that poor girl?

2

The next day after a small girl had cried out for help from the window of an old Western-style mansion in the forest.

Midori-chan’s older brother Kimura Toshio-kun promptly informed Kobayashi-kun, the leader of the Boy Detectives Club, about this matter, so Kobayashi, the club leader, came to Kimura-kun’s house.

And so, the two of them decided to explore the Western-style mansion in the forest.
Because it was broad daylight, there was nothing to fear.
However, both of them had properly prepared seven detective tools including flashlights, a silk rope ladder, and whistles.

Kobayashi, the club leader, and Kimura-kun passed through the dimly lit forest and arrived in front of the haunted Western-style mansion.
When they pushed on the entrance door, it opened without resistance.
The door wasn't even locked.
The two stepped inside and stealthily made their way down the wide corridor, careful not to make a sound.

They illuminated with their flashlights and spent a long time searching every room on the first and second floors, but discovered that no one was there.
It was completely vacant.

“There’s something about this room that feels off! I don’t know why, but I just have this feeling.”

When they returned to the large first-floor room, Kobayashi-kun muttered as if to himself.
And then, just at that moment...

From somewhere indeterminate, faintly, faintly,

“Mister, please forgive me. Ah… I’m scared… Help me…!”

A scream could be heard.
It seemed to be the voice of a small girl.

The two shuddered, froze in their tracks, and exchanged glances.

“It seems to have come from below the floor,” Kobayashi-kun said, tilting his head. Then, once more,

"Huh? Oh no! Hurry and help me!"
"Hurry and help me!" came a faint voice...

"There must be a hidden door somewhere."
"Where could it be?"

Kobayashi-kun shone the flashlight and searched the entire room.

The room had a large fireplace, with round knobs lined up along its lower edge.
They were decorative carvings.
Kobayashi-kun pressed each knob one by one with his finger.
He then discovered that the seventh knob from the right moved exactly like a bell button.
Kobayashi-kun pushed it firmly.
Then...

With a metallic clang came a startled cry of "Ah!"
When he whirled around, Kimura-kun - who had been standing there moments before - had vanished without a trace.

Kobayashi-kun was startled and rushed over there.
Then, he realized that a square hole had gaped open in the floorboards.
It was a trapdoor leading to the basement.
It was because Kobayashi-kun had pressed the fireplace knob that it had opened.

“Kimura-kun, are you okay?”

Into the hole, he pointed his flashlight and called out.

“U-uh... I-I’m okay!”

Kimura-kun answered in a strained voice.
When he looked, below the hole stretched a long, slide-like board.
Kobayashi-kun resolutely jumped down there.

He slid down with a whoosh.
And with a thud, he landed hard on his bottom on the basement’s solid floor.

Finally managing to get up and shining the flashlight around, he found himself in a spacious basement roughly ten mats in size. However, there was no sign of the girl who had screamed. In the opposite wall, a pitch-dark opening gaped. Could there be another basement beyond that?

“Ah! You...”
“Hey... What’s that?”

Kimura-kun pointed at the hole in a scared voice.

The two flashlights suddenly lit up the spot.

In the depths of the pitch-dark hole, two round, glinting objects floated suspended in midair.
And then—wasn’t it gradually drawing closer?

Those were the monster’s eyes.
Something terrifying was approaching.
Just as a hermit crab pokes its face out from its shell, it smoothly extended its neck.

“Ah!”

The two involuntarily let out cries and embraced each other's bodies.

Its body was bright red.
A long, large, bright red horn.
At its base was an eerie pointed mouth.
Two glinting eyes.
Six long twisted legs...
It was a bright red beetle the size of a human.

Ah, what would become of the two?

What on earth had become of the poor girl who had screamed earlier?

3

Kobayashi-kun and club member Kimura-kun encountered a human-sized, large, bright red beetle in the basement of the haunted Western-style mansion.

The two were in the corner of the basement, staring at the terrifying monster.
The rings of light from the two flashlights illuminating the monster were trembling violently.

A sharp, indescribable sound screeched out—"Kee! Kee!"—through the air.
It was the giant beetle’s screech.
Each time it screeched, that pointed mouth would snap open and shut.

The large beetle walked around the basement in circles, its six long legs creaking unnervingly as they jerked up and down.

After walking around for a while, it finally began approaching them.
The beetle’s back glistened a bright red.
Every so often, it would spread its large wings and give a powerful flap with a loud buzz.
Each time, a terrifying wind would arise.
It was now within about two meters.
The bulging large eyes were gleaming and glaring at the two.

As if it were about to pounce any moment, they instinctively braced themselves.
The beetle bent its hind legs, steadied itself with its middle legs and rear, heaved upright with a groan, and writhed its front legs menacingly.
The unsettling abdomen came into view right before their eyes.
Certain it would lunge at them with those front legs any second, they tensed up even more when…

Ah, at that moment, something truly astonishing occurred.
A gaping square hole had opened in the beetle’s abdomen.
A square lid-like panel swung downward until it touched the floor like a slide.
Then—lo and behold—something began squirming out from within its belly!

What had crawled out from the square hole in its abdomen was a bright red beetle about fifty centimeters long. From the large beetle’s abdomen, the medium beetle had emerged. Surely it hadn’t actually given birth to a child. The large beetle might be an artificial object made of plastic or something similar. The medium beetle that had emerged from its abdomen was also likely man-made, given that it measured fifty centimeters in length.

The medium beetle climbed down the lid that had dropped to form a slide and began circling around nearby.
As for the large beetle, it lay perfectly still on its back with a heavy thud, like a corpse.
It resembled a giant cicada’s shed shell.
After completing its circuit of the basement, the medium beetle came before the two and heaved itself upright.
It repeated the same actions as the large beetle.
Another gaping hole opened in its abdomen.
And from there emerged an adorable fifteen-centimeter-long beetle this time.

Even though it was called cute, being fifteen centimeters long meant it was several times larger than any real beetle—a monstrous crimson creature glowing red from head to tail.
As for the medium beetle, it too had rolled over with a thud like a cicada’s shed shell.

The fifteen-centimeter small beetle had been scurrying busily around the area, but when it finally came before the two, it once again nimbly stood up on its hind legs.

And it repeated the same thing.
A four-centimeter square hole opened in the fifteen-centimeter beetle's abdomen, and from there slid out a crimson beetle—this time nearly identical in size to a real insect—onto the floor.
However, this small beetle did not move in the slightest, even after the fifteen-centimeter beetle had become an empty shell and rolled away.

It remained motionless where it had fallen on the floor.
Is it dead?

What an adorable, beautiful beetle it was.
Unlike the previous large beetles, this one had a ruby-red hue that was translucent all the way through its body.
The two adorable eyes are shining as if they were diamonds.

“Ah!”

Kimura-kun let out a startled cry.
At that moment, because something black had crawled out from the hole ahead.

It stood up straight upon emerging from the hole.
It was a human.
Clad in a black cloak, he was a terrifying figure resembling a Western demon.

“Hahaha…”
“Kobayashi-kun, it’s been a while.”
“Have you forgotten me already?”
“See? I’m the Magic Doctor who once challenged you to a battle of wits over the ‘Golden Tiger.’”

Kobayashi-kun involuntarily stepped forward.

“Ah! Then you’re the one from that time…”

“Hahaha…”
“This time too, you’ve all fallen neatly into my scheme.”

4

Before Kobayashi and Kimura-kun, who had sneaked into the haunted mansion’s basement, appeared a terrifying figure clad in a black cloak—a man who resembled a Western demon.

“I am the Magic Doctor who once battled wits with you Boy Detectives Club.”
“In truth, I lured you here to test your wits once more.”

“Last time it was the ‘Golden Tiger,’ but this time, it’s this red beetle.”
“This is made of ruby.”
“The two eyes are diamonds.”
“It is my precious treasure.”
“I’ll hand this over to you, so use your wits like before and try to hide it well.”
“I’ll find it within five days and steal it.”
“If it gets stolen, this battle of wits will be your defeat.”

Upon hearing that, he exclaimed, “Ah! So you were the Magic Doctor from back then?”

With that, he finally felt relieved, but there were still things he didn’t understand.

“Yesterday, you were the one who scaled the outer walls of this Western-style mansion without any ladder, mister.
“And what happened to the girl peeking through the window?
“You were tormenting her, weren’t you?”

“Heh heh heh….
“That was all part of luring you here.
“Knowing Kimura-kun’s sister Midori-chan and her friends were watching, I staged a miraculous spectacle.
“At the time, a thin yet sturdy thread ladder hung from this roof—I climbed using that.
“The dusk light hid the thread from afar.”

“The girl from that time was a doll. Look at this!”

The Magic Doctor pulled out a large doll he had concealed beneath his cloak and displayed it.

"But didn't you claim the girl from yesterday emitted a pitiful scream?"

When Kobayashi-kun countered, the doctor smirked slyly and averted his gaze.

"Aah! Help me!"
"Help me!"

A girl’s terrifying scream was heard.
The two boys—startled—looked at the doll’s face, but its mouth wasn’t moving at all.
“Hahaha….”
“That’s ventriloquism.”
“I mimicked a girl’s voice without moving my mouth.”
“Yesterday’s scream was this.”

Hearing this explanation, the two were completely relieved.
Then, upon receiving the ruby beetle from the Magic Doctor, they left the haunted mansion, returned to Kobayashi-kun’s house, and told his father, mother, and Midori-chan all about it.
Then they hurried to Detective Akechi’s office.
And they reported the matter of the Magic Doctor to Detective Akechi as well.

After some time had passed, the ten members of the Boy Detectives Club whom Kobayashi-kun had summoned by telephone gathered at Detective Akechi’s office—but among them was a single girl mixed in.
She was Miyata Yuuko-chan, a first-year middle school student who had recently joined the group—the sole female member of the club.
For her age, she was large-framed and indeed a very cute girl.

“I’ve thought of something good!”
“Let’s hide that beetle at my house!”

As everyone was discussing, Yuuko-chan proposed that idea.
Then, bringing her mouth close to Leader Kobayashi’s ear, she whispered something in a hushed voice.

Exchanging whispers one after another and coming to understand Yuuko-chan’s idea, everyone clapped their hands and agreed, “That’s good! That’s good!”

Yuuko-chan slipped the ruby beetle into a pocket and pressed down firmly on top of it with one hand before being escorted home by the boys.
Yuuko-chan’s house ran a business making plaster ornaments, with a small workshop located in the back.

Yuuko-chan entered the workshop.
In the workshop, plaster ornaments such as boys' heads, Venus (the goddess), and girls holding flower baskets were lined up in great numbers.

There were some that had been completely finished, and others that remained unfinished and were yet to be pieced together.
Was Yuuko-chan planning to hide the beetle within this plaster?

Could such a method truly deceive the Magic Doctor’s eyes?
There might have been some deeper scheme at play.

As Yuuko-chan crouched among the plaster ornaments, a terrifying face appeared outside the glass window.
A dirty man with his face buried in beard stealthily peered inside.

Who on earth was this bearded man?
And what exactly was this clever idea of Yuuko-chan's that had made the boys clap their hands in delight?

Before long, something truly strange would occur.
This beard-enshrouded man of unknown identity began committing an outrageous act.

5

The sole female member of the Boy Detectives Club, Miyata Yuuko-chan, entered her family’s plaster workshop with the red beetle made of ruby and was working on something.
Then, at that moment, from outside the window, a dirty man with a beard-enshrouded face was stealthily peering in.

On the evening of the following day, in Shibuya Ward where Yuuko-chan lived, strange events began unfolding one after another.
A disheveled, grimy man entered a stationery shop in one part of town and purchased a cute plaster statue - just the head of a five- or six-year-old boy - that had been displayed in the shop window.

After leaving the store, he slipped into a deserted back alley, glanced around furtively, unwrapped the paper package, then abruptly hurled the plaster boy's head against the ground, shattering it into fragments.

Why did he break the plaster statue he had gone to the trouble of buying? Could it be that this man had gone mad?

Then, about thirty minutes later, the man appeared at an art dealer’s shop in another town. And there as well, he bought another plaster statue of a boy’s head just like before, then came to a deserted back alley and smashed it into fine powder. Then, about thirty minutes later, that man sneaked into a certain mansion in the same Shibuya Ward.

In that house’s parlor too, there was an identical plaster boy’s head.
The man entered through the window, stole that head, and then destroyed it into smithereens again in a nearby shrine’s forest.

“No good. It’s not inside.”
“At that time, there were only these three plasters that hadn’t been assembled yet….”

The man stood motionless, looking utterly bewildered.

At that moment, a girl’s laughter suddenly rang out from behind.

When the man turned around in surprise, it was Yuuko-chan who emerged from behind a large tree.

“Mister, you fell for it completely! This battle of wits goes to the Boy Detectives Club!”

“You were watching me hide the red beetle inside the plaster statue from the window, weren’t you? But that was just pretending to hide it! The real one’s actually hidden in a completely different place.”

Yuuko-chan said this and laughed as though she found it hilarious.

“So you pulled it off cleverly. I tried to steal that, but there were always people in the workshop, so I couldn’t get it out.”

“I had no choice but to wait for those three children’s heads to be delivered, then went around destroying each one, but nothing came out. I’ve been completely had. Wahaha….”

The man showed no sign of anger as he laughed heartily, then abruptly adopted a solemn expression.

“However, young lady.”
“The Magic Doctor’s way more skilled than this!”
“I’m the Magic Doctor’s disciple—my role was to lead you around by the nose!”
“While you were trailing after me, the Magic Doctor had already stolen away your hidden red beetle.”
“Ha, ha, ha, ha….”

Upon hearing this, Yuuko-chan started and turned deathly pale.

And without saying a word, she suddenly started running off somewhere.
The man watched her go and grinned.

When Yuuko-chan took the bus home, she grabbed a small shovel and hurried to the field behind the back entrance.

Parting the grass that reached up to her knees, she made her way to the center of the field, removed the marker stone, dug up the ground beneath it with the shovel, and retrieved the hidden tin can.

“Oh, thank goodness! That person lied!”

Inside the tin can was the red beetle—safe and sound!

“Heh-heh-heh-heh. This time, you’re the one who fell for it completely.”

Suddenly, a voice came from behind—the man was standing there.

“The part about the Magic Doctor stealing it was a lie.”
“The Magic Doctor is none other than yours truly!”
“By saying all that, I made you come to the real hiding place.”
“Now then, hand over that beetle.”

The man thrust out his hand abruptly.

6

Yuuko-chan had been cleverly deceived by the Magic Doctor, and the hiding place of the red beetle had been discovered.

It was a desolate field, and her opponent was the adult Magic Doctor. Since she was just a small child, there was nothing she could do. In the end, the ruby beetle was taken from her.

“Now then, it’s your turn to search.”
“I will hide this beetle in a mysterious place.”
“Try to find it if you can!”

“Ha, ha, ha, ha….”
“Poor thing, you’re about to cry, aren’t you?”
“There, there. In that case, I’ll be sure to tell you the secret of the hiding place—as a special favor.”
“Stay right there and wait.”

The Magic Doctor said that and departed somewhere.

Three days later, in the afternoon.

When Yuuko-chan was playing in her garden, a red rubber balloon came floating down from the sky.

A child somewhere must have let go of the balloon’s string, sending it soaring upward until its strength waned and it came drifting back down.

As Yuuko-chan thought this and stared fixedly at the red balloon, it soon fell to the ground right before her eyes.

The balloon had a string attached, and at the string’s end was tied a white object.
Yuuko-chan wondered what it was, picked it up, and examined it.

It was a piece of paper folded into a finely compact shape.
When she carefully smoothed it out, the paper bore this peculiar message written upon it.

May 25th, 3:20 PM. Enter from the top of the Ippon-sugi Cedar.
Beware the terrifying guardian.

Magic Doctor

“Oh! This is a letter from the Magic Doctor.”

Yuuko-chan’s heart began to pound.

The Magic Doctor might have kept his previous promise and told Yuuko-chan the hiding place of the beetle.

Yuuko-chan immediately took that paper and boarded a train to visit Detective Akechi’s office in Kojimachi and consulted with Kobayashi Shounen.

“Speaking of May 25th, that’s the day after tomorrow,” said Kobayashi. “We just need to go to the Ippon-sugi Cedar then. Come to think of it, I’ve heard of that cedar somewhere.” He suddenly snapped his fingers. “Ah! Right—beyond Kimura Toshio-kun’s house near the Magic Doctor’s monster mansion, there was definitely something called the Ippon-sugi Cedar. I’ll call Kimura-kun and check.”

When he made the call, they confirmed there was indeed a tall cedar tree named Ippon-sugi at that location.

And so, on May 25th at 3:00 PM, Kobayashi-kun and the five members of the club arrived at the field where the Ippon-sugi Cedar stood.

The five were Leader Kobayashi, Yuuko-chan, Kimura Toshio-kun, Inoue Ichirou-kun—the strongest member of the club—and Noro Ippei-kun.
Ippei-kun, nicknamed Noro-chan, was a timid but nimble and observant child.

“What does ‘Enter from the top of the Ippon-sugi Cedar’ mean?”

As Kobayashi-kun tilted his head in puzzlement, Noro-chan called out in a shrill voice,

“There must be a hole at the top.”
“That’s where you go in.”
“Maybe I should try climbing?”

With that, he began to uncoil the long rope that had been wrapped around his waist.

Noro-chan, being an expert tree climber, had anticipated that he would need to climb the cedar tree today and had prepared for it.

Noro-chan was also skilled at using a lasso.
He spun the long rope around and around and hurled it up to a high branch of the cedar tree.
Then, he tied one end to his own body and had the others pull on the other end.

Like a tug-of-war, when everyone pulled on the rope, Noro-chan used that force to nimbly climb up the thick cedar trunk.

And once he reached a lower branch, he could then move from branch to branch.

Noro-chan finally reached the top of the cedar tree.

And he had been searching around there for a while, but—
“There doesn’t seem to be anything here.”
“There doesn’t seem to be any hole open anywhere.”

A shouting voice was heard in the distance.
What could be the reason for this?

“Even if they say ‘Enter from the top,’ if there’s no hole, you can’t get in, can you?”

Noro-chan had remained motionless at the treetop for about five minutes when, for some reason, he suddenly cried out in a shrill voice,

“I’ve got it! There it is! Look at that!”

Shouting this, he pointed toward one side of the field.
There, bathed in sunlight, the shadow of the Ippon-sugi Cedar lay stretched out long.

Everyone, what on earth had Noro-chan noticed?

7

This time, it was the Boy Detectives Club’s turn to search for the ruby beetle.

May 25th, 3:20 PM. Enter from the top of the Ippon-sugi Cedar.
Beware the dreadful guardian.

As per the letter’s instructions, Leader Kobayashi, Yuuko-chan, Kimura-kun, Inoue-kun, and Noro-chan—the five of them—arrived at the field with the Ippon-sugi Cedar in Setagaya Ward.

Noro-chan, the tree-climbing expert, climbed to the top of the tall cedar tree—but there was no entry hole to be found anywhere.
Noro-chan looked around the area for a while, then—for some reason—pointed at the shadow of the cedar tree lying long across the field and shouted.

“There it is!
“The entrance is right there!”

Hearing this, Leader Kobayashi noticed that spot with a start.

“Ah! That’s it.
“The ‘top’ means the shadowed area at the very peak of the cedar tree.”

After waiting for Noro-chan to climb down from the tree, they all went to check the tip of the cedar tree’s shadow.

Around there, tall grass grew thickly.
Kobayashi-kun stepped into the grass and searched through it, but before long—

“Ah! There’s a hole here!”
“This must be the entrance.”

And he called everyone together.
It was a narrow hole about sixty centimeters in diameter.

Since it was pitch black inside, Inoue-kun and Kimura-kun turned on the flashlights they had prepared, and with Inoue-kun taking the lead, they entered the hole.

The narrow space ended after about three meters, and suddenly the hole widened, with stone steps leading downward.
They could now stand and walk.

When they descended the stone steps, a large iron door stood closed before them.
The Magic Doctor’s letter had warned, “Beware the dreadful guardian.”
The thought of that terrible creature lying in wait beyond the door made everyone’s hearts pound.

But having come this far, turning back was impossible.

Inoue-kun gripped the door handle and pushed.

Then, apparently unlocked, the iron door creaked open with an eerie *kii* sound, swinging to the other side.

They shone their flashlights inside, but there was nothing there.
However, there was nothing but a pitch-dark cave passage continuing far into the depths.

The five timidly entered the darkness with Inoue-kun leading the way.

The timid Noro-chan, trembling all over, followed Leader Kobayashi.
Moreover, since Yuuko-chan was a girl, they had to protect her.
Kobayashi-kun took Noro-chan and Yuuko-chan by the hand with both hands and moved forward.
After moving forward a short distance, they came to a bend in the cave passage.

When they nimbly turned the corner, everyone let out an “Ah!” and froze in their tracks.
Right before their eyes crouched an unimaginably enormous monster.
Its face was yellow with thick black stripes.
Eyes as large as washing basins glowed in the darkness.

A massive mouth sported a beard like bundled sticks, from which two white fangs jutted sharply.
It was a monster resembling a tiger enlarged a hundredfold.
That terrifying face filled the entire cave, its jaw resting on the ground.

From somewhere, a foul-smelling, strong wind blew in.

“Uhehehehe….”
“Well, well… The cute children have arrived.”
“What a delicious-looking feast.”
“I’ll devour you right now!”
“Uhehehe….”

The monster tiger uttered those words with an eerie laugh.
Its voice reverberated through the cave, creating an indescribably terrifying atmosphere.

Then the creature suddenly snapped open its gaping maw—a yawning chasm nearly two meters wide.

Though the five tried desperately to flee, they found themselves magnetically pulled toward the beast, utterly unable to escape.
Before they could react, they were dragged before the monster tiger’s jaws and swallowed one after another into its throat.

Inside the mouth, a large crimson tongue was writhing.

The five lay sprawled on the tongue, seemingly having lost consciousness.

Even so, how could such a huge monster be living in the depths of the earth? What on earth would become of the children who had been eaten by the monster?

8

Kobayashi-kun, Kimura-kun, Yuuko-chan, Inoue-kun, and Noro-chan—the five of them—entered the mysterious cave in a desolate field of Setagaya Ward to retrieve the ruby beetle.

Inside that cave lay a monster tiger a hundred times the size of a normal tiger, and with its enormous mouth, it swallowed all five of them.

When they came to their senses after a while, they were still lying on the tiger’s tongue with no sign of being swallowed into its stomach.
Inoue-kun shone the flashlight he had been gripping tightly into the depths of the monster’s throat.

Then they realized that in this tiger’s throat lay neither esophagus nor stomach—nothing at all.

It was a tiger with only a neck.
Of course, it wasn’t a living tiger but a mechanical contraption.
What they had thought was sucking them in must have been blown from somewhere behind by something like a large electric fan.

Inoue-kun tried to exit from the tiger’s mouth, but the mouth was already shut and simply wouldn’t open.

Since there was no other choice, they consulted Kobayashi-kun and decided to try heading further inside.
The depths of the tiger's throat were the same concrete cave as before.
As they advanced through there while illuminating their path with flashlights, they suddenly came to a dead end.

“Ah! There’s a door here!”

It was a small door, just barely large enough for a single person to pass through.
Inoue-kun grabbed the door’s handle and pulled, and it opened easily.
It was an extremely thick, sturdy iron door, just like a vault door.

The five went inside.
Then, strangely enough, that heavy door smoothly closed all by itself—lo and behold!

Inoue-kun, surprised, tried to open it once more, but this time, no matter how hard he pushed, it wouldn’t budge.
Moreover, on the inside of the door, there was neither a handle nor anything else—just a smooth iron plate.

“Oh!”
“This is a round room with no exit anywhere.”

It was a round room about the size of two tatami mats, resembling the bottom of a well.

The five had been confined inside a concrete cylinder. When they shone their flashlights on the ceiling, they saw that the round cylinder continued far upward. It was exactly like the bottom of a well.

“Oh! What’s that sound?”
Noro-chan let out a frightened voice.

There really was a strange sound.
In the distance came a noise like a motor running.

At that moment, Inoue-kun, who was shining his flashlight on the ceiling,

“Ah! This is bad!”

Because he shouted, everyone was startled and looked up in that direction.

A truly terrifying event was unfolding.
Look.
From the ceiling, an iron lid-like object was slowly and steadily descending.

It was a thick iron lid that fit perfectly inside the round cylinder.
It was quietly descending.

The iron lid descended by motor power without the slightest irregularity.
Ah, it had already come down within arm’s reach.

“Everyone, stretch out your hands! Combine your strength and hold it up!
“If we don’t, we’ll be crushed flat!”

Kobayashi-kun shouted this and was first to raise both hands.

Everyone imitated him, raising both hands to push against the iron lid. However, it appeared to be an extremely heavy mass of iron—the combined strength of all five couldn't possibly hold it back. Slowly and steadily, it kept descending. As they strained against it, their supporting hands gradually lowered until the lid nearly touched their heads.

They had no choice but to squat down. Next, they found themselves sitting. Still the iron lid kept descending. When sitting became impossible too, everyone lay on their backs and tried propping it up with hands and feet—all in vain. Hundreds of kilograms of iron now loomed right beside their prone faces.

Yuuko-chan started crying.
Noro-chan also started crying.

“Help us…”

Inoue-kun and Kimura-kun cried out in sorrowful voices.
Even Kobayashi-kun was on the verge of tears.

Ah, what on earth would become of the five?

9

Kobayashi, leader of the Boy Detectives Club, along with members Kimura-kun, Yuuko-chan, Inoue-kun, and Noro-chan—the five of them—had deciphered the Magic Doctor’s cipher and entered a cave in a desolate field on the outskirts of Setagaya Ward. There, they found themselves confined within a round concrete room as a heavy iron lid began slowly and steadily descending from above.
Since the iron lid had no gaps, if it continued descending as it was, it would spell disaster.

Everyone was certain to be crushed and die.
Noro-chan, the coward, and Yuuko-chan, the girl, burst into loud sobs.

However， Leader Kobayashi-kun remained composed.
He busily racked his brain， desperately thinking about how to save everyone.
_The Magic Doctor would never commit murder._
_By putting us through this terrifying ordeal， he’s testing our courage and wisdom._
_If we put our wisdom to work， there might be an escape route somewhere._

So Kobayashi-kun, still holding the flashlight, crawled all around the circular room and inspected the concrete walls.

Then he found a square-shaped cut about sixty centimeters across in the concrete wall.

“This might be the secret door!”

He pushed with all his strength, but it didn’t budge.

“There must be a mechanism somewhere to open this.”

Kobayashi-kun quickly looked around the area.

A short distance above the quadrilateral cut on the wall, there was a small bulge in the concrete.
Upon closer inspection, it became clear that the bulge was a metal fitting painted to match the concrete.

"Ah! That's it. If the iron lid were to descend all the way to the bottom, we would die, so the mechanism must be designed to let us escape before it reaches that point."

"When the iron lid passes this bulge, the bulge gets pressed."
"Then, the secret door would open outward."

Kobayashi-kun suddenly noticed that.

“In that case, pushing it by hand might open it!”

Then, he placed his thumb on the bulge, stacked his other hand on top of it, and pushed with all his strength.

The bulge didn’t budge easily.
It required tremendous strength.
Kobayashi-kun became drenched in sweat all over his body.
But he endured, grunting as he kept pushing, until with a clunk, the quadrilateral opening smoothly swung outward.
Kobayashi-kun's wisdom and courage succeeded.

It was a pitch-dark hole just barely large enough for a single person to crawl through.
Kobayashi-kun called everyone and entered the hole.
Though it was your doing, if we stayed still we'd just be crushed by the iron lid—there was no choice but to escape through this hole.

The pitch-dark, cramped hole continued for ten meters.

Soon, the area suddenly widened.
Had they made it outside?
No, that was not the case.
It was still pitch-black.
It was indeed a room at the bottom of the earth.

When they stood up and shone their flashlights around, they found themselves in a concrete room large enough to hold twenty tatami mats.
When everyone entered the room, a startling voice echoed from somewhere.

“Bwahaha…
“Impressive, impressive.
“You finally escaped that perilous spot, didn’t you?
“But this isn’t your end yet.
“My letter warned: ‘Beware the dreadful guardian.’
“First came the giant tiger, second the iron lid—now what might this third guardian be?
“For something far more terrifying awaits as we reach the finale.
“Stay vigilant.”

It was the Magic Doctor’s voice.
It was impossible to tell where it was coming from.
It must have been a loudspeaker installed in the corner of the ceiling.

The five huddled together in a tight cluster, clinging to one another and staying perfectly still.
Noro-chan's body was trembling violently, clearly evident.

“Huh? What’s that?”
“Something’s moving!”

Kimura-kun pointed at the floor across the room and shouted.
The flashlight’s beam swept over to illuminate that direction.

Then there, something ominous of your design began unfolding.

From the very bowels of the earth, something uncanny started swelling into view.

A round, head-like object emerged.

It swelled rapidly before their eyes.
It swelled up from the concrete floor, which had no holes whatsoever.
It grew to about the size of a child.
It grew to about the size of an adult.
It grew to twice the size of an adult.
It grew to three times the size of an adult.
It was a monster with a large head, a deathly pale body, and a featureless face.
It continued swelling endlessly.

10

Kobayashi-kun, Kimura-kun, Yuuko-chan, Inoue-kun, and Noro-chan—the five of them—had entered the basement of the Magic Doctor’s lair to retrieve the ruby beetle and encountered all manner of terrifying ordeals.
In the basement was a spacious room, and when the five entered it, a grotesque monster began swelling into view at the center.

It was a strange creature that looked like an egg with eyes and a mouth drawn on it.
It rapidly swelled before their eyes until it became a hulking monstrosity three times the size of an adult.
And,
“Bwahahahaha…”

And then, a thunderous laugh was heard.

Everyone instinctively fled back the way they had come, but as they tried to enter the narrow entrance and suddenly looked back—oh!—that monster vanished without a trace.
They thoroughly examined the room with their flashlights, but it was completely empty—there was nothing there.
The walls on all sides were hard concrete, and there was no exit anywhere.
Everyone felt the situation growing increasingly ominous.

“That’s weird… It vanished like smoke.”

Noro-chan exclaimed in a shrill voice.

“Ah! Look!”
“It’s… moving.”

Once again, something sinister welled up from the ground.
It was deathly pale.
Protruding from its face to shoulders, belly, and waist, it grew to about the size of an adult.

“Ah! The bronze demon!”

Kobayashi-kun shouted.
It looked exactly like that terrifying bronze demon the Boy Detectives Club had fought long ago.

It was a bluish creature that seemed forged from bronze.
With a mouth split open up to its ears, it grinned slyly.
The thing swelled rapidly before their eyes until it had grown—just like before—to three times an adult’s height.
Its head jammed against the ceiling.

“Gririririri, gririririri…”

There came the sound of gears turning.
Could there be clockwork mechanisms installed inside this bronze demon?

“Bwahahaha…
You brats actually came!
The red beetle you’ve been hunting—I’ve got it right here in my grasp!
Look—it’s right before your eyes!”

The deathly pale giant, having said that in a terrifying voice, opened its gaping mouth wide up to its ears.

A crescent-shaped mouth like a pitch-black cavern.

From its mouth flicked out a red tongue.
There atop that tongue sat a crimson beetle.

The bronze demon had hidden the ruby beetle within its maw.
When the boys saw this, they instinctively cried out, "Ah!"
Yet their adversary remained a fearsome monster.
Retrieving it seemed utterly beyond reach.

“Bwahahaha…”
“Don’t you want this?”
“You cowardly brats.”
“If you’re so bitter, try climbing up to my face!”
“Then just take it out from my mouth.”
“Bwahahaha…”
“Do you brats even have that kind of courage?”

The bronze demon laughed mockingly at the boys, shaking its massive body.

“Damn it!”
“Everyone，follow me!”

Inoue Ichiro-kun，who had been learning kendo from his father，shouted this and suddenly clung to the monster’s right leg.

Their opponent was a giant three times the size of an adult.
It looked exactly like a baby clinging to a sumo wrestler’s leg.

At that moment, there was a terrifying clattering sound, and the surroundings suddenly brightened.
To their eyes, accustomed to the darkness, the brightness was so intense they couldn’t keep them open.

What on earth had just happened?
When they finally opened their eyes, strange, strange—the basement ceiling had vanished!

The ceiling had been designed as a mechanical device to open in both directions.
Above them，the blue sky came into view.
The sunlight shone brilliantly all around.

“Ah，this is bad! Inoue-kun...!”

Kobayashi-kun cried out in alarm.
Something truly terrible was unfolding.

Look.
No sooner had the bronze demon's body floated smoothly into midair than it began rising gently skyward.
Inoue-kun, still clinging to its leg, was being carried upward with it.

Could this too be the Magic Doctor's sorcery?

What on earth would happen next?

The basement ceiling opened wide, and the bronze demon—three times the size of an adult—drifted weightlessly into midair before ascending skyward.

Inoue Ichiro-kun, who had been clinging to the demon’s leg, was also being carried up into the sky along with it.

“Hey, Inoue-kun, let go!”
“And then jump down!”

From below, Kobayashi-kun shouted loudly.

The demon’s leg had already risen three meters from the basement floor, but Inoue-kun resolutely let go and swiftly jumped down.

He landed on his butt on the concrete floor and grimaced in pain.

“It flew off with the Red Beetle still in its mouth.”
“We have to chase it right away!”

“Alright! The rope ladder!” Inoue Ichiro shouted.

Kobayashi-kun swiftly unraveled the sturdy silk cord rope ladder he had wrapped around his stomach under his shirt and hurled the iron hook attached to one end toward the open ceiling.

After failing multiple times，the hook finally caught on the edge of the ceiling hole.

The Boy Detectives Club’s rope ladder was a single silk cord.
Large knots were tied every thirty centimeters along it, allowing them to climb by hooking their toes into them.

“Alright, I’ll climb up first, so everyone comes after me.”

With those words, Kobayashi-kun began vigorously climbing the silk rope ladder.

After that, everyone climbed up. Because Yuuko-chan was a girl, Inoue-kun and the others reached down from above and pulled her up.

When they exited the hole, there lay a wild grassy field.
Kobayashi-kun, who had climbed up first, could be seen running off into the distance, his figure growing small.
Where on earth was he trying to go?

When they looked up at the sky, the bronze demon was flying higher and higher like a balloon.

“Whoa, it’s flying so high!”
“It’s already gotten that small!”

Noro-chan shouted.

It was later discovered that the bronze demon had been made of thick vinyl and filled with a light gas inside.
In other words, it was a balloon.

There was a small hole in the basement floor, and below it was another small room.
There, the Magic Doctor had been hiding, pushing the vinyl demon up through the hole onto the floor while pumping gas into it with a pump.

As gas was pumped in, the vinyl demon swelled up until it finally became a giant three times an adult’s size.

The bronze demon had spoken because the Magic Doctor—disguising his voice—had been talking from beneath the hole in the floor.

The reason the demon could open its mouth was that a thin thread had been attached to its jaw; when pulled from below, the mouth would open, and when released, it would close.
The Red Beetle must have been tied underneath it.

The egg-like ghost that had appeared before the demon was also made of vinyl. They had inflated it with gas once, then abruptly drained the gas while everyone was fleeing, causing the vinyl to flatten and hide beneath the hole in the floor.

Because the basement was dark, Kobayashi-kun and the others couldn’t clearly see the small hole’s mechanism.

The bronze demon in the sky gradually grew smaller as it flew eastward.
The wind must have been blowing from the east.
The bronze demon, with the Red Beetle still in its mouth, was carried by that wind and flew off to parts unknown.

“Ah! It’s already disappeared!”

Kimura-kun shouted.

At that moment, Kobayashi-kun could be seen running back from across the field.

“Kobayashi-saaan, where were you? It rose into the sky with the Red Beetle still in its mouth, and now it’s completely out of sight.”

When Inoue-kun called out, Kobayashi-kun, who had rushed to everyone’s side, answered breathlessly.

“I called Detective Akechi. When I told him about the bronze demon, he immediately phoned the newspaper company and then sped off by car to a certain location. And soon, our ally will come flying from that sky over there.”

Kobayashi-kun pointed toward the sky in the direction of Tokyo's town.
What on earth could be coming from the sky?

Had they waited over thirty minutes?
In the dusk-nearing sky ahead appeared a solitary black speck-like object.

"Ah! It's coming! It's coming!"
"That's it!"

Kobayashi-kun said happily.
The speck-like object gradually grew larger and drew nearer.
It was a helicopter.
Everyone, the ally of the Boy Detectives Club was this helicopter.

The helicopter that had come to support the Boy Detectives Club whirled up a strong wind as it landed in the middle of the field.

The helicopter that had come to support the Boy Detectives Club whirled up a strong wind as it landed in the middle of the field.

“Ah! It’s Detective Akechi!”

Leader Kobayashi shouted and dashed off in that direction.

The door of the helicopter’s transparent cockpit opened, and Detective Akechi stepped down.

Detective Akechi could pilot both airplanes and helicopters.

When Detective Akechi received Kobayashi-kun’s call, he hurriedly coordinated with the newspaper company, piloted their helicopter himself, and flew here.

Everyone surrounded Detective Akechi and all began talking at once about the terrifying ordeal they had experienced in the basement.

“All right, then we’ll chase the bronze demon with this helicopter.”

Detective Akechi issued instructions to everyone.

“Kobayashi-kun and Inoue-kun—only you two shall accompany me. The rest can’t board; go home and wait. I’ll catch that bronze demon and retrieve the Red Beetle for you.”

Detective Akechi, along with Kobayashi-kun and Inoue-kun, boarded the helicopter.

The helicopter once again stirred up a fearsome wind and rose into the air.
Noro-chan, Kimura-kun, and Yuuko-chan, who had remained in the field, waved their hands and watched it depart.

It was the first time Kobayashi-kun and Inoue-kun had ridden in a helicopter.
It felt as though they were embarking on a space voyage.
The helicopter proceeded through the high sky toward the east where the bronze demon had flown away.

When they turned around, the western sky was a deep crimson sunset.
Soon night would fall.
In preparation for that moment, a compact searchlight had been installed in the cockpit.

Since the bronze demon had been carried away by the wind, they needed only to pursue it downwind.
Here they had not just the wind but propeller power.
They would surely catch up.

Before long, the sunset faded, and rapidly, the surroundings grew dark.
Across the expanse of the sky, stars began to twinkle.
On the ground, the streetlights of the country town were visible here and there, like stars as well.
Stars above, stars below—it truly felt like a voyage through space.

“Ah! Detective Akechi—
There’s something flying over there!”

At Kobayashi-kun’s shout, the searchlight flashed on.
In the sky beyond the reach of its beam, something darkish floated weightlessly.
The helicopter turned its course toward it.

“Ah! Just as I thought!
It’s shaped like a human.
It’s the bronze demon.”

Before long, it entered the searchlight’s illumination.
Indeed—it was the bronze demon’s balloon.

“Kobayashi-kun, use this to shoot him.”
“We’ll pass right next to him soon.”
“At that moment, open the door a bit, extend your right hand, and shoot.”

Detective Akechi said that and handed the pistol to Kobayashi-kun.
As the detective’s assistant, Kobayashi-kun knew how to fire a pistol.

Detective Akechi skillfully piloted the helicopter until it drew up beside the bronze demon, reduced speed, and flew parallel to it.
Following instructions exactly, Kobayashi-kun extended his hand through the door gap and fired the pistol at the demon’s body.

The bronze demon that was floating lightly right before their eyes swayed unsteadily.
The pistol bullet found its mark.
Then two shots, three shots….

Each time, the bronze demon’s balloon violently swayed.
And from the bullet holes, the gas began escaping with a hiss.

“There!
“That’s good enough.
“This time, we’ll pin him down with the helicopter.”

Detective Akechi brought the helicopter in front of the demon and then sharply lowered its altitude.

Pressed by this force, the demon was knocked onto its side and clung tightly to the helicopter’s underside.

“There! Let’s land in some field just like this. There’s no way it can escape now.”

When he directed the searchlight downward and found a suitable spot, the detective steadily lowered the helicopter.
And they landed in the pitch-dark field.

The three jumped out of the helicopter.
Shining their flashlights, they peered under the fuselage.
The vinyl demon’s balloon—now deflated and limp with escaped gas—hung caught there.

When they dragged it out and examined its mouth, there on its tongue lay the red ruby beetle, firmly attached.
At last, they had retrieved it.

The next day, a phone call came to Kobayashi-kun at Detective Akechi’s office.

It was from the Magic Doctor.

“You’ve won.
“The ruby belongs to you now.
“I must apologize for putting you through such hardships.
“But all of that was to test your wisdom and courage…
“Congratulations, Boy Detectives Club.
“Give my regards to Detective Akechi.”

When Kobayashi-kun hung up the receiver, he exchanged glances with Detective Akechi, who had been standing beside him listening, and smiled brightly.