Pathway to Japanese Literature

1

One day, Pocket Shōzō of the Boy Detectives Club was walking alone through a desolate field.

Pocket Shōzō was a fourth grader at an elementary school, but his body was as small as a kindergarten student's, so he had been given this nickname because it seemed like he could even fit into a pocket.

In the field, there was a grove, and beyond it stood a splendid Western-style mansion.

It was a large three-story house.

Because the Western-style mansion had such a strange appearance, Pocket Shōzō went closer to investigate.
There were no houses in this area, and only this Western-style mansion stood all alone.

As he walked along the outside of the brick wall, a scream of "Kyaa!" came from somewhere.

Startled, he looked around and saw that only one third-floor window of the Western-style mansion was open.

A girl of about ten was leaning out from there, calling for help.
Pocket Shōzō immediately took out a small-sized telescope from his pocket and put it to his eye.

This small telescope was one of the Boy Detectives Club's seven tools, and he always carried it around.
The girl's face filled the view through the telescope.
Her face looked terribly frightened, eyes wide open as she pleaded for help.

At that moment, behind the girl in the telescope's view, a large, ominous figure loomed faintly.

Ah, a lion!
A large lion with a mane was poised to pounce on the girl at any moment.

"Aah!"

Another scream rang out.

Pocket Shōzō suddenly dashed off.
Then he searched for a nearby police box and reported the incident.

The police officer, startled, rushed to the Western-style mansion with two companions.

When they pressed the entrance bell, an old man with a white beard emerged from inside.

“I am the master of this house, but there’s no such girl here.
“Moreover, a lion couldn’t possibly be here.
“That child must have seen it in a dream.”
“Hahaha!”

He laughed it off.

The police officer had no choice but to withdraw as they were.

However, Pocket Shōzō could not possibly give up.
Until night fell, he walked around the Western-style mansion here and there, waiting to see if the girl's face would appear once more.
But that window was now closed and completely silent.

When night fell, Pocket Shōzō sneaked inside the gate.

Pocket Shōzō stealthily made his way around to the side of the Western-style mansion.

Then, in one of the first-floor windows, a light was on.
When he peered inside, there was the girl he had seen earlier!

The girl was blindfolded with a black cloth and gagged with a muzzle.
Beside her stood a young man with black glasses, his face twisted into a menacing expression.

At that moment, the sound of a car stopping came from outside the gate.
Pocket Shōzō,

"Ah, that must be it!"

Pocket Shōzō nodded.

He dashed off without making footfalls, and when he emerged outside the gate, there was a large automobile parked there.

The lid of the car's rear trunk opened smoothly.
Pocket Shōzō suddenly burrowed into it and closed the lid exactly as before.

Before long, the man with black glasses brought the girl and got into the car, then drove straight off somewhere.

Who on earth was that girl?
Was what he had seen during the day truly a lion?
And what would Pocket Shōzō, hidden in the trunk, do next?

2

It was one night.
A man wearing black glasses loaded a cute girl into a car and took her somewhere.
Pocket Shōzō of the Boy Detectives Club hid inside the trunk at the rear of the car.

The car stopped in a lonely field.

The man with black glasses took the girl’s hand and got out of the car.
The surroundings were pitch dark.
Under a large tree, a man was standing holding a box.

“Did you bring the promised jewel?”

When the man with black glasses asked, the man nodded.
The man with black glasses exchanged the girl he had brought along with the box the man was holding.
Pocket Shōzō slightly opened the trunk lid and watched.

“Ah, I get it now.
They exchanged the jewelry box and the girl.
Alright! I’ll definitely take back that jewelry box!”

The man with black glasses, holding the jewelry box, got into the car.

And he returned to the same mysterious Western-style mansion.

Pocket Shōzō, who had been hiding in the trunk, came out from there and sneaked into the Western-style mansion.
He walked down the dimly lit corridor, muffling his footsteps.

Since the door at the end of the corridor was open, he entered that room.

The room was pitch dark.
There was something like stairs, so he climbed two steps.
At that moment, there was a clanging sound from behind.

Startled, he reached his hand back only to find iron bars had shut tight there.

The room's light snapped on.

“Ah, this is terrible!”

Pocket Shōzō shouted.
It was a large beast cage, and Pocket Shōzō had been confined inside it.
The clang he’d heard earlier had been the sound of the cage door shutting.

In the far corner, a lion lay sprawled out.

The lion, upon seeing Pocket Shōzō enter, slowly raised its neck and glared at him menacingly.

Oh no, was Pocket Shōzō going to be eaten by the lion?

3

Pocket Shōzō had been confined by the villains in a room resembling a zoo cage.
In the room was a lion, which lumbered closer toward Pocket Shōzō.
Terrifying eyes, sharp fangs.

“Ugh!”
The lion attempted to swallow Pocket Shōzō whole from overhead.

“Ungh!”
Pocket Shōzō collapsed in a heap.
Then, something strange happened.

The lion used its front paw to forcefully lift its own head!

The lion's head had come off.
From beneath it, a human face emerged.
A human had been wearing a lion's pelt as a disguise.

That was a young man wearing a black shirt and trousers.

“He’s passed out.”
“Hey, Pocket kid, snap out of it!”
“There’s no lion anymore!”

Shaken awake, Pocket kid opened his eyes and darted them around, surveying his surroundings.

“Ah! So you were wearing the lion’s pelt, Mister!”

“That’s right. I’m the world’s greatest master of disguise who can transform into any human or animal there is!”

“So Mister, you’re the master thief Twenty Faces.”

“Heh heh heh… Exactly right. You’ve got sharp eyes, Pocket kid.”

“Then what’re you planning to do with me?”

“I’ll confine Kobayashi-kun here along with you. Since I took out the Boy Detectives Club badges from your pocket earlier and scattered them along the path, Kobayashi-kun will come to rescue you soon enough.”

4

“You stay right here.”

Twenty Faces confined Pocket kid to a second-floor room.

But Pocket kid was unfazed.
He burrowed into the bed that was in the corner of the room.

After a while, Pocket kid abruptly sat up.
He exited through the window, went to the base of the neighboring window, and slipped inside.

“Just you wait—I’ll get that jewel back!”

Twenty Faces heard a noise coming from the room where the jewel was kept and quietly tried opening the door.

“Ah! The jewel’s gone… This is strange… Pocket kid shouldn’t have been able to leave this room…”

Twenty Faces hurriedly went to check.
Pocket kid was properly sleeping in bed.

“Hey, kid.”

Twenty Faces shook Pocket kid awake.

Then, Pocket kid’s body beneath the blanket sank down with a poof.

And then, only Pocket kid’s head floated up gently.

“Ah! This head is a balloon!”

Pocket kid had inflated a rubber balloon and left it in his place.

The balloon was shaped like a human face and painted in human-like colors.

5

When one of the Boy Detectives Club members found a badge lying on the road, they realized Pocket kid had been captured by Twenty Faces.

Leader Kobayashi came to rescue him with three club members.

Then, at the gate, they encountered Pocket kid.
The boy had retrieved the jewelry box stolen by Twenty Faces.

Kobayashi-kun immediately used a wireless phone to notify the Metropolitan Police Department.

In response to the alert, three patrol cars rushed to the scene.

The police officers searched the house and arrested three men.

"That’s strange."

Twenty Faces was nowhere to be found.
No matter how much they searched, he couldn’t be found.

Since the boys were keeping watch, there was no way he could have escaped outside.
When they questioned the captured men,

“The boss is a sorcerer, you see.
He just vanished into thin air.”

they answered.

Kobayashi-kun and the others searched Twenty Faces' room.

“Ah! Got it! Twenty Faces is right there!”

Kobayashi-kun pointed at the statue sitting on the pedestal.

The statue then writhed into motion and bolted away.
He dashed up to the second floor.

“Don’t let him get away!”

Everyone gave chase.
Will Twenty Faces be caught?

6

Twenty Faces, disguised as a golden statue, fled to a room on the second floor.
The roof of the second floor was flat, and there stood a small hut.

Twenty Faces extended a ladder from the second floor and escaped into the rooftop hut.

As Kobayashi-kun and the others chased after him up [the ladder], "Ah!"
This is bad.
On the rooftop, there was one helicopter.

Twenty Faces swiftly boarded the helicopter and was already spinning the propeller.
The helicopter smoothly ascends into the sky.

When he saw this, Kobayashi-kun used a wireless phone to inform Inspector Nakamura of the Metropolitan Police Department.

Inspector Nakamura immediately dispatched the Metropolitan Police Department's helicopter to the scene.

Kobayashi-kun and Pocket Shōzō boarded it and gave chase.
The sky became their arena of pursuit.
This helicopter pursued with tremendous speed.

In the distant sky, the enemy's helicopter appeared as a lone speck.

It gradually grew larger, and within about twenty minutes, they finally caught up.

In the opposing helicopter, Twenty Faces was visible.

Since theirs was faster, there was no longer any worry of letting him escape.
All they had to do was follow from behind, no matter how far.

Before long, Mount Fuji came into full view.
Twenty Faces circled around to the back side of Mount Fuji.
Then, he flew over many mountains.

Twenty Faces' helicopter ran out of fuel, gradually slowed down, and finally landed in the mountains.
Seeing this, they also landed.
Now, what will happen?

7

Twenty Faces escaped via helicopter but was caught in the mountains, taken back to Tokyo, and imprisoned at the Metropolitan Police Department.
Because Pocket Shōzō had retrieved the jewels, the incident seemed to be over.

However, two days later, a strange phone call came through to Kobayashi-kun at the detective office.

“I am Twenty Faces.
“Bwahaha!
“The one you caught is my subordinate.
“Before boarding the helicopter, I switched places.”

“I had my subordinate wear the statue’s robe and hid myself in the closet. So, the one at the Metropolitan Police Department is my subordinate. Bwahaha!”

“Just you wait and see what I’ll do next!”

Kobayashi-kun was utterly surprised.

In the dead of night the following day.
The large window of a Ginza jewelry store shattered with a crash.
When the shopkeeper went to check in surprise, a thick pitch-black hand slithered in and grabbed a fistful of jewels.

It wasn’t a human hand—it was a hand of black iron.
The store staff rushed out to the front to investigate.

“Ah!”
“It’s a robot!”

The store staff shouted “Thief! Thief!” as they gave chase.
The patrol officer joined in pursuit.

Down the deserted Ginza Street, the robot fled with tremendous speed.
“Ah!”
It dropped to all fours.

Like an animal, it ran on all fours using its hands and feet.
No sooner had it turned into a side street than it vanished completely.
No matter how much they searched, they found nothing.
When everyone had left, the manhole cover in the side street lifted, and from inside, that robot poked out its face and grinned slyly.

Now, what will happen?

8

Then, over a month, many jewels were stolen all over Tokyo.
All were stolen by that robot.

It happened one afternoon.

The robot had sneaked into a house near Tokyo Tower and was discovered trying to steal jewels.
Then it was chased by a police officer.
The robot fled to Tokyo Tower and blended in with the sightseers.

At that very moment, Leader Kobayashi and Pocket Shōzō came to visit.

When they suddenly noticed, there was a suspicious-looking guy walking among the sightseers.

“Kobayashi-san, that guy’s weird.”
“He looks like a robot!”

“Ah! That’s it—it’s Twenty Faces’ robot!”

As the two began chasing the robot, the sightseers trailed after them in a crowd.

Just then, as numerous police officers arrived on the scene, Kobayashi-kun reported about the robot.

The observatory then fell into complete chaos.
Packed with sightseers, finding anything proved nearly impossible.
Before long, the robot's figure had vanished without a trace.

At that moment, the door in the center of the observatory opened, and an attendant rushed out.

“This is bad! A suspicious man took the elevator up!”

The sightseers were utterly shocked.
The robot had fled to the work platform located twice as high as the observatory.

The plaza at the tower’s base became a seething mass of people when word spread that Twenty Faces had taken refuge there.
From amidst the crowd, a collective “Whoa!” erupted.
“Oh, look!”
The robot left the work platform and climbed toward the tower’s very peak.
From there upwards, there was no elevator.

Climbing up the narrow iron ladder, it finally reached the tower's very peak. Grabbing onto an iron bar with one hand, it waved its other hand mockingly at the sightseers below.

Twenty Faces' robot had climbed up to such a height—what could it possibly be planning?

9

After receiving a report from police officers, the Metropolitan Police Department's helicopter came flying in.
And it circled round and round above Tokyo Tower.

At that moment, something incredible happened.
Twenty Faces, who had been at the top of the tower, let go of his hands and leapt into the sky.

Twenty Faces possessed a machine invented by a Frenchman that allowed flight through the sky.
When attached to one's back, its propeller would rotate.
He had hidden it somewhere beforehand and now, having fastened it to his body, sprang into the air.

He looked just like a human-shaped bird. Though not moving particularly fast, he floated lightly as he flew toward Tokyo Port.

The helicopter caught up immediately, but since they were in the sky, the police couldn't capture him. They could only follow along.

He was already over the sea. Twenty Faces gradually descended. Below, a motorboat lay waiting.

It was Twenty Faces’ henchman who was operating it.
Twenty Faces boarded the motorboat.

In response to a radio message from the helicopter, the water police launch arrived at full speed.
Six police officers were on board.
Now, the great chase was on.
A motorboat fleeing as it kicked up white waves.
The pursuing launch.
Since the launch was faster, it immediately caught up.

The motorboat, perhaps having given up on escaping, stopped its engine.
The launch pulled up alongside it, and three police officers boarded.

And they captured Twenty Faces and his henchman, but at that moment, something astonishing happened.

The police officers were lifting Twenty Faces and his henchman high up and spinning them round and round.

It was just Western-style clothes and a doll's face and hat—the person inside had vanished somewhere.

Twenty Faces had vanished—where on earth could Twenty Faces have hidden?

10

Twenty Faces and his henchmen might have jumped into the sea—so they sent out many patrol boats and searched.
But they couldn't find them at all.

Here were Kobayashi-kun and Pocket Shōzō.

“Hey, Kobayashi-san. Twenty Faces might have prepared an aqua lung on the boat, put it on, and jumped into the sea.”

“Right, that must be it.”
“With an aqua lung, he could stay hidden underwater indefinitely.”
“Alright! We’ll gather the members and dive into the sea to search for Twenty Faces.”

Kobayashi-kun called and gathered three members of the Boy Detectives Club who were skilled swimmers.
Mizuno-kun, Inoue-kun, and Kinoshita-kun.

Since Mizuno-kun’s older brother had two sets of specially rigged aqua lungs, he requested to borrow them.

After some time, Kobayashi-kun, Pocket Shōzō, and three members borrowed a motorboat and set out for Tokyo Port.

Before long, they arrived near where Twenty Faces' boat had been caught.

A large pier was visible nearby.

This large pier was suspicious.

The five people moored the boat to the large pier.
Kobayashi-kun and Mizuno-kun put on aqua lungs and jumped into the sea.
They would rest a little and then dive back in again.

And so, they began circling around Ōdaiba’s shore.

The seabed in this area was littered with garbage and covered in deep mud.
From the mud grew various kinds of seaweed, swaying gently.

Kobayashi-kun and Mizuno-kun swam around the seabed, occasionally approaching each other to clasp hands.

Then, by clasping their palms together, they could communicate via the telephone line attached to their aqua lungs.

“Mizuno-kun, there’s a suspicious hole over there.”
“Let’s check it out.”

“Yeah, let’s check it out.”

The two of them approached Ōdaiba’s shore and attempted to enter the cave.

The two of them, startled by what they saw, took cover behind the rocks.
In the depths of the pitch-dark cave, something terrifyingly large was moving.
As the two stared intently, the large thing smoothly emerged.
It was a pitch-black thing, six meters long, resembling a baby whale.

Two large eyes were shining like car headlights.

“Ah, got it!
“It’s a submarine!”

Twenty Faces has a small submarine.

"That guy was hiding inside this."

Kobayashi-kun screamed inwardly.

And he hurriedly grabbed Mizuno-kun’s hand.
Now, what would happen?

11

Kobayashi-kun swam up to the submarine and climbed onto its back.
And peered into the round, bulging glass on its back.

Then, inside, a human head came into view.
It was Twenty Faces.
The two of them glared at each other through the glass, their terrifying faces mere fifty centimeters apart.

Once they confirmed it was indeed Twenty Faces, Kobayashi-kun and Mizuno-kun surfaced, climbed onto the boat, and everyone landed together on Ōdaiba.

They reasoned that the cave hiding the submarine must have an entrance on Ōdaiba itself.

When they searched, they found a hole matching their expectations.

Amidst wildly overgrown grass lay a hole built from stacked stones - its well-like shape unmistakable.

“Pocket-kun, go in and take a look.”

Told by Kobayashi-kun, Pocket Shōzō began entering the pitch-dark hole. After a short while, he came out and said, “It definitely connects to the cave below.”

Then, everyone boarded the motorboat and hurried to the water police. When they reported what had just happened, the police officers loaded plenty of large concrete blocks onto the launch and headed for Ōdaiba.

Everyone’s motorboat also followed after them.

Kobayashi and the others alone landed on Ōdaiba and were waiting for the submarine to return.

“It’s come back.”
“It’s under here right now.”

In response to Pocket Shōzō’s report， Kobayashi-kun used hand signals to relay the information to the police launch out at sea.

Then，the launch advanced near the cave at the bottom of the sea，and the police officers began dropping concrete blocks into the water.

And once they had dropped them all, the concrete blocks piled up, blocking the cave entrance and trapping the submarine inside.

Now, they were cornered rats.

The police officers too landed on Ōdaiba, concealed themselves in the grass, and were waiting for Twenty Faces to emerge from the hole.

After a short while, a human face smoothly emerged from the hole.

It was Twenty Faces.
Following that, the henchmen also emerged.

The police officers and Kobayashi-kun and the others sprang to their feet and lunged at them.

Twenty Faces swiftly dodged and evaded, proving difficult to catch.

At that moment, something began to swell up from the grass in the distance.
Now, what in the world could it be?

12

Kobayashi-kun, Pocket Shōzō, and the police officers chased Twenty Faces through the grass thickets of Ōdaiba, but he skillfully evaded them and could not be caught.

Twenty Faces stood at the cliff’s edge and burst into laughter.

“Ahahaha!”
“I won’t be caught!”
“I always have a backup plan.”

“Hey, look at that! Can you see that monster moving over there?”

When Twenty Faces told them to look, they turned and saw a large gray object resembling a balloon bladder swelling up through grass taller than a person.

Everyone stared in surprise, wondering what it could be.

The gray mass rapidly expanded before their eyes and smoothly rose into the air.
It was a spherical shape roughly five meters across.

Beneath the sphere, something like a rope ladder dangled limply.

Twenty Faces suddenly dashed out and jumped onto the rope ladder.

It was a large balloon.

Twenty Faces had hidden a balloon and hydrogen gas pump in the grass thickets for just such an occasion.
His henchmen had been filling the balloon with gas for some time.
The great balloon floated upward, rising high into the sky.

“How about that? Did you figure out my backup plan?”

Twenty Faces looked down at everyone and let out a dry laugh.

As the balloon was blown by the wind toward land, everyone returned to shore by launch, boarded the prearranged police car, and gave chase.

The balloon drifted ever westward, passing through Yokohama city.

On a mountain a short distance beyond Yokohama, a massive concrete Great Kannon statue thrust its neck forward imposingly.

The balloon gradually deflated and descended onto that Great Kannon statue.

Everyone got out of the car and climbed the mountain.

“Ah, there he is!”

Twenty Faces lay sprawled across the shoulder of the Great Kannon statue.

Had he lost his nerve? Not a muscle twitched.

"Alright! This time we won't let you get away!"

One police officer went sprinting down the mountainside to fetch a long ladder.
Now—would Twenty Faces finally be captured?
Or perhaps...

13

The police officer went down to the town and made a phone call.
After a short while, the wail of a siren sounded, and a fire truck came climbing up the mountain.

The steadily extending ladder reached the shoulder of the Great Kannon.
A firefighter began climbing up it.

Twenty Faces lay limp across the shoulder of the Great Kannon.

The firefighter caught Twenty Faces.

Ah, what’s this?
He suddenly threw down the captured Twenty Faces!
Everyone rushed over there.

"Ah! It's another doll!"

Twenty Faces had switched places with a doll without anyone noticing and escaped somewhere.

Since they couldn't find him no matter how hard they searched, both the police officers and the boys withdrew.

After everyone had left, Kobayashi-kun and Pocket Shōzō hid in the grass and waited motionlessly.

Then, the thicket of trees across the way rustled noisily, and a bearded man who looked like a beggar appeared.

“That guy must be Twenty Faces in disguise.”
“Come on, let’s follow him!”

The two followed the man.

Descending the mountain and walking toward the town, they came upon a single old Western-style mansion standing in the woods.

This too might be Twenty Faces' hideout.

"I'll investigate inside, so you go inform the police."

Upon being told this, Pocket Shōzō suddenly dashed off toward town.

As Kobayashi-kun searched from room to room, a strange voice came from somewhere.

“So it’s Kobayashi.”
“I was waiting for you!”
“I have hideouts everywhere.”
“This is another one.”
“But if you’re not careful…”

As the voice faded, the floor suddenly split in two, and a square hole opened up.

Kobayashi-kun fell with a thud into the concrete basement.
He badly injured his back and could not get up.

At that moment, with a thunderous RUMBLE, water began cascading like a waterfall from a round hole in the concrete wall.

A water trap.
Oh, what would become of Kobayashi-kun?

14

Water came rushing through the hole in the wall with terrifying force.

Since this was a box-shaped concrete basement, the water had nowhere to go but accumulate.

Thirty centimeters, fifty centimeters, one meter.
By now，the water had reached Kobayashi-kun’s chest.
On the walls，there were no handholds at all，so he couldn’t climb up.

Meanwhile, Pocket Shōzō was rushing to the town police station.

The police officers who had been pursuing Twenty Faces were taking a break.

When they heard Pocket Shōzō’s story,

“Now!”

With that, they all boarded the cars and hurried to the Western-style mansion in the woods.

In the basement, the water reached Kobayashi-kun's neck.
Then his chin... his mouth... his nose...

Because he couldn't breathe, he had no choice but to swim.

"Ha ha ha ha!"
"You're quite the swimmer, aren't you?"
"Well, take your time swimming there."

On the ceiling, a bushy-bearded face was peering down.

The two cars carrying police officers drove off at full speed.

Pocket Shōzō was riding in the passenger seat, giving directions.

The woods came into view.

“Ah, there it is!”
“I’m worried about Kobayashi-san!”

“Please hurry!”

“Heh heh heh.”
“You’ve been swimming quite a lot since earlier.”
“Just how long can you keep that up, I wonder?”
“Not getting tired yet?”

From the hole in the ceiling, the bushy-bearded Twenty Faces was taunting him.

Kobayashi-kun was utterly exhausted.

In another ten minutes, he might lose all strength and drown.

"How about it? This time I'll make sure you learn your lesson."
"Heh heh heh."
"Is it painful? Poor thing—look at you pulling that tearful face."

At that moment, something strange happened.

Twenty Faces, who had been laughing until now,

"Agh!"

With that, he let out a scream.
Up above, thudding noises suggested a scuffle had broken out.

Twenty Faces had grown so overconfident that he failed to notice the police officers' arrival.
And finally, he was captured.

“Kobayashi-san! Twenty Faces was caught!”
“I’ll save you right now!”

Pocket Shōzō shouted energetically.