Chapter 14

And then she left. A future existed where I could marry that wonderful woman… I pondered that as I returned the “rolling pin” to the coat rack. Her sweet fragrance still lingered in the room. I debated taking my anxiety meds for a while but ultimately threw them all in the trash. After turning off the lights and climbing into bed, I was soon overwhelmed by feelings of fear and loneliness. I shivered, freezing. I thought about Saburou and Miri, wishing they were here with me. I recalled Miri’s warmth, the sound of her heartbeat… 4 I woke to a pounding on my door. Someone was screaming. I jumped out of bed. It was three in the morning. The storm still raged, and I opened the door to find Sugai standing there, his face pale. “It’s horrible… He’s dead!” he stammered. My eyes went wide. Sugai took off running down the hall, and I followed him. We kept getting lost in the mazelike corridors, but eventually, we reached the central hall. A groan escaped me as I saw it. Above the circular stage, a body hung from a solitary rope. I slowly approached. It was Isemi. Water dripped from his hooded blue rain jacket. The rope was tied around his neck, and blood trickled down his forehead. The other end of the rope was secured to the protective fencing on the circular iron scaffolding used for lights. “The third victim…,” I muttered. A strange smell hit me. Looking down, I saw a pile of vomit on the floor beneath Isemi, and Chitose crouched nearby, heaving. Umeko, stroking her back, pointed and said, “She threw up when she saw Isemi’s forehead…” Sugai scowled up at Isemi. “Someone drove a nail into the center of his forehead.” Amou, Samura, and Hirutani entered from the west. Hirutani screamed hysterically and fainted, but Samura quickly caught her. “The storm outside makes it impossible to sail,” Amou said grimly. “So the killer is still here. And there’s no signal, so we can’t call for help.” Silence fell over us as we exchanged uneasy glances. Sugai broke the tension. “For now, we should take his body down.” “No!” I yelled. “No one touch the body! Leave it until the police arrive. We could tamper with vital evidence.” “Y-yes, of course. Sorry,” Sugai held up both hands to show he had no ulterior motive. From the circular stage, Samura looked up. “How do you even get up to the scaffolding?” Two sets of iron scaffolding followed the bridge from the circular stage to the north, leading to the lighting scaffolding. The whole thing resembled an old-fashioned keyhole. “There are stairs in the wings that lead to a grated walkway, and from there you cross over the scaffolding above the bridge,” Amou explained, pointing out the route. Sugai asked, “Amou, what happened to your left hand?” “Oh, I sprained it,” he replied, smirking as he showed off the bandage wrapped around his hand. “What’s a grated walkway?” Sugai asked. “It’s called the catwalk. It’s used to manage curtains, lights, and other stage equipment.” Amou and I made our way to the wings at stage left. The area was cluttered with dust-covered piles of junk, and thick ropes hung down in one corner. Narrow stairs made of simple iron bars led up to the catwalk. The sections visible to the audience had been carefully designed, but the backstage areas were sparse. “Be careful here,” Amou warned as we jumped over a large gap in the path. We climbed to what felt like the third or fourth floor and reached the catwalk. Metal wires and pulleys moved sets and equipment, and we could see the stage below through the gaps at our feet. “This way.” Amou led us to a door on the southern side that connected to the area above the circular stage. It was sturdy, with handrails, but the view of the floor through the grating made my legs tremble. The lighting crew must have it tough. The audience would never see this. Six people watched us from below. Once we reached the scaffolding above the circular stage, I said, “The rope is tied to the handrail!” Amou knelt. “There are marks on his neck. His fingernails are black with blood. He was strangled to death.” “Mark? Who’s Mark?!” Samura yelled. “Marks! M-A-R-K-S! Signs that he fought back against the person who strangled him!” We left the catwalk and gathered in the northeast meeting room. Hirutani had recovered from her fainting spell, but she was still sobbing. Chitose returned from her room, and we all sat at a round table to confer. I began. “Let’s review what we know. Rehearsals ended at eleven last night. When was the body found?” “Two fifty,” Chitose said. “Umeko came to my room around two forty—” “I couldn’t sleep because the storm was scaring me,” Umeko explained. “So I went to Chitose’s room. She suggested we take a walk, and when we got to the central hall…” Umeko began to shake. “And then?” I asked. “And then we found the body. I felt sick and threw up,” Chitose continued. “Umeko went to get everyone. Sugai and Samura were the first to arrive, then Sugai got you, Youichi, while Samura went to get Amou.” “Okay. So who entered the central hall after eleven?” “I did.” Amou raised his hand. “I was feeling restless, so I practiced my projection until midnight.” “Of course, Amou. Someone of your caliber would…” Samura fawned over him while Umeko rolled her eyes in exasperation. Chitose chimed in, “…It doesn’t seem like anyone else went in, so the murder happened between midnight and two fifty. Who has an alibi for that time?” Sugai and Samura exchanged glances, then both raised their hands. Sugai spoke first. “Samura came to my room around midnight, and we talked about movies and…porn.” “Porn?” Umeko frowned. “You were that tired and talked about that?” “Everyone knows guys can’t sleep at camp without talking about girls they like and their favorite porn stars,” Sugai said earnestly, and Samura nodded in agreement. “Ew, you’re disgusting.” Umeko shivered. “I—” Hirutani raised her hand sheepishly, speaking through tears. “I was with Amou from one until two. I was upset and couldn’t sleep. I told him it was too dangerous to take out the boat in this storm.” “You don’t let up, do you?” Samura muttered. Amou shot him a look. Chitose spoke up again, “Youichi and I were together from twelve until about twelve ten.” “What?!” Umeko gaped. “What were you two doing so late at night?” “Kissing,” Chitose replied casually. Everyone stared at us in amazement. Even Hirutani stopped crying for a moment. Embarrassed, I quickly added, “It didn’t count,” blushing to the tips of my ears. Amou cleared his throat. “At this point, we don’t have enough evidence to identify the killer. Let’s split up into pairs and search.” “Pairs!” Hirutani shrieked. “What if I get paired with the killer?!” “If you do, don’t let them out of your sight,” Amou replied nonchalantly. Hirutani sat there, stunned. We drew lots. I was paired with Sugai, Chitose with Hirutani and Amou, and Umeko with Samura. We searched for an hour, then regrouped in the central hall. Umeko and Samura found a steel wire about 125 feet from the shed. With the discovery, Umeko suddenly yelled, “I know who the killer is!” And with that, the battle of wits began. 5 “Think about how the killer could have hanged Isemi, and we’ll know for sure who did it,” Umeko declared. We all focused our attention on her. “The killer had to pull the body up that high, so it must be a strong man.” “That makes sense. It would be really hard to pull a body that high all by yourself,” Sugai agreed. “Objection!” Samura yelled. “The killer could’ve used the catwalk to carry the body above the stage, wrapped a rope around his neck, and then lowered him down! It’d be tough, but a woman could manage that!” “No, they couldn’t,” Amou interjected. “There’s a gap in the stairs leading up to the catwalk. No one here is strong enough to carry a body across that gap.” “So the body had to be raised from below,” Chitose said. “How much did Isemi weigh?” “May-maybe around one thirty,” Hirutani suggested. “I think only a guy could hoist someone weighing one hundred and thirty pounds,” Umeko insisted. “The killer had to first get up on the catwalk, run the wire through the metal pipes under the scaffolding, then lower it down to the floor to tie it around the body. After that, they would have had to go to the stage and pull the body up. Once the body was suspended, they’d have to wrap the wire around the metal frame under the stage, then go back up to the scaffolding, tie the rope around Isemi’s neck, and retrieve the wire. Sugai and Samura have alibis, so that leaves only Amou and Kamisuki. And Amou definitely couldn’t have done it.” She looked toward Amou, who removed the bandage from his left hand. “Oh man, it’s all swollen and discolored,” Sugai said. “We struck a giant wave while I was driving the boat,” Amou explained. “After rehearsals, it swelled up, and Umeko bandaged it for me.” “Of course, you couldn’t do it with your hand like that,” Samura said, and everyone’s attention shifted to me. I broke out in a cold sweat. “What are you trying to say, Umeko? That I’m the killer?” She nodded sympathetically. With that, Chitose spoke up. “There’s no way Youichi did it! That’s too simplistic.” “Well, how could a woman hoist the body up?” Umeko countered. Chitose frowned, deep in thought, her eyebrows knitting. Then she suddenly jerked her head up. “Follow me.” We followed her into the wings, to the section filled with ropes. “What are all these ropes for?” I asked. “This is called the fly system,” Chitose explained. “It’s where people raise and lower the battens that hold the lights and curtains.” Amou pulled a rope, lowering a curtain as Chitose continued, “Curtains are really heavy. This one weighs between one and two thousand pounds. The reason one person can move something this heavy is because of the counterweights.” She pointed to a stack of metal blocks. “What I’m saying is that there are several ways the killer could’ve done it using physics. For example, by tying one end of the wire to the body and the other end to themselves, the killer could’ve jumped down, or they could’ve used the pulley principle…” “Of course…,” Sugai muttered, beginning to understand. “Some theaters have equipment to lift people into the air, right?” “Wire harnesses,” Samura added, snapping his fingers. “Were those around when the Goddess House was built?” “They’ve been used since the Edo period, around 1700,” Amou replied immediately. “I flew the actor Ichikawa Danjuro at the Morita-za Kabuki theater while playing Soga Tokimune during a performance of Dainihon Tekkai Sennin. You need to study more.” “Sorry,” Samura mumbled, awed by Amou’s knowledge. “I think this place uses an electric wire harness, but the wires don’t reach the body, so it’s irrelevant,” Amou continued. “We’ve gotten a bit sidetracked,” Chitose said, “but can we agree that a woman could also be the killer?” Umeko nodded reluctantly. 6 “Okay, now can we tell you about our major discovery?” Amou said, catching Umeko’s attention. “Major discovery?” she asked, intrigued. “We know exactly when Isemi died.” “What?!” Samura gasped. “Amou, you even know how to do autopsies?!” “Of course not,” Amou replied, looking confused. He pointed to Isemi. “Look, he’s wearing an expensive smartwatch on his left wrist. It can measure heart rate and sync the data to a connected phone.” He then pulled Isemi’s smartphone from his own pocket. “Whoa!” Samura exclaimed. “Where did you find that?” “In his room. I had to break the lock to get in. But I needed to get past the phone’s facial recognition, so I dangled it from a string in front of him. It worked, even with a nail in his forehead.” We all gathered around the screen Amou showed us. “A heart rate error was detected at 1:21 AM. The watch automatically tried to call 911, but there’s no reception out here. Five minutes later, at 1:26, his heart stopped completely.” “So then, Amou and I have an alibi since we were together at that time!” Hirutani beamed. 7 “Something doesn’t add up,” I said, and Hirutani turned to glare at me. “What doesn’t add up?!” “As it stands, no one could possibly be the killer.” “What do you mean?” “Come with me. I’ll show you what I found.” I walked out the west exit, passing through several rooms toward the entry hall. I thought the shortest route might be through the south exit, but it turned out to be through the west. As we walked, I asked, “By the way, where was Isemi killed?” “Probably outside the building,” Chitose answered. “The killer called him outside, so he put on his raincoat, went out, and was strangled to death.” Everyone nodded in agreement. “Yes, that’s what we all assume—” We arrived at our destination, and Amou looked around, examining the surroundings. “What’s here—?” “Look at the floor.” “The floor? There’s nothing there.” “Precisely. Something that should be here isn’t. The carpet in the entry hall absorbs water easily but dries slowly. Slowly enough, you can still see our footprints from when we arrived last night, so we should see other sets of footprints. If Isemi was strangled outside, then where are the marks from when his body was dragged through here?” “Ah!” Amou exclaimed in surprise. “Yes, of course! So that means Isemi wasn’t killed outside! So then, why is his body wet?” “Don’t ask why his body is wet. Ask where it got wet,” I said. “The Goddess House doesn’t have any windows, and if he didn’t pass through the front door, then it wasn’t from the rain. Which means the only explanation is a faucet. Every room has a shower. The killer purposely got the body wet, brought it to the central hall, and hung it up. Look at this.” I opened a floor plan of the Goddess House. “This shaded area shows where the carpeted floors are. The material doesn’t dry quickly, so dragging a body would’ve left marks. There are ways the killer could’ve avoided leaving a trail, like using a water bottle to splash water on the body after dragging it or setting down a plastic sheet to drag it across. But since there are no marks in the entry hall, it’s reasonable to assume they didn’t consider the carpets at all. Which leaves only two people who could have dragged the body without passing through a carpeted area—Samura and Hirutani.” Everyone looked at them. Samura swallowed hard, and Hirutani twitched. “But,” I continued. “Sugai was with Samura from midnight until the body was discovered, so he’s definitely not the killer. That leaves Hirutani.” “That’s impossible!” she yelled. “When Isemi’s heart stopped, I was with Amou! Right?” She looked around, pleading. Everyone looked confused. “It’s possible,” I said. “You knew Isemi wore a smartwatch and used that to your advantage. You manipulated his time of death. And I’ll prove it right now!” 8 We moved to the central hall, and I began to elaborate. “You called Isemi to your room, attacked him from behind, and suffocated him. That’s how the marks appeared on his neck. But you didn’t kill him then—you only knocked him out. To make it look like he had been murdered outside, you put his rain jacket on him and used your shower to get him wet. You then dragged him to the central hall and drove a nail into his forehead. However, you made sure the wound wasn’t fatal, perhaps to obscure his actual time of death. Then you tied the rope to the metal wire, looped the noose around his neck, ran the rope through the iron pipe in the scaffolding on the ceiling, and tied the other end to the steel frame around the circular stage.” I brought out a mannequin from the stage right wings to use as a stand-in for Isemi and looped a noose around its neck. “That’s the time line of how you did it. Everything else was straightforward. Come with me—” We exited through the south door, climbed some stairs, and entered a room with a large window overlooking the stage. The room also contained several control boards with knobs and levers. “Every light and sound effect in the theater can be operated from this control room. Everything here is pretty old, but some of them still function. Ason Amou used things like rotating stages and trapdoors to great effect in his plays. I remembered that and examined this room. Just as I suspected—the stage can rotate.” I turned a knob on the control board. Everyone gasped. A sound accompanied the stage as it turned. I increased the rotational speed. As the stage rotated, the steel wire wound and the mannequin slowly lifted into the air until it dangled above the stage. “You set the rotational speed and then went to meet Amou. The wire gradually wound, lifting Isemi into the air—and ending his life. When the right time came, you returned, making sure we found Isemi in the position we did.” Hirutani trembled. She had turned deathly pale and was drenched in sweat. “That’s just speculation!” she spat. In the next moment, she gave a dreadful expression and screamed. “Speculation! You have no proof of any of that! You won’t pin this on me!” I let a moment pass before replying coolly, “Let’s return to the question of why the killer got the body wet. It was important for the killer to make it look like Isemi was murdered outside. Why? Perhaps because there was irrefutable proof inside their room that they couldn’t get rid of—” We all exchanged glances before rushing to Hirutani’s room. A wild look crossed her face, and she screamed, unhinged. “Stop! There’s nothing there! Nothing!” The door was locked. Amou demanded, “—Key!” Hirutani shook her head, refusing. Amou began forcefully kicking the door. “Stop! There’s nothing there! Nothing! Not a thing! There’s nothing!” Hirutani cried hysterically. With several powerful kicks, the door gave way. We all held our breath as we entered. Straw dolls hung from nails on the opposite wall. Amou swallowed hard and began removing them. Then— “They’re here! Scratch marks! And blood! Absolute proof!” “Nobody move!” Turning around, Hirutani was pointing the barrel of a gun toward us. Samura was stunned. “The M360J Sakura!” She pointed the pistol in his direction, and he screamed. She hit Chitose with the butt of the gun, knocking her to the floor. “Chitose!” I yelled. “It was all Isemi’s fault!” Hirutani howled wildly. “He had other girls, but he still tried to get with me and even gave me COVID! He deserved to die! He should die! Everyone should die! Die! Die! Die! Die!” With each scream of the word die, she pointed the pistol at another one of us. And the blood drained from my face when I looked down that barrel. She screamed hysterically and fled the room. We stayed frozen for a moment, hands in the air. I knelt down by Chitose. “Are you okay?” “Yeah.” She held her right eye as she answered. “What an absolute psychopath,” Sugai muttered. “What do we do now?” “We’d best stay here for now. Let’s see what happens.” Amou still had his hands in the air as he uttered those words. 9 After a while, Sugai spoke. “Do you smell something burning?” “Yeah…” Umeko sniffed. As she said that, gray smoke billowed across the ceiling and into the room. “Ah!” Amou screamed. We ran down the hall. Flames were rising down the right side of the hallway. The floor was a sea of fire. The walls were burning, and the flames almost licked the ceiling. In the direction of the fire, Hirutani stood, flailing her hair wildly. She screamed in a terrifying voice. “Die! Die! Everyone, die!” “You murderer!” Sugai yelled, dashing forward, but the flames blocked his path. “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!” Hirutani laughed maniacally, craning her head back as she disappeared around the corner. “This is bad! If she set the entrance hall on fire, we won’t be able to escape!” Amou shouted, sweat trickling down his forehead. “This way!” We ran. Amou opened a door, but flames blasted out, forcing him to slam it shut quickly. “We have to go around!” We kept running. When we finally reached the entrance hall, we stopped dead. The crimson carpet had turned into a sea of flames. The fire roared, consuming everything in its path. The giant goddesses in the painting looked like they were trapped in the hells of Tapana and Avici from Buddhist mythology. “Back! Go back!” Amou shouted, turning as flames licked his back. “Are there any other exits?!” I yelled. “No!” Amou yelled back. “None! We have to put out the fire!” He ran, and we followed. The Goddess House was turning into a burning hellscape. “Don’t breathe in the smoke!” Samura shouted. At a fork in the path, Amou yelled, “Women, head to the central hall! Men, get the fire extinguishers!” The women nodded and ran toward the central hall. The men turned northeast. As we ran, Samura suddenly shouted, “I saw a fire extinguisher in a room over this way! I’ll go get it!” “Don’t, Samura! It’s too dangerous!” Amou shouted back. “Even one more fire extinguisher could help!” Samura pulled a pair of sunglasses out of his pocket, gave us a thumbs-up, and said, “I’ll be back!” before darting off into the flames. “Samura, you idiot!” “Let’s hurry!” I urged, shoving Amou forward. We reached the supply closet and yanked open the metal door. “This way!” We rushed inside. Three large, thirteen-pound fire extinguishers sat in the shadows. “All right!” Sugai shouted, pumping his fist. Just then the door slammed shut. “No!” Amou threw himself at the door. “We’re locked in!” He shook the doorknob and hurled his body against the door, but it wouldn’t budge. “Move!” Sugai shouted, slamming the bottom of the fire extinguisher against the door. I joined him, but the door held firm. “Dammit!” Sugai hurled his fire extinguisher at the door, panting as tears welled up in his eyes. “We’re going to be roasted alive!” “Smoke’s coming in!” I yelled. “We can block it with this!” Amou shouted, ripping off his shirt and stuffing it into the crack at the top of the door. Sugai helped, coughing as he yelled for help. Suddenly, the door swung open, and Amou and Sugai tumbled forward. Samura stood on the other side, holding a fire extinguisher. “Come with me if you want to live.” Samura grinned. A mixture of emotions passed over Sugai’s face as he yelled, “Thank you, Terminator!” We stood up, grabbed the fire extinguishers, and bolted. As soon as we reached Sugai’s room, however, we stopped. Something was burning. Something in the shape of a person. Sugai scooped up the black lump on the ground next to him. “A real gun,” he said. “So this is how it ends for that psycho…” “That’ll be us soon enough!” Amou said, and tossed a T-shirt to Sugai. “Get this wet and use it to cover your mouth!” Sugai nodded, unlocked the door, and rushed inside. The rest of us exchanged a quick glance and ran. When we reached the central hall, Chitose approached me, her face full of concern. “Are you okay?” “Yeah, everything went as well as it could.” “Oh, my chest hair is singed all the way to my belly button…,” Amou muttered. Umeko stood up from the monitor she’d been watching and jumped in delight. “Yes! We got it! And the video is perfect!” “Our plan worked!” Amou celebrated. We cheered and clapped. I looked up at the ceiling. Nothing hung there anymore. I smiled and said: “Good job, Isemi.” His face pale, he raised his right hand while drinking from a water bottle. “I can’t believe it. Even just hanging there made you sick,” Chitose said. “I really panicked.” “So that was Isemi’s vomit, after all?” I asked. “Yeah. I had to make it look like I did it.” “I thought my heart was going to stop,” Isemi said, removing the nail from his forehead and flicking it away. “Hirutani, you were something else. I knew you couldn’t shoot me, but I was really scared when you pointed the gun at me.” “Heh-heh-heh, thank you. It’s been a while since I got into a role like that.” She laughed endearingly at the compliment. Just then the east exit opened, and— “Hey, guys, we’ve got to get out of here!” Sugai rushed in, worried. He didn’t notice anything strange as he approached the stage. “What are you doing?! Hurry!” Then he saw Hirutani and screamed, finally noticing his surroundings. His jaw dropped as he caught sight of Isemi. “What’s going on…? What is this? Hey!” He jumped onto the circular stage, frantically looking around and clutching his head. “What is this? What in the world…?!” I walked onto the stage and faced him. Sugai screamed again. “The fire has surrounded us! We have to get out of here now!” “Ason Amou built the Goddess House specifically for The Maiden of Kissho.” Amou’s robust voice echoed through the room. “In the final scene, sunlight pours into the theater from the center of the ceiling, and in that infinite light, the goddess brings the healing light of Buddha, re-creating salvation.” He raised his right hand, and at his signal, a heavy thudding sound rang out above our heads. The arabesque-patterned ceiling shook as it separated into six pieces, revealing the night sky through a perfect circle. The worst of the storm had passed, and the wind had died down. A cold rain fell, soaking Sugai and me. “We’ll be okay for a while,” Amou declared. I took a deep breath and exhaled. Finally, I said, “Let’s talk.” 10 The Goddess House would be the scene of the final showdown! Holding Hell Camp in the middle of the storm would make that happen. Once I realized this, I called Amou and asked him to meet with me. His help would be indispensable in making the plan work. I went to Amou’s room, with its eclectic decorations—tengu masks, a Star Wars poster, and a scroll that said MASTER THYSELF—and relayed my suspicions to him. “At first, I thought the killer had played a prerecorded video to create an alibi while they killed Kuroyama. But no one was playing a video during the murder, so I abandoned that theory. Then I remembered something. Something was off right before and right after the mummy covered the camera—the shadow of the monstera plant had changed. The angle of the light from the window was different. That means the video before the screen went dark was from a different time of day than the video after it went dark. Kuroyama was the one using a prerecorded video.” It had taken me hundreds of replays in my mind to realize it, but I didn’t mention that. “Let’s review the time line of events. Sometime before the murder, Kuroyama and the killer prerecorded the scene before the screen went dark. Then, on the day of the murder, during rehearsals, the killer switched their feed to a video and went to Kuroyama’s house. We were all focused on the actors, so no one noticed. Once the killer arrived at Kuroyama’s, he also switched his feed to a video.” Amou looked confused, so I continued. “The killer changed into the mummy costume and killed Kuroyama. The soundproof door was closed, so the neighbors wouldn’t hear the gunshot. After the screen went black, the killer connected the two videos—the one showing Kuroyama sitting there, and the second showing the mummy. Together, they created one continuous video. The killer also set up audio equipment in the room to play a gunshot sound. Afterward, the killer left Kuroyama’s house, leaving the soundproof door open, and played along with the prerecorded video to create their alibi. The gunshot the neighbors heard was a recording.” “Hold on a second. What are you talking about? Why would Kuroyama help the killer?” “It was your birthday.” Amou looked bewildered, so I explained further. “I think Kuroyama wanted to surprise you. By having a mummy appear and creating a commotion, he could trick you into thinking his screen had gone black so he could disappear. Then he would ring your doorbell, and when you opened the door, you’d find Kuroyama standing there with a bouquet of flowers and a present. That’s what I think the plan was.” “Kuroyama…” Amou’s eyes misted over. “Of course, that explains it!” He pulled a small, neatly wrapped box from a drawer. Kuroyama’s parents had given it to him on the day of the funeral. “I never got around to opening it…” He carefully untied the ribbon and removed the wrapping paper, opening the lid with shaking hands. Inside was a letter and a beautiful paulownia wood box. He read the letter aloud: “Happy birthday! I’m overjoyed to see The Vicissitudes of the Three Realms come to life. I’m going to do everything in my power to make it the best. You’re going to be famous someday, so use this to practice your signature. It was made special!” Opening the box, he found a beautiful calligraphy pen adorned with a gold-lacquered goddess. Tears flowed from Amou’s eyes. “At the time, Kuroyama’s feed must have been a prerecorded video, and it looked like he glanced back when Sugai said ‘Behind you!’ We can assume Sugai was playing along to match the timing of the video. Also, I had a list of everyone who didn’t have COVID during the two blank weeks. I called the parents of every club member who wasn’t on the list, pretending to be someone from the Public Health Center. When I did, I discovered that Sugai had COVID during that time, too.” “Sugai,” Amou muttered. “He would be the guy Kuroyama would ask to help with a surprise.” “I checked social media and contacted Sugai’s high school friends. I confirmed he dated Amagasaki in high school. They probably kept dating after Amagasaki started university, but when Sugai realized she was seeing other men, hatred overtook him. Finding that gun at Shinjuku Station was the straw that broke the camel’s back.” Looking back, Sugai chatting online with me during the first murder was probably him creating an alibi, while also getting an idea of what I was doing next door. Two birds with one stone. “I’m almost certain Sugai is the killer. But there’s no proof. There might still be video data on Kuroyama’s computer, but it’s probably been deleted automatically by now.” “You’re right; there’s no proof. That’s why we have to make some.” I spread out an expanded floor plan for the Goddess House. “The killer set it up so the murder scene would start immediately after the lines ‘I’ve killed one person, and now fate calls me to kill more!’ Your play notes are so rigidly constructed for tempo that it’s possible to time it to the play. Because this is an allusion to a series of murders, Isemi is likely to be the next victim. That’s why we’re going to kill him first.” I laid out my plan to a stunned Amou. “Once someone else has ‘killed’ his next target, Sugai will start thinking about getting rid of the gun. We’ll create the perfect opportunity for him to do so, record it, and then retrieve the gun ourselves. That will be our proof. But there’s one problem—there’s no guarantee Sugai will bring the gun to the Goddess House.” Oh—I hadn’t considered that. I knew from Miri’s vision that there would be a gunshot, so I was sure the gun would be there. But Amou’s point made me pause. After some internal debate, I told Amou everything about my ability and Miri. It took at least an hour. When I finished, Amou sat holding his head, bewildered. “There’s no way I could just suddenly believe something like that. But it’s too outlandish and detailed to be a lie. Fine, I want you to look into my eyes and tell me Ason Amou’s dying words. It’s something that only I know.” “Okay.” I nodded. “Concentrate on that moment.” He closed his eyes, his eyelids flickering. Then tears rolled down his cheeks as he opened his eyes. I looked into Amou’s eyes and said, “‘Burn down the Goddess House.’ That’s what he told everyone around him. Your father ran to call a doctor, but you were the only one who heard the rest. He said, ‘Yukie and I are going to perform The Maiden of Kissho in the afterlife.’” Amou whispered, his voice quavering, “That’s it. Everyone else only heard the first part, so people thought he’d given up. But it was the opposite. Do you know about Uchikabi money that Okinawans offer to the dead? Burning paper money sends it to the afterlife as smoke. My grandma was from Okinawa. He wanted to burn the Goddess House and perform the play over there. That’s how much he loved her and performing. She died by suicide because the vocal cord polyp she developed stopped her from ever performing again, so they were the same in that regard.” “Oh, I didn’t know.” The truth often gets twisted. Amou spoke again. “I believe you now. It’s time to write the script.” We then lost ourselves in planning. Creating something with a genius like Shimao Amou—it gave me goose bumps. First, we would discover Isemi’s body hanging by a noose. He would, of course, be alive, but Umeko would use makeup to make him look dead. A wire would be threaded into the rope and attached to a harness so his neck wouldn’t bear any weight. “Since it’ll be summer, won’t the harness show if he’s in shorts and a T-shirt?” “Right, so we’ll have to have put him in a rain jacket. We can figure out how to explain that later.” Then we started working on theories and ways to prove alibis. “I’ll sprain my left wrist so it’s impossible for me to have strung up the body. We’ll have Umeko do the makeup for that.” We thoroughly enjoyed devising alibis and schemes. I came up with the idea of using the smartwatch for the time of death. All we had to do was use editing software to change the numbers on the screen. “And in the end, a cornered Hirutani pulls out a model gun and sets the fire! Sugai will think it’s a fake, but everyone else will believe it’s real,” Amou said, sketching lines over the floor plan. “We’ll use the doors to control the fire and guide Sugai. The women will go to the central hall to let Isemi down while the men ‘search’ for fire extinguishers. At some point, Samura will make a show of going off on his own to get a fire extinguisher. Then he’ll sneak back and lock us inside the room!” His pen flew across the page. “Once we’re free, the wild Hirutani will be on fire! We’ll use a mannequin for that. The fake gun will be nearby. Sugai might have the real one in his room, so we’ll give him time to swap them. He’ll realize that this is the chance to pin all the murders on the psychotic Hirutani. We’ll record the whole thing and get the gun—” The outline was complete. We just needed to fill in the details. “It’s perfect…” “Perfect.” We gazed in awe at our completed work. “I’m a little nervous about someone like Samura ad-libbing lines. Are you sure it’s okay to burn down the Goddess House?” I asked. “Don’t worry. It was going to be torn down anyway. Maintenance costs are exorbitant, and many historic buildings are being demolished for that reason. Honestly, it should’ve been burned down long ago. My grandfather’s dream built it, so it’s only right for him to have the final say. How about we give them one riveting performance, as an offering to the dead.” I nodded. Now we just had to see who else would join us in this dangerous gamble. 11 “All of you! You were all just acting to trick me?!” Sugai shouted, drenched and wild-eyed as he looked around at us. Droplets of rain flew from his mouth. “Everyone agreed immediately. That’s how important their friends are to them,” I declared. “Surrender, Sugai. Repent for what you’ve done and start a new life!” “Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Dammit…!” Sugai cried through his tears. “I knew that love was nothing but a risk. I fell for that stupid woman… Dammit… Why did I…?” “Sugai…” “Did you know there’s a flower called Karin? I gave her one once. Do you know what it represents? True love. What a joke. No, it’s actually perfect. Because she only loved herself…” Sugai’s voice overflowed with grief. During this time, the flames had fanned out violently, and Amou yelled, “The fire is spreading quickly! We’re almost out of time!” “You’d better be careful, too, Youichi,” Sugai said darkly. “All women are born actors.” Then the lights suddenly went out. Someone screamed. Sugai’s voice echoed from the darkness. “Well, it doesn’t matter. You’re all dying soon.” The blade of a knife glinted in the firelight, and Sugai’s murderous face appeared through the flames. An image flashed in the back of my mind—had I come so far only to die now? Suddenly, a shadow moved in front of me. The shadow fell to the ground. The flames illuminated its face. I froze. Hoarse words tumbled from my mouth. “How…? Why…?” It was Chitose. The bronze handle of the knife was lodged deep in her stomach. I looked up toward the sky, horrified. The scene from my visions was unfolding before my eyes. A shadowy moon burned above us. It wasn’t the real moon, but the night sky, visible through a round hole in the flaming ceiling. I bent over, calling out to Chitose. She already lay in the grasp of death. That’s when I noticed her right eye was a different color—a hazel brown, like a jewel. Her black color contact lens had been knocked out when Hirutani hit her with the butt of the gun. I had seen those eyes before. Then she spoke in a voice all too familiar to me. “Yochi, I’m sorry…” The world distorted around me. I was completely dumbstruck, my mind paralyzed. I couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing. It didn’t make any sense. But one undeniable truth lay before me. “Miri?” Tears rolled down her cheek. I looked into her eyes, and— A pair of eyes open in the darkness. The mummy man is standing before me. He’s wrapping bandages around his head. And there, reflected in the mirror, I see Miri. Hazel eyes peek out from between the bandages. Tears streaming out of both eyes, Miri’s voice says: “I must save him.” The memory quickly distorts. The sound of a distant storm follows. There’s not enough time! I look into those eyes as well. Breaking through the tempest of emotions, I extend time further— “You’re not going to look like you anymore. Are you sure you’re okay with that?” “Yes, I’ve made up my mind.” A bright light shines in front of Miri. Her eyelids hanging half-open, a human figure moving through her cloudy vision. Every sensation feels distant. Miri might be losing consciousness. But her eyes had saved these images. The human figure looks into my eyes, then begins moving something silver. I finally understood. I’m undergoing surgery. The intense light shining down is the operating light. While any sense of time is distorted by anesthesia, the surgery continues. The surgical blade cuts through my skin… The drill shaves away at my bones. “And we’re done. After a couple months of downtime, you’ll be able to start a brand-new life.” “Thank you so much, doctor.” I return from those eyes within the eyes. A trembling hand reaches up to the bandages on my face. Then Miri begins to slowly unwrap them. And the face that shines through is Chitose’s. I tentatively touch the tip of my nose, move my neck, and stroke my jawline. Tears continue to gently roll down my cheeks from those eyes. “I have to save him.” I vow. “I have to, I have to, I have to!” With a look full of determination, I focus on the eyes in my reflection. Then the storm from the mirror arrives, engulfing everything in a moment—before disappearing. Thrust out of those eyes, I stood dumbstruck. Chitose was Miri. And Miri was dead. I gripped her lifeless hand and screamed. Someone was pulling the knife from her stomach. Gripping it underhanded, Sugai aimed its point at me and swung down. A gunshot rang out. Everything happened in slow motion. Sugai staggered for a moment before standing back up. Amou quickly pinned Sugai’s arms behind his back. But Sugai wriggled free, turned, and lunged at Amou’s jaw with the knife. Amou toppled to the floor. Sugai went to swing the knife again, and— The stage shook, and Sugai wobbled. It rotated so fast that I had to crouch down to avoid being thrown off. Samura, still in the control room after opening the ceiling, was operating the stage to help. The world became a blur of spinning lines. “Kamisuki!” Hirutani kept yelling something, but with the Doppler effect, I couldn’t make out the words. The stage suddenly stopped spinning. The momentum threw me to the floor, and Sugai fell, too. I tried to stand up, but the dizziness was overwhelming. Sugai, being closer to the center, was just as disoriented. “Sugai—,” Isemi yelled, holding the gun we had collected earlier. “How dare you kill Karin!” No, Isemi was going to kill him! Just then a loud clang rang out, and the stage started turning fast. Sugai fell over. Then another loud clang sounded, and the stage continued to spin rapidly. Sugai stumbled. Isemi, having climbed onto the rotating stage, lost his balance, too. His bloodshot eyes gleamed with madness. I was horrified—he had come here to kill Sugai! He couldn’t aim well with the stage turning, so he decided to climb up. It was like trying to shoot someone from a moving car. It’s easier when you’re on the same level. Staggering, Isemi found his balance and slowly stood up, gripping the gun tightly with both hands. He raised the barrel. Evil thoughts crossed my mind. Sugai would be better off dead. He had killed Miri. But I clenched my fists, nails digging into my palms, bit down on my lip, and shouted, “Samura!” The stage screeched to a halt with a clang. I fell forward, smacking my cheek against the floor, tasting blood. Lifting my head, I saw Sugai struggling to stand up in the spinning world. The knife and the gun. Both had fallen to the stage floor at an equal distance from Sugai. I tried to leap for them, but my legs wouldn’t move. Sugai, moving like a zombie, lumbered toward the gun. “Kill, ah, I’ll kill you! I kill you all! @#*$!” Spewing incoherently, Sugai stood and leveled the gun. Terror overcame me, but in the next instant, all my fear somehow melted away. I found him pathetic. In my eyes, Sugai appeared so pathetic it almost made me sad. The gun looked more like a crutch than a weapon. He was just barely standing, clinging to his crutch. That’s how it looked to me. “Sugai,” I spoke calmly. “There’s only one bullet left. How are you going to kill everyone?” Sugai looked at the gun in confusion and then dived for the knife. That’s when Isemi, who had sneaked up behind him, tackled him to the ground. Sugai fell hard, creating an opening. “Kamisuki!” “Kamisuki!” Hirutani and Umeko yelled at the same time, tossing a fire extinguisher my way. I removed the pin and pressed the handle. Foam sprayed over Sugai. I dashed into the foam, catching sight of Sugai’s wide eyes. He was aiming the gun at me. Instinctively, I jerked my head to the side. Bang—! The last bullet grazed my left ear. I swung the fire extinguisher at his jaw with all my strength. His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed. I looked down at Sugai, now unconscious, and sighed. The choice between the gun and the knife… He had chosen the gun, a reflection of his weakness. If he had never picked up the gun, maybe he would have never killed anyone. Just then the scaffolding around the circular opening in the roof buckled and came crashing down with a tremendous noise. We ducked instinctively as the ground shook beneath us. Thankfully, nothing landed on us. “Get out of here! Get out!” I yelled. We filed through the trapdoor in the stage. Some mats had been laid out below. Samura helped Amou down, and I carried Sugai through. I glanced back—Miri’s body was pinned under the fallen scaffolding. I wanted to abandon Sugai and run to her, but I steeled myself and forced the thought away. I had to leave her there. Tears streamed down my face as I followed the others. We dashed through the concrete corridors and emerged by the dock at the back of the island. This passage was likely used to bring heavy equipment, like large instruments, into the building. The rain had stopped. We climbed the sloping island, and in the distance, the Goddess House burned. We stood silently, watching it. Eventually, the eastern sky turned red. The dawn was incredibly beautiful. And with that, everything ended.