BXBX NOVEL Chapter Volume 1 1
1. The First Decapitation
2. The Tragedy of 0.14
1. The Second Decapitation
2. Lies
3. A Crow’s Wet Feathers
ONE WEEK LATER: Split
EPILOGUE: Crimson Fairy Tale
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Don’t be so edgy.
Relax, okay?
The third morning of our life on Wet Crow’s Feather Island
was just greeting us. I awoke in a daze, trying to distinguish
between the dreams I had just had and the reality yet to come.
The high, rectangular window admitted just a bit of light,
so the room still remained dim. Since the room had no lights,
I would just have to wait for it to get brighter: the sun had
only just risen, and it was maybe around six a.m., judging by
my internal clock. I suspect this way of determining the time
has no more than a fifteen-minute margin of error. But even
supposing I was an hour off, it’s not like it would be a
problem.
“Getting up,” I mumbled, and slowly rose from bed.
The room was mostly empty, its only furnishings a chair
and a futon. Aside from that, it was completely bare. Its high
ceilings gave it an even more spacious feel—and that hollow,
dead atmosphere that evokes so vividly images of solitary
confinement or something. I couldn’t help but feel a little bit
like an inmate on Death Row.
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It was the second time in my life I’d woken up with that
feeling.
But while this was in fact not solitary confinement, neither
was it originally a bedroom. It was formerly a storage space.
When I asked Akari to show me the smallest room in the
mansion, this was where she brought me. The smallest room.
Even so, it was infinitely bigger than my room at the lodging
house. Boy, was that ever depressing.
“Nah… it’s way beyond depressing,” I said to myself.
Now then. I switched my cognitive channel from Death
Row Inmate Mode to Routine Mode.
Wondering what time it really was, I glanced at my
wristwatch, but the LCD screen displayed nothing. Maybe the
batteries had died while I was sleeping. But wait, I’d changed
them just a little while ago. There had to be some other
problem. Well, I could always ask Kunagisa to fix it.
Clearing my sleep-fogged mind, I did a couple of simple
stretches and then left the room. I walked around for a while.
The carpet was thick, bright red, and looked like (and most
probably was) super-high quality. It eventually led to the
spiral case, which is where I bumped into Rei-san and
Akari-san.
“Oh, good morning. You two are up early.” It was only
common courtesy to greet them, but they simply passed by
with no more acknowledgment than a silent head-bow.
“Guess they’re the quiet type,” I muttered to myself.
But to be fair, they were probably working, and I wasn’t
exactly a “guest,” per se, so I just had to live with their
lukewarm response. If I expected anything more out of them,
I’d have to throw my arms out wide and cry out, “How you
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feelin’, my freaky people?!” And, frankly, I just didn’t have the
energy.
Handa Rei-san and Chiga Akari-san were maids employed
at the mansion. Rei-san was the “head maid,” Akari her
subordinate. And there were two other maids at the mansion,
of the same rank as Akari-san. A total of four maids.
Considering who owned the mansion, and the size of the
mansion, it seemed as if a staff of four maids would be too
small. But these women carried out their duties with the
swiftness and skill of true specialists.
The mistress of the mansion, and the person these maids
served, was Akagami Iria. She was the proprietress of the
island, as well as the mansion. And furthermore, she was the
one who had invited me and Kunagisa here.
“But wait, was I actually invited?” I asked myself.
Now just how old was Akari-san? You could tell just by
looking at Rei-san that she was probably in her late twenties.
It’s not easy for kids like me to tell exactly how old a woman
that age is, but that’s definitely the impression I got from her.
Akari-san was the real challenge. I didn’t think she was
younger than me, but still, she looked ridiculously young. She
was one of those women you see downtown who can get away
with paying half-price for everything when they’re actually
adults. As I went up the spiral staircase and headed down the
second-floor hall, my mind tilled with nonsense. Maybe she has
a thing for young guys. Yeah, just babbling.
I was headed for Kunagisa’s room. Two days ago, when we
arrived at the island, a room had of course been prepared for
Kunagisa, but not for me. This was to be expected: even I had
had no idea I would be visiting this weird little island until
that very morning, when Kunagisa called me.
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Akari-san prepared a room for me at the last minute. But
I’d politely refused it. Why? The reason hit me as soon as I
opened the door.
I knocked once, then went ahead and opened it.
The interior was vast. Pure white carpet and pure white
wallpaper complemented pure white furniture. Even I knew
that white reflects light. Kunagisa was crazy about the color
white, so somebody had decorated this room this way
deliberately. In the center of the room was a luxurious sofa
and a wooden table. A chandelier hung from the strangely
high ceiling. The bed was like something straight out of a
movie set in medieval times; it even had a canopy.
“Yeah, I’d never get any sleep here.”
And so I had Akari-san show me to the storage room on
the first floor. Meanwhile Kunagisa, lacking my more delicate
sensibilities, lay there drowsily on her pure white sheets.
Looking at the enormous, antique, mechanical clock on her
wall (also ever-so-thoughtfully selected in white), I saw that it
was, in fact, six o’clock, just as I’d guessed. Pondering what to
do now, I sat on the side of her bed, enjoying the feeling of
the thick, fluffy carpet beneath my feet.
Kunagisa rolled over. Her eyes opened, just slightly.
“Hmm? Oh, Ii-chan?”
Somehow she had sensed it was me, but at any rate she
seemed to be awake. She pushed her mussed, I Hawaiian-blue
hair away from her face and regarded me with sleepy eyes.
“Oh, ahhh, Ii-chan… ummm… You came to wake me up,
didn’t you? Thank you.”
“Actually I came here to tuck you in, but what’s this?
Tomo sleeping at nighttime? That’s pretty rare. Or did you
just get to bed?” If that was the case I’d have to apologize.
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“Uh-uh.” She shook her head.
“I think I slept for three hours. Cuz y’know, yesterday,
well, some stuff happened, Ii-chan. Give me five more
seconds…
“Good morning! Ah, it’s a bright, brisk morning, isn’t it?!”
She sat up, her petite little body popping up. Flashing me an
ear-to-ear grin, she struck a dynamic pose. “Huh? Hey, it’s not
bright out at all. I don’t like this. I like for the sun to be way
high up in the sky when I wake up in the morning.”
“You’re talking about the afternoon.”
“Eh, either way. That was some good sleep.” Ignoring me,
she kept on talking. “I’m pretty sure I got to bed at three a.m.
Some really bad stuff happened yesterday and I just huffed off
to bed. Y’know, cuz sleep is the best thing when you’re
feeling really terrible. It’s like sleep is the one and only gift of
salvation God gave mankind. Now, Ii-chan?”
“Yeah, Tomo?”
“Stay still for a sec.”
Without even giving me time to be confused, she hugged
me. Or to put it more accurately, she draped herself on me,
burdening me with the entirety of her bodyweight. She rested
her tiny head on my right shoulder, with our bodies stuck
together, her slender arms wrapped around my neck.
Squeeze.
Not that she was heavy.
“Uh, Kunagisa?”
“Recharging.”
Evidently she was recharging. Thus, no moving allowed. I
gave up on the idea of resistance and supported her weight.
But hey, what was I, an electrical outlet or something?
Looking at Kunagisa, I noticed she had slept with her coat
on. As far as I knew, she wore it all the time, indoors and
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outdoors, summer and winter. A jet-black men’s coat. On a
girl of Kunagisa’s tiny stature, the large-sized coat easily
touched the floor. But she seemed to be madly in love with it
anyway. I had told her millions of times to at least take it off
when she’s sleeping, but to no avail.
One thing was for sure: Kunagisa Tomo did things her own
way. In that sense, she was kind of like me.
“Okay, thanks!” she said, and finally let go of me. “Battery
full! Now, let’s go face another day.”
With a grunt she rose from bed, blue hair bouncing. She
walked over to the computers by the window opposite her
bed. They were the three computers she had brought from
her home in Shirosaki. All three were tower models. The two
on the left and right were of typical size, the one in the middle
was exceptionally large. They were all white, of course. I just
didn’t get why she was so into a color that was so easy to get
dirty.
The three computers were on a U-shaped rack, with a
cushiony rolling chair in the center. Kunagisa plopped down
in the chair and leaned back. That way she could
simultaneously control all three computers. But no matter
how you counted it up, she still had only two hands. Why she
would ever think to use three keyboards at the same time was
beyond me.
I looked over her shoulder. The three keyboards were
neither ASCII nor JIS nor Oasis, but instead some weird,
mysterious key alignment. But to question the unnaturalness
of it would be futile. For an engineering whiz like Kunagisa
Tomo, designing a keyboard from scratch was probably like a
walk in the park.
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Incidentally, Kunagisa didn’t use a mouse. Because “they’re
a total waste of time,” she would say. But to a novice like me,
the sight of a mouseless computer was unnerving, just totally
impossible to get used to. Not that that’s the worst feeling in
the world.
“Ii-chan.”
“Yeah?”
“Tie my hair up.”
Got it. I went up to her chair. I slipped some hair bands off
her arm and tied her hair into two braids.
“Man, wash your hair already. My fingers are getting oily
here.”
“I hate taking baths. Cuz y’know, your hair gets all wet and
stuff.”
“Well, of course. Look at this, the blue is getting dark.”
“I can’t see my own head. Hehehe, if I leave it like it is, it’ll
turn ultramarine. Thank you, Ii-chan,” she said, biting her
lower lip with a giggle. I just looked back at her with an
innocent, confused smile.
“Uh, no problem, really.”
Even as we talked, her fingers never stopped moving. They
moved with the accuracy of a machine at a constant rhythm
with every keystroke. Her movements flowed so smoothly it
was as if she were unconsciously tarrying out some preplanned
assignment in some preprogrammed way. Incomprehensible
English characters and numbers streamed along on all three
monitor displays at an unbelievable pace.
“Tomo, what are you up to, anyway? You just got up.”
“Mmm, well, I don’t think you’d get it even if I told you.”
“Hmm. You really need all three PCs to do it?” I said.
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She gave me a perplexed look. “Ii-chan, this one in the
middle isn’t a PC, it’s a workstation,” she said.
“What’s a workstation? It’s not a PC?”
“Nope, it’s different. Well, I guess PCs and workstations
are similar in that they’re both intended for individual use,
but, it’s like, workstations are way more top-of-the-line.”
“Ah, so a workstation is like a super-good PC?” I said,
openly displaying my ignorance.
She groaned. “Ii-chan, a PC is a PC and a workstation is a
workstation. They’re both GPCs, but think of them as two
completely different things.”
“What’s a GPC?”
She looked at me as if I were some kind of a caveman. “Iichan,
you don’t know anything, do you?” she said with a
touch of disbelief. “What exactly were you doing in Houston
those five years?”
“Other things.”
She sighed. “Okay, okay,” she said, tilting her head. Then
she resumed her work as if a switch had been toggled in her
brain. Letters and numbers that looked like hocus-pocus to
me continued to stream by on the displays.
I wanted her to tell me a little more about the different
classifications or what have you, but I’m not really that
intellectually curious. Besides, it would be rude to interrupt
whatever she was working on. That, and, for an “outsider” like
me to try to follow this nerdy cupcake’s explanations seemed
as if it would just lead to a headache, so with that I ended the
discussion. I massaged her shoulders for a bit, then decided to
borrow her sink, where I washed my face and changed my
clothes.
“Hey, Tomo, I’m gonna go for a walk.”
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Without looking up from her work, she gave me a
halfhearted wave. The other hand kept on tapping keys. I
shrugged and left the room.
I’d be lying if I said I knew all that much about the Akagami
Foundation. They’re not exactly the most well-publicized
organization in the world. Plus, since they mostly operated out
of the Kanto region, someone like me who was born in Kobe,
grew up in Houston, Texas, and lived in Kyoto wouldn’t know
that much about them.
Putting it simply, the Akagami mansion was the home to a
storied legacy of business barons. That business might have
been some kind of trade, or a system in which money just
poured in on its own. I’m not sure what exactly it is that they
did, but whatever it was, one thing was for sure: the Akagami
Foundation was loaded.
Holding property not just in Japan but all over the world,
the Akagami Foundation was the owner of Wet Crow’s
Feather Island as well. And the owner of the Western-style
mansion found in the center of the island was none other than
Akagami Iria.
As you might guess from her name, Iria was related to the
head of the Akagami Foundation—his granddaughter, in fact.
She was a born-and-bred pedigreed princess, for whom no
obsequious praise was too obsequious. Over time, she had
inherited vast amounts of enormous wealth and unbelievable
power and ruled over a great many underlings. But then, the
head of the Foundation himself had completely cut her off. So
maybe this is all really better expressed in the past tense.
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Cut off.
I don’t know what she did to deserve it, but it must have
been something big.
Supposedly she was permanently removed from the family
five years ago, at the age of sixteen. At that time, the head of
the family left her with a small severance package (which was
probably still an unimaginable sum to a regular Joe like me)
and this island, floating around in the Sea of Japan.
In other words, she had been exiled.
Maybe these days that seems old-fashioned. But far be it
for me to butt into other people’s ways of doing things.
Especially if those people belong to a powerful institution
that’s practically its own world in and of itself.
Anyway, Iria had spent the last five years here with her
four maids, not once setting foot off the island. Five years on
this godforsaken island in the middle of nowhere, with no
amusements, no nothing. In a sense, it was life in Hell, though
I would speculate that, in a different sense, it was also a little
like life in Heaven.
But was Iria-san lonely or bored? Indeed, you could say
Kunagisa had been invited to the island to stave off Iria’s
boredom. But it wasn’t just Kunagisa. In the same way, it
would be no exaggeration to say that Akane-san, Maki-san,
Yayoi-san, and Kanami-san had all been brought here for the
same purpose.
Well, okay, maybe it’s a little bit of an exaggeration.
So, anyway, forbidden to leave the island, Iria-san said,
“Well, if that’s how it is,” and proceeded to invite, as her
guests, the world’s most prominent figures.
Now, it “prominent figures” sounds a little weird, let me
try putting it another way. Iria had decided to invite so-called
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geniuses to her mansion. It was a simple plan: “If I can’t go to
them, they can come to me.”
Famous and unknown alike, all those who possessed
genuine talent and amazing skill were summoned by Iria-san,
one after another after another. And, of course, all expenses,
including accommodations, were covered by Iria-san. In fact,
visitors to the island were often given money, so it was pretty
much always a win-win situation for them.
To me, it seemed like Iria-san was going for that whole
ancient Greek salon image, collecting and cavorting with all
these artists and geniuses—and thereby living a fruitful life. To
be sure, it wasn’t the most typical idea around, but yes, there
was something amazing about it. Aside from the mansion and
the forest, the island was essentially empty—almost a desert
island—and for those world-weary men and women of talent
who needed to rest both the body and the mind, it was the
perfect place. And thus had Iria-san’s plan been a tremendous
success.
Now then.
Walking around aimlessly on this empty island, basking in
the forest, it was by an extremely distant cherry blossom tree
that I suddenly ran into Shinya-san.
“Oh, er, that is, I mean,” Shinya-san said, waving a hand to
greet me. “You’re quite the early bird there, eh? Mister… er,
what was your name again? Sorry, my memory’s a little weak,
y’see.”
He had a good four inches on me, and his designer clothes
were much better than mine. His expression was mildmannered,
his way of speaking was mild-mannered, and so
was, somehow, his clothing and stature, but whether or not
Shinya-san really was mild-mannered, I couldn’t say. I don’t
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have the skill to judge someone just based on their
appearance, and I’m the last person to jump to conclusions
after knowing someone for just a couple of days.
“I don’t believe I ever told you,” I answered with a shrug.
“I’m just Kunagisa Tomo’s sidekick. No need for a sidekick to
have a name, am I right?”
“That’s awfully modest of you. Not that it’s any wonder,
being on this island, but speaking of sidekicks, I suppose I’m in
the same boat as you,” Shinya-san said and smirked.
Yes, Shinya-san and I were no more than tagalongs. It
probably goes without saying at this point, but I wasn’t here
walking around on this island because I was any kind of
genius. Kunagisa Tomo was the “genius” here, and I was
nothing more than her attendant. If she hadn’t said to me, “Iichan,
it turns out I’ll be going to some island, so come with
me, ‘kay?” right about now I would’ve been in my Kyoto fourtatami-sized
room getting ready for school.
No question about it: the main character here is Kunagisa
Tomo. Let’s just make that clear.
Now then, as for who Shinya-san was accompanying, well,
she was right under the cherry blossom tree. With those
thoughtful, thoughtless eyes, she gazed at the fluttering cherry
blossom petals.
She had blue eyes and hair of gold. Her dress, pale in color,
was out of some French movie, and was accented with
dazzling jewelry. Just one of her necklaces or bracelets was
likely worth more than my liver. Even if I sold off every part
of my body I still couldn’t pay for it.
Ibuki Kanami. One of the geniuses.
Having, supposedly, suffered problems with her legs from
birth, she was confined to a wheelchair. And thus Shinya-san,
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as her caretaker, had tagged along on the trip. As I’d heard it,
until a few years ago, she had also been totally blind. Her blue
eyes were not a sign of foreign blood.
Kanami-san was a painter.
Even I, without the slightest knowledge of that field
whatsoever, had heard of her. She had earned a reputation as
a painter who possessed no single style. I had never actually
seen any of Kanami-san’s paintings, but I thought that maybe
she was gazing at the cherry blossoms in that way so as to later
portray them on canvas.
“What’s she doing?”
“As you can see, she’s watching the cherry blossoms. It
won’t be long before the petals start falling. She has a
fondness for that ‘moment just before death,’ if you will, the
ephemeral things in life.”
Most of the trees on the island were just your standard
fare, but for some reason, there was one cherry blossom tree.
It looked quite old, and the fact that there was only one on
the whole island was nothing short of bizarre. Most likely,
Iria-san had transplanted it here.
“So they say dead bodies are buried under cherry blossom
trees, eh?”
“How dreadful.”
Ouch.
I was just trying to make conversation, but instead ended it
in one fell swoop. of course, it was pretty dreadful.
“Just joking,” Shinya-san laughed.
“Personally, I think it would make more sense if that
legend was about a plum tree. But then I guess it wouldn’t be
a legend, but a myth? Hahaha!”
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“By the way, boy, have you gotten accustomed to the
island yet? This is your third day here, right? Um, how long
were you planning to stay again?”
“A week. So we have another few days.”
“Mmm, that’s too bad,” he said, with a tinge of mystery.
“What’s too bad?”
“Oh, it’s just that I hear Iria-san’s favorite will be coming
here in a week. But if you’re leaving in four days, you’ll just
miss each other, won’t you? That’s just too bad.”
“Oh, I see.” I nodded and thought about it for a moment.
Iria-san’s “favorite.”
In other words, the genius of geniuses.
“A chef, a fortune-teller, a scholar, an artist, and an
engineer. What could be next?”
“Well, I haven’t heard any specifics myself, but apparently
this person is capable of just about anything. Not a ‘specialist,’
but a ‘generalist.’ Hikari-san tells me this person is as sharp as
a tack and full of knowledge, and has lightning reflexes.”
Hmm. Yet another totally amazing person. Let’s assume it
was just some ridiculously over-the-top rumor. The fact that
such a rumor even existed suggested that this particular genius
wasn’t just anyone. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t intrigued.
“Couldn’t hurt to meet this person, I guess. What do you
say to asking for an extension on your visit? I’m sure Iria-san
would more than welcome you.”
“Sounds nice and all, but…” I probably looked less than
excited. “To be honest, this island is a little stifling. For a
regular kid like me, I mean,” I said.
Shinya-san guffawed boisterously. “Now, now. Now, now,
now, now, now there, lad. Is that how it is? Kanami-san and
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Akane-san and all of them haven’t given you a complex, have
they?”
A complex. Even supposing it wasn’t something you could
put so bluntly, what I felt was certainly something similar.
Shinya-san gave me a firm pat on the shoulder.
“There’s no reason to feel inferior to that lot, right? Let’s
keep it together, brother! Whether it be Kanami-san…”
Kanami-san glanced up from under the cherry blossom tree.
“Whether it be Akane-san, Yayoi-san, or even Kunagisa-chan,
if they were to play the two of us in rock-paper-scissors, they
would only win one out of three times. I suppose Maki-san
would be an exception there, but nevertheless.”
“That’s a pretty blunt way to put it.”
Not to mention Shinya-san had just referred to his own
employer as part of “that lot.” I’m not saying they were at each
other’s throats or anything, but maybe Shinya-san and
Kanami-san weren’t quite the best of friends.
“Talent isn’t such a big deal. In fact, I, for one, am glad I
don’t have any. Talent isn’t worth spit.”
“Why’s that?”
“If you’ve got a talent, you’ve got to exert effort. Being
ordinary is a breeze. Having nothing to master is an advantage,
if you ask me,” Shinya-san said with a cynical shrug. “I think
we got a little off-topic. Anyway, I don’t think it would be a
terrible thing if you were able to extend your stay, if you ask
me. And hey, just maybe this ‘generalist’ will beat us in rockpaper-scissors
all three times.”
“Well, I’ll talk it over with Kunagisa… It would hardly be
right for the tagalong to decide something like this on his
own.”
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“I thought so,” he said. “You’re a lot like me,” he said,
looking me in the eye.
His gaze was deeply disconcerting. It gave me that
uncomfortable feeling you get when you’re being watched.
“Me and you? Alike? How do you mean? In what way?”
“Don’t sound so happy about it. In particular, you’re
practically identical in holding the idea that you yourself are a
part of the world.”
Seemingly with no intention of explaining himself any
further, he broke his gaze and looked back at Kanami-san.
Predictably, Kanami-san was still staring at the cherry
blossoms with complete concentration. She was surrounded
by a sort of transcendence, as if just that one spot was isolated
from the rest of the world. She had the air of being
unapproachable, even sacred.
“So Kanami-san’s been painting even since coming here?”
“Well, it’s more like she came to this island to paint. That’s
really all she does, after all. I suppose you could say she lives
to paint. Can you believe it?” He spoke with a tinge of
frustration, but if you took his words at face value, it sounded
like an incredibly enviable existence; a life where what you
want to do and what you have to do are directly connected. It
was a way of life I could never even hope for. I, who had
discovered neither what I wanted nor what I had to do.
I noticed that Shinya-san was watching me with a wicked
smile, like he had just remembered a bad prank. I recoiled a
little. I was getting a bad feeling, like a premonition. And then
Shinya-san, with a look on his face as if to say, “I’ve just had a
revelation from God,” clapped his hands deliberately.
“That’s right! It’s such a prime opportunity, so why don’t
you try modeling?” He set me aside as I stood at a loss for
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words and unable to comprehend his, and faced Kanami-san.
“Hey!” he called. “Kanami! This fella here says he wants to be
your model!”
“Wait, Shinya-san!” Finally grasping the situation, I spun in
front of him. “I can’t just, I mean, give me a break!”
“Now, now, why are you so embarrassed? That hardly suits
your character.”
I don’t think so. Asking Kanami-san to paint me? That was
an incredibly intimidating idea. But Shinya-san blew off my
protest with a simple “Now, now, don’t be shy,” and waited
for an answer from Kanami-san.
Kanami-san adjusted the direction of her wheelchair and
took a look at me. She scanned me up and down, from the tip
of my head to the tips of my feet, observing me, assessing me,
and said, “So you want me to paint you?” She sounded truly
irritated.
This was a difficult question to answer. With someone as
talented as Kanami-san, the simple act of hesitating would
have been rude. I was weak in these situations. A real
pushover. A nineteen-year-old boy who’s spent his life going
with the flow has not the power to alter the flow of a tale.
“Yes, absolutely, if you don’t mind,” I said.
Kanami-san simply looked disinterested. “Fine then. Come
by the atelier this afternoon.” she said, and swiveled her
wheelchair back toward the cherry blossoms. She spoke with
heartfelt apathy, but at least she had taken pity on me.
“Well, that’s settled then. Are you free this afternoon?”
Shinya-san said, strangely joyful.
I told him I was free and decided to get going before I got
into any more trouble.
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I returned to the mansion and visited Kunagisa’s room once
again. Kunagisa was just as I had left her, sitting in her
revolving chair, her three PCs (I mean, two PCs and one
workstation) in front of her. Right now she was focused on the
workstation, and the two PCs had their power switched off.
“What were you up to, Tomo?”
No reply.
I went up to her from behind and tugged both her braids.
“Oww,” she uttered in a strange voice, seeming to at last
notice my presence. Without changing her position, she gaped
at me in bewilderment. Surely I appeared upside down in her
eyes.
“Yooo, Ii-chan. You’re back from your walk.”
“Yeah, well… Say, is that a Mac?”
The monitor on the workstation opposite Kunagisa was
displaying some kind of Mac OS screen. As far as I had heard,
Mac OS only worked on Macs.
“Yeah, it’s Mac OS. Y’see, there are some applications that
only run on Mac OS, so I’m running it on a virtual machine.”
“Virtual machine?”
“Basically I’m making the workstation think there’s a Mac
inside it. In other words, I’m tricking the software. Of course
Windows is in here, too. Most OS’s are installed on this
workstation, so it can do anything.”
“Ah…”
I didn’t really get it.
“This is a dumb question, but how are Mac and Windows
different, anyway?”
She gave my truly amateurish question a moment’s
thought. “They’re different because different people use
them,” she answered, with an air of precision.
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“Well, yeah, that’s true, but… Well, forget about that. So
an OS is like the core software, right? I think that’s right. So
then it’s like this computer has multiple personalities?”
“It’s a strange metaphor, but you could say that.”
“So then that PC, er, workstation, what’s its core core OS?
Like with multiple personalities you have a ‘main’ personality,
right?”
“Geocide.”
“Never heard of that. Is it like Unix?”
“That’s Unix, with a ‘yoo’ sound. Come on, you studied
abroad; you should know not to pronounce the alphabet like
Romanized Japanese, Ii-chan. It makes you sound so stupid.
Uh, well, it is compatible with Unix. But it’s an original OS
developed by a friend of yours truly.
“A friend…”
Kunagisa’s friend. The only friend of Kunagisa’s who
could’ve developed an original operating system was someone
from that “team.” From that notorious “team.”
Several years back, in the last century, during the time
when the Japanese network was still underdeveloped, that
group appeared. Or, no, “appeared” isn’t the correct
expression.
They never for an instant let their visage, nor their shadow,
nor even their smell grace the public eye. They never
announced their name; whatever name they had ever been
known by had been applied by others. Whether you called
them a virtual club, cyberterrorists, a crack unit, or a gang that
made mountains out of molehills, it didn’t matter to them,
and they probably wouldn’t respond.
They were completely peerless, species unknown. How
many people were there, and just what types of people
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comprised this “team”? These things were all shrouded in
mystery.
And what did they do?
Everything.
They did everything, that was all you could say about it.
They did so much of everything, there was nothing they didn’t
do. They wreaked havoc, havoc, and more havoc. I wasn’t in
Japan at the time, so I didn’t get to see it firsthand, but they
say it was such full-on, ludicrous havoc that it was practically
refreshing, lending no hint as to their motives or aims.
Beginning with pure hacking and cracking, they also had their
hands in corporate advising and fixer fraud. It’s also quietly
speculated that, back then, they controlled a number of large
corporations.
But you couldn’t say they existed solely as a nuisance. For
better or worse, it was thanks to them that the overall level of
network technology improved drastically. You could even say
they forced it. If you looked at it through a fine-toothed
comb, sure there were losses, but in the big picture, the gains
outweighed them tenfold.
But, of course, the fat cats upstairs saw them as little more
than pesky, law-breaking criminals, a hacking, cracking
eyesore. Thus the “team” went on, despised and pursued. But
they were never caught, and exactly what they were doing
was never brought to light. Then, sometime last year,
suddenly and without anything in particular having happened,
they were never heard from again. It was as though they had
just burned out and vanished.
“Yo, what’s wrong, Ii-chan? You’re quiet all of a sudden.”
“Nah… nothing.”
She flipped her hair with a giggle.
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“Yeah, I guess it’s nothing…”
It was in that way that the “team” met what was, in a
sense, an anticlimactic end. Who would believe the leader of
that now-defunct team was this happy-go-lucky girl still in her
teens? Exactly who in their right mind would believe
something so nonsensical that it couldn’t even be mistaken for
a sick joke?
But if that wasn’t the case, Kunagisa wouldn’t have been
invited to this genius-ridden island. Not as a communication
and systems engineering specialist.
“How could I not have a complex, Shinya-san?”
“Huh? Did you say something?” Kunagisa glanced up at me
for a moment.
“Just babbling,” I said. “So ‘Geocide,’ doesn’t that mean
‘Earth murder’?”
“Yup. Of all the existing OS’s, it’s probably the most
awesome. Geocide is number one. Even the RASIS is perfect.”
“Sometimes I think you use those big words just to tick me
off. What’s a RASIS?”
“It’s an acronym for reliability, availability, serviceability,
integrity, security. But of course, that’s in English,” she said a
bit irritably.
“Basically it means stability. Of course it requires a highperformance
system, but it won’t cause errors or anything like
that. Man, that Atchan really is a genius. Hehehe.”
“Atchan, huh? Sounds like you two are pretty close.”
“Hmm? Jealous? Hmm? Hmm?” she said with a strangely
pleased tone and naughty smirk. “It’s okay. I like you best of
all.”
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“Ah, right. ‘Preciate that.” I shrugged and tried to change
the subject. “But if it’s such an amazing OS, why not market
it? If it sold like Windows, you’d make a fortune.”
“No can do. You know about increasing returns, right?
With an OS this different, we’d never catch up. Business goes
beyond skill or talent.”
Increasing returns. The law of economics that states “the
more you have, the more you get,” which does nothing for
what you don’t have. It had been awhile since I’d studied it, so
I didn’t remember it very clearly, but to put it simply, “once a
significantly problematic difference has appeared, it is
impossible to bury that difference.” Whether it be in regards
to skill or money, it seemed to make no difference.
“Besides, Atchan was satisfied just by creating Geocide.
Atchan’s a very self-satisfied person.”
“Hey, yeah, must be very happy.”
“Even if that wasn’t the case, I don’t think it would be
possible to market it. Even though it’s just core software, it
requires some pretty outrageous specs. Seriously astronomical
figures. Even my machine just barely cuts it.”
“Hmm. How many gigs is your hard disk? About a
hundred?”
“One hundred tera.”
Different unit.
“Tera… that’s the opposite of pico, so… a thousand times a
gig?”
“Nope, 1,024 times.”
Nitpicky chick.
“Man, I’ve never seen a hard disk like that.”
“To be specific, it’s not a hard disk; it’s holographic
memory. Unlike hard disks, which record data with magnets,
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this records data onto a surface. It’s capable of one tera per
second rapid transfer. What you’d find on the market is, well,
quite a bit slower. This is the kind of media they’re using in
the development of space technology.”
She had those kinds of connections, too?
She belonged to an altogether dubious community.
“Of course, this goes for the machine’s capacity as well,
but if the motherboard specs aren’t customized home brew as
well, you’re probably out of luck. Atchan just makes things
without considering any of the surrounding circumstances,
y’see. So they just end up like this. He doesn’t try to suit
things to other people.”
“Motherboard home brew? There are people who do that?”
“Like yours truly, for one.” She indicated herself with her
thumb.
That’s right. She was an engineer, after all. She must’ve
been the culprit providing her “teammates” with the hardware
and software that were to be their main “weapons.” If you
thought about it, it was fairly disturbing. It was one thing to
develop a seemingly unmarketable OS like that, but to take it
and build your own motherboard for it was just plain freakish.
“Mr. Earth Murder aside, haven’t you ever considered
selling this stuff? Like that motherboard you’re so proud of?”
“I’m the self-satisfied type, too How ‘bout you, Ii-chan?”
“Hmm, I wonder.”
Regardless of talent or lack thereof, in the end all people
are classified into two groups: those who pursue and those
who create. My own case notwithstanding, Kunagisa was
overwhelmingly the latter.
“Besides, as far as money is concerned, I’ve got plenty and
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 6
then some. I’m not thinking about making any more right
now.”
“Ah, no wonder.”
That was true. Kunagisa wasn’t in a position that
demanded she immediately go into business. It wouldn’t be
much of an exaggeration to say she spent money like it was
water. A nineteen-year-old occupying a high-class, two-floor
condo in Shirosaki and spending money as fast as she could. I
didn’t know how many people out there had more money
than Kunagisa, but surely no one individual spent as much.
Between the Akagami Foundation and the Kunagisa
household, who held the greater power was beyond my realm
of knowledge, but either way, they both possessed enough of a
fortune to enjoy the best things in life and still get change
back, that much was certain.
Speaking of which, Kunagisa resembled the master of this
island, Iria, in that she, too, was semi-exiled from her family.
Perhaps they were similar people. In the three days I had
spent on the island, signs indeed pointed to the contrary, but,
well, they were both eccentric, that was for sure. So much so
that it would have been impossible for them to blend into any
group or be members of any organization.
Surely that’s how it was.
In which case, this island…
The meaning of this so-called island of wet crow’s
feathers…
Kunagisa returned to her typing.
“I’m gonna go have breakfast. What about you?”
“No, thanks. Not hungry. It’s mating season. Ii-chan, go
ahead on your own. Eat for me, too.”
Gotcha, I said, and headed for the dining room.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 7
Akane-san was in the dining room.
I tensed up.
She sat alone at the round dining table with her legs
crossed in an elegant, somehow un-Japanese pose, having her
breakfast. Or no, she had already finished breakfast and was
enjoying an after-meal coffee.
“Oh! Good morning!” It was the bright and lively voice of
Akari-san in the midst of cleaning the dining room. No, wait,
it wasn’t her. Akari-san never greeted me bright and lively.
That wasn’t the Akari-san I knew. Which meant…
“Hi, Hikari-san,” I said, determining that it was Hikari-san.
Evidently I was correct, as she then grinned at me and bowed.
Chiga Akari-san and Chiga Hikari-san.
They were sisters. Twins. To be sure, there was a third
sister as well, their silent younger sister Teruko. Teruko
apparently had poor eyesight and was recognizable by her
glasses with their black lenses. Akari-san and Hikari-san,
however, were perfectly identical, from the length of their
hair to their clothes, to the point that they weren’t just
“similar,” they were the same.
But unlike Akari-san, Hikari-san was an incredibly kind
person. Even though I wasn’t a true “guest,” she treated me
the same as everyone else.
“Breakfast? Wait one moment, please,” she said, then spun
around and hustled off to the kitchen. She must be so good at
spinning because she’s small, I thought.
With Hikari-san gone, I was suddenly left alone with
Akane-san.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 8
After a split-second’s hesitation, I went ahead and took a
seat near her. I thought to greet her, but she seemed
completely immersed in thought, mumbling to herself in a
semi-audible voice, not even looking in my direction. It was as
though she hadn’t noticed me. What in the world was she
thinking about? I pricked my ears to listen in.
“Sente 9-6, pawn… Kote 8-4, pawn… Sente, same pawn…
Kote 8-7, pawn… Sente 8-4, rook… Kote 2-6, pawn… Sente
3-2, silver general… Kote 9-5, pawn… Sente 4-4, bishop…
Kote 5-9, gold general, take… Sente 2-7, knight…”
Meaning unknown.
That’s what you get from one of the Seven Fools; even the
things they mutter to themselves are different, I thought,
thoroughly impressed. But listening closely, it sounded like
she was reciting a shogi game record. Wow, blind shogi.
And by herself, no less.
Is this what she always did in the morning?
“Kote 2-3, pawn, checkmate, Sente forfeits,” she said, and
glanced over at me. “Ah, I was wondering who that was, and
here it turned out to be you. Good morning.”
“Good morning.”
“Heh heh. Isn’t shogi tough? The pieces move around a lot
more than in chess. I was playing Kote just now. It was a close
victory.”
“Huh.”
There’s a Sente and Kote in single-player shogi? Maybe
Akane-san was able to divide her mind like a dolphin. Yeah, it
seemed likely for someone like her.
“Are you good at shogi, or chess, whichever?”
“I wouldn’t say so, no.”
“Hmm, is that so?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 9
“Reading other people’s minds isn’t my forte.”
“Oh no? Hmm, I suppose not. You’ve got that kind of
face,” she nodded. “I saw you from the window a little earlier.
Out for a morning walk, were you?”
“Yeah, a walk in the woods.”
“Ah, a walk in the woods, how nice. Very nice. The
phytoncide released by the trees creates a bactericidal effect
and such.”
What the hell?
In Houston, Texas, in America, there’s a research facility
called the ER3 System. There, brilliant minds from around
America, nay, around the world, gather, and it is referred to as
the ultimate bastion of learning, from economics to history,
political science to cultural science, physics and advanced
mathematics to biology, electronic and systems engineering,
metapsychology, indeed, anything that could be called a field
of study or research.
It’s also known as the Comprehensive Research Center. It
was a gathering place for those who loved learning and
research above all else. A nest for those inhuman humans
whose desire for knowledge exceeded even their natural,
biological desires. An entirely nonprofit organization, they
dared not sell their knowledge or research findings, and they
were in a sense a closed and introverted sort of secretive
organization.
There were only four basic rules:
Have no pride.
Have no principles.
Have no attachments.
No whining.
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They were to unbegrudgingly cooperate with one another
to the fullest of their ability, to never be unproductive, even if
the world should perish, and to never quit halfway, come Hell
or high water.
The ultimate destination for those who wanted to do
research, who wanted to know, who had to know, with means
and end in complete harmony, it was the ER3 System. The
people gathered there ranged from highly esteemed college
professors to “frontline” researchers and amateur academics, a
truly pride-free assembly of all manner of individuals. Their
reputation was seemingly so bizarre that the media ridiculed
them as a “cultish pack of overeducated loonies.”
But their research had yielded great rewards: the
demystification of Dalevio nonlinear optics, the overwhelming
advancement of volume hologram technology, and the
establishment of the near-magical DOP as a sensory
technology were all thanks to the ER3. Not the work of
individuals, but rather team efforts, and nonprofit work at
that, they declined all awards and other various honors, and
thus had not come to draw much attention, but their
reputation within the academic world was certainly high. It
was a research center with a relatively brief history—not even
a century old— but it was already globally networked.
And within this research center existed the transcendental
group known as the Seven Fools. Seven individuals selected in
turn by the selected “seven on the verge of the answers to the
universe.” They were the true “geniuses among geniuses.”
One of these seven individuals was Sonoyama Akane-san.
She had beautiful black hair, cut ruler-precise to lend her
an air of intellectualism. She was tall for a woman, with a
stylishly slender build. There was no part of her that wasn’t
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 1
overflowing with elegant femininity. She was a Japanese
woman scholar of the highest order.
The ER3 System is relatively unknown in Japan. The fact
that the ER3 itself is so exclusive is no doubt part of the
reason for this, but the main reason is likely that the
uncategorizable nature of the center doesn’t fit with the
Japanese way of doing things. But nevertheless, Akane-san
had, as a pure and innocent Japanese woman (and in her
twenties, no less) risen to the ranks of the ER3’s Seven Fools.
It would come as no surprise if one day she was a household
name in Japan.
Now, this may all beg the question: if I’m just a “pure and
innocent” Japanese person, too, how come I know so much?
But there’s no special reason, really. It’s not that I’m
particularly well informed, it’s just that the ER3 and I have
crossed paths a bit.
You see, in preparation for the long-term, ER3 System
implements a study-abroad program to educate the youth of
the next generation. For five years, beginning with my second
year of junior high school, I participated in that program, so
naturally I knew of Sonoyama Akane’s reputation as one of
the Seven Fools, as well as her “above the clouds” existence.
And that’s why I was so surprised to discover Akane-san here
on this island. I’m not at all the type who surrenders
unconditionally at the first sniff of authority or talent, but I
can’t help but be nervous. What exactly do you say to one of
the Seven Fools?
I was sitting there, all clammed up, when Akane spoke to
me. “By the way, that blue-haired girl—Kunagisa-chan, I
mean.”
“Ah. Yes?”
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“She’s just lovely. Last night I had her do some
maintenance on my PC. She’s incredibly skilled, isn’t she? We
have techies at ER3 as well, but I’ve never seen one with
such… mechanical precision. She made it look like routine
work. This may sound rude, but for a moment I wondered if
she was really human. I was sure Iria-san would absolutely
adore her.”
“Ah, really? I hope she wasn’t a bother or anything.”
She let out a chuckle. “You sound like a baby stroller.”
A baby stroller. Once again I had suffered an unfounded
assessment. “You mean a babysitter?”
“Well, they both mean the same thing, yes?”
“A stroller is a kind of carriage.”
“Ah, right,” she nodded.
For all her evident ability in math and science, it seemed
Japanese was not Akane-san’s forte.
“Well, either way. She was no bother at all.”
Well, duh.
“Then again, she seemed a bit of the socially awkward
type. I don’t think she listens when people are talking. And as
a result, my PC evolved about two generations.”
“But that’s actually the improved Kunagisa. She used to be
terrible to talk to. Just starting and stopping whenever she felt
like it. It was pretty rough for me.”
“Hmm. If you want my opinion, I think there’s a certain
charm to her unapologeticness.”
“Eh, I’m not sure I agree on that.”
“Have it your way.” Akane-san shrugged. “By the way, I
also heard from her that you were in the ER program.”
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“Huh.” That blabbermouth had let the cat out of the bag! I
thought I told her to keep that quiet. Not that I wasn’t fully
aware there’s no point trying to keep that girl quiet.
“You should’ve told me. We could’ve had quite a chat. I
feel as if we’ve wasted two days. I don’t suppose you were
holding back by any chance? Please don’t get me wrong, I’m
not such a big deal.”
“No, it’s not that… I guess it was just hard to bring up.
And also, even though I was in the program, I quit midway
through.”
The program is a ten-year study. I dropped out after my
fifth year. From there I returned to Japan and reunited with
Kunagisa. Luckily I was already qualified as a high school
graduate from my second year in the program, so I was able to
transfer directly to Kyoto Rokumeikan University.
“It’s still a big deal. Regardless of what a sprain it became
for you…”
“That’s a ‘strain.’ ”
“Regardless of what a strain it became for you, the ER
program’s entrance exam is a great obstacle to have overcome.
You should have a little more pride about your
accomplishments.”
The ER program’s entrance exam was unusually difficult.
Even in the application guidebook it said, “There are no perks.
This does not guarantee your future. No one will come to
rescue you. We offer only an environment in which you may
sate your intellectual curiosity,” yet still elite candidates from
around the world gathered to take the test. So it was true,
merely passing the test was something to boast about.
But.
I hadn’t completed the program.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 4
“There’s no point if you drop out halfway. End results are
everything in this world.”
Actually, I happen to think everything in this world is a
result… Or are you one of those ‘a genius is a genius is a
genius’ people?” She had the slightest bit of sarcasm in her
tone. “A genius is not a rose. In Japan, you often see people
who take pride simply in the effort they give, don’t you? ‘I’ve
endured great hardships, regardless of the end results,’ they
say. They say there’s merit in effort alone. I think that’s a valid
outlook. Saying ‘I worked hard’ is a fine conclusion in and of
itself. What I have a problem with is lowlifes who spout
absurdities like ‘I could have done that if I wanted’ or ‘I
couldn’t do it because I just wasn’t trying’ or ‘I said I can do it,
but that doesn’t mean I will.’ That’s all ridiculous. There
really are all sorts of people in this world, huh?”
“I didn’t try because I couldn’t do it.”
“Hmm, hehehe, you know, you’ve sort of got this worldweary
quality about you.”
“It’s probably just modesty.”
“Bingo.”
The right part of her lip curled up in a half-smile and she
produced a pack of cigarettes from her pocket. In graceful,
fluid motions, she put one in her mouth and lit it.
“Wow, you smoke? I’m surprised.”
“Are you the type who doesn’t like women who smoke?”
“Well, no, not women particularly. Smoking is bad for your
health, you know.”
“Health is bad for your smoking, you know,” she retorted,
slowly exhaling smoke. There’s that Seven Fools wit, I
thought, but she smirked with embarrassment. “It’s a stupid
argument, huh? Don’t mind me. It’d be awful if you ended up
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thinking I was that kind of person,” she said. “Shall we change
the subject? You know, I was actually in Japan all the way
through high school.”
“Really?” I was a little surprised. But if you thought about
it, it was really no mystery. “Which high school?”
“Just your average prefectural school. It wasn’t particularly
well-known. I was in the girls’ karate club back then. I didn’t
like it at all at the time, but in retrospect it was really fun.
Gee, that takes me back. It’s already been more than ten
years… The skirts back then were this long. I didn’t have the
best grades, but I was good in math and English. That’s why I
ended up at an overseas university. My family was very against
it, but I defied them. After all, don’t they say ‘if you love
someone, set them ablaze’?”
“No.”
“Anyway, it was like that, so in the end I cut myself off
from my family and crossed over to America on my own. It
was a hell of a big move for someone like me back then.”
And thus she ended up in the Seven Fools. Maybe
Cinderella was in this story, too.
“So you do like math. I had a feeling.”
“Well, you know, I don’t dislike it. In high school I liked
how there was always one concrete answer, no vague
components, so math was all I did. I liked clear-cut things. But
in college, at the ER3 System, I came to realize that wasn’t
necessarily the case. It’s just like shogi or chess. You just have
to get a checkmate, but there are an infinite number of ways
to get there. I felt as if I had been swindled or something.”
“Like when a lover shows an unfamiliar side of themselves
to you?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 6
She laughed as if to say, “A romantic idea, but not exactly.”
“But I was also a little touched, you know. In my high
school days, I always figured math wouldn’t be of any use
once I got into the real world, but in fact there really are cases
where you have to use calculus and cubic equations and such.
You use factorials in everyday life. I was definitely touched by
that fact.”
“I understand.” I nodded.
I really did.
She smiled in a satisfied way. “Are you a math person, too?
On average, men are much more likely to be mathematically
inclined than women. Because of the way their brains work.”
“Is that so?”
“Well, based on statistical data.”
“Sounds like sexist data to me.”
Besides, statistical evidence is pretty unreliable. If you roll
a die one hundred times and it lands on six every single time,
that doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be a six the next time, too. I
told her this, but she protested.
“If it lands on six one hundred times in a row, it’s a die that
only lands on six. It’s too significant a difference to be written
off as a coincidence or leaning odds. Male-female statistics are
kind of like that, too, though. Hehehe, so you’re a feminist.
Or are you just being polite around me? Well, unfortunately
I’m not a feminist. Listening to talk about expanding women’s
rights and women’s liberation makes me sick to my stomach. I
mean, right? They’re obviously spouting nonsense. Sure, it’s a
man’s world, but it’s not gender equality we need, it’s equal
opportunity to apply our abilities. Men and women are so
different that you can practically call them genetically separate
creatures. So I believe they have separate roles. Of course,
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that rests on the major assumption that your role and what
you want to do are separate, and the minor assumption that if
you have to choose between the two, what you want to do
should come first. Ah, and maybe the medium-sized
assumption that you can do what you want to do first. But
saying you can’t do anything sounds like a convenient excuse
to me.”
“There’s also the factor of environment.”
“Environment, huh? But was there ever an age when
women were forbidden from writing, or from sculpting?
Regarding recent trends, I’ve become more inclined to
sympathize with men. I feel as if they’re closer to my own
point of view, but also, until the modern day, the workplace
was always exclusively man’s domain, right? So it’s no wonder
they got angry when women wanted to butt in.”
“They were just righting a wrong. That’s just tough luck for
the men.” I wondered why I had to take the feminist stance.
“Hmm,” she nodded. “Maybe you’re right. I don’t really
know. But I can understand why women get angry at men,
too. Even though they’re just carrying out their roles and
we’re just carrying out ours, they still act all big about it and
put on airs. It’s no wonder women get angry. Just so long as
they don’t try to mix me up into anything. I guess what I truly
want is for feminists to just do it away from me. Whatever the
case may be, women are inherently a boring breed. Just like
you men. Hmm, come to think of it, there were more men
than women at ER3, too. Within the Seven Fools, five were
men.”
“Increasing returns, huh?”
“Eh?” She seemed taken aback. I’m afraid I don’t know that
word. What is it, some kind of dieting thing or something?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 8
“It means Beta lost to VHS.”
“Ah, you mean the bias that occurs in economics. That’s
right, to return a once male-biased world to equilibrium,
you’d have to go through quite a bit of hardship. Really, there
wouldn’t be any problems if men and women weren’t always
acting jealous of each other. But nobody gets it, do they? And
yet they claim there’s no difference between separation and
discrimination.”
“You know, Akane-san, coming from you this all sounds
convincing. I guess you must be going through ‘quite a bit of
hardship’ yourself.”
“Never,” she said flatly. “I just make a little effort.”
It was a loaded statement.
Suddenly I recalled something I had wanted to ask
someone ever since I first learned of the Seven Fools’ existence
at ER3.
“Say, who’s the number one smartest person in the entire
ER3 system?”
In other words, who was the smartest person in the world?
Akane-san answered with little deliberation.
“Number two is Froilein Love.”
“And number one?”
“Come on, kid, you expect me to list everyone?”
Huh.
“Kidding, kidding. Hmm, to answer your question
seriously, the person I respect the most, or in other words the
person I place above myself and all others, is probably
Assistant Professor Hewlett. He is number one for sure.”
Almost unspeakably accomplished, he was the single
greatest mind of the last century, and probably this one as
well. The first and probably last man to master every subject
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 9
when he was still in his single digits. Granted special criminal
immunity by the president, he used his superior intellect to
serve the good of the nation.
If Akane-san was like a god to me, Assistant Professor
Hewlett was the very fabric of the universe.
“If he had been a woman, he probably would’ve changed
history,” she said, looking off into the distance. It was a
curious look of admiration.
“Sorry for the wait!” With expert timing, Hikari-san
appeared, pushing a cart. On top of it sat my breakfast. With
experienced hands, she placed it in front of me, followed by a
knife and fork on either side. “Please take your time,” she said
with a bow and radiant smile, and then went off somewhere
once more. It seemed she still had lots of work to do.
Nine pieces of deep-fried risotto balls on lettuce. Fish soup,
salad, and a sandwich made with Italian bread. Plus coffee.
“That Sashirono-san is hot stuff, huh?” Akane-san
muttered, eyeing my meal.
Sashirono Yayoi.
She ran the mansion’s kitchen, but she wasn’t an
employee. Indeed, she was one of the geniuses who had been
invited to the island. Having already been here for over a year,
at this point she was the longest-running guest. There was no
doubt that many of the elite visitors to the island had come in
hopes of trying her cuisine.
Officially, her specialty was Western cuisine, but she could
just as skillfully do any other type, whether it be Chinese,
Japanese, or what have you. She was a cooking master with
whom no one in the culinary world wasn’t familiar—or so
went the tales about her. Personally, I was just as ignorant
about cooking as I was about art and academics, so I had sadly
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 4 0
not even heard of Yayoi-san until visiting the island, but
having the privilege to try her dishes three times a day plus
between-meal snacks, even I came to know of her
extraordinary culinary prowess.
The typical image that accompanied a first name like
“Yayoi” is either that of a stuck-up know-it-all or a short,
spunky girl, but this Yayoi-san fit neither description, instead
turning out to be a boisterous and lively woman with short
hair. With a polite manner about her, she was the unarrogant
type, despite being called a genius. She was also probably the
only down-to-earth person on the whole island besides me.
Likewise, she was the second-most pleasant person to talk to.
Incidentally, Hikari-san was first. Nah, I’m just babbling.
Word had it that Yayoi-san possessed some power that
allowed her to make any food better than any other cook, but
just what was it? I was curious to know, but had yet to
inquire. She spent most of the day in the kitchen (I think
that’s what you call a shut-in) so opportunities to speak with
her were rare.
I noticed that Akane-san was hungrily eyeing my risotto
balls. After a moment of my refusing to speak up, she
transferred her gaze to me. Something about her eyes was
slightly different from before. Like those of a carnivore
hunting wild game.
“Have you ever heard that people originally didn’t
acknowledge any numbers past seven?”
“Well, I…”
Apparently, all numbers past seven were simply thought of
as “a lot.” I had also heard in my program training that this
was the fundamental reason why the “Fools” were limited to
seven people.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 4 1
“Yeah, so just looking at things objectively, if your nine
risotto balls turned into eight, I don’t think it would be such a
great loss.”
“And?”
“You’re a sharp guy, huh? A good match for a girl like
Kunagisa.”
It’s not like that between us.”
“Don’t change the subject. Are you trying to get me to
kowtow to you? Fine. Sashirono-san’s risotto balls are
delicious, so gimme one. You happy?”
I slid my plate to her without saying anything.
Akane-san began to gleefully pop down the risotto balls,
one after another. Before you knew it, they were all gone.
Apparently by “one” she meant “one plate.”
Well, I was never one to eat a whole lot in the morning
anyway. I was supposed to eat for Kunagisa, too, but it was
awfully cruel of her to leave that to me.
Switching channels, I made my way to the sandwich and
salad. Not to be too generic, it was really good. If you said this
was the only kind of food that was served at the island (and all
of it free, no less), no genius would decline. Surprisingly, even
Akane-san was evidently in that boat.
“Now then, to get back to the subject you’re so slyly
avoiding,” she said, wiping her mouth with a napkin, “if it’s
‘not like that’ between you two, just what is your
relationship? If you were just friends, you wouldn’t have come
to this island together. You have school to worry about.”
Indeed, by coming to the island I had missed every day of
class since the school entrance ceremony. Incidentally, I also
missed the entrance ceremony. In other words, well, yeah.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 4 2
“I met her before I was in the program. So there’s a blank
of five years.”
“Mmm, and when you got back she turned out to be a
cyberterrorist, huh? That’s a sordid little tale.”
Indeed.
I saw it coming even when we were thirteen years old.
Nevertheless, reuniting with her after my five years of study
abroad, I was honestly surprised at how little had changed
from the old days. Anyone would be surprised to suddenly
return to their early teens. Of course, that was just how things
seemed. In reality, she had become much more human in
terms of personality.
Our relationship.
Asked flat out, it was a tough question to answer.
Kunagisa needed me—that much I knew. However, it
didn’t really have to be me. It would be extremely difficult to
explain the circumstances that surrounded us. To do so, I’d
have to explain a lot about Kunagisa herself, and I didn’t
especially want to do that.
“Mmm,” Akane-san nodded.
“I haven’t talked with Kunagisa-chan all that much, but it
seems to me she has too many shortcomings to go through
everyday life… Hmm, I guess I shouldn’t say shortcomings.
It’s not like she’s defective. But her focus is just so skewed. It
reminds me of my friend whose kid is a savant.”
Savant—in French, it means a person with wisdom. I was
aware that Kunagisa, too, used to be called a savant. I
probably knew too much about her.
“So she probably really does need someone like you looking
after her. There’s no doubt about that. But I mean, how does
that make you feel?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 4 3
I didn’t have an answer.
“It seems like you two have something of a codependent
existence,” Akane-san continued.
“Codependent existence?”
She tilted her head as if to say, “Haven’t you heard the
word?”
“It’s a symptom of addiction that affects human
relationships. Like, for example, let’s say there’s a recovering
alcoholic who has a caretaker by his side. He needs that
caretaker, and the caretaker devotedly looks after him. But
when that devotion goes to extremes, it’s a sign of
codependency. They get drunk on serving. You even see mild
cases of it in romantic couples. Needless to say, it’s not a good
thing. You end up putting each other to waste. I’m not going
to say you two are like that, but you might want to take care.”
“Sure.”
“Few things are as meaningless as prolonging a failed
relationship. But still, I’m full of nothing but awe for
Kunagisa-chan’s talents. Even at ER3 they’re using software
that she created. Er, ‘they’ created, rather. But certainly I
never imagined I would meet her in a place like this.”
“Why are you on this island anyway?”
It wasn’t like the Seven Fools had the emptiest schedules in
the world.
“No real reason,” she said after a few moments’ silence. It
was a strangely blunt response, and it bothered me a little.
“But more important, even if you’re not the best player, you
at least know the rules to shogi and chess, right? Why don’t
we have a game while we reminisce a little more about ER3?”
“Sure.”
A shogi challenge with one of the Seven Fools.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 4 4
Sounded interesting.
“But not without looking. My memory is famously bad.”
Not the greatest reputation to have, if I do say so myself. “If
we can change locations, I’m in.”
“I’ve got a board in my room. It was the first thing I bought
when I got back to Japan. Hmm, I’ve actually got some work
to do this morning. How’s this afternoon?”
“Sounds good… Ah wait, I can’t. I’ve already got
something.”
“Oh? Meeting up with Kunagisa-chan or something, huh?
Well, if that’s the case, what can you do.”
“No, with Kanami-san.”
Boom.
Akane-san’s expression grew unusually stern.
Damn it, I’d forgotten. When I had first arrived on the
island, Hikari-san had been kind enough to let me know that
Akane-san and Kanami-san were on catastrophically bad
terms, but because of my famously bad memory I had
forgotten.
“Hmph. We’re pals, so I’ll give you a bit of advice. You
shouldn’t hang around with someone with such a vulgar
occupation. Lowering oneself like that is stupid, you know?”
“Akane-san, you really hate Kanami-san, don’t you?”
“No. There’s no reason for me to embrace any feelings of
like or dislike toward that woman. But artists truly are a
despicable race. Hmph, seriously!” She banged her hand on the
table. “There’s nothing I hate more than painters. They’re the
most inferior race in existence. Compared to them, thieves
anti rapists look like Jesus. All they do is dab a little bit of
paint on something with a little brush and they think they’re
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 4 5
so damn great. A little red, a little blue, and poof, it’s a
‘masterpiece’! Hah! Anybody can do it!”
It was as if she had turned into another person. It was such
an abrupt transformation, it almost made you wonder if a
painter had once stolen her research materials or something.
“Ah, sorry,” she said, returning to her normal self upon
noticing my stunned expression. “I guess I got carried away.
Not that I’m going to take any of that back, but I know it’s no
fun listening to someone gripe about someone else. I think I’m
going to go cool off,” she said, her words racing, then helped
herself to the rest of my coffee and made for the door. It
seemed she was regretting losing her head like that. Even if
she wasn’t going to take it back.
Once I was alone, I let out a sigh.
Man, I had been nervous. I’m not that used to holding
conversations with people in the first place, much less
Sonoyama Akane of the ER3 Seven Fools. No sweat, right?
Well, aside from that blunder at the very end, we were
actually able to hold a much more natural conversation than I
would’ve imagined, so I guess I should’ve been happy. And
maybe, sometime in the next four days, I would get to have
that game of shogi with her.
I let out another sigh, but there was no time to snooze.
Having finished breakfast, I decided to pay yet another visit to
Kunagisa’s room, but not a second later, Maki-san appeared in
mid-yawn. Fully dressed in outdoor gear, which she
complemented with a high ponytail, she looked very much
like she had come to this island on vacation.
“Ba baya baya baya baya bahhh,” she hummed cheerfully as
she strolled over and took a seat by me.
“Good morning.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 4 6
“Hello.”
“No no no, you gotta say ‘good morning’ when you greet
someone in the morning. Ah, wait, is it not still morning?
You’ve been up since six, so it probably feels pretty late to
you, wow. As for me, I have extraordinarily low blood
pressure, so I can’t be like you,” she said with another big
yawn. I gave the usual nod and “yup” combo. There was no
point in asking how she knew when I woke up.
I was once again nervous, this time in an entirely different
way than when I was with Akane-san.
Himena Maki-san.
Of course she wasn’t just here for the surfing. There was a
solid reason for her being on this island.
Maki-san’s occupation was fortune-telling. Just as Kanamisan
was a painting genius and Akane-san was an academic
genius, Maki-san was known as a genius in the world of
fortune-telling.
Now that’s a real talent, huh? I thought to myself.
That aside, I wasn’t a big fan of Maki-san.
We had had a bad first impression of each other.
“You’re a fortune-teller? I’ve never met one of those
before. So how does my fortune look?”
It’s not like I actually cared all that much about my
fortune. I just figured that since she was a fortune-teller, it was
the socially appropriate thing to say. Normally any person
would be thrilled to have the conversation turn to their field
of expertise. As Churchill once said, “I want to talk about
what I know, but people only ask me about what I don’t.” I
just didn’t want to be one of those “people.”
That’s just an excuse though.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 4 7
But after hearing my question, Maki-san sneered, and said,
“Well, give me your year, month, and date of birth; your
blood type; and the name of your favorite movie actor.” I
answered, but all the while wondering what possible
connection my favorite actor could have to my fortune,
birthday and blood type aside. In any case, I had forgotten my
blood type, and I didn’t really know a lot of movie actors, for
that matter, so I just made some answers up.
“Okay, I see. Then, take this,” Maki-san said, producing a
slip of paper from her pocket and handing it to me. And with
that, she left.
I opened the paper fortune and took a look. My date of
birth along with the blood type and actor I had just given were
inscribed on it in Mincho font.
“You were tricking me, weren’t you?”
After that, I went to check with Kunagisa about it. “I figure
it’s some worn-out magic trick where the pocket has hidden
slips of paper with random numbers written on them or
something,” I said.
“Mmm-mmm.” Kunagisa shook her head. “No way. That
might work for playing cards, but for something like this there
would have to be too many. Plus, she would’ve had to look
you up beforehand. It’s not like she could’ve guessed you
would lie about your blood type and favorite actor.”
And then Kunagisa gave me the Himena Maki lecture. It
seemed that although uneducated folks like myself hadn’t
heard of her, Maki-san had actually made quite a name for
herself in the fortune-telling world. She didn’t do those
supposedly therapeutic horoscope-style “cold readings” like
you see in magazines, but rather used her skills to advise
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 4 8
bigwig politicians and corporate clients, never making much of
a spectacle of herself.
Himena Maki, master fortune-teller.
“Also known as a good self-promoter,” I commented.
Kunagisa seemed to think of her that way, too.
Her catchphrase for her: “The telepath who knows the
past, the future, human beings, the world, and all inside it.”
“What’s a telepath?”
“She’s super-powered,” she said aloofly. “She’s got
extrasensory perception.”
“Huh?”
“ESP. Super abilities are divided into the two categories of
ESP and PK. What Maki-chan’s got is ESP. Retrocognition,
precognition, and telepathy. In translation, retrocognition
means she can see the past. Precognition means she knows the
future. Telepathy means she can read your psyche.”
“Wait a sec, I don’t follow. Slow down. Tomo, Maki-san is
a fortune-teller, right?”
“Occupationally, yes. Using her special abilities. That’s all.
Being able to run fast isn’t an occupation, right? But being an
athlete is. Being good with your hands isn’t an occupation,
right? But being a craftsman is. Special abilities are just
abilities, but fortune-telling is an occupation.”
“Ah…” I nodded. “So Maki-san…”
“Yep. She read your thoughts in advance, even before she
asked you those questions.” She flashed a bright smile.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 4 9
“Superpowers, huh?” I muttered softly so as not to be heard
by Maki-san, now sitting next to me in the dining room. I
recalled my conversation with Kunagisa. Her previous
explanation had sounded somewhat convincing, to be sure,
but…
Now, sitting next to this sleepy-eyed, spacey woman, it
was really hard to imagine she was a fortune-teller. She just
seemed like some drowsy chick with low blood pressure.
“I told you I’m a fortune-teller, but you seem to be
dissatisfied,” she said, suddenly shifting her glance toward me.
For some reason, she seemed to be picking on me a little ever
since our first encounter. “Perhaps you’d like me to go walking
around with a black hood and crystal ball. Should I speak to
you in vague, cryptic terms about your impending doom? You
just take everything at face value, don’t you?”
“I don’t think that’s the case.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet. I know all about it,” she replied, shaking her
head. “Well, whatever. You don’t matter anyway.”
“I don’t matter?”
“Yup. You’re the Japanese representative of things that
don’t matter.”
In other words, the most unimportant guy in Japan. It was
a terrible thing to hear.
“But I’ll give you one piece of advice out of the kindness of
my heart. Your impression of me is quite out of line. And
that’s not all. The ideas you hold about the residents of this
island are all out of line. And that includes Kunagisa-chan.
More important, it looks like you intentionally adjust all your
beliefs when you’re talking to other people. That’s surely a
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 5 0
very comfortable way to live, but I wouldn’t call it a wise
one,” she rattled off at me as she let out another catlike yawn.
For the last two days, I had gotten the same earful of gripes
every time we met. And I couldn’t say she was all that far off
the mark, either. Her remarks were so accurate, I wondered if
she really was using telepathy.
I’ll be honest: I found her really creepy.
“Oh, I’m sorry for being creepy.”
With that said, she stormed off in the direction of the
kitchen, presumably to get her breakfast.
So as not to let this opportunity slip through my fingers, I
immediately made my way out of the dining room and back to
Kunagisa’s room. As I expected, she was still face-to-face with
her workstation. It didn’t seem right to be such a shut-in while
also being a guest in another person’s home, but I guess we
just had different values.
Kunagisa looked back at me.
“Oooh, Ii-chan. Welcome back. How was it? Did you run
into anyone?”
“Almost everyone. Today I’ve seen everyone except
Teruko-san and Iria-san. Oh yeah, Yayoi-san, too.”
But having eaten her food, I felt as if I had met her.
“Hmm, well, that’s almost perfect.”
“What is?”
“Your score in the Meeting Everyone on Wet Crow’s
Feather Island by Mid-Morning Contest.”
What a crappy-sounding contest.
But anyway.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 5 1
There were currently twelve people on the island. Artist
Ibuki Kanami-san, chef Sashirono Yayoi-san, Sonoyama Akane
of the Seven Fools, fortune-teller Himena Maki-san, and
engineer Kunagisa Tomo. Then there was Sakaki Shinya and
myself, the tagalongs. Then there were the original residents
of the island, starting with Akagami Iria, who owned the
island and the mansion, plus head maid Handa Rei-san and
the three all-purpose maids, Chiga Akari-san, Chiga Hikarisan,
and Chiga Teruko-san. A total of twelve people.
In an ordinary-sized house, things would’ve already gotten
quite cramped, but in this oversized palace, there was still an
excess of space.
That’s when I remembered.
“Hey, Kunagisa. How long were you planning to be here
again?”
“Another four days. So for a week, yeah?”
“Shinya-san was asking me about something.” I explained
to her what Shinya-san had talked to me about. The rumor
about Iria-san’s favorite jack-of-all-trades coming to town.
Kunagisa, however, seemed uninterested, tuning out the
majority of my story.
“Is that really important? It’s all really vague information,
so it’s hard to say. but I don’t think we really need to meet
this person. I didn’t really come here to meet any geniuses,
and I’m not really interested.”
“Well, yeah, but, hey, speaking of that, I’ve been meaning
to ask for a while, why exactly did you come here? If you’re
not interested in that kind of thing, what were you so
interested in?”
I couldn’t figure why someone who hated leaving the
house as much as Kunagisa did would accept an invitation like
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 5 2
this. She tilted her head a bit, and after a moment’s pause
said, “Eh, just ‘cuz.” A nonanswer. “There’s no particular
reason, really. Or are you the type of guy who always needs
there to be one for everything?”
I shrugged.
No way.
“As long as there’s a network, it doesn’t really matter
where I am. Home is the best in the end, though,” she said in
spite of still being on vacation.
Well, whatever. She was just being her usual whimsical
self. I didn’t particularly mind, and it wasn’t like I was
supposed to, either. I sprawled myself out on the pure white
carpet and stared up at the chandelier on the ceiling. Man,
what an unrealistic scene. Then again, if you asked me what
would be a realistic scene, I wouldn’t know what to say.
Kunagisa looked at me sprawled on the floor. “Ii-chan, I
don’t suppose you’re bored?”
“I’m bored with life.”
“Y’know, that’s really unattractive.”
Huh.
She laid it right out for me.
“If you’re free, why not read a book? I brought a few.”
“A book, huh? Whatcha got?”
“Um, a Japanese-English dictionary, the Statute Books, and
a modern Japanese dictionary.”
“Man, bring that stuff in digital form.”
Who has fun reading that kind of stuff?
Oh, right. She does.
Half giving up and half fed up, I rolled over.
“Huh? Ii-chan, your watch is broken, isn’t it?”
“Eh?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 5 3
I took a look at my watch. That’s right. Come to think of
it, I had meant to ask her to fix it. After running into so many
people this morning, I’d forgotten all about it.
“Lemme see. I’ll fix it for you.”
“Here. Maybe the battery’s dead.”
“Hmm…” She held the watch up to the light. “Nope,
something else is wrong. Did you bump it into something
hard? Anyway, I think it’ll be a quick fix. But you know,
wristwatches have become sort of an anachronism these days.
Most people just get by with their cell phone. Huh? Speaking
of which, where’s yours?”
“I left it at home.”
“You should bring it. That’s what makes it a mobile phone.”
“But what if I dropped it?”
“Well, I guess, but—”
“And it would be out of service here anyway. It would take
a phone like yours to get any signal here.”
Kunagisa uses a phone that receives signals from relay
satellites anywhere in the world. Even on a deserted island in
the middle of nowhere, her phone didn’t know the meaning of
the phrase “out of service.”
Of course, it didn’t come cheap. It was a terrible waste of
money for an antisocialite like Kunagisa, but she wasn’t the
type to give much thought to such matters.
“Hmm, maybe so. Well, it’s not like being an anachronism
is a bad thing.”
She narrowed her big eyes and placed my watch next to
the computer rack.
Just then there was a knock at the door. Kunagisa showed
no response whatsoever, so I had no choice but to open it
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 5 4
myself. The visitor was none other than Hikari-san, cleaning
supplies in tow.
“Hello. Thanks so much.” I invited her in.
“Yo, Hikari-chan, ciaooo!” Kunagisa welcomed her with a
full-faced grin. Hikari-san responded in likewise fashion. For
some reason these two girls were strangely friendly with each
other. They just plain got along. It’s a rare thing for someone
to be able to become so friendly with Kunagisa in such a short
period of time, so I couldn’t help but be a little surprised.
“What are you up to, Tomo-san?”
“I’m making some game software right now. I’m creating
an application that converts text to music. I figured I’d give it
to Iria-san as a memento of my visit.”
“What kind of game is that?” I said.
“Well, shall I explain? Okay, um, okay, so, Ii-chan, what’s
the longest book you’ve ever read?”
“I quit halfway through The Tale of Genji and Don Quixote,
so… Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Man, that was long.”
“Okay. So let’s say you converted that whole book into a
text document, whether by using a scanner or by typing it all
by hand. Then you do a digital-to-analog conversion, like
where ‘i’ is ‘do,’ ‘ro’ is ‘re,’ ‘ha’ is ‘me,’ and so on. If you do
that, you end up with the ‘War and Peace Song.’ For that much
text, it would probably come out to around… an hour,
maybe? Of course, in reality it’s more complicated than that.
The code conversions and sessions and everything have to be
wholly consistent. But still, it turns books into music. Sounds
fun, right?”
“Well, definitely sounds interesting, anyway. What
programming language are you using? VB? C?”
“Machine language.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 5 5
An extremely basic-level coding language. I didn’t think
anybody used that kind of language these days.
“Man, it’s like you can communicate with the machine like
it’s just some close buddy of yours.”
“Heh heh heh.” she laughed, just a little boastfully.
Seemingly even more ignorant than I about computers,
Hikari-san wore an inscrutable expression, not revealing
whether she was following the conversation, and said nothing
more than “Wow.”
“Seriously,” I said. “But what’s actually fun about this
game? I guess I don’t really get it.”
“Making it is fun.”
It was a solid reason. I couldn’t object.
Hikari-san listened with apparent interest, but then seemed
to remember something. “Oh, right.” She turned to me.
“Would it be all right if I cleaned your room later on? I
stopped by the storeroom a little earlier, but you were out.”
“Sure, no problem.”
I sure didn’t know what cleaning there was to be done in
that room, though. Hikari-san politely thanked me and
resumed cleaning Kunagisa’s room.
After a single sweep of the room, she stopped and
crouched to the floor with a sigh.
“I apologize. I’m just… a little exhausted.”
“Why not take a break?”
“No, I’ll be fine. Rei-san would get mad anyway. I’ve said it
before, but she’s so strict. I’ll be fine. I’m peppy. That’s my
one positive trait. I’m fine. Please forgive me for causing you
concern,” she said firmly, then exited the room.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 5 6
I let out a sigh. “Sure seems to have it tough. Maybe it’s
just my assumption, but seeing her like that, it seems as if
she’s bearing an awfully big load on her own.”
“Do you feel a little like you’re watching yourself?”
“It’s not like that, but y’know, I do feel a bit of sympathy
for her.” She did seem to be miserable, after all. Rei-san and
Akari-san seemed to have a distinct division in their heads that
this was just “work,” but Hikari-san didn’t seem to be able to
mentally process it that way. It was like the concept of work
hadn’t been figured into her internal “circuit.” Perhaps there
were circumstances surrounding that.
As for the other maid, Teruko-san, I wasn’t sure what she
was thinking, so I couldn’t comment.
“Everybody’s suffering through something, Ii-chan,”
Kunagisa said knowingly. “Everybody knows hardship, or even
if they don’t, they’re at least exerting effort somewhere.
Hikari-san, your pal Nao-kun, Akane-chan—everyone. If
there’s anyone who lives without suffering or exerting effort,
it’s probably me.”
After having lunch, I headed for the atelier as promised.
Kunagisa claimed, as usual, not to be hungry and headed to
bed shortly after noon. She was a chronically sleep-deprived
little techie.
“Wake me for din-din, please. I hafta see Iria-chan and
stuff,” she said.
I knocked on the atelier door, waited for a response, then
turned the knob.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 5 7
The floors were uncarpeted hardwood. In some ways it
reminded me of the art room in my elementary school, except
of course that this room wasn’t lined with scarred-up desks
and there weren’t any fake-looking plaster sculptures. It
wasn’t as big either. The total area of the atelier was probably
around half the size of the room Kunagisa was staying in.
“Welcome. Take a seat over there,” Kanami-san said, after
briefly staring at me in cold silence. Shinya-san must have
been in his room or someplace, as Kanami-san was the only
person there. I walked past a shelf containing paint and paint
supplies and took a seat as told.
I faced Kanami-san. “Thanks for doing this.”
I couldn’t deny that she was a pretty woman. With blond
hair and blue eyes, she was like one of those “well-bred young
ladies” you see in old films. An intellectual, at that. And even
more, she had artistic talent. It was like she had God’s favor.
No, maybe I can’t say that.
She had bad legs, and until a few years ago, she couldn’t
even see. I guess it would be pretty damn low of me in all my
able-bodied good fortune to gripe. But on the other hand,
Kanami-san herself didn’t seem to view her condition as a
handicap or disability.
“God is fair. If I had been able-bodied, it would’ve
conversely been unfair to ordinary people.” “Legs are just a
decoration.” “Even when I gained my eyesight, my world
didn’t really change. The world looked just as I’d thought.
Natural selection and fate have unusually bad taste.”
All of these are quotes from Kanami-san’s art books.
Kanami-san sat in a round, wooden chair just like the one I
was sitting in. She was in a dress, so it looked mildly
uncomfortable, I noticed.
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“Kanami-san, is that what you wear when you’re painting?”
“Are you doubting my fashion sense?”
Her face grew subtly more stern. It seemed that this was
no joke. She was actually miffed. I scrambled to weasel my
way out.
“No no, I didn’t mean that. I was just thinking your clothes
might get dirty.”
“I don’t go and change my clothes every time I paint
something. Up to now, I’ve never dirtied my clothes even once
while painting. I’m not an idiot.”
“Oh, I see.”
I guess it was like being an expert calligrapher. In
retrospect, getting paint on your clothes is probably a pretty
amateur blunder. To Kanami-san, one of the top artists in the
entire world, the mere suggestion was probably rude.
I shrugged.
“But is it really okay painting someone like me?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she snapped with the
same stern expression. She seemed to be in a pretty awful
mood. Or no, maybe this was her default setting.
“Er, no, it’s just that, won’t it decrease your worth as an
artist?”
Like, for example, it was probably safe to say that Kunagisa
had technological skill like no one else in the world. However,
she only ever used that technology for fun, so the number of
people who actually acknowledged her as amazing and
brilliant was extremely small.
“Authority comes from results. Not doing and not being
able to do are the same thing.”
Apparently that was Kunagisa’s case.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 5 9
I figured it was the same with painters. If you just choose
your subjects randomly and mess around all the time, it’s hard
to get other people to acknowledge your worth as an artist.
But Kanami-san renounced my ideas.
“Didn’t I just tell you I’m not an idiot? Do you have a brain
at all? I don’t go around choosing subjects. You know, if you
keep your mouth shut, people won’t see how stupid you are,
so why don’t you do just that?”
My heart sank.
“I just… I hate that kind of thinking. It makes me want to
puke. ‘Oh, there were no good subjects to paint.’ ‘My model
was no good.’ ‘The environment was all wrong.’ ‘That’s not
the kind of subject I should be painting.’ And it’s not just with
painters either. Even you know people who say obnoxiously
egotistical things like ‘Oh, this isn’t what I want to do’ or ‘Oh,
I don’t know what I want to do,’ right?”
“Yeah, I do.”
Yeah, myself.
“For god’s sakes,” she sighed. “I hate people who bitch
about what they want and don’t want to do, putting their own
ineptitude on a pedestal. I want to tell them to stop living like
pricks. I don’t mean they should all die, but they should be
more humble. Just paint anything and stop whining all the
time. I don’t care if it’s some boring jerk or a pile of bug guts.
I’d turn it into gorgeous art.”
Regardless of how sweet and pretty she looked, she sure
was full of herself. She was so uncompromising that she didn’t
even forgive others who compromised.
Being compared to a pile of bug guts wasn’t my favorite
thing in the world, but if she could paint that, surely she could
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 6 0
paint me. It seemed that making any further thoughtful
comments would just end badly, so I decided to stay quiet.
I noticed that behind Kanami-san was a canvas. An
underangle view of the cherry blossom tree was drawn on it in
pencil. The one she had been looking at this morning with
Shinya-san.
It was so precisely drawn, it was like a monochrome
photograph. With about ten million pixels. No, that’s dumb.
There was no need to cheapen such an intricate drawing with
that kind of metaphor.
I pointed to the picture. “When did you draw that?”
“This morning. Got a problem?”
It was early morning when she was observing the tree. That
was about five hours earlier. In other words, she had drawn
this amazingly detailed picture in a mere five hours. A
drawing like this should’ve taken at least a week to complete.
Without thinking, I shot her a skeptical expression. She
grimaced back at me audaciously.
“Only idiots spend three or four months doing something
you can finish in a week. Idiots or lazy people. And since I’m
neither, I did this picture in three hours. It doesn’t take me
any longer than that.”
Huh.
Being the pure embodiment of laziness myself, this was
painful to hear. It stung. I wished Kunagisa could’ve heard it,
too.
“Right? Even you have to agree a little, too, right?” she said
in a cruel tone, demanding my concurrence. I couldn’t help
but feel as if she were attacking me with a direct insult. And I
doubt that was just a false impression.
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“Uh, no, well, I mean… yeah. Er, but anyway, you’re really
good.”
“Yeah, sure,” she answered, completely uninterested in my
generic praise. It really was an exceedingly bland comment for
me to make, in retrospect. You’re really good. It sounds like
something a five-year-old would say.
“Uh, so, Kanami-san, you do detail pictures?”
“I do all kinds of pictures. Didn’t you know?”
Oh yeah, I’d put my toot in my mouth again. The woman
before my eyes was Ibuki Kanami-san, the woman artist who
denied having any style and took no stance. Whether it be
detailed or abstract, there was no picture she couldn’t or
wouldn’t paint.
She squinted just one eye at me. “I don’t get hung up on
one style. It’s not a rule set in stone, but getting too hung up is
just plain crazy. It’s nuts. If there’s one thing in life I want to
do as I please, it’s painting.”
“You may be right, huh?” Unable to argue or concur, I
settled with a simple nod. Perhaps able to see through me, she
returned my nod with a contemptuous sneer.
“Hey, have you ever seen my art?”
“Well, a few times in some of your art books. But owing to
my ignorance, this is the first time I’ve seen it directly.”
“Hmm, and what did you think of it? Not the art book
stuff, but that cherry blossom one.”
To me, Kanami-san’s question was a bit of a surprise. I
never figured that so-called geniuses cared much about other
people’s opinions of them. Starting with Sonoyama Akanesan,
none of the people at ER3, including that deplorable
group of study-abroad participants, had any vanity or desire
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 6 2
for glory, and nobody cared about how they looked in other
people’s eyes.
“I know my worth better than anyone else does. I don’t
need to sit here and be evaluated by a bunch of brainless
slackers.” This was their unanimous way of thinking. Probably
why I wasn’t a big fan of theirs.
“Um,” I said, groping for an answer, “well, it’s a very pretty
picture.”
“A pretty picture, huh?” she repeated my line. “You know,
there’s no need to try and flatter me. I won’t get mad.”
“Well, it’s just that I don’t really have much judgment or a
critical eye for this kind of thing. But yeah, I think it’s a pretty
picture.”
“Hmm… pretty?”
She wore an utterly disappointed expression as she stared
at her canvas. She muttered something to herself.
“Pretty… prettyprettypretty. That’s not the kind of
compliment you give to art.”
“Eh?”
“Hmm, you don’t get it, huh? Damn, I really don’t want to
do this. What a waste.”
She let out a heavy sigh, hunched over a bit, and picked up
the canvas.
She lifted it up over her head…
…and smashed it into the hardwood floor.
The sound of splintering wood.
Of course, it wasn’t the floor that had broken.
“Hey, wh-what are you doing?”
“As you can see, I’m disposing of my screwup. Ah, why did
it have to come to this?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 6 3
That decidedly should’ve been my line. She stared down at
the shattered remains of her canvas, a sorrowful expression on
her face, and let out another sigh.
“Geez, it looked like it would’ve been worth about twenty
million one day.”
“Twenty million yen?”
“Twenty million dollars.”
Different unit.
“Of course, we’re talking about several decades later.”
“Artists can be pretty reckless sometimes, huh?”
I couldn’t help but feel guilty that my crappy comments
had invited this disaster.
“You shouldn’t feel like you did something wrong. This is
my responsibility. I’m not the kind of imbecile who pushes
her own responsibilities onto other people.”
“But I’m just an amateur. You didn’t have to do something
like that based on the opinion of an amateur.”
“It’s not art if you get to pick who looks at it,” she insisted.
So that’s how it was.
I could understand that.
Her words and her manner were filled to the brim with
spitefulness, but to be sure, this woman was an artist to the
bone.
“But it was so realistic, it was just like a photograph.”
“That’s not a compliment either, you know. Listen, if you
have a habit of complimenting people by saying ‘it’s just like
blah blah blah,’ I think you’d better quit it. It’s really an insult
of the highest order. If you absolutely have to box everything
into a style, though, I guess there’s no hope.” She turned back
toward me. “I suppose I can understand why you say it was
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 6 4
like a photograph, though. After all, photographs originally
spawned from drawings.”
“Is that right?”
“Yeah. You didn’t know?” She raised an eyebrow at me.
It seemed saying, “You didn’t know?” was her habit.
“The person who invented daguerreotype photography was
a ‘factual artist.’ Apparently the study of perspective is related
to the invention of the camera. You’ve heard of the camera
obscura, right?”
Heard of it, yes. The so-called dark chamber. The
phenomenon where if you make a hole in one spot on the wall
of a pitch-black room, the outside scenery will project onto
the opposite wall. It was quite an old technology, dating back
to the days of the Roman Empire, and even having been
mentioned by Aristotle. Supposedly it was the origin of the
camera.
“It was just one invention used to create accurate images.
The main idea behind perspective is to ‘show things the way
they really look.’ That’s how the French artist Courbet put it.
He also made such realist remarks as ‘I’ve never seen an angel,
so why would I paint one?’ It goes against my philosophy,
though. If you get a kid to draw something, it never has any
perspective or depth, right? Everything’s just displayed in the
foreground. The size of objects is also chosen at whim, so for
example a house and a person are the same size, or the most
important thing is drawn the biggest. In other words, what
they’re putting on the canvas isn’t what the objects look like,
it’s how the objects feel. If you believe that drawing pictures is
a form of personal expression, then I think that’s the correct
way to do it. If you think about it like that, a drawing that
looks just like a photograph isn’t a good drawing at all, is it?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 6 5
“Wow”
As soon as she had broken out the professional lingo, I lost
my grip on what she was talking about. And with all her
chitchat she hadn’t even started setting up to paint. When was
she planning to get started already?
“Though truth be told, photographs aren’t such an accurate
representation of reality either. If you edit a photograph well,
it’s not hard to fool people. Maybe they’re not so different
from paintings, in the sense that they’re both selective.”
“Uh, Kanami-san, were you going to draw me?”
“Right now I’m memorizing.”
Just as I thought I was about to be called incompetent
again, she spoke to me with unexpected gentleness.
“Maybe you didn’t know? I’m the type who has to do her
work alone. When I’m with other people my focus goes
wacko.”
She sounded like Leonardo da Vinci. Artists who don’t
look and paint at the same time weren’t the kind of thing you
heard about every day, but they weren’t the most uncommon
thing in the world either, so I wasn’t particularly surprised.
“So when I do portraits, I just have to rely on my memory.”
“You can do that?”
“To me, memory and perception are synonymous.”
Now she sounded like Hannibal the Cannibal.
“Let’s just stay and talk like this for the next two hours.
Then I’ll start painting after you leave. Ah, after I redo this
cherry blossom picture, that is. I want to turn it into
something at least you can comprehend. For your painting, I’ll
need to put down two layers of color, so it’ll take a little while
to draw. I should be able to give it to you tomorrow morning.”
“You’ll give it to me?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 6 6
“Sure. I don’t need that kind of painting. I have no interest
in paintings that are finished. I’ll sign it, so if you sell it you
should be able to make something decent. Of course you
could always destroy it if you don’t like it, but that seems like
a bit of a waste. It should be worth about fifty million.”
What a materialistic conversation.
Sigh.
“Hey, by the way, I hear you’re on bad terms with Akanesan,
is that right?”
“That’s right. Or really, it’s sort of a one-sided hatred on
her part. As an individual, as a scholar, as a researcher, as a
member of the ER3 Seven Fools, I personally have nothing
but goodwill and respect for Sonoyama Akane, but…”
“But? What’s that supposed to mean?”
She gave a little smirk. “As for ‘just plain’ Sonoyama
Akane, I despise her.”
Two hours later.
After leaving Kanami-san’s atelier, I headed for Kunagisa’s
room. She was in bed, but evidently she had awoken at some
point and fixed my watch. In a world-class prank, she had
changed the digital face so that the numbers were displayed
backward, but at least it seemed to be working, so I stuck it on
my left arm, patted the sleeping Kunagisa on the head, said
thanks, and headed to Akane-san’s room.
“Play me,” she challenged, and then said with a delighted
smile, “I’ll give myself a bigger handicap.”
With that, she lined her side of the shogi board with chess
pieces.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 6 7
“It’s a Japanese-Western compromise.”
“Kinda like two different martial arts styles, huh?”
Handicap notwithstanding, I was thoroughly trounced.
Seven times in a row.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 6 9
If you blind yourself to the fact that your opinion is
entirely wrong, you’re essentially right.
I bludgeoned the slumbering Kunagisa awake, forced her to
wash her face, and tied her hair up in pigtails for her. Then
with her still half-asleep, and me half carrying her, we headed
to the dining hall, where everyone else from the mansion was
already gathered.
Round table, two empty seats.
I helped Kunagisa to her seat and then sat down next to
her. As I settled in my chair, I took a quick look around the
table at each person.
Out of the twelve people present, the most eye-catching
person—and I’m not sure whether or not this goes without
saying—was none other than the mistress of the house,
Akagami Iria-san. The concept of beauty is wholly subjective,
varying from one person to the next, so to say Iria-san was
beautiful would probably be pointless. If I say she was
beautiful, that was simply something I personally felt and
nothing more. Besides, Akari-san the maid was way more up
my alley, as long as we’re talking about personal preferences.
Uh, but none of that matters.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 7 0
Seriously.
To give something more objective, Akagami Iria was a
classy woman. She wore her pretty black hair in a roll,
coupled with an expensive-looking dress. She was actually
somewhat mismatched, but her excessive classiness more than
made up for it. She seemed to be around the same age as me,
still in her twenties, but man, upbringing and lineage really do
have their effects on people. Of course, there’s always other
factors as well, but those things are important for sure. That’s
always been the case.
Akagami Iria.
The black sheep granddaughter of the Akagami
Foundation.
“Well then, now that Kunagisa-san is here, shall we
commence with the best part of the day?” She put her hands
together like a little kid. “Chow down.” It seemed she was
fairly immature emotionally. It was probably safe to say she
wasn’t the most worldly person out there, but it was probably
just as well to her.
Incidentally, this island, where people were largely free to
do as they wished, had a single rule: “We all eat dinner
together.” It was a simple rule that shouldn’t have been hard
for anyone to follow, but indeed, quite a few so-called
geniuses had failed to do so and ended up leaving the island.
There are a lot of similarities between a genius and a person
with no common sense or decency.
Iria-san sat with two maids on either side of her. On her
left were Teruko-san and Rei-san. On her right, Akari-san and
Hikari-san. There was no way to distinguish between Akarisan
and Hikari-san, so I couldn’t tell which one was which.
Theoretically one would’ve been able to tell them apart by
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 7 1
their facial expressions and gestures and such, but for the
nonobservant type like myself, it was a challenge. Kunagisa
seemed to be able to distinguish between the two (which was
no mystery, since it was Kunagisa, after all), but depending on
the conversation, she seemed to have trouble distinguishing
who was Iria-san. Nobody seemed to mind.
“Now then, everybody raise your glasses… cheers!” she said
almost as if singing, her glass raised high in the air. Everyone
else, including myself, did likewise. But it bore mentioning
that my glass and Kunagisa’s glass were filled not with wine,
but with juice.
After all, we were underage.
A number of dishes were set beautifully around the table.
They were the proud masterpieces of chef extraordinaire
Sashirono Yayoi. I’ll start with the dish closest to me and go in
that order:
Crowned lamb roast, cappuccino-based sweet potato soup,
foie gras terrine with truffle gnocchi, steamed blue mussels,
Belgian eel simmered in green sauce, pickled herring, whale
meat sashimi, sauce-covered ravioli, ostrich meat carpaccio,
fruit salad, potato salad with egg, and, finally, oil-sautéed
mushrooms.
Yup, I was clueless.
Probably because Yayoi-san had created each dish
specifically to cater to the respective tastes of each guest, even
after hearing the names, I had no idea what I was eating. But
that was neither here nor there. It’s not like a name has that
profound of an influence on the thing itself.
I think.
After all this, there was said to be dessert as well. If you
thought about it, it was really a copious quantity of food. And
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 7 2
with Yayoi being the culinary maestro she was, the food was
so delicious that I all but entirely neglected to watch my
weight. Granted, Yayoi-san had apparently factored that into
her cooking.
“After factoring in the nutritional value, it’s still this
amazing. She really is a genius,” I muttered to myself more
than a couple of times.
Speaking of which, I had spoken to Yayoi-san a bit during
lunch. When I had gone to the dining hall, she happened to be
the only other person around, so I used the opportunity to
inquire about the popular rumors about her.
In other words, what was this secret power that allowed
her to make any dish better than any other chef?
That was the question.
Upon hearing it, Yayoi-san gave a curious smirk.
“I’m afraid reality doesn’t quite live up to the legends.
Unlike Himena-san, I don’t have any sort of wild superpowers.
Basically, it’s just effort and discipline.”
“Really?”
“Well, I suppose I can imagine what might have started
such a rumor. My senses of taste and smell are a little, well, a
lot stronger than the average person’s.”
She flicked out her tongue. “To give an anecdotal example,
ah, okay, like Helen Keller. She was blind, but they say she
could distinguish between people just by their smell. I’m a
little bit like that. My sense of smell isn’t quite that amazing,
but, for example…”
She took my arm and, without warning, licked the palm of
my hand. I never would have dreamed things would have
ended up like this, and I nearly let out a yelp, though
somehow I managed to suppress it.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 7 3
With her tongue still out, she gave an Einsteinish grin.
“You’ve got type AB blood, don’t you?” she said. “Negative,
right?”
Being so told, it occurred to me that she was right. A
public health doctor once told me, “You have an extremely
rare blood type.” So Yayoi-san was right for sure, but…
“You can really tell all that just by licking my skin?”
“Well, by licking your sweat, to be specific. My tongue can
distinguish between approximately twenty thousand flavors,
dividing them into twenty levels of intensity. My sense of
smell is probably around half that good, I suppose.” She tilted
her head thoughtfully. It was a cute mannerism. “I’m not
smart like Sonoyama-san; I’m terrible at art, unlike Ibuki-san;
I’m not particularly skilled with machines like Kunagisa-san; I
certainly don’t have special powers like Himena-san; and
there’s not much else I’m any good at, but I’ve had just this
one strong gift since I was a kid. I figured becoming a chef was
the only way to take advantage of it.”
Perfect taste, they call it.
It’s like the taste version of perfect pitch, except perfect
taste isn’t something you can acquire with training. In other
words, Sashirono Yayoi-san was, to just come out and say it,
one of the lucky few chosen by God. Among the highly
skilled, there are two types of people: those who are chosen,
and those who choose themselves—those who were born with
it, and those who work for it. Of course, Yayoi-san had
“discipline and effort,” but she was evidently the former type.
So the path of a chef was not really something she had
chosen. She had been born with this gift, and for that reason
had gone on to study gastronomy, travel to the West, and
polish her inborn talents even further.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 7 4
The idea of flavor ultimately stems from each individual’s
ability to judge taste. How well a person can utilize and take
advantage of flavor as if it was their own possession—that was
largely connected to one’s skill as a cook, and well reflected in
Yayoi-san’s own cooking.
Well, that’s the chopped logic of it, but it doesn’t mean
much practically. To put it a better way, Yayoi-san’s cooking
was damn good.
If you thought of the round table as a clock with Iria-san
sitting at twelve o’clock, then Sashirono Yayoi-san was at
three o’clock next to Teruko-san and Rei-san.
At four o’clock was Sakaki Shinya-san. As you would
expect from the man who had long been employed as
Kanami-san’s caretaker, he looked not the least bit
intimidated, and was actually rather stately-looking.
Then next to him sat Ibuki Kanami-san at the five o’clock
position. Behind her was her wheelchair, which she had likely
used to come to the dining room. She didn’t seem to be in a
particularly bad mood, but she didn’t look very cheerful
either.
At six o’clock was Kunagisa. This meant she was sitting
directly across from the mistress of the house, Akagami Iriasan.
That was more than enough to make me nervous, but
really that didn’t matter; to Kunagisa, the word nervous didn’t
even exist in the Japanese language.
Then in lucky seat number seven sat myself.
Next to me at eight o’clock sat Sonoyama Akane-san of the
Seven Fools. She was completely immersed in the devouring
of Yayoi-san’s cuisine. She had much more of an appetite than
you might expect. Of course, she was a human being before
she was a scholar—whether or not she would admit it
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 7 5
herself—and you can’t live if you don’t eat, but even if you
disregarded that, she was a serious eater. Even I felt satisfied
just watching her eat. It seemed to me that Yayoi-san must’ve
been really proud to see her devouring her food so delightedly.
Next to Akane-san at nine o’clock sat the fortune-telling
master, the one with ESP superpowers, Himena Maki-san. At
some point she had apparently changed clothes, and was now
adorned in an entirely different fashion than this morning. She
wore a halter-neck striped shirt with a pale, pink cardigan and
sheep-printed cropped pants. Her hair was up in twin
ponytails. Possibly because she noticed me looking at her, she
looked back at me with a strangely unpleasant sneer and sank
her teeth into some roast lamb. It was an expression that said,
“I know everything, but I’m not saying anything,” and it made
me wholly uncomfortable.
It never ends.
At ten and eleven o’clock sat Akari-san and Hikari-san.
Teruko-san was completely silent and mostly expressionless.
She just placed food in her mouth like it was a mechanical
process. For someone to be able to eat this food without any
sort of reaction, it made you wonder if she had any sense of
taste. In the face of the three sisters’ air of youthfulness, Reisan,
in contrast, had the look of a mature, uptight career
woman. I hadn’t heard her talk much, but judging from her
appearance, she seemed to be the strict type, and I had heard
the corroborating sob stories of Hikari-san several times by
now.
So there you have it.
That’s all twelve people.
Lucky number?
With a face like this?
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 7 6
Just babbling again. What kind of meaning lay in things
like that? I was very obviously standing out here. You could
even call me the black sheep. Then again, there had never
been a place where I didn’t stand out. Not Kobe, not
Houston, not Kyoto, and not even on this island.
In this wide world, there’s only one me.
Eh, whatever.
I like loneliness.
No bluff.
Even if I was bluffing.
“Oh by the way, if I can change the subject…” Iria-san said,
bringing the individual conversations that had been developing
up to now to an immediate halt. The power to direct the table
conversation lay in Iria-san’s hands alone. It was the selfish
privilege befitting an upper-class girl.
She continued, raising her voice.
“It seems there are already rumors floating around, so I’ll
go ahead and make the announcement. This is about the next
guest. The latest genius to grace this house.”
All eyes were on Iria-san. Well, all except for Kunagisa,
who continued to chow down on whale meat. To deliberately
try and capture that girl’s attention was quite a difficult task.
“I’d like to emphasize that our new guest is the possessor
of such extraordinary, glorious talent that it even bears
comparison to you all. I’d like very much to welcome this
person, so please cooperate, okay?”
Each person gave a personalized reaction. The part about
bearing comparison to everyone seemed to really shake things
up. With everyone seemingly restraining themselves, only the
very ordinary Shinya-san dared speak up.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 7 7
“Question. Just who is this person? I don’t really know a
whole lot just from the rumors I’ve heard, but they say it’s a
real jack-of-all-trades. Is that right?”
“You could say that. We’ve only met once before, but,
yeah, once was enough. This person is my hero.” She gazed
up, evidently deep in thought. “A truly heroic existence, to
me. Like a detective in a mystery novel or a monster in a
monster movie.”
A monster?
I could feel my eyebrows raise of their own accord. Iria-san
had just dropped a reference to monster movies, but was that
really an accurate description of this person? That wasn’t the
kind of vocabulary you typically used to describe a person, and
even if you did, it definitely wasn’t a compliment.
“That’s quite the hard sell. Sounds like we can expect quite
a bit from this individual,” Shinya-san said with a boisterous
chuckle. “I hear this person can do all sorts of things… such as
paint wonderfully and so on?”
“I’ve never seen it, but I wouldn’t be surprised. I imagine
something as simple as painting a picture shouldn’t be a
challenge.”
As you’d expect, this seemed to have wounded Kanamisan’s
pride. She looked a little bit—by which I mean
ridiculously—miffed.
“Might we possibly be graced with knowing the name of
this superior specimen, Iria-san?” Kanami-san said. Her tone
had a bite to it.
I had thought of this that morning as well, but Kanami-san
really did have a lot of pride. That’s not necessarily a bad
thing, but it’s not strictly a good thing either. Far be it for me
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 7 8
to cast aspersions about the way Kanami-san chose to live, but
to say the least, I knew I could never live like that.
Iria’s expression suggested that she didn’t understand why
Kanami-san was so mad (and in reality that probably was the
case), and she answered plainly, “Aikawa-san.”
Pure dumbfoundedness.
At this point, Kanami-san seemed like the stupid one.
“Owing to an extremely busy schedule, Aikawa-san will
only be staying here for three days, but everyone, please be
friendly. Aikawa-san is a big deal to me. You could even call it
love.”
Iria-san’s cheeks turned bright red. Seeing that childish
mannerism, her audience was thrown even further into
bewilderment. It felt like she could’ve made any demand,
however bossy, and everyone would’ve forgiven it. She
innately had that sort of air about her.
Probably her lineage to blame again.
“Even still, Aikawa…”
I’d never heard the name, ignorant as I was. I looked over
at Kunagisa to see her reaction, but she was still eating. When
that girl was focused on something, she was always like that.
More incorrigible than a child and harder to handle than an
animal. Well, then again, at least she knew how to sit in a
chair.
“Oh, I’m so looking forward to it. To think Aikawa-san is
coming again. I’ve asked so many times. It’s like a dream. Oh,
what if it really was a dream?” she said as if in a daze. Judging
from her current state, Iria-san must have been pretty headover-heels
for this Aikawa guy. It was like she was talking
about the man she had been in love with for years and years.
She spoke his name with great reverence.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 7 9
“Ah, speaking of which, Kunagisa-san,” she said, turning
the conversation toward Kunagisa. “You were going to leave
before then, isn’t that right?”
“Hmm? Oh, yup yup,” she responded. She never stopped
moving the chopsticks she held in her hands. The fact that she
was holding a chopstick in each hand was enough of a
testament to her bad table manners. “Yup, four more days.”
“That’s really too bad. It’s going to be such a great
opportunity. I’d really like you to meet Aikawa-san. There’s
really no way?”
“Afraid not. I’m from a world where once you’ve planned
something you can’t change it. They even call me the Living
Time Table. Ii-chan, too, of course.”
Don’t drag me into this, I thought. Coming to this island in
the first place was never part of my “time table.”
Iria nodded with a truly disappointed look on her face. “Is
that so? Say, could it be that you’re not having a good time
here? It doesn’t seem like you’ve left your room much.”
“I’m from a world where people don’t leave their rooms
much. But no, I’m having fun. Lots of fun. I can have fun
anywhere, anytime, all the way.”
Her words made me stiffen a bit. There was no
exaggeration in what she said. For someone who’s so
completely immersed in their own world, there’s never a time
that isn’t fun. And what of all other emotions? How tragic
must it be to always be having fun, no matter where you are?
That was something I already knew the answer to.
“Ah, is that so?” Iria shrugged. “But Kunagisa-san, surely
even you would find some value in meeting Aikawa-san.
Meeting a person like that, you’re bound to find some
inspiration.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 8 0
As if she had been waiting for the perfect timing, Kanamisan
broke into the conversation. “Being influenced by another
person is proof of one’s mediocrity. Of one’s impotence. How
ridiculous. I don’t know what kind of person this Aikawa is,
but I sincerely doubt there’s any need to meet him.”
“Now now, is that a fact?” Playing devil’s advocate with
Kanami-san was the obvious choice, Sonoyama Akane. “I
spent several years surrounded by the finest minds in the
world, and I know for a fact that if I hadn’t had that
experience, I wouldn’t be where I am today. You can better
yourself just by spending time with brilliant people.”
“The ER3? What a joke. You must be stupid. Why would
anyone ever want to bind themselves to such an organization?”
Kanami sneered.
“I don’t consider that I’m binding myself. Everyone is free
to move about as they please and help hone one another’s
skills.”
“ ‘Free?’ Don’t just throw that word around. An
organization with no restrictions isn’t an organization at all. In
the end, even you were just a member of the hierarchy, isn’t
that right? What a crock. I’ve been here on this island with
you for a while now, but I certainly don’t feel as if I’ve
become any more refined. If anything, my worth is
decreasing.”
They glared at each other. To act this way in front of a
whole group of people, they really were childish. I was a little
bit appalled.
The maids tried their best to mediate, but Iria-san had a
look of pure delight on her face as she watched the dueling
pair, so they retrained from stepping in. This kind of situation
wasn’t really my cup of tea. Meanwhile, Yayoi-san looked
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 8 1
fairly indifferent as well, while Maki-san looked entirely
unimpressed, and Shinya-san seemed to have written the
whole dispute off as an everyday occurrence. It was amazing
that not a single person there could stop them.
Ah, wait, there was someone.
Just one person.
“After all, Ibuki-san, humans are a colonial species. People
such as yourself who act like bums and expect special
treatment all ought to rethink their lifestyle, if you ask me,” I
said.
“I suppose that means you can’t function without being
surrounded by other people. People aren’t migratory fish, you
know. And I don’t expect special treatment. I just don’t put
myself down. I live honestly, and assess things as they really
are,” Kanami snapped.
“Hmm, I wonder.”
“ ‘Hmm, I wonder’? Ah, more vague questions. You think
you look clever by taking an ambiguous stance without ever
clearly stating your opinion. Yeah, real clever. ‘I wonder,’ ”
Kanami said.
“This is a little hard to listen to.”
A voice.
It was Kunagisa.
She pouted her lips out like a sulky kid and looked at
Kanami-san.
“This is hurting my ears, Kanami-chan, Akane-chan.”
In an instant, she had drawn everyone’s attention. Nobody
had expected Kunagisa, of all people, to say that.
I had had quite a few experiences with Kunagisa in the
past, so it wasn’t beyond imaginable. Kunagisa Tomo hated
watching people fight quite a bit. Considering her usual
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 8 2
happy-go-lucky attitude, it might have been a little
unexpected, but it did make some sense. She was a fun-loving
girl, which meant she didn’t like situations that weren’t fun.
The logic was as simple as that.
“I’m sorry. I went too far.” Somewhat surprisingly, it was
Kanami-san who apologized first. In turn, Akane-san couldn’t
help but acknowledge that Kanami-san, too, was a prominent
woman of respectable status.
“I was wrong, too,” she said, awkwardly avoiding eye
contact.
They both hung their heads and stared at the floor.
Though the atmosphere was still distinctly awkward, at least
the fiasco seemed to be over.
Until Maki-san ruined it completely.
“This is gonna get worse before it gets better,” she
muttered with an icy voice and audacious grin. Just what was
this fortune-teller chick trying to butt in with, now that things
had finally settled down? Meanwhile, Iria-san’s eyes were
twinkling with excitement.
“Is that a prophecy?” she asked. “What do you mean it’s
going to get worse before it gets better? This is so fascinating.
Will you tell us?”
“I won’t. I’m not saying anything. Nope.” As she spoke, she
cast a sideways glance in Kunagisa’s direction. “I’m not quite
so arrogant as to get the rest of the world involved.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I protested without
thinking. As for Kunagisa, she had already turned her full
attention back to nutritional intake. It was as though this
really was nothing more than a simple annoyance to her.
“Maki-san, what do you mean by that?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 8 3
“There’s no meaning. Just like there’s no meaning in your
actions. You know, you’re, wow, so you’re the kind of guy
who’ll get angry for the sake of a complete stranger, huh?
That’s not a very good thing. It’s not bad, per se, but it’s not
good.”
“Oh my, and why is that?” Iria-san said, stepping into our
conversation. Or rather, maybe I was the one on the sideline.
“I think it’s wonderful to be able to get angry on behalf of a
stranger. That’s not so common in the world nowadays.”
“That’s because people who can expose their emotions for
the sake of someone else are the same people who blame
things on others when something goes wrong. I despise people
like you.”
It had to be the first time in quite a while that someone
had spoken that harshly right to my face. Slowly, she brought
her glaring gaze to meet my eyes.
“You just let yourself get carried along by other people.
You’re the type of person who ignores traffic lights just
because everyone else is doing it. You’re an abominable
excuse for a human being. They often say ‘harmonize without
agreeing,’ but in your case, young man, it’s like you’re
agreeing without harmonizing. I won’t say that’s bad. I won’t
say anything as to that. One’s identity and one’s worth are not
always connected. A train that runs along a track is better than
a train that doesn’t. So I won’t say anything as to that. But I
hate people like you. I despise them. People like you always
blame things on others, never acknowledging their own
responsibility.”
Just carried along with the flow.
To be sure, that is how I lived.
However…
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 8 4
“I don’t recall…”
I hated it.
Meeting Kunagisa, I had grown thoroughly repulsed by it.
“I don’t recall you telling me that, Himena Maki-san.”
“Oh, are you angry? Gee, your boiling point’s a lot lower
than I expected. Are you the type who has mood swings all
the time?”
“Ii…”
Eat me.
Go screw yourself.
Go screw yourself go screw yourself go screw yourself…
Go screw yourself, bitch…
“Ii-chan.”
Tug.
Kunagisa yanked on my sleeve.
“This isn’t worth getting angry about.”
Kunagisa Tomo.
“Okay.”
I felt a chill go through my body. The power drained from
my body. It was beyond weakness, closer to exhaustion. I
slumped in my chair.
“Sorry. I was just joking, ‘kay?” Maki-san said to Kunagisa
with a terribly sweet smile.
And so dinner that day was a bit of a disaster. Of course, the
two days prior hadn’t exactly gone off without a hitch either,
but the intelligence of this jack-of-all-trades seemed to have
shattered something. This Aikawa-san’s coming visit to the
island was becoming something to dread. Granted, I wouldn’t
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 8 5
be there when it happened, so I didn’t really have much to do
with it.
Nevertheless, I had no idea why Maki-san was digging into
me so much. Certainly I hadn’t made a great first impression
on her, but that couldn’t have been the only reason at this
point. It was obvious that she hated me, but that wasn’t
reason enough to be harping on me so aggressively like this.
The opposite of affection is not animosity, but apathy. If
she just didn’t like me, she wouldn’t go so far out of her way
to pick on me like this. Why, out of this entire group of
brilliant people, would Himena Maki specifically target a
boring, ordinary person like me? We didn’t have anything to
do with each other.
It was strange.
Brooding over the subject in my mind, I didn’t think for a
moment about Maki-san’s prophecy of the “worsening of
things.” If I had given it some thought, it’s not likely that
anything would’ve gone differently anyway, but looking back,
I can’t help but regret that a little.
I guess there was nothing I could have done about that,
though.
After all, only Maki-san could have regretted things before
they happened.
It was already past ten o’clock when I borrowed Kunagisa’s
bath to freshen up. Kunagisa sat in front of her PCs in the
revolving chair, but all three terminals were turned off. She
just wanted to spin. Must’ve had a strong stomach.
“You take a bath, too.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 8 6
“No.”
“I don’t care about tonight, but take one tomorrow.”
“No.”
“Tomorrow I’ll strip you down, tie your hands and feet,
and throw you in. If you don’t want that, you’d better do it
yourself.”
“Awww, what a drag.” She half rose out of her chair to
stretch. “I envy fish. They don’t ever have to take baths.
Hmm, but I wonder if they get cold in the winter. Oh oh oh,
by the way, have you heard this before, Ii-chan? So, like, let’s
say you’re keeping a fish in a fish tank. And say you gradually
raise the temperature of the tank. Like you raise it so
gradually that the fish doesn’t even notice. Eventually the
water gets so hot that it’s boiling, but the fish’s body has
gotten used to the gradual change, so it can go on swimming
without even noticing how hot the water is. It sounds like a
lie, but it’s for real. Now, Ii-chan, what lesson can we gather
from this?”
“That global warming isn’t a problem.”
“Ding ding ding!” She looked utterly amused. What a
peppy chick, I thought, then without warning, she completely
collapsed. Face-first, belly-down, without breaking her fall.
I flinched.
“Owww. That hurt.”
No doubt.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m hungry…”
“You just ate a freaking feast.”
“That doesn’t matter. I missed breakfast and lunch, so I
probably haven’t eaten enough. I slept all afternoon, so I don’t
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 8 7
have to sleep again until tomorrow, but I guess you really have
to make sure you sleep and eat properly.”
“Human bodies aren’t made for that kind of treatment.”
“I guess I’m not human then. Let’s get something to eat, Iichan.
Will you tie my hair up first?”
“I think Yayoi-san’s probably already back in her room. She
gets up early, so don’t you think she’s already sleeping?”
We couldn’t just go wake her up so she would make some
dinner. We had to remember that she was a guest, too.
“Hikari-chan is probably awake though. Hikari-chan’s
cooking is delicious, too, in a Hikari-chan kinda way. If Hikarichan’s
asleep, too, Ii-chan, you can make me something.”
“Why me?”
“Well, ‘cuz you look so a-meow-zing from behind when
you’re cooking.”
“Ehehehe,” she laughed naughtily, still facedown.
“Okay okay okay. Fine fine. Understood, Miss Tomo. First
I’ll tie that hair up, so get over here.”
“Oh me oh my.”
I tied her hair in a loose ponytail. Then we left her room,
heading for the living room.
“Ah, by the way, sorry about earlier.”
“About what? Ah, about the thing with Maki-chan. Yeah,
it’s okay. I’ll forgive you. But really, compared to the old days,
you’ve gotten soft. I didn’t think you’d let her off with just a
single comment like that. I wonder if living in Houston
repressed you or something.”
“Yeah, well, living in a desert like that for five years, your
beliefs start to change. I’m not sure if it matters that it was a
desert, though.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 8 8
“You should tell me about it sometime. What happened
over there and stuff.”
“You’ve changed a lot, too. Not so much on the outside,
but on the inside.”
“There’s nothing in this world that doesn’t change. It’s
panta rhei.”
“Handa Rei?”
“The cycling of all things… Ii-chan, you’re supposed to be
smart, so why don’t you know anything?”
“I just have a bad memory. All I want is an average one,
really.” Just enough of one so that I wouldn’t forget the fun
times.
Just enough of one so that I could realize the world is full
of good things, too.
“Ah, Akari-chan spotted,” Kunagisa said, and charged
down the hallway. I looked to see that, indeed, Akari-san was
there. Or really, at this distance there was no way I could tell
whether it was Akari-san or Hikari-san. It was also possible
that it was Teruko-san with her glasses removed. But if
Kunagisa said it was Akari-san, it was most likely her.
By the time I reached them, Kunagisa and Akari-san had
already exchanged a few words. Kunagisa returned to my side
and Akari-san continued down the hall in the opposite
direction. I wondered about her. She must have had work left
to do, even at this hour. If that was the case, she really was
going above and beyond.
“What did you talk about?”
“She says Hikari-chan’s in the living room.”
“Oh yeah? That’s convenient.”
Of course, not everything in the world goes so smoothly.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 8 9
When we arrived in the living room, not only Hikari-san,
but also Shinya-san and my arch-nemesis Himena Maki-san
were there. The three of them sat on a horseshoe-shaped sofa,
engaged in lighthearted discussion. On the table were some
glasses and alcohol, plus some cheese on a big plate prepared
as a snack. Hikari-san promptly noticed our presence and
called out with a raised hand, “Ah, Tomo-san!” Having been
spotted, there was nothing we could do. We walked over and
joined them on the sofa.
Awkwardly, Kunagisa quickly snapped up the seat next to
Hikari-san, forcing me to sit next to Maki-san. All the same, I
couldn’t bear the thought of turning tail and running now. It
was dishonorable to flee in the face of the enemy. But Makisan,
seeming to see right through me, greeted me with a
wicked expression. “Welcome to my club,” she said boastfully.
“Sorry about before. I guess I hit a touchy subject,” she
apologized insincerely. “Really, I’m sorry. Anybody would get
mad about such a sensitive subject.”
“It wasn’t a particularly sensitive subject.”
“Oh, it was. It was so pitiful.” She sneered at me. Might
she have been drunk? No, she was like this all the time. In
fact, she was probably more pleasant when drunk. She slugged
down her wine in one gulp, then thrust her glass at me.
“Now you drink, too, boy. Alcohol is good, you know. You
forget all the bad things.”
“There’s nothing so bad I want to forget.”
“And there’s nothing so good you want to remember,” she
giggled. “I don’t think your poor memory is to blame for not
having any happy memories. There are few happy things in
your life, and few sad things. There’s not much of anything at
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 9 0
all. It’s all empty. It’s an emptiness scarier than darkness.
Ahahaha. Isn’t life fun?”
Retrocognition, telepathy.
It seemed the advertisements about her weren’t just
baloney. She was a damn clairvoyant.
“Give me a break, Maki-san. This is just bullying.”
“Yup. I’m bullying you. Now drink up.”
“I don’t do alcohol. I’m underage.”
“How by-the-book of you. Oh dear, you’re being so cold.
Oh, Ii-chan, you’re so cool! Is that what you want to hear?
That’s weird. I should call you the Boy Who’s Cold Even in
the Summer.”
She put her glass back in front of her with a bored
expression on her face.
Apparently quite starving, Kunagisa scarfed down the
cheese appetizer. She ate with two hands, displaying terrible
manners. Of course, knowing that it would cause no harm in
this situation, it was hard to care about stuff like that.
“It’s supreme, Valencay, and Maroille cheese,” Hikari-san
explained sweetly. Apparently they were all good cheeses to
have with wine. Trying a single piece, I found that it was
indeed delicious, but probably only Kunagisa would be able to
stand a whole lot of it without even so much as some water.
“How did it go with Kanami?” Shinya-san asked me after a
while, cheese in hand. He seemed fairly interested. “Did the
modeling go well?”
“Eh, I suppose. There were no problems, anyway.”
“She’s got a pretty foul personality, eh?” He spoke without
euphemism, about his own boss, no less.
“Oh no, she doesn’t—”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 9 1
“Is that so? Well, at least I’ve never met a woman with a
worse personality than that.”
I had.
She was sitting right next to me, drinking up.
“No, she was fine, really… Oh, but she did smash one of
her pictures all of a sudden, and that was surprising.”
He smirked.
“Oh, that… yeah, yeah. When I got back to the atelier, she
was all, ‘Shinya-san, dispose of this garbage.’ I was like, ‘Who
are you, Picasso?’ Sorry about that. That’s just her thing.
Don’t pay any attention to it. That woman’s seen quite a bit
of success without exerting much effort, so she’s very
obstinate. She can’t live without acting like a big shot.”
“Her ‘thing’?”
“Yeah, you know. If she acts like that, she looks like a
world-class artist, don’t you think? Didn’t she say all sorts of
artisty things to you? Sort of snooty things? That’s how she is,
you see.”
“Well, but, that’s her true nature, right? I mean… I
thought it was.”
“Oh, of course. It’s unquestionably her true nature. But she
doesn’t have to say that kind of stuff, now, does she? If she
were a real artist, she wouldn’t talk like that. Kanami is a
genius, to be sure, but she’s miles away from being an artist.
She’s just giving herself an image. At least, that’s what I think.
I’d appreciate it if she would peel away the façade, but you
know how it is.” He looked a little sad. “Seriously,” he
continued, taking a sip of wine. As he wandered slightly off
topic, the glass of wine suited him quite well. It was a little
enviable.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 9 2
“That’s the reason I asked you to be her model, too. She
doesn’t do many portraits, you see.”
“Oh yeah? But she was saying she doesn’t choose her
subjects.”
“Well, she doesn’t, but… It’s a taste issue. She hates
people. No matter how she draws them, they complain, you
see. Plus, you know, because she used to be blind, and now
her legs are bad, and above all else she has that kind of
personality, she doesn’t get along well with anyone.”
“That’s how geniuses are.”
The only genius I’d ever heard of who was at all good with
human relationships was Gauss.
People like Michelangelo were all supposedly widely
disliked. But with Michelangelo, it was because he didn’t like
anybody to begin with.
“You don’t have to be a genius to be socially awkward,”
Maki-san interjected with a phony innocent expression.
Ah, indeed.
“That woman has a lot of pride about having reached
where she is on her own. So it’s no wonder she doesn’t get
along with Sonoyama-san.”
Indeed, Akane-san, who had honed her talents in a group
atmosphere at the ER3 system, and Kanami-san, who was a
raging individualist, were practically polar opposites. It was
only natural that they never hit it off.
“It was I who taught art to Kanami-san,” Shinya-san said.
“Her eyes got better, and… you have to understand, back then
she had nothing. No family, no special knowledge to speak of.
So I gave her a brush. I was only trying to comfort her, but
just a month later, she had surpassed me.”
“So you’re an artist, too?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 9 3
I hadn’t heard that.
He shrugged his right shoulder, a little embarrassed.
“After Kanami-san surpassed me, I quit. When Verrocchio
realized da Vinci had surpassed him, he broke his own
paintbrush. I, too, grew to understand his feelings in that
moment. With this person of unbelievable talent right next to
me all the time, there’s no need for me to paint pictures.”
That morning, Shinya-san had told me we were alike. I
didn’t know what he meant until now.
The Sakaki Shinya relative to Ibuki Kanami. It was just like
me relative to Kunagisa Tomo. Though he spoke badly of her,
it was clear to me now that Shinya-san had unconditional
affection for Kanami-san.
“So you’re the kind of guy who does everything for other
people, too, eh, Shinya-san?” Maki-san said, as if reading my
mind (what an analogy). “Of course in Shinya-san’s case,
there’s a charm to it, unlike with some people.”
“And why’s that?”
“He doesn’t go around blaming others.”
She was going to bring me down blow by blow.
“Um, hey hey…” Hikari-san interjected with a worried
look. “Who wants something to drink?”
“Some kind of soda would be good.”
“Certainly, right away.”
She pulled a small bottle of ginger ale out of the living
room fridge and quickly returned. With a bright smile, she
placed it beside me.
“Please enjoy.”
She really was quite the hard worker. I thought it would be
rude to keep fighting like this in front of her, so I forced my
wound-up nerves to relax.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 9 4
Gah, there I go blaming things on others.
Damn…
Maki-san had me in the palm of her hand.
“Hikari-chan, gimme a drink, too,” Kunagisa said.
“Certainly!” She went over to Kunagisa with the ginger ale.
“Come to think of it, you’re underage as well, isn’t that
right, Kunagisa-chan?” Maki-san said. “But it’s okay, isn’t it?
How about it? Just one drink.”
“Please don’t encourage her.”
“My my, playing guardian, are we?” Maki-san sneered. “Ah,
how wonderful it must be to be young.”
“But you’re still young as well.”
“No, I’m already twenty-nine.” She spoke as if it were no
big deal, but I was a little surprised. She was always dressed
like such a kid, I figured she had to be about the same age as
Iria-san.
“Wow. So that means you’re the same age as Kanami,”
Shinya-san said. “Then Himena-san, you are still young. You
know, I’m already thirty-two years old. Once you pass thirty,
you really start to feel your age. You get winded easily and
such.”
“Hikari-san, how old are you?” I took the chance to ask.
“I’m twenty-seven.”
“So then, Akari-san is twenty-seven, too?”
“Yup. We’re triplets, after all.”
Twenty-seven… I repeated the number a few times in my
head. Twenty-seven years old. Akari-san and Hikari-san, both
twenty-seven. Maybe this is rude of me, but they really didn’t
look like twenty-seven. I almost wondered if there was some
sort of age-stopping mystery air flowing through the island.
Nah, not likely.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 9 5
This wasn’t Neverland.
“Akane-chan is thirty, right? And I think Yayoi-chan is
about thirty as well. Boy, when you sit down and think about
it, everyone sure is young. Iria-chan must really like young,
female geniuses.”
“Pretty lousy hobby, if you ask me.”
Kunagisa nodded in agreement as she crammed her face
with cheese. Apparently having picked up a spicy piece, she
immediately went for the ginger ale and chugged it, but it
looked as if it went down the wrong pipe, and she released a
barrage of coughs. What the hell was she doing?
Shinya-san let out a sigh. “I thought if I brought Kanami
here to cohabitate with other people, she might change a
little. Kind of like when you send a truant kid off to camp. But
this strategy seems to have been off the mark. It was kind of
like a last resort. At this point, she’ll probably be living like
that for the rest of her life.”
Misunderstood by everyone.
Not expecting anyone to understand.
Not relying on anyone but herself.
Eating away at herself all the while.
“Well, that’s one way to live.”
“Look who’s talking.”
I don’t think I even have to mention whose line that was.
“Uh, speaking of which, Maki-san, why are you here on the
island?” Shinya-san said. “I’ve been wondering for a while. It’s
not just a vacation, is it?”
“It is. This place is a sweet deal. You get to live for free,
and you even get money for it. It’s Xanadu. If I use the Net, I
can even still do fortune-telling. It’s a world of convenience.
Nonstop good times.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 9 6
What a crappy excuse for an adult.
And pretty damn crappy, at that.
“I don’t recall hearing your story,” Maki-san said, breaking
my silence. “Why are you on this island then? And please don’t
tell me something like you came here just because Kunagisachan
said she was going.”
Don’t act like you don’t know, bitch.
Seriously, why was she picking on me like that? Maybe she
was really just making fun of me with no objective or reason
whatsoever.
It wasn’t unthinkable.
“Wrong,” she said, then looked over at Kunagisa.
“Fine, assuming guys like you don’t matter anyway, why is
Kunagisa-chan here?”
“Just a whim, just a whim. I don’t go making reasons for
every little thing I do.”
“I wonder.” Maki-san gave a suspicious grin. I didn’t know
what the deal with her personality was, but she seemed to be
getting along with everyone besides me rather well, including
Kunagisa.
“She’s clever, unlike you.”
“Ah, getting sick of this? Getting tense? Hehehe, but I
won’t stop. I’m gonna keep playing with you until I’m bored
of it.”
She wore an absolutely sadistic smile.
I felt like captured game.
“Telepathy, eh? Amazing as usual, Himena-san, but lay off
him,” Shinya-san cut in. “You’ve chased a whole lot of brilliant
people off this island doing that. He’ll be leaving soon enough
as it is, so there’s no need to send him home any faster, right?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 9 7
“Everyone I try to have fun with hates me. It’s
discrimination against people with superpowers, I tell you.”
Superpowers…
They talked about it like it was an everyday thing, but did
such a thing really exist? Indeed, at the ER3 system, as a
“comprehensive” research center, they had even conducted
advanced psychological research relating to super abilities.
Psychokinesis, ESP, DOP, levitation, and teleportation. I had
seen any number of papers on the inexplicable, unobservable
subject in my time in the ER3 program, and even met a
person who claimed it was for real (though he was a phony).
But all I had concluded was that no matter how you
thought about it, that stuff was a bunch of bull. None of those
papers really explained anything, despite how hard they tried
to arbitrarily cram facts into conclusions.
It was what they called “dry love.” The dry love-filled
thesis papers of these phony scientists were, to be fair,
amusing in their own right, but that’s all they were. They
certainly didn’t have what it took to convince someone of
anything.
“That’s just because you have a narrow mind.”
“Have you ever heard of the word privacy?”
“It’s not my fault. I see what I see and I hear what I hear.
And by the way, trying to run away is futile. No matter where
you go, I’ll know exactly where you are.”
“So, you have remote viewing and supersensitive hearing
powers, too!” Kunagisa said. “I know a lot of people with
special powers, but this is the first time I’ve ever met someone
with so many. Multimulti. Amazing.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 9 8
Despite knowing that our pasts, futures, and minds were
all possibly being read right now, Kunagisa was without a care
in the world. Or maybe she didn’t have any secrets to keep.
“I really wanted psychokinesis, actually, but I ended up
gravitating toward ESP for some reason. Too bad… I mean,
doesn’t teleportation seem so convenient?”
Psychokinesis—referred to as PK—and ESP were
academically defined as two completely different abilities. In
mainstream metapsychology, it’s often said that the existence
of ESP can now be proven, though the same cannot be said
about PK. This is because the idea of PK is something
completely inhuman, while ESP is simply an extension of
actual human senses.
“Fortune-telling is about all I can do with just ESP. It’s not
such a useful ability,” Maki-san said with a sigh.
Certainly there wasn’t much she could have done apart
from fortune-telling, but I still felt skeptical about the whole
idea.
“Maki-san, can you prove that you have these special
powers?”
“I don’t think I need to. How would you, for example,
prove that you are you? Would you show us your driver’s
license? Would you be convinced if I had a Superpowers
License? It doesn’t matter anyway. Whether you think it’s
true or think it’s a lie or think it’s something else, that doesn’t
affect anything anyway. Just like my knowing everything
doesn’t change anything.”
“Mmm, I wonder.”
“You sure have a lot of doubt. Ah, okay, how about I give
you your fortune again?” she said out of the blue, grinning at
me.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 9 9
Damn, I hadn’t seen this coming.
“You deceived me the first time, after all. Yeah, let’s do it.
It’s a good opportunity for you. I almost never do fortunetellings
for free.”
“I’ll pass.”
“Quick answer. You really hate me, huh? Hehehe, my
mentor always taught me to ‘push people’s hatred onward,’ so
that’s what I do.”
“I can’t help but wonder if your mentor meant something
else.”
“You’re quite a liar, aren’t you?” She began her fortunetelling,
regardless of what I had said.
“You don’t like showing your emotions, but you don’t like
controlling them either, so you have many regrets. Even
though you let yourself get pushed around by other people’s
opinions, you’re quite independent. When faced with a
challenge, you run away without deliberating, but you’re not
dumb. And, you don’t like competition. Sound about right?
“Is that what you people call a ‘cold reading’?” I shot back.
“You could’ve just said anything. Those are all things that hold
true for any person, to some extent.”
“Is that so? Hmm, maybe. Then let’s talk about your
relationship with Kunagisa-chan. What we call a compatibility
reading. Hmm, both you and Kunagisa-chan are the type who
don’t need friends. Yet for some reason you stick together.
And the reason for that is? Oh my, this part is fairly skewed.
You stay by her side because you’re jealous of her. And while
you’re jealous of her ability to express herself freely, she
somehow looks unhappy, regardless of whether or not she
really is. You see this girl who has everything you want and
can do all the things you can’t do, yet she is still, for some
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 0 0
reason, unhappy, and that makes you feel better. That makes
you feel like it doesn’t matter if you can’t get what you want.”
“Really?” Kunagisa gave me a confused look. Whether it
was true or not, it wasn’t okay to say such a thing right in
front of Kunagisa.
I shook my head. “No, Maki-san, I think you’ve got me all
wrong. I’m not such a complicated guy. I’m simple as could
be.”
“Yeah, well, maybe, maybe not.”
“Say, Maki-chan,” Kunagisa said, moving closer to her. “If
that’s really the case, then why do I spend time with Ii-chan?”
“Sorry, but I can’t seem to read your mind or past.” Makisan
gave a shrug. “Occasionally I meet someone like that. I
guess it’s a compatibility issue or something, but the aura
surrounding them is very ambiguous and hard to decipher. It’s
like they’re in the dark, and it’s a little unsettling. It puts me
in a bad mood.”
So maybe she was just venting on me.
How awful.
“Himena-san, in light of the occasion. I’ll go ahead and ask
a question, too. How does it feel to be able to see the future
and read people’s minds and such?” Shinya-san said. “I’m just
curious.”
“Hmm. That’s like asking how things look to spiders with
their eight eyes. To attempt a simple explanation, it’s like
watching TV. It’s like the entire room is covered with TVs,
and I don’t have a remote. I can’t turn them off, and I can’t
change the channels, so all I can do is watch. It’s like having a
few more brains than regular people, if you can imagine that.”
I couldn’t.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 0 1
“Now, what’s his face over there got us a little off-topic,
Kunagisa-chan, but I still haven’t heard why you came to this
island.”
“It was just on a whim. I tell you.”
“No. I may not be able to read you, but I know that’s not
why.”
Kunagisa wheezed out a strange sigh. She seemed a little
troubled. I wasn’t a big fan of Maki-san’s way of posing the
question, but to be honest, I had been wondering about it
myself. For what reason had Kunagisa, the ultimate shut-in
with no equal, been compelled to travel all the way out here
to Wet Crow’s Feather Island?
“Okay, I’ll tell you,” she finally said with a piece of cheese
on her tongue. “I’m interested in an incident that took place
here a long time ago.”
But I didn’t get the chance to learn any more. Just as I was
about to ask, “What do you mean, ‘incident’?” I bit down on
my tongue, hard. Thus, I was unable to get the words out. But
even if I miraculously had somehow, it never would’ve
reached Kunagisa’s ears, nor anyone else’s ears, including my
own.
It would have been drowned out by the other noise.
The shaking.
I soon realized it was an earthquake.
“Gah!” Shinya-san uttered.
“Everyone, please, stay calm!” urged Hikari-san, whose
profession demanded that she remain cool no matter what
happened.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 0 2
Maki-san, who looked as if she had been expecting the
earthquake all along, reclined on the couch without a glint of
worry.
I tried to recall what I had learned about earthquakes back
in my first year of junior high school, when I was still in Japan.
Supposedly they would start with small tremors, and then get
bigger and bigger. I couldn’t quite recall which were S waves
and which were P waves, or figure out which were horizontal
and which were vertical tremors, but that didn’t matter.
At any rate, the strength of the shaking had jumped a few
levels. In a panic, I shoved Kunagisa—whose expression said “I
have no idea what’s going on”—onto the sofa and threw
myself on top of her. There was a chandelier right above her.
If that were to fall, she wouldn’t stand a chance of survival
with that tiny stature of hers. That was my thinking at the
time, anyway.
But my efforts seemed to have been in vain, because not a
moment later, the shaking died down. Of course, when I say
“not a moment later,” I mean in terms of real time. To me, it
felt only slightly less dragging and terrible than five minutes
with your hand on a stove.
In reality, the shaking had probably lasted for less than ten
seconds.
“Is it over?” I asked, still on top of Kunagisa.
“Yeah.” Maki-san answered. It was the word of a prophet,
and probably trustworthy. Meanwhile, Kunagisa groaned with
her face buried in the sofa, so I got off her for the time being.
“An earthquake… It was pretty big, too. I wonder what it
rated on the scale,” Shinya-san said, looking around the room.
The glasses and bottles on the table had fallen, and Hikari-san
had already reflexively begun to clean.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 0 3
“Pardon me, Hikari-san. I’m going to borrow the phone.
I’m worried about Kanami.” He pointed to the house phone.
Hikari-san nodded. He headed to the white phone by the
cabinet.
“Hikari-san, do you have a radio or something?” I said. “I
want to check the earthquake’s level. Oh, Tomo, could you
look it up on the Internet?”
“Well, there’s probably already been a breaking news
bulletin. We’re technically in Kyoto right now, right? Oh,
wait, is that wrong?”
“It was a level 3 or 4. I can’t quite pinpoint the epicenter,
but it’s probably around Maizuru, where the level would be at
5,” Maki-san said quite matter-of-factly. “And it seems like
there weren’t many injuries, even in urban areas.”
“How do you know?” Perhaps it was inelegant of me to
pose such a question, but it just felt like the natural thing to
say.
She let out a big sigh before answering. “It’s like I’ve been
telling you, I just know. You may be smart, but you sure are
slow. Don’t have much of a memory either, it would seem.
Hey wait, doesn’t that make you stupid? Anyway, to use an
expression, I can see these things clear as day. Ibuki-san and
the others are all fine.”
“Ah, remote viewing and superhearing, was it?”
Distance wasn’t a factor for her. She could technically
watch TV somewhere on the other side of the ocean, and
even predict what would appear next. Complex ESP.
But even if she had just been making all of this up, there
was no way to check. But it was probably true that the
mansion hadn’t suffered much damage.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 0 4
Shinya-san returned from the phone. “Kanami’s fine,” he
said. “She says she’s in the atelier. Some paint cans fell off the
shelf. It sounds like a big hassle, but at least she’s not hurt.”
“Should you go over there?”
He was her caretaker after all, and even if he hadn’t been,
he must’ve been worried about her, seeing as she couldn’t
walk.
“Nah, no need,” he said with a shrug. “She would probably
get ticked off if I did.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because she told me not to come,” he said with a pained
expression of humility. “She says she’s working right now. In
fact, she’s working on your portrait. Sounds like she’s going to
turn it into a real masterpiece, so I’d better not bother her.”
“Even with Ibuki-san’s talent, there’s no hope if she used
such a terrible model,” Maki-san said.
“You really hate me, don’t you?”
“Uh-huh,” she nodded.
Geez.
Well, whatever. That’s how life had always gone for me
anyway.
I looked over at Hikari-san.
“Does this happen here a lot? Earthquakes, I mean.”
“Not a lot, really. Shinya-san, you’ve been through a few,
right?”
“Yes, but this one was unusually big.”
“I wonder if any furniture fell over. I’m a little worried.”
“If you’re going to fix things up, I’ll help.”
“No, it wouldn’t be right. Tomorrow we’ll deal with it
depending on Rei-san’s orders.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 0 5
She flashed a sweet smile. If she were a mother, her kids
would grow up proper for sure. If we hadn’t met in this kind
of place under these kinds of circumstances, I definitely
would’ve fallen for her. Or at least, I thought I would. It was
never going to happen, but I thought so.
“Teehee. That was my first earthquake in a while,”
Kunagisa mumbled, tossing her blue hair around as she finally
got up from the sofa. “I wonder if my computers are all right.
They should be. If the epicenter was in Maizuru, the mansion
should be okay, too. Boy, this takes me back to the Great
Hanshin quake. Say, Ii-chan, you were already in Houston in
those days, right?”
“Yup. For sure.”
I vaguely remembered seeing something about it on the
news back in my tiny room in America.
“That was a really tough time for me. I was still in Kobe
back then. Most of my computers crashed permanently. I was
so startled.”
Was “startled” really the most appropriate word to describe
living through that disaster?
“So shouldn’t you be worried about your computers? You
must be fully crammed with cheese by now. Let’s go back to
your room already.”
It seemed like the time was right, so I decided to leave the
living room. I didn’t trust that I had the self-control to stay
cool if I had to talk to Maki-san anymore. It seemed like a
good time to split.
As if able to read my every thought, Maki-san’s gaze
burned a hole through my back, and it took every ounce of
willpower in my body to ignore her. I pulled Kunagisa by the
arm and took her back to her room.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 0 6
The three PC’s (I mean two PCs and one workstation) in
her room remained securely situated in the computer rack,
and the room had suffered no other damage.
Kunagisa let out a big yawn and stretched.
“Let’s turn in already. Having a full stomach really makes
you sleepy, huh? Ii-chan, undo my hair.”
“Do it yourself, will you?”
“Come on, it’s hard to undo a ponytail by myself. I’m not
flexible. It’s not that I can’t do it, but I’ll start aching. I’ve
broken bones that way, y’know.”
“I get it, I get it. You’re really adorable, you know that?”
I removed the band from her hair and ran a comb through
it. She let out a naughty little giggle. Once I was finished, she
dove into bed. She sunk herself into the mattress and rolled
around joyously.
“Take off that coat. How many times do I have to tell you?
And aren’t you hot?”
“This coat has special memories attached, so no dice.”
What memories? Even our dear fortune-teller, Himena
Maki, couldn’t read Kunagisa’s past. Maybe it had something
to do what that “team.”
“Anyway, Ii-chan, Kanami-chan and Akane-chan are pretty
terrible, but you and Maki-chan don’t seem to be on the best
of terms either.”
“Well, it’s more like she harasses me for no reason,” I said,
thinking about how similar this was to what Kanami-san had
said. “I don’t have any problems with her in particular.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet. You’re not aggressive enough to hate or
resent people. At the very worst, you get miffed, isn’t that
right?”
“You think? That’s interesting.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 0 7
“Just joking,” she snickered. “But Ii-chan, you’ve really
never fallen in love with someone before, have you?”
“Nope.”
“I love that about you.”
Snicker snicker.
Strange. She was being weirdly feisty. I wondered if maybe
that ginger ale had really been wine. I’d never seen her drunk
before, so I couldn’t imagine what she would be like.
“By the way, Tomo.”
“Vat eez eet?”
“Do you have any special powers?”
“Hmm… if I did, I wouldn’t mind at all,” she said with a
big grin. “I don’t really want any, but one can always dream.
It’s better for Santa Claus to exist than for him not to, right?
It’s just like that.”
“That’s an odd point of view.”
Even if she had special powers, she wouldn’t mind.
Hmm, indeed. That was surprisingly insightful. Whether
you had such abilities or not, it wouldn’t have much of an
effect on your daily life. Of course, now was a bit of an
exception.
Because we were on this island?
Because we were on this island.
I’m gonna go back to my room and turn in, too. See ya
tomorrow. If you’re planning to sleep now, I’ll come wake you
tomorrow, so let’s have breakfast together.”
“Hey, Ii-chan,” she called to me, still lying face-up on her
bed. “Let’s fool around.” She beckoned to me.
I paused, just for a second. “No,” I said.
“Weirdo. Good for nothing. Coward! Chicken pot pie!”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 0 8
Yeah, yeah. I shut the door, went downstairs, and headed
to my room. It would have been truly awful to run into Makisan
in the hallway or something, but luckily no such incident
occurred. Perhaps she was still busy chatting it up with
Shinya-san.
I found a key sticking out of the door to my room. Maybe
it shouldn’t have been a surprise, seeing as it was supposed to
be a storage room, but I couldn’t help wondering about being
trapped inside if someone were to turn the key while I was
asleep. There was no way I could reach the window even if I
stood on the chair, so it really would be like solitary
confinement. Then again, there was nothing anyone could
gain by locking me up, so it was probably just excessive worry.
I entered the room, curled up on my futon, and stared at
the ceiling in thought.
I was of course thinking about what Maki-san had said
earlier.
Oh my, this part is fairly skewed. You stay by her side because
you’re jealous of her. And while you’re jealous of her ability to
express herself freely, she somehow looks unhappy, regardless of
whether or not she really is. You see this girl who has everything you
want and can do all the things you can’t do, yet she is still, for some
reason, unhappy, and that makes you feel better. That makes you feel
like it doesn’t matter if you can’t get what you want.
“Ha!”
Dammit.
“She’s exactly right.”
Akane-san of the Seven Fools had described Kunagisa and I
as a codependent pair, but really, Maki-san’s opinion was
closer to the truth.
To me, Kunagisa Tomo represented the thing I most
wanted to be.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 0 9
No, that wasn’t it. That wasn’t it. To me, she was…
She was…
“She was what?”
The reason I chose a university in Kyoto rather than Kobe
was because she had moved to Kyoto. I also couldn’t deny
that she was one of the reasons I left Houston.
Why had I done all that?
As Maki-san had said, I wasn’t aggressive enough to have
feelings like love or hate. Even if someone were to bother me,
it was a feeling no different from being annoyed when it rains.
No matter how much disdain Maki-san had for me, no matter
how many malicious comments Kanami-san spit at me, no
emotion would ever build up inside me.
I couldn’t help but wonder.
Was I really human?
I didn’t understand other people’s feelings at all.
If they really existed.
If superpowers like the ones Maki-san claimed to use really
existed, perhaps I wanted some myself.
“Nah, I don’t need that,” I reconsidered.
If I could understand people’s feelings, it would just make
life all the more annoying. I wasn’t looking for a life with an
open Pandora’s box. I didn’t have the nerve for it.
“I’m just babbling nonsense here, dammit.”
I hate vacation. I just end up thinking too much. Well, I
don’t know if it’s really too much, but they’re the kind of
thoughts that can only lead to one’s downfall.
Four more days.
I could be patient.
I didn’t hate being patient.
Or at least, I was used to it.
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Suffering and pain.
I was used to these things.
“Still, they don’t feel too good.”
Damn, I wanted to return to my peaceful life on the other
side of the sea, I thought as I fell into the night.
But the following day I would realize that these past three
days had been plenty peaceful.
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There’s an up higher than up,
but at the very top, down is all there is.
It was a dreadful sight.
If I were to compare it to something, let’s see, yeah, okay.
Gruber Norbert’s painting The River. The same sort of creepy,
marble-colored river ran through the middle of Kanami’s
atelier, dividing it in half.
Seemingly due to the previous night’s earthquake, cans of
paint lay scattered around the room, and the simple, iron-pole
shelf had fallen over as well. The earthquake had caused the
shelf to tip, spilling cans everywhere, their contents dumped
on the floor, and this “river” was the result. It was a feasible
theory, and that’s no doubt how it had happened.
But while this “river” was a bizarre enough spectacle on its
own, the real issue lay on the opposite “riverbank.” It was
beyond imagination or speculation, and couldn’t be written off
as the earthquake’s doing. An earthquake capable of this
wouldn’t be found on this Earth.
The facedown body of a person lay on the floor, with a
noticeable vacancy from the neck up.
A headless corpse.
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A beheaded corpse.
It didn’t matter much what words you chose to describe it;
it was what it was.
This body with the missing head was wearing the same
dress Kanami-san had been wearing the previous day. That
exquisite-looking dress that Kanami-san had boasted would
never get dirty while she was painting was now stained redblack
with blood. It didn’t look wearable anymore.
What’s more, there was no longer anyone to wear it.
Or let’s be more specific.
The wearer was no longer alive.
“This is… grotesque,” I uttered reflexively. It went without
saying, but the words just came out.
The room smelled like paint thinner.
Next to Kanami-san’s fallen body sat an overturned
wheelchair and a single canvas. It was far away so I wasn’t
sure, but the painting appeared to have been my portrait.
It was beautiful, a masterwork. Even from this distance,
separated by the river, I could tell. I felt the shock with my
body, not with my mind. In some ways it was more disturbing
than the sight of the headless body.
I recalled what Kanami-san had said the previous day. It’s
not art if you get to pick who looks at it.
Point taken. With this picture, I had no complaints.
Without a doubt, Ibuki Kanami was a genius.
To the point that it made me tremble.
And this made her death all the more devastating. It had
been a long time since I had felt devastated by anything, but I
was truly devastated by this.
By the death of Kanami-san.
The death of Ibuki Kanami.
“Why?”
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Yes, Ibuki Kanami was dead.
I mean, who could stay alive after their head’s been
chopped off? Even Rasputin couldn’t have survived a
decapitation. And Kanami-san was just a physically normal
human being.
“Well, we shouldn’t just leave her like this,” I said, breaking
everyone’s silence. I looked over at Kunagisa. Her lower lip
stuck out dubiously, as if she had noticed something strange
about Kanami-san’s body. She appeared skeptical about
something. But now probably wasn’t the time to be thinking
about such things. If I had to give a reason for each and every
one of Kunagisa’s actions, I would surely die.
As I tried to take a step forward, she tugged at my arm.
“Ii-chan, wait a sec.”
“Huh? Why?”
“The paint isn’t dry yet.”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah.”
Crouching down and checking with the tip of my finger, I
found that she was right. My middle finger turned marblecolored.
“But now isn’t really the time to worry about things like
that.”
There was a cut-up dead body right in front of us. To
worry about dirtying your shoes at a time like this was beyond
trivial.
“Hey, I said wait!” she said. Then, before I knew what she
was getting at, she took off that black coat of hers and tossed
it right in the middle of the river of paint. It was like a
stepping-stone in the river.
“Wasn’t that your precious coat?”
“Its time had come.”
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I tried to say something about her just tossing her
memories off like they were nothing, but as she had said,
there was a bigger issue at hand right now. Besides, what’s
done is done. With little recourse, I jumped to the coat, then
to the other side of the river.
I groaned.
It had been quite awhile since I’d last seen a headless body.
I removed my sweatshirt and placed it over Kanami-san’s
upper body.
I looked back toward the door, where everyone was
standing, and slowly shook my head.
There was no point using words.
“Everyone,” Iria finally said, “could I have us all gather in
the dining room? I think we need to discuss what we’ll do
from here on out.”
With that, she made her way for the hall. The four
maids—Rei-san, Akari-san, Hikari-san, and Teruko-san—
quickly followed close behind. Finally, the other guests began
filing out of the atelier, two by two and three by three.
The last ones to remain in the room were Kunagisa, me,
and Shinya-san.
He was staring at Kanami-san’s body, his face pale and
blank.
“Shinya-san…” Stepping back on the coat, I returned to the
other side. “Let’s go, there’s nothing we can do here.” It killed
me to say it.
“Oh… yeah. Right.”
His mind was off in a very different place. Despite his
response, he made no attempt to move. He stood completely
rigid, his mind unable to comprehend, refusing to comprehend
the sight before his eyes.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 1 7
I understood how he felt.
If the same thing had happened to Kunagisa, I probably
would have been the same way. No, that’s not right. I
probably would have broken down and gone on a screaming
rampage. I know that’s hard to imagine for a guy like me,
who, as Maki-san would say, was “dead to all emotions,” but
that’s probably what would have happened.
In that respect, Shinya-san was truly admirable.
He didn’t look too good, but at least he hadn’t broken
down. And he could even speak. His mental faculties
remained intact, albeit just barely.
This is what separated him from me. I was just a kid.
Shinya-san was an adult.
I didn’t know what kind of relationship Shinya-san and
Kanami-san had, whether he was just her caretaker or
something more, or perhaps something less.
However…
Remembering the sad look in his eyes the previous night…
And seeing him now, I somehow understood.
“Ii-chan, let’s go ahead,” Kunagisa said, pulling on my arm.
“Yeah.”
And thus ended our tranquil lives on this island.
And thus began the next chapter.
The morning of the fourth day on the island had started
extremely normal. Really, extremely normal.
I awoke the same as always. By the time I got to Kunagisa’s
room, she was already awake and sitting at her computers. She
said she was checking her e-mail. “Do my hair,” she said,
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 118
without so much as a “good morning.” I put the hair on the
top of her head in two tails, what we called a “twin tail.” I
figured it would be easy enough for her to undo it herself this
time.
“I feel like breakfast today,” she said, so we headed for the
dining room. Peeking into the living room on the way, I found
that Maki-san and Shinya-san were still there drinking wine.
They must have been up all night drinking. “They sure aren’t
paying their age any mind,” I thought, but of course I stayed
quiet.
Out of courtesy, I invited them to breakfast and they
accepted. The four of us entered the dining room. Sitting at
the table were Akane-san and, making a rare appearance, Iriasan.
“Oh, what an unusual occurrence,” Iria-san also said. “To
have everyone gathered like this even in the morning… Well, I
suppose it was inevitable. Shall I call in the others? It would
be nice to all do breakfast together.”
She summoned the nearby Akari-san and asked her to go
fetch Yayoi-san, who was no doubt in the kitchen, and the
other maids.
“Well, I’ll go fetch Kanami-san,” Shinya-san said. “She’s
probably all done painting by now anyway. Hmm, I wonder if
she’s still sleeping. Ehh, she doesn’t get cranky in the morning.
Despite her lousy personality.”
He chuckled a bit at his own joke and looked at me. “Hope
you’re looking forward to seeing that picture,” he said, and left
the dining room.
It would have been the first time Kunagisa and I had done
breakfast with the entire group, but it never actually
happened.
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When Shinya-san returned to the dining hall, what he
brought was the news of Kanami-san’s death.
“Kanami’s been… murdered.”
That’s how he phrased it, anyway, but it was quite a bit of
an understatement, if you ask me. There was no way she died
of sickness or an accident, or even suicide—she had been
beheaded.
Whatever the case.
This was a murder.
And not just a murder, but…
“Me? I was… right. After dinner, I was with Kunagisa the
whole time. I took a bath in her room, then she said she was
hungry, so we went to the living room. On the way we ran
into Akari-san. Isn’t that right? Right. In the living room we
met Hikari-san, Maki-san, and Shinya-san, and then… the
earthquake. There was an earthquake, right? We were in the
living room until that earthquake occurred. After that, I took
Kunagisa back to her room, and then… right, I went to sleep. I
woke up today at six, and I’ve been with Kunagisa ever since.”
I tried my best to sound calm, even under everyone’s gaze.
An alibi check.
Why we had to start with me, I don’t know, but Iria-san
had requested it, so there was no choice. It seemed she viewed
me as the prime suspect.
The dining room.
Eating my slightly cold breakfast.
No one else seemed to be able to continue with breakfast
after seeing the headless corpse, and indeed I was feeling
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 2 0
pretty squeamish myself but Yayoi-san’s cooking was so good,
I couldn’t just let it all go to waste.
The round table.
Iria-san, Teruko-san, Rei-san, Yayoi-san, Shinya-san,
Kunagisa Tomo, myself. Akane-san, Maki-san, Hikari-san, and
Akari-san. Everyone was sitting in their assigned seats, with
only Kanami-san’s seat, at the five o’clock position, empty. It
would never be filled.
Iria-san tilted her head at me a bit in response to my
testimony. Then she glanced over at Hikari-san in the ten
o’clock seat. “Hikari, is that true?”
“Yes,” she nodded. “Up until the earthquake occurred…
um… one o’clock, was it? Yes, one o’clock. The five of us
including me were talking the whole time. I can vouch for
that.”
“Did anyone get up and leave for a while?”
“No,” Hikari said with a bit of uncertainty. “I don’t think
so… although I couldn’t say for certain.”
“No one left,” Kunagisa said, coming to her rescue. “And
I’ve got a perfect memory. Nobody left the living room.”
“Is that so?” Iria closed her eyes. “In that case, you and
Kunagisa-san, Sakaki-san, Himena-san, and Hikari can all
account for one another up until the earthquake, is that right?
How about after the earthquake?”
“I slept alone, so I suppose I don’t have an alibi.”
“Thank you. Well then, I suppose I should go ahead and
give my alibi next. Last night I was with Rei and Sashirono-san
in my room talking. Yesterday’s dinner was even more
delicious than usual, so I was asking her about the recipe. Isn’t
that right, Sashirono-san?”
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Possibly because her name had suddenly come up, Yayoisan
looked a bit startled. “Yes,” she nodded quickly.
Rei-san shrugged a bit, but said nothing. If you thought
about it, she must’ve been a really cool-headed person. Of
course Teruko-san was quiet as ever, but Rei-san was more
silent than you would have imagined. Whether she was just
being loyal to her employer or this was just her natural
personality, I wasn’t sure.
“The earthquake happened, and… then I decided to go
back to my room,” she said as if struggling to remember.
“That’s right,” Iria-san nodded. “After that, Rei and I were
up all night talking. Kunagisa-san will be leaving soon, so I
thought we should discuss the idea of holding some kind of
fun event… you know, like a farewell party. That’s the
tradition here. Anyway, we ended up forgoing sleep, so I just
came straight here for breakfast.”
In other words, Iria-san and Rei-san had perfect alibis.
Yayoi-san, like Kunagisa and I, only had an alibi up until the
earthquake.
“Shinya-san and I have complete alibis as well,” Maki-san
said. “Kunagisa-chan and the rest can confirm that up until the
earthquake, and Shinya-san and I can vouch for each other
after that. My, alcohol is just wonderful.”
Just how trustworthy was a drunk person’s testimony?
Maki-san must’ve known I was thinking that, because she
glared at me. But without a word to me, she turned to Shinyasan.
“Isn’t that right?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah, right,” he replied vacantly.
“Hmm… Hikari, what did you do after the earthquake?”
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“I went back to our room. Akari and Teruko were there,
too. After that, I went to bed. I woke up today at five o’clock,
and then got back to…”
“What about Akari and Teruko then? Akari, answer.”
“After dinner, we didn’t have any work left to do, so…” she
paused, with a hand to her cheek as she tried to think.
“Teruko and I were together in our room the whole time.
Then the earthquake happened, and Hikari came back soon
after that. That’s when we decided to go to bed.”
“The three of you share one room?” I asked. Akari-san’s
eyes shot in my direction as if she never would’ve guessed I
would speak up.
“Yes, the three of us share a room. Is something wrong
with that?”
“Oh no, nothing.”
Just wondering. I bowed to her. I wanted to ask if they
shared the same futon as well, but I decided to stay quiet.
Hmm…
That meant that Akari-san and Teruko-san had solid alibis
up until the earthquake as well. After that, they had all gone
to bed, so they couldn’t really vouch for one another.
Teruko-san nodded a bit after listening to Akari’s
testimony, but ultimately said nothing. It was a simple
gesture, but somehow hard to understand.
“This is becoming quite complicated.” Iria-san looked
toward the last possible suspect, Sonoyama Akane-san. “What
about you?” she said. “What were you doing last night?”
Akane-san, who had been closely observing the situation
up until now with arms folded and mouth shut, let out a sigh.
“Judging from the fact that nobody’s mentioned my name up
until now, it’s probably pretty obvious, but, yep, I wasn’t with
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anyone last night.” She spoke unhesitatingly. “After I finished
dinner, I went back to my room and got on the computer. I
was working on some modeling, and, well, I’ll spare you the
boring details. There should be a log, so you could check that
for proof, but I suppose that kind of thing can be forged. I
guess you couldn’t call it an alibi.”
“I don’t know much about computers. What do you think,
Kunagisa-san?”
“Hmm?” Kunagisa’s head popped up (hell of a time to be
daydreaming). “Oh. With a degree of skill, a person could
easily manipulate something as simple as a log. Akane-chan,
how much do you know about computers?”
Akane-san smirked. “There’s probably no point in
answering that.”
“Oh, okay,” Kunagisa nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.
With the right tools, even an amateur could alter a log. It’s not
like it’s very hard. You can find that kind of software all over
the place.”
“Isn’t there a way to see if the log’s been altered?” I asked.
“There is, but that can be faked, too. Just about anything’s
possible with a computer, you see, so it’s hard to use one to
confirm an alibi.”
Kunagisa Tomo. Invited to this island as the leader of that
“team.” She was peerless in her field, so there was no way she
was wrong. In which case, Akane-san had no alibi to speak of.
Akane-san let out another sigh. “But I suppose I have to
make a defense for myself or else you’ll have me on a cross. So
I’ll just go ahead and say it: I didn’t do it. Certainly I hate
artists, but I don’t think they’re worth killing. They’re already
dead when they’re alive. It wouldn’t be worth the effort. I had
nothing to do.”
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She probably meant to say, “I had nothing to do with it,”
but at any rate, she didn’t seem to be bluffing or playing
tough, and it didn’t seem like an act, either.
“Okay, everyone please hold on a minute. I need to work
this out in my head.”
“Um, before that, please hold on,” I said to Iria-san. The
conversation was growing bizarre. Hold on before we hold on?
“Um, Iria-san, what exactly are you trying to do?”
“I’m sorry?”
“It’s just that this all feels really strange to me, and… of
course, this is your island and your mansion, so I know it’s
probably better not to say anything, plus I’m not even really a
guest, but I’m asking anyway. What exactly are you trying to
do?”
“Well. I’m trying to get to the bottom of this, of course,”
she smiled softly. “It seems pretty clear to me,” she continued.
“Ibuki-san was murdered by someone. And in this case, that
means she was murdered by someone in this room. As you
said, this is my island and my mansion. One of the guests I’ve
invited here has been killed, and the murderer is right here.
Surely you don’t think we can just leave this alone?”
She glanced over the crowd with an ironic smile.
Indeed, she was right. This was a remote island. A remote,
deserted island, completely isolated.
Wet Crow’s Feather Island.
If there were twelve people on the island and one was
killed, the murderer had to be one of the remaining eleven.
Even elementary school students can do that sort of basic
arithmetic.
“Gosh, another death,” Iria-san said with a sigh.
Another? Did she just say “another”?
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 2 5
“And another decapitation, at that. Could it be that this
island is cursed? Say, Himena-san, can you see into that?”
“You’re the one who’s cursed,” Maki-san answered. “The
island is just an island. If anything is cursed, it’s you.”
As disheartening a statement as that was, Iria-san replied
with a strange smile. “Maybe so.”
Ah, it all made sense. It had seemed strange to me that
despite her attitude, Maki-san was able to get along so well
with everyone other than me, but now I got it. Nobody else
on this island cared about what other people said.
“Mmm, but this is a fairly simple case. Maybe there’s no
need for all this questioning. After all, the time of the incident
is fairly laid out for us.”
“Is it?”
“It is. You saw it, too, right? All that paint got knocked
over during the earthquake, and Ibuki-san’s body was lying on
the other side. How wide do you suppose that river of paint
was?”
Nobody ventured an answer, so I went ahead. “At a quick
glance, I would’ve said about ten feet.”
“Right, not that big but certainly not small enough to jump
over. So we can confirm that the murder must have happened
before the earthquake.”
The shelf had fallen over in the quake, resulting in that
marble-colored river. What did that mean? The quake must
have been more intense than I had realized, but that’s not all.
What did that river really mean?
“Hold on a second,” Akane interrupted. She looked a bit
concerned. “This conversation doesn’t bode well for me. You
know why?”
Why?
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 2 6
Everyone besides Akane-san had an alibi prior to the
earthquake.
I was with Kunagisa the whole time. Same with Hikari-san,
Maki-san, and Shinya-san. Same deal with Akari-san and
Teruko-san. And of course, Iria-san, Rei-san, and Yayoi-san.
Everyone had an alibi and could vouch for one another.
Iria-san was right. There was no way someone could jump
that marble river of paint the earthquake had created.
Likewise, there was no way to cross the river without stepping
in the paint and creating footprints.
In which case…
The murder had to have happened before the earthquake.
The only one with no alibi at that time was Akane-san.
Indeed, this didn’t bode well for her at all.
“Iria-san,” she clucked. “I’m just going to ask you straight.
Do you think I did it?” That certainly was straight.
“Yes,” Iria-san admitted just as directly. “I mean, who else
could have?”
Akane-san broke eye contact with Iria-san and said
nothing. She was at a loss for an effective argument despite
that Seven Fools brain of hers. Feeling some sliver of a
connection with her somehow, I wanted to jump in and save
her, but if a member of the Seven Fools couldn’t think of a
rebuttal, there was no way a program dropout could.
An awkwardness hung in the air for a while, but it was
Kunagisa who broke it.
“That’s wrong,” she said. “I don’t think that logic
completely makes sense, Iria-chan.”
“Oh? Why is that?” Iria-san seemed strangely glad to hear
it. “Ah, I see. You’re talking about the possibility of an
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 2 7
accomplice. I suppose there is that possibility. That would
make everyone’s alibis a little shaky.”
“No, not that. Even if you don’t consider an accomplice,
you’re missing something. Right, Ii-chan?”
“Huh?” I blurted out, completely surprised that I would be
pulled into this.
“Come on, Ii-chan, tell her. About what happened last
night.”
“Last night… something happened?”
Looking fairly irritated, Kunagisa clammed up. This was a
fairly rare thing for her.
“What can I say? Unlike you, I have a bad memory.”
“Geez, you really don’t remember? Your memory isn’t bad,
it’s nonexistent! Do you always forget things this important?
After the earthquake. Shinya-chan made a call to Kanamichan,
right?”
“Oh. Oh. Oh!”
Hikari-san and Shinya-san looked up in surprise.
That’s right. Shinya-san had called Kanami-san after the
quake and confirmed that she was okay. Confirmed that
nothing had happened to her.
Wow, that was important, just like Kunagisa said. What
did that mean though? What would happen now?
“In other words, Kanami-chan must have been killed after
the earthquake.”
“Hold on a sec,” Iria-san said in a bit of a panic. “But that
river of paint…”
“Well, Iria-chan, that must mean this…” she paused for a
moment. “The atelier was locked.”
Everyone exchanged glances for a moment.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 2 8
That river of paint was unjumpable for sure. It was ten feet
wide. Maybe it was possible if you were a long-jumper, but
even then, there was no space to get a running start. If you
considered that, the murder must have happened before the
earthquake, just like Iria-san said, but then Shinya-san’s story
wouldn’t have made sense. Immediately after the earthquake,
Kanami-san had neither been killed nor harmed.
“Sakaki-san,” Iria-san said, “that was Ibuki-san’s voice for
sure, right?”
He went even paler, with a confused expression written on
his face. At last, he nodded. “Yeah, it was definitely Kanami.
No mistake. She said she was busy, and that the paint had
fallen over so everything was a mess. She had to have been
alive after the earthquake.”
“I heard Sakaki-san talking on the phone as well,” Hikarisan
told her mistress. “He asked me if he could use the house
phone and… I think Ibuki-san must have been alive still.”
“Yeah, she was still… he clutched his head in anguish. “If I
had only gone to the atelier instead of neglecting my duties.
Dammit! I’m scum! I’m nothing but scum!”
There wasn’t much to say to that. Only that in the end, it
wasn’t earthquakes or blizzards or fire that was frightening.
It seems there is some kind of solace to be found in regret.
It serves as an escape from what’s right before your eyes.
You end up pinning all your bad deeds on the “former you.”
It’s hardly what you would call self-condemnation.
When you are regretting something, you’re technically
being good.
I’m not saying Shinya-san was a monster. People are just
wired that way. If anyone was a monster, it was me, for only
being able to nitpick at people’s flaws like this.
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“This is starting to get strange,” Akane-san said, stroking
her chin. “According to Shinya-san, Hikari-san, and Kunagisasan’s
testimony, the murder must have happened after the
earthquake. But after the earthquake, the river of paint had
already been formed, in which case there is nobody who could
have killed her. In which case…”
“That’s right, Akane-chan.” Kunagisa interrupted. She had
that look she gets when she’s starting to find something
interesting. “This is an incredibly strange situation.”
“When you say the atelier was locked, you mean…” Iriasan
nodded, seemingly convinced. “Hmm. Indeed, even now,
that paint isn’t dry, huh? Could there have been a way to
climb over it and enter the room? Say, Akari, where’s the
house phone in Ibuki-san’s atelier?”
“It’s beside the window, on a phone stand,” Akari-san
answered with great certainty.
Iria-san crossed her arms and considered this. “Kunagisasan,
you’ve posed this question, but I don’t suppose you know
the answer already? Do you know who did it?”
“Nope,” Kunagisa answered, strangely confident.
Of course, I didn’t know, either.
Nobody knew.
“What about the window? Is it possible that the person
entered through the window?” Shinya-san asked.
Hikari-san answered. “But it’s the second floor. I don’t
think it’s possible. And I’m pretty sure that window is locked
from the inside, so—”
“So it can’t be opened from the outside at all?”
“Probably,” Hikari-san answered.
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Check. So the window was impossible, and so was the
door. It couldn’t have happened before the earthquake or after
the earthquake, so…
Okay.
We were at a complete dead end.
Everyone fell into silence once more. And then, eyes
started shifting back toward Akane-san.
“Huh?” she seemed a little surprised. “Hey, I thought I had
cleared myself.”
“Maybe not,” Iria-san said. “Clearing that paint river is
impossible, right? So, ultimately, it must have been before the
earthquake.”
“What about what Shinya-san said?”
“He could’ve been tricked. Maybe it was an auditory
hallucination or something.”
Auditory hallucination? Nonsense. It was beyond nonsense.
I had to say something.
“I think that’s just what you want to believe,” I said.
“I don’t think so,” Iria-san said, unfazed by my opinion.
“Even supposing it wasn’t auditory hallucination, it could have
easily been some other sort of misunderstanding. There’s no
crossing that river of paint, that much is for sure. Thus, it’s
only logical to presume the murder happened before the
earthquake, in which case it couldn’t be anyone but Akanesan.”
“This isn’t good,” Akane-san said, seeming truly worried. “I
know this probably won’t help my case any, but I can’t help
but feel like Akari-san and Teruko-san’s alibi is a little sketchy.
I mean, family members vouching for each other? It wouldn’t
hold up in a court of law.”
“We’re not talking about a court of law,” Iria-san said flatly.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 3 1
“I didn’t think so,” Akane-san said as if she expected such a
response. “Still, determining the criminal by process of
elimination doesn’t make much sense. It’s silly. And simply
ignoring Sakaki-san’s testimony isn’t exactly what I would call
logical thinking. It’s selective thinking.”
“Selective thinking?”
Akane-san shot me a look, as if to say, “Will you please
explain?”
“A confirmation bias,” I blurted, suddenly remembering
from my program training that one is never to reveal his own
stupidity to a “senior.” “In other words, it means when you
only consider testimonies and evidence that suit your opinion
and write off all evidence to the contrary as some kind of
fluke. Actually, they say that in supernatural ability
experiments, they”—my eyes wandered over to Maki-san—
“they use it a lot. ‘Dry Love,’ wasn’t it? They obsess over any
evidence that suggests these abilities exist while ignoring any
evidence that suggests they don’t. It’s their way of getting
desirable results, I guess.”
“I don’t really follow you.”
I had gone to all that effort to remember these things, and
here Iria-san wasn’t even listening. What a waste of breath.
Akane-san sighed deep.
“I suppose Ibuki-san and I were on pretty awful terms, but
still…”
I recalled their nasty bickering from the previous night’s
dinner. It didn’t exactly do wonders for her case. Certainly it
wasn’t only Akane-san’s lack of an alibi that made Iria-san
doubt her so much, but this as well.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 3 2
Of course, it wasn’t that I didn’t understand Iria-san’s
feelings. But if you took Shinya-san’s testimony into account,
even Akane-san couldn’t be a suspect.
It was an uncommitable crime. There were no suspects.
There was one victim and zero suspects. The situation didn’t
make any sense. And thus to fix it…
“Sakaki-san’s testimony seems a little shady after all,” Iriasan
said, staring right at him. “Even if it’s not a lie, it’s got to
be some kind of misperception or dream or some such.”
“But I heard him talking on the phone,” Hikari-san said.
Iria-san shook her head. “It’s not like you heard Ibuki-san’s
voice, right? Sakaki-san is the only one who heard her voice
directly, which means…”
“Come on, that’s—” Shinya-san started to protest, but as if
realizing he had no basis for an argument, he went silent.
“Hmm. Well, if that’s the way it is, I guess there’s no
choice but to suspect me. That’s one way to look at things,
anyway,” Akane-san said, almost as if she was talking about
someone else. Even now, she didn’t seem to be lying or acting.
Sonoyama Akane, ER3 system, Seven Fools. She seemed all
too used to this kind of pandemonium. “But still, you don’t
have any proof. Iria-san, even if you are the mistress of this
island and this mansion, you wouldn’t treat me like a criminal
without any proof, would you? This may not be a court of law
here, as you say, but it’s not some dusty old detective novel,
either, right? You can’t just assume I’m the criminal based on
this unformulaic process of elimination and selective thinking.
Nobody can do that.”
“But Sonoyama-san, you also can’t prove that you’re not
the criminal.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 3 3
“You can’t ask the innocent to prove their innocence. You
can’t prove the unprovable. I’m innocent until proven guilty.”
“You’re talking law again.”
Akane-san’s shoulders slumped. “Well, what’s your point,
Iria-san? So I’m the prime suspect. Fine. That’s absolutely
right. I’m the only one with no alibi before the earthquake.
Nobody could have entered the atelier after the earthquake.
Sure, I’m with you on that, too. Therefore, Sakaki-san’s
testimony becomes suspicious. Makes sense. So what now?”
So…
What now?
“What should we do?” Iria-san looked around the table
with a troubled expression. It seemed she hadn’t thought any
further than this. How anticlimactic.
“Throw me to the police or whatever you want,” Akanesan
said, brushing the bangs from her face.
Akane-san of the Seven Fools being sent off to the police?
“I hate the police,” Iria-san said, still perplexed as she
stared up at the ceiling. “Oh, what to do?”
A heaviness filled the air once again.
I whispered to Kunagisa. “Hey, Tomo.”
“What’s up, Ii-chan?”
“Isn’t there some way to stop this witch hunt?”
“There is.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, but”—she looked up at me—“you ought to do it,
not me.”
“Yeah, okay,” I nodded, then raised my hand.
Iria-san called on me with a confused look. “Yes, you.” Ah,
good. It was so nice not to be ignored.
“I have a suggestion.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 3 4
“Yes?”
“How about using the room I’ve been staying in? It looks
like you can only lock and unlock it from the outside. What if
we kept Akane-san there for a while?”
“Kept her there?” She eyed me dubiously. “You mean like
imprisonment?”
“Not imprisonment, exactly. Not imprisonment, just… a
brief period of seclusion. Iria-san, I think the biggest thing we
have to fear right now is that this turns into a string of
murders. Kanami-san was killed. Okay, that’s already said and
done. I hate to be so frank about it, but what’s done is done.
But more important, we can’t let anyone else die. The
quickest way to deal with a situation like this is to isolate the
prime suspect. If Akane-san really is the murderer, naturally
she won’t be able to commit any more murders. If, on the
other hand, someone else used some kind of trick and
managed to sneak in and kill Kanami-san after the earthquake,
then that person would be brought to a standstill. After all, if
they tried anything again, it would prove Akane-san’s
innocence.”
I looked around to see people’s responses.
“In other words, create an antagonistic environment, so
that the killer can’t move around. This includes Akane-san, as
well as everyone else. The atelier may have been locked, but
locked doors are made to be unlocked. There might have been
some trick. There might not have been. That doesn’t matter.
What matters is that we don’t know either way. Akane-san
might have done it. Someone else might have. Even I might
have. I might not. So I think the best thing to do is create a
situation where the killer can’t do anything.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 3 5
“Ah, I get it,” Yayoi-san said, a bit to my surprise. “That
makes a lot of sense. I’d have to say I agree. I don’t think
there’s a very solid basis for suspecting Sonoyama-san alone.
Iria-san’s reasoning seems rather arbitrary.”
Iria-san gave her a quizzical look. Nonetheless. Yayoi-san
continued.
“I don’t think it’s a bad idea. But you don’t intend to just
lock her up forever, right? In that awful room?”
Hey, I’ve been sleeping in that awful room, dammit.
Lousy bourgeoisie.
“Well, just until the police arrive. This is a private island, it
shouldn’t take more than a day or two to get an investigator
out here.”
“I’m not calling the police,” Iria-san said, completely
surprising me.
Eh? Pardon me, madame, what was the horrible thing you
uttered?
“I mean, what’s the point, right? Even if we call the police,
they’ll just figure Sonoyama-san was the criminal and it’ll end
there. The police won’t do anything.”
It wasn’t Iria-san’s words that I found suspicious, but her
facial expression. The police won’t do anything? Why did she
say that with such a stern face?
“But we can’t just not call the police. If we did that, there
wouldn’t be any point in confining her.”
“Not necessarily. We just have to piece things together
while she’s in there. We’ll track down the real culprit with
evidence and reason. Doesn’t that make sense to you?”
“Will you be the one investigating then, Iria-san?”
Something about Iria-san’s idea of using “reason” didn’t sit
well with me at all. But to my surprise, she shook her head.
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“No, not me, of course. Don’t you remember? I told you
yesterday, didn’t I? In a week—no, six days—that wonderful,
marvelous human being is coming to this island.”
The detective of this proverbial mystery novel. Iria-san’s
favorite.
Iria-san’s hero.
“Surely Aikawa-san will crush this problem to
smithereens.”
To smithereens. What an expression. And she didn’t look
like she was exaggerating, either.
“Six more days, huh?” Akane-san said cynically, letting her
crossed arms drop down beside her. “Well, whatever. Fine fine
fine. I know I’m not guilty, but if this is what it takes to
convince you, what can I say? I presume we can trust this
Aikawa-san?”
“Yes. Of course.” Iria-san gave a confident nod. You could
feel her utmost faith in this hero of hers just from looking at
her.
Akane-san let out one more big sigh. “Fine. Let’s do it
then.”
“I wonder if that was really the right thing to do,” I said as I
played with Kunagisa’s hair. She said it was too heavy all tied
up high like that and wanted me to redo it. Here I had
thought it was adorable, but if she didn’t like it, I had no
choice.
Everybody had since split up, and the two of us had gone
back to Kunagisa’s room.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 3 7
“I think it’s okay. It’s pretty much what I expected to
happen. Akane-chan must be kinda grateful, too, eh? It’s a
way better idea than continuing that unproductive bickering,
anyway.”
“Hmm, I wonder…”
As the one who had suggested the idea in the first place, I
couldn’t imagine Akane-san was too happy about it. I felt a
little guilty. It might well have been the only solution, but I
couldn’t help but wonder if there was some other way.
“All done.”
“‘Sankyuu.” She crawled over to her computer rack and sat
down with her back to me. Then she switched on the power
and started typing away.
“I just… I feel like we’ve wronged Akane-san.”
“Maybe so. But some things can’t be avoided, y’know, Iichan?”
After breakfast, Akane-san had gone off to my room on her
own two feet. It had been decided that Akari-san and the
others would deliver meals to her directly, and that she would
have to call them from the room phone every time she wanted
to use the bathroom.
Akane-san had requested a reading lamp so she could pass
the following six days reading books she had brought.
Six days… Objectively speaking, the room wasn’t a
particularly bad environment. But the door couldn’t be
unlocked from the inside and the window was way high up—
there was virtually no means of escape. In that sense, it really
was imprisonment.
Six days.
It really was too long to be locked up.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 3 8
“If only Iria-san would call the police, we wouldn’t have to
do all this. It’s like she’s trying to cover up the incident
altogether.”
“But Iria-chan is right, y’know? If she had called the police,
they would’ve blamed Akane-chan and closed the case right
there. Or even if they didn’t convict her, she would’ve been a
suspect. I mean, wouldn’t you want to avoid something like
that? Seriously, one of the Seven Fools becoming a murder
suspect?”
“Do you know a lot about the ER3, Tomo?”
“I’ve got a few acquaintances from over there. But I’m sure
you know more than I do.”
“Speaking of Seven Fools, Akane-san didn’t have criminal
immunity or anything, did she?”
“But it would be even worse of a situation for me, not to
mention Yayoi-chan and Maki-chan, who are both well
respected. Nobody needs a scandal like this to deal with. Of
course the same goes for Iria-chan. So it’s only natural that she
isn’t calling the police.”
“Natural, huh?”
It was probably this island itself that was unnatural. But
judging from Iria-san’s manner, I got the feeling there was
more to the story. Like she had some more fundamental
reason for not wanting to call the cops.
“Do you suppose Iria-san has some specific reason for
disliking the police?”
“Well, what if we asked her?”
“I doubt she’d tell us.”
“Yeah, maybe. Anyway, why worry about it? Once this
Aikawa character Iria-chan’s so crazy about gets here,
everything will be solved. It’s just another six days.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 3 9
“Yeah, but…”
Iria-san was the mistress of the island, and if she said no
police, there was no going against her. For what it was worth,
there would probably be no more murders with Akane-san
locked in seclusion. But still…
“Say, Tomo.”
“What, Ii-chan?”
“I want to ask a favor.”
“I accept. What is it?”
“Can you do something about that locked door?
“I don’t know, but for you, I’ll try.”
There was no need to spend the next six days just sitting
around. I was the one who had proposed this course of action
in the first place, so I had a duty to give the case some serious
thought.
“If we can figure this case out quick, we won’t have to
keep Akane-chan locked up in there, whether she did it or
not.”
She swiveled her chair around to face me. She beckoned
me closer. “Here, here.” I walked over to the computers as
told.
“For the time being, I’ve typed up everyone’s alibis.”
Ibuki Kanami (murdered)
Sonoyama Akane
Before earthquake: X
After earthquake: X
Kunagisa Tomo
Before earthquake: O (Ii-chan, Hikari, Maki, Shinya)
After earthquake: X
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 4 0
Sashirono Yayoi
Before earthquake: O (Iria, Rei)
After earthquake: X
Chiga Akari
Before earthquake: Δ (Teruko)
After earthquake: X
Chiga Hikari
Before earthquake: O (Ii-chan, Tomo, Maki, Shinya)
After earthquake: X
Chiga Teruko
Before earthquake: Δ (Akari)
After earthquake: X
Sakaki Shinya
Before earthquake: O (Ii-chan, Tomo, Maki, Hikari)
After earthquake: O (Maki)
Handa Rei
Before earthquake: O (Iria, Yayoi)
After earthquake: Δ (Iria)
Himena Maki
Before earthquake: O (Ii-chan, Tomo, Hikari, Shinya)
After earthquake: O (Shinya)
Akagami Iria
Before earthquake: O (Rei, Yayoi)
After earthquake: Δ (Rei)
“Look about right?”
“I understand the O’s and X’s, but what are those
triangles?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 4 1
“Akane-chan was right about family testimonies. Iria-chan,
Rei-chan, Akari-chan, Hikari-chan, and Teruko-chan seem like
a pretty upstanding bunch, so for now, they get a check. It’s
just that, well, their alibis seem kind of shaky.”
She scrolled down the screen and checked the alibi chart
one more time.
“For now, let’s ignore the possibility of an accomplice,” I
said. “And that includes family ties. If we assume that much,
we can remove Shinya-san and Maki-san from the suspect list.
Oh, and also Rei-san and Iria-san.”
Four people down.
Seven people left.
“If Shinya-san’s testimony was accurate, then the locked
room with the paint becomes a problem. But if it was a lie,
that means only Akane-san could have done it.”
“I can’t imagine why Shinya-chan would lie, though.”
“Well, it could’ve been a misunderstanding or something
rather than a lie.”
Well, how about that.
I was starting to sound like Iria-san.
“But you know, Akane-san really is the prime suspect here,
objectively speaking.”
“Yeah, you can’t help but think that, looking at this chart.
No matter how fair or sympathetic you are, it doesn’t change
the fact that she’s the only one without any smidgen of an
alibi. If that weren’t the case, she probably wouldn’t have
accepted this whole seclusion idea.”
“Yeah, for sure. So, Tomo, do you think Akane-san did it?”
“I wouldn’t say that. Like she said herself, there’s no
evidence. You can’t decide who the criminal is by process of
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 142
elimination alone. We haven’t even examined Kanami-chan’s
body yet, either.”
“Ah, and I suppose there is still the fact that the room was
locked.”
“But if you take that into account, nobody could’ve done
the crime. Ii-chan, you have any ideas about that?”
“I’ve got a few,” I said as I pondered. “Maybe I’ll figure
something out after a little while. How about you, Tomo?”
“I’ve got tons of ideas,” she said. “Just need to give it a little
more thought and it should all fall into place. Oh, and Iichan?
Whether or not Shinya-san’s testimony is true, I think
the murder happened after the earthquake.”
“Huh? Why?”
“That picture of you. Do you really think she could’ve
finished a picture like that before the earthquake? I don’t
think so.”
“Well…”
It was tough to say. Kanami-san was pretty damn fast when
it came to painting. But if what Kunagisa said was true, then it
was all the more certain that the door had been locked. That
wouldn’t be the most helpful development in the case.
“And then there’s the headless body itself.”
I nodded.
Regardless of who killed her, why would they cut her head
off?
“They say to beware of swapped identities when the bodies
show up with no head, but I don’t suppose there’s any need
for doubt in this particular case. There were twelve people,
one had her head cut off, and now there are eleven. And we
know exactly who and where those eleven people are.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 4 3
“If it was one of those three maid sisters who got killed, it
would’ve been a real problem, huh?” Kunagisa said. “But with
Kanami-chan, there’s probably no need to worry about it. If
there were other people on this island it would be different,
but y’know.”
“We don’t need to consider that notion, either. If we
assume there are X number of other people on this island, all
this narrowing down of suspects and alibi searching becomes
pointless. I don’t know what this ‘detective’ coming in six days
will have to say about it, but for now let’s just worry about
the eleven people we know about.”
“You said it,” she said, gaping at the ceiling. “Now, if you
consider the possibility of an accomplice or some kind of
remote trickery, only you and I can be taken off the suspect
list.”
“Why me, too?” I said.
“ ‘Cuz I trust you,” she answered coolly. “Still, why did it
have to be a beheading? Body-switching is the only feasible
reason I can think of. But I wonder… maybe that’s not even
how she died.”
“Yeah. If it was, there wouldn’t have been so little blood. It
would’ve been more like a river of blood. But at a glance,
there didn’t appear to be any stabbing wounds or anything, so
maybe she was poisoned or strangled. I mean, just to
speculate.”
“I wonder if she went down easy.”
“Probably. Her legs didn’t work, and even though her
eyesight had come back, it definitely wasn’t perfect. Once you
approached her, the act of killing her probably wouldn’t be
very difficult. And cutting off the head wouldn’t be much of a
challenge, either.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 4 4
As long as you didn’t hesitate, it would only take a few
minutes.
“There’s no clear motive, either. Why did Kanami-san have
to be murdered?”
“Nobody has to be murdered. But yeah, I wonder why.
Aside from Shinya-chan, everyone here only just met Kanamichan,
right? Hmm, but maybe that’s not the case. Maybe
somebody actually had some connection with her before
coming here. It wouldn’t be so strange.”
“I guess you could presume just about anything on that
subject.”
In which case, there was no point in presuming anything.
Kunagisa let out a groan.
“Well, let’s just worry about these other details first, and
figure out who knows who later on.”
“How are we gonna do that?”
“Who do you think you’re talking to?” She grinned at me.
Of course.
This blue-haired girl had a “background,” so to speak.
“Now then, shall we do a crime scene investigation?” She
picked up her nearby digital camera.
On the way to Kanami-san’s room, we passed by Yayoi-san. I
meant to greet her, but there was something unapproachable
about her, and I missed my chance. She continued walking in
the opposite direction. We had passed right by each other, but
it was like she hadn’t even noticed our existence.
“I wonder what she’s up to,” Kunagisa said. “Something
seems a little strange about her.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 4 5
“She looked kind of worried about something. Or maybe
just in deep thought.”
“Hmph. Maybe she was looking around Kanami-chan’s
room, y’know? Maybe she had the same idea as us. Solve the
case quick so we can all go home.”
“Hmm, I wonder. She’s been here the longest, right? I
doubt she’d suddenly want to just pack up and leave.”
“Eh, maybe. But personally I hate islands where murders
take place.”
“I really wonder about that.”
Just before we all scattered from the dining room, Iria-san
had laid down a rule. “Until Aikawa-san gets here in six days,
nobody leaves the island. We’re all suspects here, myself
included.”
In other words, Akane-san wasn’t the only one being
imprisoned. And it wasn’t just curiosity motivating Kunagisa
to dig deeper. She wanted to go home as planned. As lazy as
she was, she was strangely anal about plans.
“Well, either way is good. I certainly wouldn’t mind if
Yayoi-chan solved this case for us.”
“I don’t think that’s what she’s up to. She had a sort of
melancholy, somber vibe about her. I can’t help but wonder if
she was disposing of evidence or something.”
“That would certainly suck a lot for us,” Kunagisa said,
eyeing me through the digital camera. “Let’s hurry up and
check it out.”
Kanami-san’s door had been left open. You could see the
inside of the outward-opening door. Nobody seemed to be
around. I wondered what everyone else was doing, except
Akane-san, who was presumably in the storage room. But I
decided to set that thought aside for the time being. People
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 146
will do as they please, insofar as they’re allowed. That was
true on this island, and it was true anywhere else.
The room smelled like paint thinner as usual, but the paint
seemed to mostly be dry by now. Kanami-san’s body remained
in the same place it had been this morning, and looked
otherwise exactly the same.
“So let’s check it out…”
There’s something terribly… comical about a headless
body. What makes dead bodies so creepy and terrifying is that
emotionless expression on the face, but with no head to
display that face, the creepiness and terror is replaced with
hilarity. It’s like looking at a screwed-up attempt at a plastic
model or something.
The marble river. Kunagisa’s tossed coat remained right in
the middle.
“By the way, about that coat. How much was it?”
“It was part of a two-piece set for about twenty thousand, I
think.”
“Dollars?”
“Nah, yen.”
Wow, an average price. I was a little surprised.
“Well, might as well go inside.” I tried to take a step
forward, but she tugged on my sleeve just like she had that
morning. “What now?”
“Try jumping.”
“Huh?”
“C’mon. It’s an experiment. Get a little running start here
and see if you can jump that paint river. Your athletic skills
aren’t so bad, right?”
“They’re not so good, either.”
“Give it a shot.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 4 7
“You got it.”
I revved myself up a bit and gave my best leap, but as
expected, I couldn’t clear the river. I landed on both feet, only
slightly past the center point.
“That’s all you’re gonna get.”
“Hmm.” Kunagisa stepped across, using her coat as a
stepping-stone. “If you can’t even do it, Shinya-san’s the only
person here who might even have a chance. He’s the only
other guy and all.”
“Yeah, but those maids seem pretty able-bodied, to be
honest. I mean, they carried all your luggage, including those
PCs and the workstation. Those things ain’t light.”
“Yeah, but they’re all petite. It’s just a matter of width.
Hmm, but then again, people always say ability matches
necessity. I guess that detail is a little fuzzy. Now, let’s see
what’s going on with Kanami-chan.” She approached Kanamisan’s
body, camera in hand.
She seemed to be particularly interested in examining the
body, while I was more concerned with Kanami-san’s
canvases. There were several lying around, including the
cherry blossom picture she had smashed up, as well as the
redo. I had to tremble at the sight of it. Even I, who had not
so much as a passing interest in art or aesthetics, couldn’t deny
that I was looking at sheer, untainted beauty.
And then there was the picture I had modeled for.
Kanami-san had promised to give it to me, but I couldn’t
accept something like this. I didn’t have nerves of steel, after
all.
“I’m probably just babbling here, but…”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 148
I went to pick up the painting, but then stopped myself. It
might have been bad to leave any fingerprints behind. Then
again, it might not have mattered.
Huh?
“Hey, Tomo.”
“Yeah?”
“Isn’t there something weird about this painting?”
“You mean that picture of you? Hmm? What’s weird? It’s
a normal painting.”
Certainly Kunagisa’s taste wasn’t the most ordinary thing
in the world, either, but that was beside the point. Something
about the painting was off, in a maddeningly subtle way. It
wasn’t anything about the image itself, but just the strange
feeling of absurdity it somehow conveyed.
“Well anyway, go ahead and snap a picture of it, will ya?
Something about it bothers me.”
“Got it. Hmm, I’m still not finding anything unusual over
here.”
She appeared to be inspecting Kanami-san’s body.
“Really?” I said, walking over to her.
“Yep. I’m no professional though. The cause of death is
still a mystery, and I can’t narrow down the time of death,
either. Without a coroner, it’s probably impossible. If only
Iria-chan had invited a medical genius here, too. Y’know, like
Blackjack or something. Then again, even with a coroner, it
would probably be pretty hard without the body’s head.”
“I guess we’re not going to figure anything out here after
all.”
“Yep.” She lifted the corpse up under her arm. Even years
she had no qualms about touching a dead body. “Kinda takes
me back, y’know? It’s just like the old days.”
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“Yeah, you’re right, but… It doesn’t feel like that to me.
It’s like I’m seeing a dead body for the first time all over again.
It’s been bothering me for a while.”
There was this sort of an unspeakable, disconcerting
feeling. Like when you find a scar on your own body you
don’t remember having.
“It’s jamais vu.”
“It’s what?”
“The opposite of déjà vu. It means you feel like you’re
doing something for the first time, even though you’ve really
done it many times before. Supposedly it happens when your
senses have been numbed.”
Then my senses must have been numbed some time long
ago.
A lot of things had happened abroad, after all.
“Anyway,” Kunagisa said. “There aren’t any stab wounds.
So maybe she was strangled after all. And then to hide the
bruises, the killer cut her head off.”
“It sounds crazy, but… here’s what I don’t get. Whatever
the killer used to cut the head off—knife, ax, hatchet,
whatever it was—why didn’t they just use that to kill her?”
“Maybe they did. There are no stab wounds, but that’s just
on the body. Maybe they stabbed her in the head.”
“Hey yeah, maybe,” I said. “Speaking of that, where do you
suppose the head went? I wonder where the killer took it. I
mean, if the killer took it.”
“Half the island is forest. Maybe they buried if somewhere
out there. Or they could’ve tossed it out to sea. Disposal
probably wasn’t much of a problem.”
“Which brings us back to the question, why did the killer
cut her head off?”
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But that question was a dead end.
“I’ve got one more question, Ii-chan. Take a look at this.
The head is cut off from the very base of the neck, right? Why
is it cut like that? Don’t you think that if you were going to
decapitate someone, the normal place to make the cut would
be around the center of the neck?”
The position of the cut was indeed unnaturally low, but I
wouldn’t have thought it was something significant.
I crossed my arms and said nothing. This crime scene
investigation didn’t seem like it would yield any clues after all.
At best, we had confirmed that the river of paint couldn’t be
jumped. But that seemed more like a step backward than
progress.
Kunagisa went over to the phone stand by the window and
picked up the phone receiver.
“Hmm, nothing unusual here, either.”
“You thought there would be?”
“I thought maybe the circuit had been rigged so that calls
to this phone would connect to a different phone. But there
doesn’t seem to be anything wrong on this end. Doesn’t look
like it’s been tinkered with, either.”
“The phone, huh? Say, how’d it go again? What did
Kanami-san say to Shinya-san?”
“The paint spilled, I’m busy working so don’t bother me,
stuff like that. But Shinya-san should’ve gone to check on her
even if she told him not to. It may seem strict, but it’s his duty
as a caretaker.”
“You’re right about that. But there’s no use talking about
what’s already done.”
And anyway, Shinya-san already has to bear that burden
himself. It wasn’t particularly our place to lay the blame on
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him, and there was no need to do so. It’s a crazy world, but
it’s also a world where we have to take responsibility for our
own actions. And sometimes we also have to take
responsibility for our own lack of action.
“Is it possible that they restored the phone back to normal
afterward?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say it’s totally impossible, but it
practically is. It’s not like plugging and unplugging a cord or
something.”
“Yeah, good point. I guess we’ll have to look at other
possibilities. Like the locked door.”
“You think I was lying?”
Suddenly I heard Shinya-san’s voice from behind me, so I
spun around. He stood in the doorway with some kind of
orange bag in his hands.
“But I could hear Kanami’s voice for sure. That’s no lie.”
From the sound of his voice, he seemed pretty worn out.
Which probably goes without saying.
“I’m not saying you lied, Shinya-san. We don’t have
anything that certain. But is it possible that the voice you
heard wasn’t hers?”
“No,” he answered. “I’d known Kanami for a long time.
There’s no way I would mistake her voice. Are you doubting
me?”
“It’s not like that. There’s no reason you would have killed
her, after all.”
“I dunno, maybe we weren’t on the best of terms.” He gave
a weak smile. Then he stepped through the dried paint and
approached us. Upon closer inspection, it became clear what
the orange bag was. It was a sleeping bag. He looked up at me.
“We can’t just leave her here, right?” he said. “I got permission
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from Iria-san and everything. I’ve decided to bury her on the
mountain out back. It’s not like Iria-san’s going to call the
police, and this is all her property anyway. Burying Kanami is
all I can do now.”
“We’ll help you,” I said. He tried to think of an appropriate
response, but realizing the benefit of having two extra people
helping him, he said nothing.
Together we lifted up Kanami-san’s body and silently put
it inside the sleeping bag. I know it goes without saying, but
her flesh was completely devoid of warmth.
“Shinya-san, do you have something to dig with?”
“There should be a big shovel back by the entrance.
Kunagisa-chan, shall we have you carry it for us? Hmm, say, is
that a digital camera?”
“Yup.” Kunagisa nodded. “We have to keep a record of the
crime scene for when Mister Detective shows up. I don’t think
the corpse will demand publicity rights, after all, right?”
That was probably the worst way she could’ve phrased it,
but Shinya-san responded with a nod and a smirk. “I see. Shall
we go, then?”
“Um, Shinya-san? About this painting…”
“Hmm? Ah. Kanami’s painting. It’s nice, isn’t it? It’s the
last painting she ever did, but she was intending to give it to
you, so please take it.”
“Is it okay?”
“I want to honor her last wishes.”
Her last wishes.
Yes, she was dead. Nothing left to fulfill.
“Get her feet, will you? I’ll carry the head, and—” He cut
himself off, most likely realizing there was no head to carry.
Without saying anything, I picked up the legs.
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He no doubt wished he could bury the head with the
body, but its whereabouts remained unknown. Either the
killer was hiding it somewhere, or it had already been tossed
into the woods or thrown into the sea, like Kunagisa said.
Holding on to the legs, it occurred to me how heavy the
body was. Heavier than you’d expect. It probably wasn’t
impossible for a single person to carry, but two people was
definitely better.
From that point on, none of us spoke. In silence we lifted
her body and left the mansion; in silence we headed for the
mountain in the back; and in silence we dug a hole.
The sleeping bag that held her body was such a cheaplooking
orange excuse for a coffin, I couldn’t help but find it
comical. In that moment, I felt like human death is nothing
but a big joke.
People die. That was something I knew all too well, to the
point that it was stifling, to the point that I wanted to vomit,
and Kunagisa knew it, too. And Shinya-san, being a fullfledged
adult, had no doubt been touched by death in the past
as well.
That’s probably why we were all so quiet.
Finally, Shinya-san spoke. “You two can go back now,” he
said. “I’m going to stay here a little longer.”
I wanted to say something, but I didn’t. Kunagisa pulled on
my hand, and we left without a word. Maybe Shinya-san was
going to cry. Maybe not. Either way, we no longer had a
reason to linger.
After all, we were just bystanders.
“I wonder if it was okay to just go ahead and bury her,”
Kunagisa said.
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“I think so. Shinya-san seems to be the only thing she had
resembling a loved one, and that’s what he wanted to do. And
we couldn’t just leave her lying in the atelier all week.”
“True. True, but…”
“Say, Tomo. How big a crime do you suppose it is to
abandon a corpse?”
“You’d probably get less than a three-year sentence. But
you’d probably get off with parole, too. But you and I are both
underage anyway, so no worries. No matter what happens, we
can get off with a little money.”
What a tasteless conversation.
Not that I was looking for a tasteful one.
“I’m just babbling here…”
Kunagisa gave me a funny look.
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What exactly were you trying to do?
Lunch was prepared by Hikari-san. Yayoi-san had complained
of being under the weather and was now resting in her room.
Indeed, she did seem pretty pale when we passed her in the
hall.
“It’s nothing like what Yayoi-san makes us, but please
enjoy,” Hikari-san said with a shy smile, and then left the
dining room. That left only me and Kunagisa… and Maki-san,
who seemed to be in the middle of lunch. I did my best to
ignore her as I crammed Hikari-san’s cooking down my throat.
Kunagisa didn’t seem to be hungry, so she was just tagging
along, staring off into space.
“Hey, boy-o.” As expected, Maki-san was going to harass
me. “Looks like you’ve been having some fun, eh? Eh?”
“Isn’t this what you said would happen?”
“Hmm? What do you mean?”
“That things will get worse before they get better. Isn’t that
what you said at dinner yesterday? What a lovely precognition
that was.”
“I sense a bit of sarcasm there, but I’ll go ahead and take
that as a compliment.”
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“If you knew this was going to happen, couldn’t you have
prevented it?”
“No. All I can do is watch and listen. I think you’re
misunderstanding my abilities. Psychic abilities aren’t such a
great convenience. I told you before, didn’t I? It’s like
watching TV. Can you alter the contents of a TV show?”
She gave a mocking smile as she shoveled down her meal.
Something about her resembled Kunagisa, I thought. She
was so emotionally immature, yet at the same time she
seemed somehow enlightened. In the aftermath of Kanamisan’s
murder, she seemed completely unfazed. In fact, it
didn’t seem like anything could faze her.
“Then please inform us, what’s going to happen next?”
“Sure. If you pay me.”
Suddenly she looked furious, and without another word,
she got up and stormed out of the dining room. Why was she
so mad?
“That was cold of you, Ii-chan.”
“What was?”
“Forget it. If you’re done eating, let’s go back to my room.
We’ve got things to do.”
“Yeah, okay.”
Maki-san must just have been a moody person. I decided to
assume that was the case and give it no further thought. I
didn’t know what darkness lurked in the heart of someone
who knew everything.
We returned to Kunagisa’s room. First we unloaded the
digital photos onto her PC with a USB cord. Then she
switched on the workstation and inserted a floppy disk.
“What’s on the disk?” I asked.
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“Tools. My original creations, of course. It’s set up so that
they only run on this workstation, so even if I drop the CD it’s
okay. Now let’s get to the bottom of this.”
To put it plainly, what Kunagisa was about to do was
illegal.
But I guess you could also call it “research.”
Including Kanami-san, there were twelve people.
Excluding Kunagisa and me, there were ten. As planned,
Kunagisa was going to run a background check on these ten
people and find out who knew whom.
Kanami-san had been murdered. There must have been a
reason for that. Of course, there are those murders that occur
for no apparent reason, but the other type is overwhelmingly,
absolutely, and depressingly more common. Supposedly
everyone here had met for the first time on the island, but
what if that wasn’t the case? The possibility was there, and
just thinking about it wouldn’t do much good.
And thus it was time for Kunagisa Tomo, leader of the
“team” that had thrown the cyberworld of the previous
century into total chaos, to act.
“So what now?”
“First I’m gonna access the hi-spec machine I’ve got back
home. This workstation doesn’t have the power we need.”
“Even though it’s got so many terabytes?”
“This has nothing to do with that. Ii-chan, you really don’t
know anything, do you?”
“Quit saying that. I might not know as much as you, but I
know a little. I took an electronic engineering class back in
Houston, at least.”
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“Really? Sounds like a lie to me. Weren’t you the one who
always used to have to go to the convenience store and be like
‘Will you copy this disk for me? Here’s ten yen’?”
“That was before I went to Houston.”
Curse that memory of hers.
“Well, whatever. That’s Ii-chan for ya,” she said. “Anyway,
then I’m gonna set up ten UG servers at platforms and contact
Chii-kun.”
“Chii-kun? Never heard that name before.”
But I could’ve guessed it was a member of the “team.” I
asked if it was, and she nodded.
“Chii-kun was mainly in charge of ‘seeking.’ There’s
nothing in the universe he can’t track down.”
In the universe?
This was a freakish pack of talented people indeed.
“He’s got a terrible personality, but he’s a good guy.”
“He’s not the guy who made that operating system, is he?
That was Atchan, right? So what’s this Chii-kun doing
nowadays?”
“He’s in prison. He got a 150-year sentence. Oh, plus eight
years—158 years. He kept hacking on his own even after the
team disbanded, and tried to crack the G-eight database, but
he was caught. He made it pretty far, but he got stuck at the
eighty-eighth line of defense. Hehe, if you get too good at
something, it’s always the easy stuff that gets you in the end.”
“You sure know a lot about it.”
“Yup. I was the one who designed that line of defense.”
I made no reply.
“I had heard a rumor that Chii-kun was after top-secret
UN information. I couldn’t just let the situation be, so I
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contacted a few friends and we set up a defense. Even then it
was a close call, which is a testament to his skill.”
“So that’s how he got thrown in prison? You really think
he’ll help us? In fact, how can he help us from prison? They
don’t have the Internet in there, do they?
“There’s always an exception to the rule, y’know. And
Chii-kun happens to be pretty exceptional. And he’ll
definitely help out. Chii-kun’s not the type to sweat the small
stuff.”
She continued typing away even while she talked. I already
had no idea what she was doing.
“Why do you call him Chii-kun?”
“His Net handle is Cheetah.”
“Kind of a smarmy handle, huh?”
“Yeah, well, he’s a fast guy. He says he’s hit cars before.”
“What, you mean while driving?”
“No, while running. I’m pretty sure he was the first person
in Japan to be fined for hitting a car while on foot.”
How’s that for eccentric?
Did Tomo attract these kinds of people like a magnet?
Nah, maybe talent just attracted like talent.
“Don’t ever introduce us.”
He sounded like the kind of person I’d rather quietly
observe from a distance.
Kunagisa nodded. “You got it. We all have rules, after all.
We never introduce friends to each other no matter what.
‘Cuz friends aren’t information. I don’t want you introducing
me to any of your friends, either, Ii-chan.”
“Sure… So I guess I’ll just leave all this up to you then? If
you’re going to be talking to that guy, I probably shouldn’t be
hanging around, huh? And I’ve got a few places to go, too.”
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“Peace out,” Kunagisa saluted.
With that, I left her room and made my way down the
spiral staircase. There I paused for a deep breath, and began
down the hallway. I was on my way to Iria-san’s room. Hikarisan
had given me directions earlier, so I didn’t think there was
any danger of getting lost.
Even in a mansion like this, where everything was of the
finest quality, the door to her room was of exceptional
craftsmanship. I doubted whether the sound of my knocking
would even reach the other side of such a chunky door.
Nonetheless, after giving it a try, the wave of sound did
somehow appear to reach the inside, and my knock was
answered with a “Come in!”
I opened the door and went inside. The room was probably
twice the size of Kunagisa’s. It wasn’t straight out of a movie,
it was an entire movie in and of itself. It was like the legendary
Urashima Taro.
The words receive an audience came to mind.
Head maid Rei-san sat on the sofa with Iria-san standing
beside her. They must’ve been in the middle of a
conversation.
Iria-san tilted her head at me. “Is something the matter?
Um…” Her expression was clueless. It seemed she had
forgotten my name. Or rather, couldn’t remember ever having
said or heard my name.
“I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Certainly. Please take a seat there.”
I was thrown off by her cooperativeness. As ordered, I sat
myself on her sofa, which was even swankier than the sofa in
Kunagisa’s room. It was like sitting on air.
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“I didn’t get much sleep last night. I was about to go to
bed, so please keep it short.” She slowly began removing her
dress as she spoke, presumably to change into her sleepwear.
Rei-san immediately rose to her feet, but hesitated to raise
complaint with Iria-san’s actions and ultimately said nothing.
Seriously, this was about what you’d expect from a
“woman of pedigree.” The gaze of a mere plebeian meant
nothing to her. What a crock.
“Iria-san, why won’t you call the police?”
My question brought her to a halt. “I believe I’ve already
explained that. If we call the police now, they’ll treat
Sonoyama-san like the criminal.”
“But isn’t that what we’re doing already? We’ve already
locked her up. And aren’t we committing crimes here?”
“Sheltering a criminal, imprisonment, and… abandonment
of a corpse, right?” She continued changing. “So what’s wrong
with that? Murder, theft—those are crimes. And Sonoyamasan
isn’t being imprisoned, really. She gave consent. And
besides, aren’t you the one who suggested it in the first place?”
Indeed, that was the case.
There was nothing I could say to that.
Iria-san continued.
“The people gathered here are the VIPs of the world. I
refuse to allow them to become victims of the boorish
government. And why call for excess meddling? Nobody
wants that. Plus”—she grinned—“no matter who did it, I don’t
intend on subjecting anyone here to the law. Even if it means
exercising the full wealth of my family’s foundation, I’ll be
protecting them.”
“Why?”
“Because geniuses are above the law.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 6 3
Of that, she sounded totally sure of herself. But her words
didn’t sit well with me. It meant that if Shinya-san or I were
the criminal, she wouldn’t protect us.
God, what a feeling.
What a crappy, crappy feeling.
“How do you define the word genius?” Iria-san suddenly
asked.
“Well, doesn’t Kretchmar describe it as ‘an individual
capable of having a strong and extraordinary impact on the
assertive values of a vast variety of people’?” I answered after a
moment’s thought.
“I asked for your opinion.”
Seriously, what a crappy feeling.
But really, she was right. After another moment’s thought,
I answered once again.
“Someone who’s ‘far away.’ ”
“That’s right,” Iria-san said. “That answer is spot-on.”
“I get the feeling there’s some other reason you won’t call
the police, but…”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m just saying. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Well then, are we done here? I want to go to bed.”
What a waste of time. It was like we were having a
prescripted debate.
“Sorry I bothered you,” I said and rose from the sofa.
Rei-san stood up with me. “I’ll see you out.”
“You don’t have to do that, Rei,” Iria-san said.
“It’s okay, it’s my job, right? Please excuse me, madam.”
Rei-san and I left the room together. It felt rather like I had
been given the brush-off, but, well, I had expected as much
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 6 4
for now. It would take more than a modest effort to convince
someone like Iria-san, I thought.
“Please don’t feel bad about what she said,” Rei-san said
softly on the way out. “She’s not the most sensitive person.”
“Sure.”
Come to think of it, this was the first time I had spoken
with Rei-san like this.
“I don’t really mind anyway.”
“She’s really so fond of Aikawa-san, you see. That’s why
she doesn’t want to call the police.”
“Aikawa? Oh yeah, this person coming in six days.”
“For her, this is sort of a welcoming present. You see,
Aikawa-san’s got a knack for these kinds of incidents, and,
well, it’s no coincidence that my mistress uses the term
detective.”
Interesting. So this whole murder fiasco was sort of a
present for this Aikawa guy. If that was the truth, he must’ve
been a hell of a guy.
No.
To say it plainly, maybe this whole incident was just Iriasan’s
way of killing time. Island-exiled heiress to the Akagami
Foundation. She certainly had no lack of money or time. And
she had already gathered all these geniuses here for her
amusement. Could it be that this murder was just some sort
of… special event?
I shook my head. I was thinking too much. There aren’t
people like that out there. People like that can’t exist in this
world.
“Well, please excuse me now.”
Rei-san bowed to me in front of the door and I went back
the way I had come. After talking, she had turned out to be an
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 6 5
unexpectedly nice girl, so I was a bit taken aback. Hikari-san
had made her out to be so strict.
Thinking about that made me feel a little funny as I
returned to Kunagisa’s room and opened the door. Inside the
room Kunagisa was face-to-face with her computer rack, and
one more person—that ultimate, unrivaled fortune-teller.
Why?
Maki-san was smoking, but once I entered, she put out the
cigarette with her own index finger. She rose from the sofa
and approached to pass me without a word. But as if changing
her mind midway, she butted her head into my chest and
pushed me out the door with her. With a hand behind her
back, she shut the door.
I eyed her suspiciously.
“Heh, heh, heh,” she laughed childishly. But that’s all she
did, without even attempting to speak.
“In a better mood now?”
“It’s not just my mood that’s improved. Hehehe. You’re so
careless. Or maybe just rash?”
“What brought this on?”
“Do you have a favorite author?”
This conversation was all over the place.
“No.”
“How about celebrity?”
“No.”
“You’re so boring. Fine. Well, you know how some people
have someone they admire, right? But those people fall into
three different categories. There are those who think ‘I love
this person, I admire him, I respect him, I want to be just like
him.’ Innocent, right? Then the second type is similar to the
first, but they separate themselves completely from the object
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 6 6
of their admiration, and even hold that person’s life above
their own. And finally, the third type of person is the one who
thinks that by taking an interest in this wonderful person, they
can absorb some of that wonderfulness and increase their own
worth in turn. It’s a despicable, rotten-minded breed of people
who only live for others. Now which one of those three types
do you belong to?”
“The second one, I suppose.”
“Correct. And twisted as it may be, even I can’t help but
be moved by your loyalty to Kunagisa-chan,” she sneered. “But
with that said, aren’t you being awfully careless? Leaving her
all alone in her room like that? What if I was the killer?
“If you really, truly want to take care of something, you
shouldn’t let it leave your sight even for a second. Keep that in
mind, boy.”
Pat pat.
She smacked me twice on the shoulder and disappeared,
singing some tune.
I was left alone in the hallway.
“Huh?”
Dammit.
I cursed to myself and then opened the door to Kunagisa’s
room and entered once again.
With the usual rules apparently still in effect, come
dinnertime almost everyone was gathered around the table.
Almost.
Naturally Kanami-san wasn’t around, and Akane-san was
absent as well. Additionally missing were Akari-san and
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 6 7
Teruko-san. Apparently they had crossed to the mainland.
The reason for this was that they needed to contact our dear
detective, “Aikawa-san.”
“Couldn’t you just call or e-mail him?” I asked.
“We can’t,” Hikari-san said. “Aikawa-san is famously
difficult to reach. It’s a busy life, I guess, and I believe there’s
something going on in Aichi Prefecture right now. So Akari
and Teruko won’t be back until tomorrow.”
“Busy life, huh? What’s this person do?”
“Independent contracting.”
What’s that?
I wasn’t entirely familiar with that kind of lingo.
This night’s dinner was Chinese food. According to
Sashirono Yayoi, master of flavors, Chinese was the quickest
and easiest food to make. Of course, that was from her
perspective, so it probably wouldn’t serve as reference for me
in my own cooking anytime soon.
“By the way, Kunagisa-san,” Iria-san said just as dinner was
ending. “I hear you were conducting some covert ops this
afternoon. Did you figure anything out? I thought you were a
mechanical specialist, but you can conduct these types of
investigations as well, huh?”
“I do all sorts of stuff,” Kunagisa said with sweet-and-sour
pork crammed into her mouth. “No need to tie myself down
with specialties and such.”
That sounded familiar.
Ah… right. They were Kanami-san’s words.
The words of a style-free painter.
Regardless of your strengths and weaknesses, likes and
dislikes, there’s no need to specialize. This was a fundamental
teaching at the ER program as well. Yet in a world that
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categorizes everything, that was no easy teaching to adhere to.
It began and ended with the likes of Kunagisa Tomo, Ibuki
Kanami, and Sonoyama Akane.
For me, it was an impossibility.
“So, did you figure anything out? About how they broke
into the room or who the killer was or anything?”
It sounded more like she didn’t want Kunagisa to figure
anything out. I recalled what Rei-san had said earlier. Granted,
if the case was solved before Aikawa-san got here, it would be
something of a killjoy for Iria-san.
“I know it all. I know so much, I don’t know.”
Nobody seemed to understand what Kunagisa was talking
about, instead eyeing her skeptically and saying nothing.
“Himena-san,” Iria-san switched the conversation from the
engineer to the fortune-teller. “Since coming here you’ve put
all your effort into harassing the other guests, and have yet to
do any fortune-telling. So how about it? Don’t you think it’s
time to tell us what’s going to happen next?”
“It’ll cost you.”
She was living here for free, and receiving a regular salary,
and she still had the nerve to demand a fee? What a moneygrubbing
atrocity of a human being. I had never met a person
like this before. She was like the devil.
“You’re one to talk.”
She was glaring at me.
I wasn’t talking, dammit.
“Well, it sounds the same to me. I use my abilities to make
a profit. I’m not so young that I can stay motivated by
morality and humanity alone. Especially in terms of emotional
age.”
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I understood what she was saying. But she must have
already had enough ten-thousand-yen bills to fill ten Tokyo
Domes, so what more did she want? It wouldn’t hurt for her
to tell fortunes for free every once in a while.
“Who gave you the right to think that?”
She snapped her attention back to Iria-san.
“Of course I’ll pay for it.” Iria-san put her hands together.
“Please, I’m asking you.”
“It ends soon.”
Maki-san spoke without even changing her tone of voice.
Everybody waited for her to continue, but she was already
fully invested in her twice-cooked pork. It looked like that was
all she had to say.
“Is that all?” Iria-san asked, evidently somewhat surprised.
“I have to say, that was a little, um…”
“That was charity. Since somebody over there has so many
complaints about me, I thought I’d be a little generous. Don’t
worry about it. It has nothing to do with the fortune.”
Himena Maki.
Just what is it like to know everything and stay silent about
it? For someone like me who knows nothing, it was impossible
to even imagine. In that sense, Maki-san was, for me, the
biggest mystery on this whole island. So much so that the
mystery of the headless body and the locked door and river of
paint were all blotted out.
After that, Maki-san said nothing more, and so the fourth
night’s dinner ended without any significant developments.
Maki-san and Kunagisa made a few bizarre comments as
usual, and that was it.
Yet there was one thing that bothered me. Shinya-san and
Yayoi-san hadn’t said a single word the entire time, and they
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 7 0
didn’t even appear to be listening to anyone else’s
conversation. They just sat there putting food in their mouths,
just because it was there. It wasn’t so remarkable, but there
was definitely something unnatural about the two of them. It
was one thing for Shinya-san, who had lost Kanami-san, to be
like that, but what was Yayoi-san’s issue? Granted, she had
complained of feeling “under the weather” earlier, but…
Just past nine o’clock p.m.
I was alone in Kunagisa’s room, viewing the digital camera
data on the one PC that looked like even I could (just barely)
operate it. It had no mouse, making it difficult to control, but
it wasn’t completely over my head.
Kanami-san’s corpse. A shot from the chest up as well as a
full-body shot. A shot of the severed neck and a shot of the
river of paint. In the middle of the river floated a coat. The
paint having dried and hardened, we couldn’t remove it. I
suppose we could have forced the coat out, but it was already
ruined with paint, so there was no point.
And finally…
The picture I had modeled for, Kanami-san’s final work.
That unnatural feeling I had felt when first seeing the
canvas during our crime scene investigation had returned.
Disharmony.
It was alien.
It was all just a gut feeling, but…
“Ah, I get it,” I muttered to myself.
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Of course. Now that I saw it, it was so simple. The bigger
mystery was why it had taken me so long to spot it. It was
such an obvious picture flaw.
“Hmm…”
But this just raised further questions.
How could something like this happen? There was no reason
something like this should happen. How could an artist of
Kanami-san’s caliber make such a simple error?
As I thought about it, somebody knocked on the door.
“Aw, come on.”
It had to be Maki-san, here to harass me again. I rose from
my seat, more delighted than ever. But when I opened the
door, it was actually Hikari-san. Thrown into confusion by
how far off my guess had been, I stared at her for two or three
seconds with no brain functionality.
“Ah, hey, Hikari-san.” Somehow I managed to string the
words together. “Uh, please, come in.”
“Sorry to bother you,” she said politely, and entered the
room. She glanced around the room for a moment and then
asked me, “Um, where might I find Kunagisa-san?”
“Oh, Kunagisa? I tied her up and tossed her in the tub just
a minute ago.”
“Huh?”
“She’s like a cat. She hates taking baths. Her hair is actually
supposed to be a much lighter blue, but she never washes it so
it gets all dark like that. She’s no good at escaping, and once
she gets wet she just kind of gives up, so she could be in there
for a while.”
“Oh… ohhh, so she’s kind of like a Russian Blue, huh?”
Though Hikari-san wore an expression of dawned
enlightenment, what she said didn’t make any sense.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 7 2
Seriously, I didn’t know what she was talking about. Better to
just ignore it.
“Um, so anyway, if you need to talk to her, I’m sorry but
you’re probably going to have to wait awhile.” Then a thought
occurred to me. Maybe this was a good opportunity. “Say,
Hikari-san, are you free right now?”
“Hmm? Sure. I’ve finished all my work for the day,
anyway.”
“Then would you mind staying here for a while? It might
be dangerous for me to leave Kunagisa alone,” I said, recalling
Maki-san’s lecture this afternoon. “It should be fine now that
we’ve made it hard for the killer to do anything, but, just in
case. Do you mind?”
“No, it’s okay. I guess.” she said, though she wore a
troubled expression. “Of course I don’t mind, but is it really
okay? I mean… to trust me?”
“No one would attack both of you at the same time.”
“No, I mean, you don’t think you’re leaving her
vulnerable?”
Oh, that.
“It’s okay,” I nodded. “Unlike Maki-san, I trust you.”
With that, I shut the door and headed down the hall, then
descended the stairs to the first floor.
“ ‘I trust you’?” I muttered, mocking myself.
Since when was I the type to make such grandiose claims?
Didn’t sound like me.
Question.
What is trust?
Answer.
Not minding if you’re betrayed.
Not regretting if you’re betrayed.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 7 3
“Either way, it doesn’t mean much of anything, does it?”
I arrived at my destination, once my own room, now
Sonoyama Akane’s prison.
“It’s me,” I said, knocking lightly.
“Oh, you” came her reply after a moment. She sounded
surprisingly calm. “What’s up? Should you be away from
Kunagisa-chan? It doesn’t seem like you.”
“Well, I had my own hesitations, but… I wanted to
apologize to you.”
“Why should you apologize?” came her reply from the
other side of the door, slightly laced with crankiness. “Weren’t
you the one who stood up for me? Coming here and
apologizing is like saying I’m too much of a thickheaded
imbecile to even understand that. If anything, I should be
thanking you.
“I should’ve suggested this in the first place, but that
probably wouldn’t have gone over so well, so I was thankful
when you brought it up. I should express my gratitude right
now.” She paused for a moment. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
She hadn’t risen to the ranks of the Seven Fools for
nothin’. That wasn’t the kind of forgiving place where you
could get by with just a little studying and a sharp wit.
“By the way, when Hikari-san brought my dinner, she
mentioned you guys have been snooping around a bit. You
and Kunagisa-chan. Mind if I ask about your findings?”
“Well, I still don’t know who the killer is.”
“You still don’t know, huh? Heh, should I be reading into
that? Heh heh, I like your style. Okay, sure. Let me ask a
different question. Got any theories on that river of paint?”
“Hm, how about you?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 7 4
“I think it’s a case of the post hoc fallacy.”
“Is that English?”
“Latin. I think it’s sort of like ‘you reap what you sow.’ ”
Ah.
I sighed.
In that case, she must have already figured out the secret of
the river of paint. She had already figured out the mystery,
and now she was just staying here to preserve this
“antagonistic atmosphere” we had created for the killer. She
was really an amazing woman, I thought.
Hehehe, she laughed.
“It’s probably best that I stay in here until Iria-san’s lover
boy ‘Aikawa-san’ gets here, huh? It’s no real problem for me,
anyway. I used to lock myself in my room and read all the
time when I was a kid. And that room was way smaller than
this.”
“Do you know who the killer is?”
“No, I don’t. That’s no lie, seriously. That kind of thing
isn’t my specialty, and although I do read the occasional
mystery novel, it’s only for recreation. Say, do you ever read
Mushanokoji?”
The subject had changed without so much as a segue. Was
Mushanokoji even a mystery novel author? “I’ve read the
anthology, at least,” I answered with a slightly confused look
on my face.
“Then you must know the story ‘Sensei of Truth.’ ”
I did know that much.
“When I first read it, I thought the title was ‘Mari-sensei’
and that it was about a horribly brash woman. Not that I can
talk. But do you remember in the opening of the story, when
Shinri-sensei refers to the ‘reason killing isn’t okay’?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 7 5
“Yeah, he’s like, ‘Is there ever a time when you wouldn’t
mind being killed? If you can think of a condition under which
you wouldn’t mind being killed, please let me know. If you
don’t like the thought of being killed under any circumstance,
then you have no right to kill another,’ right?”
Even with a memory as bad as mine, this much had stuck
with me.
“Correct,” Akane-san said. “Now let me ask you the same
question. Under what condition would you feel it’s okay to be
killed?”
“There isn’t one.”
“But what if, for example, you had to choose between your
life or Kunagisa-chan’s?”
“I don’t want to think about it.”
“Right?” She laughed lightheartedly. “After all, you’re the
type who hates making decisions, right? You dislike the act of
deciding in and of itself. Yesterday, Himena-san was saying
the same thing about you, and I think she nailed it. You just
go with the flow. You hate competition, and you hate making
things clear-cut. You have to keep things ambiguous.”
“I won’t argue with that.”
“You won’t argue but you won’t agree. You accepted my
shogi challenge because you knew you would definitely lose,
isn’t that right? You wouldn’t accept a challenge or compete
otherwise.”
I didn’t hate losing, I hated competition. I was thoroughly
put off by the idea of vying with others over something. I
hated fighting as well and thus never made friends.
“Do you dislike other people?”
“Not particularly.”
“But do you like them?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 7 6
“Not necessarily.”
“That’s right. The foundation of your values rests on the
idea that people are meant to live solitary lives. That’s your
opinion, yes? Or no, rather that’s your will. That’s the absolute
principle around which you’re constructed. You try your best
not to get involved and not to cause trouble or pain for
anyone. Of course you can share happiness and good times
with others, but you don’t get close to the point that you
might cause pain or sadness, isn’t that right?”
I always thought couples who spend all their time fighting
and stay together all the same were just idiotic. Why don’t
they get along? Couldn’t they just do that much?
Why couldn’t they?
“Since when were you such a psychologist, Akane-san?”
“Sorry, but I’m a scholar of any and all subjects. Such
categorization is meaningless to me. Hehehe. You really, truly
enjoy being alone, don’t you?”
“Well, after all. I’m my oldest friend.”
“True enough. That’s the case for everyone. So how about
Kunagisa-chan? Altogether, you’ve spent less than a year with
her, right?”
“Do you like her?”
It was a straight question.
I had been asked the same one several years ago. That time
it was her older brother who asked.
However the answer remained the same.
“Not especially, no.” My voice came out so despairingly
cold that I almost wondered if it was really mine.
Why?
Why was I being like this?
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 7 7
“Hmm, is that so?” She sounded a little surprised. “Because
she likes you, you know. That much is certain.”
“Yeah, I know. She’s told me more than a few times.”
“I don’t particularly like this kind of discussion, but, have
you ever wondered why even though the world is full of
couples like this, somehow so many people are still getting
together?”
“I mean isn’t it strange? It would be too convenient for the
person you like to ever like you back. Life isn’t a shojo manga.
But sure enough, in reality, you take a group of a hundred
people, a whole lot of them are going to find love. Why do
you think that is?”
“I have no idea. I’ve never thought about it. Isn’t it just
coincidence? Like the Law of Great Numbers of something?”
“I don’t think so. A coincidence like that is unfeasible. This
is the conclusion I’ve reached: it’s because it feels good to be
loved. Being loved by another person is enough to make you
happy and make you love that person in return,” she said
assertively. I could see her clever little smile even through the
door. This was becoming more than I could bear much longer.
I felt like I was about to be crushed to death.
“So what are you getting at?”
“Oh, no, no… I was just wondering why you hadn’t fallen
for Kunagisa-chan, and you know how it is for us scholars. If
we can’t figure something out, it’ll bother us to no end.”
“She likes everyone. Seriously, everyone. It’s not like she
wants me in particular,” I blurted out.
“So that’s it,” Akane-san said. “You don’t want to be loved
by her. You want to be chosen by her. As her one and only.”
I…
Couldn’t argue with that.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 7 8
“Hmm, but why her? That’s what I can’t figure out. It
seems like there must be some obvious reason, but I don’t get
it. If you two were a couple, there would certainly be some
clashing factors, right? In fact, one would think you would be
unattracted to someone so easy.”
Easy?
Who?
“You mean easygoing?” I said.
“Right. Anyway, theoretically someone with a personality
like yours wouldn’t be able to endure a relationship with a girl
like that, emotionally immature despite being in a superior
position. Plus, you’re a man.”
“It’s fun being with her. Or well…” I chose my words
carefully. “Rather, it’s fun being by her side.”
My favorite place in the world was by her side. I had
returned to Japan for that very reason.
“Mmm-hmm,” Akane-san said. “You’re a little masochistic,
aren’t you?”
“Yeah, to the bone. I got bullied in elementary school, see.”
“You were bullied? No, I think this is different. I think you
were neglected. There’s a difference between abuse and
neglect. It’s the weak kids and the liars who get abused. The
outcasts just get neglected. But I know how you feel. When I
was in high school, I felt like I was surrounded by aliens.
When we took tests, nobody shot for a perfect grade, they
shot for the average. If we ran a marathon, they would say
‘Hey, let’s all run together!’ They were a bunch of egalitarians,
for better or worse. They would tell you pi equals three.
Indeed, each of the other Seven Fools claims to have
experienced similar feelings. It’s the tragedy of 0.14. In a
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 7 9
world of egalitarians, the outliers get to taste true isolation.
Genius is born of it. But not all outcasts are geniuses.”
“You mean it’s a condition of being a genius, not a
guarantor, huh? Well I’m sure no genius.”
“Maybe not, but I think you at least know the difference
between advice and an order, so let me give you some friendly
advice: if you want Kunagisa-chan to choose you, I
recommend you just take her. If you do that, you’ll be the
only one for her. She won’t resist, that much is for sure.
Regardless of how introverted, dark, disturbed, and deprived
of an adolescent you may be, I’m sure you at least have the
balls to do that.”
“I don’t.”
“You’re a real mallard, huh?”
A what?
“I may lack confidence, but you think I’m a coward?”
At least I wasn’t a Chii-kun.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Hehehehe, I like you, y’know? It’s too bad
you aren’t a woman.”
Why was that?
I didn’t know what she was trying to say anymore. No,
that’s wrong. It was simply becoming too painful to keep
myself together any longer.
If this went on any longer, any longer at all…
“Well, it’s okay. I’m sure everything will become clear soon
enough. Time always gives things some clarity. Say, by the
way, have you ever heard the theory that in zero-sum games
like shogi and chess there’s always one perfect move to make?”
“Is this like the Prisoners’ Dilemma?”
“Yeah, that. The movement of the shogi pieces is
mathematically limited, so there is always one perfect move to
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 8 0
make. Thus, it’s technically possible to decide the match in
the very first move. Of course, this assumes that both
opponents are perfect players. So how about the killer in our
case? How will this Aikawa-san respond, I wonder? Isn’t it a
fascinating notion? Still, this mystery feels more like a
labyrinth than a shogi board.”
“A labyrinth? But labyrinths are simple. If you just stick
your hand on one wall, you’ll eventually find the way out. It
just takes time.”
“You’re talking about a simple maze. I think this case is
more like a multiconnected labyrinth. Still, there’s a surefire
strategy for this kind of labyrinth as well, but it’s kind of hard
to explain. If you have a chance, try looking it up. But don’t
you ever want to play a game with no surefire strategy?”
A game with no sure strategy.
No sure win…
Huh.
What if this case was like that?
Anxiety.
Like standing on shaky legs.
I felt sick.
“If you think about it,” she continued. This sickening
conversation. Even though it was sickening.
“Um, Akane-san?” I said, at last unable to contain myself.
“I’d like to keep talking like this, but I’ve left someone waiting
in my room.” I forced the words together into a sentence. I
fought the urge to throw up. “I think I’d better get back.”
“Oh, okay. Sorry about that,” she replied.
It must have been a bit of a letdown.
“Anyway, please come again. You sure help pass the time.”
“Thanks. Well, see you later.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 8 1
With that, I began to leave, but there was something that
still bothered me. I knocked once again.
“Um, about your original question…”
“Hmm? What’s up?”
“Do you have one? An instance where you wouldn’t mind
being killed?”
“An instance? Not an instance—always.” It was a clear
answer. “I’ll die when my time is up. Regardless of where or
how I die, or who kills me for what reasons, you won’t hear a
complaint out of me.”
And with that I returned to Kunagisa’s room, never
thinking for a second that this would be my final interaction
with Sonoyama Akane, that genius of geniuses of the highest
order, of the Seven Fools, of the comprehensive research
center ER3…
“Ii-chan, you’re back.” Kunagisa sat on her bed, her body
wrapped in a pure white bathrobe. Hikari-san was on the sofa.
Seeing that I had returned, she breathed a sigh of relief. Trying
to handle a conversation with a bath-fresh, spunky Kunagisa
was no task for an amateur, so I knew how Hikari-san felt.
“Ii-chan, look, I washed my hair. Compliment me,
compliment me.”
“It’s cute.”
Her hair had turned a pretty, cobalt blue. “It’s not easy
bearing recessive genes,” she herself would often say.
“Are you gonna take a bath, too, Ii-chan? You might come
up with a good idea in there, y’know, like Archimedes. And
then run around the mansion naked, also like him.”
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“That would be… a problem,” Hikari-san said in all
seriousness. It was like she thought I would really do it. I had
no intention of making myself the mansion weirdo. “But
Archimedes really was a strange guy, wasn’t he? All geniuses
are, huh?” Hikari-san said thoughtfully. I wondered which
person in the mansion she was imagining. It looked as if it
could have been anyone or no one.
“Nudity wasn’t so uncommon in those days, Hikari-san. I
don’t think he was being particularly strange.”
“You’re so wise, Ii-chan.”
“Yes, I am. So Hikari-san, what was it you needed?”
“Oh, right. My mistress sent me to come investigate what’s
going on with Kunagisa-san.”
She was sure an honest girl. I told her there was no point if
she went and told us that’s what she was doing. She laughed
embarrassedly.
“I know. Akari’s really better at this kind of thing, but
she’ll be staying on the mainland tonight. She won’t be back
until tomorrow morning.”
“She went to call on that detective, right?” I was a little bit
interested, so I went ahead and asked. “So, what’s this person
like, anyway? Judging from the way you talk, it sounds like
you’ve met before. Are you well acquainted?”
“Yes, I suppose so. Aikawa-san came to our rescue once
before. There was an incident, and, well…” she vaguely trailed
off. It didn’t seem like it was supposed to be a secret, but
maybe just an unpleasant conversation.
“Hmm, an incident, huh? On this island?”
“Yes. This was right after my mistress had been sent here,
and before it had become this sort of ‘salon.’ So we called
Aikawa-san here, and, well, the case was solved almost
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 8 3
immediately,” Hikari-san said with great emotion. “Aikawasan
has kind of a violent temper, you see. Cynical and
emotional, like the entire world is an enemy. I think Aikawasan’s
success in solving cases is fueled by rage alone.”
“Huh…”
She seemed to be carefully choosing her words as she
spoke, but not very effectively. I couldn’t put together a
concrete picture of this guy at all.
“So, pretty short-tempered?”
“Well, it’s more like Aikawa-san is in a perpetual state of
rage. Even if you catch a glimpse of a smile, there’s always this
sort of hostility hanging in the air, and… I’m sorry, it’s kind of
hard to describe. Anyway, it’s like Aikawa-san has a grudge
against the whole world.”
“I see,” I said, even though I didn’t. “But all the detectives
I’ve ever read about in mystery novels are all so cool and
reserved. They’re always saying stuff like ‘Didn’t you realize
that?’ You could replace eighty percent of their dialogue with
‘What are you, stupid?’ and it would still make sense.
“But based on what you’re saying, this Aikawa-san sounds
like some sort of hotheaded defender of justice with zero
tolerance for criminals.”
“Oh, well, it’s not like that. It’s not just zero tolerance for
criminals, it’s zero tolerance for the entire world. You know,
always saying things like ‘This world could be so much better!
Why are you bastards all slacking?’ ”
He really was hotheaded. A rare type of person these days.
It was such a contrast to me and my vague, passive babbling, it
was almost beautiful.
“But despite all the anger and grouchiness, it just doesn’t
do any good to get frustrated with the laziness of others, so
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Aikawa-san would just give this cynical smile. Maybe you
know the type. To say the least, it serves as quite a contrast
from you and Kunagisa-san.”
In describing this detective, Hikari-san seemed sort of
gleeful. Like she was boasting about a close friend or
something. Or more like a hero. It was just like when Iria-san
had described him.
“Is that right? Well, that’s probably the better way to be,” I
said, just trying to keep the conversation going. “Do you think
Aikawa-san is reliable?”
“Yes, for sure.”
“That’s a relief. Even if we can’t figure out the mystery in
the next six days, we have a backup savior.”
“Well, let’s not count our chickens before they hatch.”
“I’m cautious. Or maybe I’m a coward. Either way is good,
I guess.”
“Either way is good?” She gave me a confused look. “You
know, this may be strange coming from me, but why is
everyone able to stay so calm in a situation like this?”
“Well, that’s a complicated question.”
“Sorry. But you know, it’s like, even though someone was
killed, everyone is so… what can I say…?”
“Maybe they’re just used to it.”
At least, that was my case.
I didn’t really know the difference between “used to” and
“numb to,” though.
“Yeah, but Shinya-chan and Yayoi-chan seemed to react
pretty naturally,” Kunagisa said.
“That’s right, but hey, Hikari-san, you and your sisters
seem pretty calm, too. What about that?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 8 5
“Well, we’ve been trained to maintain composure.” She
sounded a little sad about it.
Her twenty-seven years of living probably hadn’t been
much of a cakewalk.
“Oh, right,” she said, breaking the awkward silence with
the snap of her fingers. “My mistress told me to make sure I
ask you this. Earlier you said something about understanding
so much that you don’t understand, right? But really you must
know something, right?”
About that space enclosed by a river of paint.
Hmm…
That “mistress” of hers must’ve been sharper than she was
worldly.
“Nothing to brag about, really. Any mystery novel fan
would’ve been able to solve it easily. But you know, when
you’re approached with a mystery like this in real life, it
proves to be pretty perplexing. I guess the answers get a little
drowned out by the smell of blood, the taste of death.”
“Hahaha, weird, Ii-chan,” Kunagisa laughed.
It was an innocent, vulnerable laugh.
It made my head spin a little.
Did I want to be chosen?
By her?
My sudden silence drew the quizzical gaze of Hikari-san,
but a moment later she turned to Kunagisa. “Um, Tomo-san?
If you do know, I hope that you’ll tell me.”
“Sure, why not? It took awhile to pin it down, but I finally
figured it out,” Kunagisa nodded. “Erm, where should I start?”
“Um, well first, if you wouldn’t mind… could you tell me
what you meant earlier? About knowing so much you don’t
know?”
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“It’s like the difference between bottom-up and top-down,”
I cut in, lacking faith in Kunagisa’s ability to explain it. “Like,
say, for example, that that table is a sandbox and you want to
make a mound of sand as high as possible. What would you
do?”
“Start from the sides and push all the sand together into a
mountain.”
“Right. So would I. But Kunagisa wouldn’t do that. She
would take a whole bunch of sand and just dump it on the
table. The resulting mountain of sand would be just like the
one you and I built. You and I would gradually build up to the
final product, little by little. Kunagisa dumps everything out
altogether. That’s how her mind processes things. Right,
Tomo?”
“I don’t really get your analogy.”
Big surprise there.
At any rate, Hikari-san seemed to get me, and she nodded
along.
“Okay, so will you tell me the secret behind that paint
room?”
“Sure, if you’ll answer my question, Hikari-chan.”
Hikari-san stared blankly back at her, as if she didn’t
understand the question. Kunagisa, paying no mind to that,
turned back to her computer. She pointed to the screen on
the computer I had been using.
“Okay, first let’s review the scene of the crime. Ta-daaa.
The atelier.”
She used an image viewer program to display all of the
pictures. That stream of marble like the Sanzu River. The
headless body on the other side. Images that actualized our
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 8 7
memories of the morning. Oblivious to such notions, Kunagisa
began her explanation.
“The primary puzzle is this river of paint. The earthquake
happened at one a.m., causing the shelf to fall over, which
resulted in what you now see. That much is clear. The river is
too wide to jump. If we suppose the murder happened after
the earthquake, the killer’s means of entry are a mystery. Or
at least, the means of exit are. You with me so far?”
“Yes. So far.”
“At this point, it’s easy to pin the crime on the monster
Ashinaga Tenaga, but the answer isn’t that simple.”
Hikari-san gave a strange laugh. Either she didn’t know
who Ashinaga Tenaga was or she was just giving a strange
laugh.
“So you’re forced to think that the murder happened
before the earthquake. If that were the case, it would’ve been
easy for the murderer to get in and out. No footprints, no
blocked passages. In which case, it seems like Akane-san must
be the killer, since she was the only one who didn’t have an
alibi. But that’s where Shinya-san’s testimony comes in. He
confirmed that he heard Kanami-san’s voice when he called
her after the earthquake. This means that Kanami-san must
have been alive at least for a few minutes after the earthquake.
So, Hikari-san, what do you think?”
“Well, I, uh…” She tilted her head to the side. It was pretty
adorable. “I guess the killer must’ve come through the
window. It’s the only other way. But the window is locked,
so…”
“From the window, huh? There is that possibility. Glass is
fundamentally closer to a liquid than a solid, after all, so a lock
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might not necessarily do much good. Or they could have dug
a tunnel as well.”
Yeah, right.
“Well, you must’ve figured it out by this point, right,
Kunagisa?”
“Not even a little.”
“It’s the post hoc fallacy, Hikari-san,” I said, coming to her
rescue. I had been holding out so long because she was so cute
when she was confused, but in the end I couldn’t help but feel
bad for her.
Kunagisa nodded.
“Yup. Post hoc ergo propter hoc. In Japanese, that’s ‘mistaken
cause and effect.’ It refers to a misinterpretation of the Law of
Syllogism. You know, like false assumptions. The world isn’t
so neatly organized.”
“I don’t understand Latin.”
“Hey, but you knew it was Latin.”
“That’s because you said ergo”
Cogito ergo sum, huh?
Hikari-san was sharper than she looked.
“For example, imagine I’ve got a hundred-yen coin and I
say ‘It’s going to come up heads.’ I said it, okay? And then I
toss the coin. Okay, it’s heads! What do you think? You think
it was a coincidence, right? That’s normal. But some people
don’t get it. They figure I said I would throw a heads and it
was heads, therefore I must have some kind of special power
to control the coin.”
For the record, it was a trick coin.
“I drank some alcohol and my cold went away, therefore
alcohol cures colds. I turned on my computer and a visitor
showed up, therefore computers summon visitors. A man
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looked at a woman, and she happened to be looking in his
direction, therefore she must have been interested in him. A
catfish was dancing, and then an earthquake happened, so the
earthquake must have been the catfish’s fault. None of that
makes much sense, right, Hikari-chan? In other words, just
because B happens after A doesn’t mean A and B have a
cause-effect relationship. The sequence and timing of two
events is no reflection of cause and effect. So let’s think about
this case now. There was an earthquake, then a river of paint was
formed, therefore the earthquake created the river of paint. Is that
right?”
“Oh.”
Oh. That.
It finally dawned on her.
“So that river wasn’t caused by the earthquake?”
“Well, the shelf itself probably really did fall over because
of it. And it probably did cause a little bit of paint to spill out.
Kanami-chan even said so on the phone. But I doubt it
would’ve caused such an incredible amount of paint to spill
everywhere. The paint cans probably rolled around and let a
few drops out. If you think about it, those paint can lids are
relatively strong, so it’s not likely that just falling over
would’ve caused them to spill all over the place like that. But
even if was just a little bit, Kanami-chan was confined to a
wheelchair, so for her it was impossible to leave the atelier.”
“Oh, I see where this is going,” Hikari-san said. “That
makes sense. So then the killer snuck into the room and
murdered her. Then, on the way out, purposely spilled paint
around the room, little by little. If you did it slowly, little by
little, you could make a river like that without leaving any
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footprints.” She appeared to be imagining the killer walking
around with a can of paint as she talked.
Yup. We had all assumed that the earthquake had caused
the river of paint. But in reality, it didn’t take a major disaster
or even a major artist to make something like that. It could’ve
been the work of any amateur.
No artistic talent required.
It wasn’t a very demanding task, to say the least.
“But why would the killer do that?”
“Probably to make us think it happened because of the
quake,” I said. “They must not have known Kanami-san talked
to Shinya-san on the phone. So they figured by making the
river, people would naturally assume it was caused by the
quake.”
“So this means…”
“Yup. It means,” I said, clapping my hands together once
and then spreading them out wide, “the suspect list just got
way longer.”
There were only four people with post-earthquake alibis:
Iria-san and Rei-san, and then Maki-san and Shinya-san. The
remaining people were no longer cleared of suspicion.
“So then there’s no point in keeping Sonoyama-san locked
up, right?” Hikari-san said cheerfully. “I mean, right? She’s not
the only one under suspicion anymore.”
She must have been feeling pretty guilty about how we
had treated Akane-san. It seemed she wasn’t much of a
mathematical thinker. It was quite a contrast from the rational
Sonoyama Akane herself. I decided to tell her.
“Akane-san already knew about the paint trick, too. She’s
just pretending she doesn’t know.”
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“Why?” Hikari-san said, looking honestly baffled. “Isn’t that
strange? Why would she do something like that?”
“Probably to preserve this safety situation we’ve got here.
That brain of hers sure keeps busy.”
To create the best possible circumstances for everyone else,
she didn’t even have any reservation about putting herself in
the worst possible circumstances. It was almost an inhuman
way of thinking, but extremely admirable nonetheless.
“So we should keep this a secret then, huh?”
“Yeah. The killer is still at large, so I don’t think it would
be good to upset the situation any. I suppose Iria-san has a
right to know, though. As far as that goes, do whatever you
like.”
I wasn’t going to be that much of a roadblock.
Hikari-san let out a moan. “But it’s so… I mean, that thing
about the river not really being caused by the earthquake…
it’s so simple. Like I should’ve seen it a long time ago.”
“Yeah, I couldn’t believe it, either. But you know, any trick
seems simple once you figure it out. By now I’ve seen tons of
tricks that were even stupider.”
“But who could’ve possibly thought up such a trick right
after the earthquake?” She was still unconvinced. “I mean,
what were the odds there was even going to be an earthquake?
It’s all too much of a coincidence.”
“Well, that brings us to the Law of Great Numbers, Hikarichan.”
“What is that?” Hikari-san gave Kunagisa a sideways glance.
“The Law of Great Numbers?”
“It means that something looks like an amazing
coincidence, but when you sit down and think about it, it’s
not really so amazing after all. Like, for example, if you saw
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someone win the lottery, wouldn’t you think it was amazing?
You’re less likely to hit the jackpot than to spot a tear in the
ocean. But if you think about it, that’s only true if the guy
only bought one lottery ticket. Practically nobody who plays
the lottery only buys one ticket, one time. If you have a group
of twenty-three people, there’s a fifty percent chance two of
them will have the same birthday. Even still, it seems
incredible, right? That’s the Law of Great Numbers. The
earthquake just happened to come today, but it wouldn’t have
changed anything if it had happened tomorrow instead. Plus,
it’s not likely that the killer was counting on this earthquake
trick alone. They probably considered a whole variety of ideas.
It’s the same concept.”
“So you mean like multiple means to one end?”
“Yup yup, you got it. And it all relates back to that
misunderstanding of cause and effect,” Kunagisa said, poking
Hikari-san with her index finger. “Now, Hikari-chan. It’s time
for my question.”
“Oh, that’s right. We made a deal,” she righted her posture
and nodded. “Go ahead, ask me anything.”
“Why is Iria-chan here?”
It was a question that immediately changed the entire
atmosphere.
Here.
This island.
Wet Crow’s Feather Island.
Why was Akagami Iria here?
In a single instant, Hikari-san’s usual cheerful demeanor
went completely stiff. She was clearly trembling. It wasn’t
confusion, but utter fear, pure and simple.
Was it really that bad?
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 9 3
“Um, uh, well…” her voice wavered, unable to put the
words together. “Well, um, that’s…”
“You can’t answer?”
“Just that one question—please don’t make me, Tomosan.”
She hung her head, as if she might even collapse. Her
posture went limp, as if she were ready to pass out. “I’ll
answer anything else, just not this.”
Hikari-san looked truly pitiable. It was like we were the
devil trying to get her to do something wicked. Give us your
soul. Your most precious thing belongs to us now. What an awful
bunch of nonsense.
“No, it’s okay, we don’t mind,” I said, breaking into the
conversation. “Right, Tomo?”
“Yup. No use trying to force it out of ya.” For all her
selfishness, Kunagisa was being uncharacteristically sensitive.
“Sorry, Hikari-chan.”
“No, I’m sorry. You were just asking a question.”
Hikari-san stood up. “Sorry I bothered you.” She started to
leave, but then paused and looked back. “Oh, by the way.”
She sounded like Detective Columbo or something, except
much cuter so it wasn’t creepy. She was even smiling. “This
has nothing to do with my mistress. I’m asking you
personally… do you really believe Himena-san has special
powers?”
Did we believe?
Maki-san’s ESP?
The ability to know all.
After thinking for a moment, I answered. “Right now,
there’s no particular reason not to.”
“I don’t really care if she has ‘em or not,” Kunagisa chimed
in.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 9 4
“Oh, yeah, you’re probably right.” Hikari-san gave a
convinced nod, then left the room. My eyes stayed on the
door for a while as I thought about her bizarre reaction to our
question about Iria-san.
“Well, whatever.”
It probably didn’t have anything to do with this incident. It
seemed highly unlikely that Iria-san’s exile here had any
influence on Kanami-san’s death. Just then Kunagisa’s
workstation emitted a strange boyoyon boyoyonnn noise. I
looked over at it to see Kunagisa had once again started doing
something on it.
“What’s up?”
“Mail, I got some mail. From Chii-kun. He’s a fast one.
People used to always say he ignores the theory of relativity
like it was a traffic light.”
She had just asked him to run a check this afternoon, so he
sure wasn’t slow—not to mention the fact that he was
incarcerated.
“Wow, Himena-san’s real name is Himena Shinari. Wow.
That’s a much better name. I wonder why she uses a fake
one.”
“Her real name? Hey, this guy even tracked down trivial
stuff like that?”
“Yep. He was supposed to see how everyone was
connected, but, man, he sure has a lousy personality.
Seriously, he doesn’t understand how to communicate with
people at all. Oh, wait. Here it is. Hey, Ii-chan, we’ve got a
connection.”
I went over to her, but everything on the screen was in
English, so I didn’t understand it.
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“Why don’t you understand English, Ii-chan? Where were
you studying all that time? The South Pole? Mars?”
“I forgot it, that’s all. If you don’t use something, it only
stays with you for three or four months, y’know? Besides, my
reading and writing were always worse than my conversation.”
“Didn’t the ER program entrance exam require English,
Russian, and Chinese? How’d you get in? Backdoor?”
“It’s like I’m tellin’ you, I used to know it.”
“Sounds like a lie to me. Anyway, I’ll translate. It says
‘Ibuki Kanami and Sonoyama Akane were spotted having
lunch in a Chicago café.’ About half a year ago. It’s an
eyewitness account. Hmm… ‘lunch together.’ I wonder why.
Don’t those two hate each other?”
“They had lunch together?”
As suspected, they had a connection. But why were they
doing something like that? Akane-san had lived in the States,
and Kanami-san was a world-traveling artist, so it wasn’t that
implausible that they could’ve met over there, but they sure
weren’t the sort of pair to be having lunch dates together.
“Yup, and it wasn’t just a lunch date, either. It was at a
super-secret club.”
“Secret club?”
Speaking of sounding like a lie.
“Yup,” Kunagisa nodded. “That’s right. Those places really
do exist. Even in Japan there are some, though not many. All
sorts of politicians and celebrities and their families go there.
Maybe ‘high-class clubs’ would be a more accurate
description. The security at those places is out of this world.”
Which raised the question of how this guy got the
information, but I sure wasn’t about to ask. Sometimes it’s
better not to touch the other end of the tunnel.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 9 6
“Is that definite?”
“Chii-kun doesn’t lie. But sometimes he doesn’t tell the
truth, either. I guess that makes him like you.”
“Eh… I lie plenty.”
I’ll just let that say what it says.
So Sonoyama Akane and Ibuki Kanami had a connection.
Whether or not it was important information, it was certainly
something to be concerned about. I decided it was probably
best to confirm it with Akane-san tomorrow. It never occurred
to me that this would turn out to be impossible.
“There’s some other stuff here about how everyone’s doing
recently. Natchan’s doing about the same, huh? Ah, Satchan
seems to be having some rough times. Hii-chan’s gone
missing. That is so him. The Admiral found a job… wow, a
nice job. Atchan, too. Everyone else is doing well. Chii-kun,
too. That’s a relief. Have to admit, I was feeling a little guilty.”
Feeling a little left out as she immersed herself in memories
of the good ol’ days, I rolled over on the sofa. “Let’s get to
sleep already,” I said. Since Akane-san was in the storeroom
now, I was stuck sleeping here.
“Okeydokey.” She finished checking her mail, switched off
the workstation, and dove off the revolving chair into bed.
Then she rose to her knees. “Ii-chan, let’s sleep together
tonight for sure.”
“Pass.”
“It’s so cold at night. If you sleep over there you’ll catch a
cold. This bed is a king-size. Lotsa room.”
“Pass.”
“Come on, I won’t do anything! We’d just be sleeping
together, that’s all. I won’t even touch you. You can even
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 9 7
sleep with your back to me. Come on, that’s not so bad,
right?”
“Pass.”
“Please? I’m lonely over here.”
Damn this girl.
She was really digging in this time.
I got up from the couch and looked her right in the eye.
“You swear you won’t do anything?”
“Yes.”
“You swore. I’m gonna believe you.”
“No sweat,” she nodded. “I won’t let you down.”
And so that night I slept on a real bed for the first time in a
long time. A very long time. Not that I was expecting
anything, but she really did keep her promise, and I could hear
her sleep-breathing behind me. But since I had my back to
her, I didn’t know if she was really sleeping.
I remembered.
The old days.
Way back then.
Years ago.
Wow, was it really so long ago?
“Ii-chan.”
She always used to call my name like that, with that sense
of familiarity in her voice.
Her heart was just as open to me now, like we had never
been apart.
Wide open, no façades.
I really don’t like meeting up with people from the past.
Whether they’ve changed or not, it’s a lonely experience
for me.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 1 9 8
Nevertheless, Kunagisa’s house was the first place I went
when I came back to Japan, before even going to my own
home, and I did so without hesitation.
The blue-haired femme.
She still looked exactly the same.
Like those years had never happened.
I closed my eyes.
Surely this was the first time we’d slept side by side in a
long while.
Just take her, Akane-san said.
If you want to be her one-and-only.
If you want not to be loved, but chosen.
“Nonsense…”
What if…
If I told Akane-san I had already tried that before, would
she have held it against me?
It hadn’t been out of love, but out of desire for destruction.
But Akane-san.
It didn’t mean anything.
Really.
Really, it meant nothing.
So then what?
Then what should I do?
Please tell me.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 0 1
Death to wolves, and death to pigs, too.
I awoke to a loud knocking. My head still swirling with sleep, I
got up and opened the door only to have Hikari-san charge
into the room and grab me by the collar.
“You bastard!” she suddenly screamed.
No, this wasn’t Hikari-san, I realized. The day Hikari-san
says something like “You bastard!” is the day I change my
name to Samantha. To say something like that and grab me by
the collar was, for Hikari-san, literally impossible. She lacked
that ability. This was most likely not Teruko-san either… so it
must be… Akari-san?
“Because of you, this—goddammit! You shithead!”
Even for Akari-san, this was pretty uncharacteristic
behavior. In a complete frenzy, she looked as if she was going
to start pummeling me any second. Or actually, she had
already beaten on my chest several times at this point. I was
just too surprised by her behavior to notice the pain.
“I’m so tired of this happening.” She was panting and
trembling. “No more of this… It’s just too awful…. It’s too
awful. Why? Why?!”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 0 2
“Take it easy, Akari-san.” I grabbed her shoulders and gave
her a firm shaking.
“Did something… happen?”
She shot me a glare. It was a look of true resentment.
Vengeful indignation from the core of her being.
She glared with all her might.
Hadn’t Hikari-san said something yesterday along the lines
of “We’ve been trained to maintain our composure”? It wasn’t
likely that Hikari-san had undergone training that Akari-san
hadn’t. Yet here she was, out of her mind. What the hell had
happened?
At last, she shook her head gently. “I’m so sorry. Please
excuse me, my behavior was very inappropriate.” She hung
her head in shame. “It’s not even your fault. This terrible thing
isn’t your fault…”
“Hey, don’t worry about it… But what exactly happened?”
I repeated my question. “Whatever it was, please tell me.”
Instead of answering directly, she spun around with her
back to me. “Please come with me to the first-floor storage
room,” she said, and began walking.
I stood frozen. “W-what? But that’s…”
Akari-san and Teruko-san had supposedly spent the night
on the mainland; when had they gotten back? According to
the watch Kunagisa had fixed for me, it was already ten
o’clock in the morning (although it was hard to read, since the
numbers were backward). It was unlike me to have overslept.
How embarrassing.
But now was no time for such thoughts. When Akari-san
had returned and how long I overslept were far too trivial
matters at this point.
More important…
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 0 3
More important…
“Akari-san, what did you just say?”
The first-floor storage room?
I had a bad feeling about this. Who was down there?
A real bad feeling.
What was happening on this island?
A really bad feeling.
And the feeling was probably right. There was a pattern
developing here.
“Hey, wake up. Tomo.”
“Hnnh? Gmorning… Put my hair up?”
Kunagisa sleepily raised her head. She wore a strangely
content expression, like she had been having a nice dream.
“It seems like now’s not the time for that.”
She rubbed her eyes. “That means I don’t have to wash my
face, either.”
An inward-opening door.
On the other side, Akane-san laid facedown, her body
pointing toward us. As a result, the cross section of the cut—
as well as all the flesh and bone and veins it revealed—was in
plain sight. It was a grotesque reminder that in the end,
human beings are nothing more than giant wads of organic
matter.
Yes.
It was yet another decapitated body.
Just like Kanami-san’s body, the head had been completely
severed from the very base of the neck.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 0 4
It was dressed in a suit. An expensive-looking, gray one.
Ruined by bloodstains. But even supposing it hadn’t been, just
as was the case with Kanami-san’s dress the day before, there
was no one left to wear it.
The room was stark and barren. I had spent three days in
here. Akane-san hadn’t lasted one night.
It was an empty room. The only things inside it were a
wooden chair by the wall, a house telephone hanging on the
wall, a futon, a few books Akane-san had presumably brought
with her, and the lamp stand.
“The door was locked, right?” Iria-san asked. “Right,
Hikari?”
“Yes.” Hikari-san’s voice trembled. I looked over to see that
her body was also trembling. “It was definitely locked. No
mistake.”
“Well, what about the window then?”
I looked up at the sound of Iria’s voice. At the very top of
the wall opposite the door, where we all stood, there was a
rectangular window. But it was strictly for letting in sunlight
and ventilation. As far as allowing someone to sneak in or get
out, it was way too…
It was open.
It had an open/close lever that could be operated from
within the room. If you thought about it, it was just big
enough to let a single person pass through, if the person put in
a little effort.
But still…
“It’s too high,” I said to no one in particular.
Breaking in through that window would be like taking a
two-story dive, and breaking out would’ve been even worse.
The impossibility of getting in or out through that window
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 0 5
was the reason we chose this room as Akane-san’s cell in the
first place.
In other words, the window was impenetrable.
However.
The only other port of entry or exit had been locked.
This was a dead end. Another sealed room. A second
decapitation. Two decapitations, two sealed rooms.
Kunagisa, who was standing next to me, let out a whine. I
tried to say something, but ultimately stayed silent.
Lying on the floor before us was the headless body of the
woman we had all suspected was the killer. In a situation like
this, what words were suitable?
The head was nowhere to be found.
This meant that just like Kanami-san, accidental death and
suicide were out of the question.
“Anyway, it looks like we’ve got some things to
reconsider,” Iria-san finally said. “Can we all gather in the
dining room? Hikari, lock this room.”
Once again, Iria-san was the first to leave. Rei-san silently
followed close behind.
“Some things to reconsider?” I repeated painfully. Indeed,
that was right. All of our thinking and every speculation we
had made up to this point would have to he wiped clean. It
also seemed as if we had a lot of new details to consider.
“I guess this makes it a serial killing, huh?”
It was really painful to say that.
A serial killing.
I had locked Akane-san in here to prevent that very thing.
And she had become the second victim as a result.
Yeah, real safe situation we had created. What the hell did
I think would happen? What did I expect from a person who
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 0 6
kills others and cuts their heads off? Probably the good sense
and strategic thinking of, you know, a human being.
I had felt so relaxed. Totally at ease. Completely proud of
myself. I had stopped the killer from moving around. I was so
confident. Carried away. Big-headed.
Akane-san’s words from the previous night all came
rushing back. The words she had left me with.
Could this be forgiven?
“It’s all nonsense, really.”
I turned on my heels and left the crime scene.
At that moment, I spotted Yayoi-san out of the corner of
my eye. She looked terribly pale. Even more so than
yesterday. I guess you’d expect as much from anyone who’d
seen two headless corpses in two days. It wasn’t like looking at
pork or chicken.
Still, there was something—just then Yayoi-san seemed to
notice my gaze and sped off to the dining room, as if to get
away from me.
I wondered what that was about while Kunagisa tugged on
my arm.
“Ii-chan, let’s go already. Iria-chan’ll get tired of waiting
around. Everyone’s already gone; there’s no point sticking
around.”
I nodded.
Things to rethink, and new things to think about.
As such, the morning of the fifth day was total crap.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 0 7
“It was around two in the morning,” Hikari-san said.
Dining room.
Round table.
But we were two fewer people than just two days ago.
The artist extraordinaire Ibuki Kanami and member of the
Seven Fools Sonoyama Akane.
The bickering duo was no more. They were no longer alive.
“I received a phone call in my room… from Sonoyama-san.
She said she had forgotten a book in her room that she wanted
me to bring her.”
“And then?” Iria -san said. “I presume you did as you were
told?”
“Yes,” Hikari-san nodded. “It was a kind of old-looking
paperback of Bakaichi by Mushanokoji.”
“That’s not really important. So at that time, Akane-san
was still alive, yes? And she had a head?”
“Yes, at that time she was alive,” Hikari-san said distinctly.
This meant that Akane-san had been killed after two a.m. I
had assumed I was the last person to see Akane-san alive, so I
was a little surprised. But really, I don’t suppose I had “seen”
her, per se, since we had only spoken through the door.
Her body had apparently been discovered around nine
o’clock that morning. She usually woke up and went for
breakfast at a set time every day, so Hikari-san was concerned
when no call came from Akane-san’s room, and thus became
the one to discover the body.
At first she had suspected that Akane-san had merely
overslept on account of being in a new environment. But
reality had something else in store. At any rate, assuming
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 0 8
Hikari-san’s testimony was true, the time of the murder was
limited to a seven-and-a-half-hour window. The body didn’t
appear freshly killed at the time it was discovered, so it
seemed that the murder probably occurred in the middle of
the night.
“Well then,” Iria-san said, looking over the people at the
table. “Let’s start looking at alibis like we did yesterday.”
She sounded like she was playing some kind of game. I
won’t claim to be able to judge what was inside Iria-san’s
heart, but at the very least, she seemed to have no sense of
sadness or grief.
No matter who it had all happened to or what happened,
it didn’t happen to her. That’s all there was to it.
“This time, I don’t have an alibi.” I decided to get the ball
rolling since nobody was talking. “Hikari-san came to visit our
room around ten or eleven last night. I think. But then
Kunagisa and I went to bed and fell asleep.”
“You went to bed together?” Iria-san teased.
“Yeah, right. ‘Went to bed’ is just a figure of speech. I slept
on the sofa.”
“But if you both went to sleep, there’s no way of
confirming that one of you didn’t slip out in the middle of the
night.”
“Oh, oh, but you can rule me out. Kunagisa slid her hand
horizontally across her neck. “The storage room is on the first
floor, right? I can’t go downstairs alone.”
“Eh?” Not only Iria-san, but everyone gawked at Kunagisa
in surprise. Well, everyone except for Maki-san, who wore an
utterly indifferent expression, as if to say, “I already knew
that.” But you can always count on her to be the exception.
“That’s why I always make Ii-chan come with me.”
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Yup. I hadn’t come to this island just because I was bored
or interested. I had a bona fide reason for being here, and
Kunagisa needed me.
Kunagisa had a wide array of unique quirks and
characteristics that made everyday life a serious health risk,
but among those were three major ones, and within those
three was one of special note: she couldn’t handle extreme
vertical locomotion on her own.
That was a rule.
I suppose it’s more fitting to call it a rigid, compulsive,
subconscious rule that lay somewhere within her mind than a
“quirk.” If poorly enforced, it would be revealed, and she
would scream and shout and you wouldn’t be able to lay a
finger on her. It was the same way years ago. I wondered if she
might have been cured, but it seemed it wasn’t such a simple
condition.
“Is that right?” The look of surprise remained on Iria-san’s
face. “But this is the first time I’ve heard about this.”
“Well, it’s not really something you bring up all the time.
But if you’ve been observing me, you’ll note that I haven’t
gone up or down any stairs alone the whole time I’ve been on
this island.”
I was always with her during meals, or else she was locked
up in her room.
Kunagisa Tomo.
“Now that you mention it, you do always get that guy to
come to your room and get you. But we don’t have any way to
prove this.”
“We do have a medical certificate,” I said. “It’s a mental
disorder, so to speak. So I think we can confirm Kunagisa’s
alibi for now.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 1 0
Not mine, though.
Iria-san seemed to be pondering this for a moment, but
then she switched her train of thought. “Well, what about
Himena-san?”
“I was in my room drinking all night.” She looked over at
Shinya-san. “Together with that wonderful gentleman over
there.”
“Is that right, Sakaki-san?”
“Well, I don’t know about the gentleman part, but
otherwise, yes.” He gave Maki-san a little wink. “I only meant
to go bother her for a little bit, but I ended up staying all night
drinking.”
That makes two nights in a row that they were up
drinking. They must have had incredible endurance. Or
maybe that wasn’t the case for Shinya-san. Maybe he just
couldn’t bear being sober after the loss of Kanami-san.
I could imagine how important she was to him. He had
taught her painting, and even raised her to surpass him. She
was special. Her existence had been important to him.
“Neither of us were particularly intoxicated, so I think we
can vouch for each other,” Shinya-san said. “Yeah, it was
around one in the morning. I couldn’t get to sleep… you
know, because of what happened, so I went to the living room
and there she was. Then she invited me to her room, and we
ended up staying there until morning.”
Yup. That’s what he meant. But either way, he was in her
room for a fact; so the two of them had solid alibis.
“I was sleeping the whole time,” Yayoi-san said before even
being asked, as if we were going in some sort of order. “I’ve
got no alibi at all. But I think Hikari-san can at least vouch
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that I got up at six a.m. and that she helped me prepare
breakfast.”
For some reason, she was sort of mumbling her words, and
she looked up to see Iria-san’s reaction. There was something
off about her, and something about her bizarre disposition was
bothering me. It’s hard to explain, but something caught my
attention. I just didn’t know what it was.
“Hmm,” Iria-san said. “How about you, Hikari?”
“Well, I delivered the book to Sonoyama-san at two a.m.,
then I went to bed. So I don’t have an alibi until the time I
woke up this morning.”
“I see… Oh, I suppose I have to give my story as well. I
was in my room talking with Rei all night. We were discussing
what to do from here on and what to tell Aikawa-san. Isn’t
that right, Rei?”
Rei silently nodded.
“I had already slept that afternoon, so I couldn’t get to
sleep at night. By the time we finished talking, it was already
morning, so I figured it was too late to try and sleep, so then…
the usual things, and then finally breakfast. I think that’s a
solid alibi, isn’t it?”
For some reason, Iria-san looked at me when she said it. It
was a challenging gaze. I shrugged. “Yup, sure is. So when did
Teruko-san and Akari-san get back?”
“At about nine o’clock.” It was Akari-san, who had only a
short while ago jumped me in Kunagisa’s room. She had
completely returned to normal by this point, but she didn’t try
to make eye contact with me.
“Nine o’clock?”
Speaking of which, she had said something kind of strange
earlier. “I’m so tired of this happening,” or something to that
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 1 2
effect. But what was she so “tired” of? No matter how you
looked at it, there was something strange about her whole
manner at that time.
Something told me she wasn’t just referring to Kanamisan’s
death.
“Well, I guess that means Akari and Teruko have an alibi,
yes? Which means…” Iria-san said. “The people with alibis are
Sakaki-san and Himena-san, followed by me and Rei, and
Teruko and Akari. And most likely Kunagisa as well. That’s
seven.”
On the other side we had myself, Sashirono Yayoi, and
Chiga Hikari. The three of us had no alibis. But while the
question of who had an alibi was an important one, there was
one thing more important in this case.
“Um, Hikari-san?”
“Yes?” She looked in my direction.
“Maybe I’m being too trivial here, but could you tell me
whether or not the window was open when you delivered the
book to the storage room at two o’clock?”
She looked off into space as she thought about it for a
moment. “I believe it was closed,” she answered.
“I see. Is it something a person could easily open?”
“Yes. It’s supposed to be for ventilation, so if you just use
the lever—you have to crank it like this—it opens and closes
normally. But that’s only from the inside. It’s completely
sealed off from the outside.”
“I see.”
This was a troublesome development. A very troublesome
development. A window more than ten feet high. Without a
ladder, it was virtually impossible for someone to climb out,
and even more implausible that someone had climbed in.
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In other words, we had another “locked room” mystery.
“Well, tell me then, how do you go about handling the
key? Are there copies of it or anything?”
“I have the only key. There are no copies or master keys.”
She seemed pretty worried. Which was only natural. The
implications of this conversation were that she was the only
one who could’ve possibly committed the murder. Just
looking at it objectively, that was the most likely case.
But I wasn’t about to point that out. I didn’t want to cause
another Akane-san-style mishap.
“What type of lock is it?”
“Just a normal one. You twist the key like this and the bolt
latches. I don’t know the official name…”
“And you definitely locked the door at two a.m.?”
“Yes, I locked it. For sure. I even checked several times,”
she answered with a somewhat pained expression. “For sure.”
“I see…”
She was an honest girl.
To the point that it must have made life difficult for her.
Seeing her like this, it seemed clear to me that she wasn’t
the killer. If she were the killer, she wouldn’t have gone to all
the trouble to report that she had been called to Akane-san’s
room in the middle of the night. Anyone could have deduced
that much.
Of course, you couldn’t throw out the possibility that she
had strategized all this to fool everyone. That kind of
argument could go on forever.
I continued my questioning.
“And nobody else was in her room when you went there?
What about the possibility that someone was hiding in the
dark or something like that?”
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“Well, I didn’t sense anybody else in the room, but”—she
tilted her head as if she didn’t quite get the point of my
question—”I can’t be certain. I didn’t actually go into the
room. I gave her the book at the door.”
“Weren’t you scared?” Yayoi-san suddenly asked, her voice
faint. She wore an upset expression as she continued. “I mean,
didn’t we all think Sonoyama-san might be the killer? And
you met with her alone, in the middle of the night? Weren’t
you scared?”
“No, not at all,” Hikari-san answered after a moment’s
hesitation. “I didn’t think Sonoyama-san was the killer.”
“Why not?” For some reason, Yayoi-san was being strangely
pushy with Hikari-san. “What makes you so sure?”
“Uh, well…” Hikari-san looked over at me with a worried
expression. Ah, it was because of her conversation with
Kunagisa yesterday. Indeed, after hearing that conversation
there was no reason to suspect Akane-san in particular.
I thought about things as I watched this conversation
unfold between the two ladies. But I couldn’t pin anything
down. It had seemed to me that if something had happened, it
probably happened around two a.m., when Hikari-san
delivered the book, but then, after listening to her testimony,
that didn’t seem to be the case.
So what to do now?
How to continue?
“I don’t suppose the room was completely sealed. The
window was open, after all,” Iria-san said to me. “In that sense
it’s not exactly what you would define as ‘sealed.’ ”
“But it’s impossible to get in or out through that window.”
“There’s a chair in the room, right? Couldn’t you reach the
window if you stood on the chair?”
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“I don’t think so. Even if you stretched and jumped at the
same time, I don’t think you’d reach it. Shinya-san is the
tallest person here, and I don’t think even he could reach it.”
“Is that so? So Ibuki-san’s room was sealed off by a river of
paint, and this time it’s a room sealed off by a height
problem…” Iria-san stretched out her arms with an irritated
sigh. “And both women were decapitated.”
Yeah, there was that issue as well.
The killer had cut off Kanami-san, and Akane-san’s heads.
That was still a mystery. There was no reason to suspect
switched bodies, but what other reason was there to cut off
the heads? Could we just write it off as a bizarre fluke?
What’s more, the fact that the killer took the severed head
didn’t make much sense. Of course, there was also the
possibility that the killer severed the head specifically for the
sake of taking it somewhere, but what in the world do you do
with a severed human head?
And that question just led to another question: why were
these women killed in the first place? I had no idea. This case
was full of things I didn’t understand. It was all hopeless and
meaningless.
Dammit.
Since when had I become so dumb?
“Hmm… looking at things objectively, Hikari is the most
suspicious one here.” Iria-san said suddenly.
Hikari-san flinched for a moment. “Eh? Oh, um, I…”
“Hikari was the one with the key, and one of the three
people with no alibi. If the window isn’t a possible entrance or
exit, the door is the only possibility, right? There are three
people without alibis, but only one of those three has a key.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 1 6
“Please hold on a second,” I barged into Iria-san’s
monologue. “That’s no good. That’s not a fair assumption.”
“Assumption? I believe the correct term is ‘reasoning.’ ”
Hikari-san watched our interaction with a worried
expression. She didn’t know what to say.
“It’s like Akane-san said yesterday. It’s foolish to reach a
conclusion based on the process of elimination and selective
thinking. I won’t go as far as to call it foolish, but I do think
we’re leaving things out.”
“I wonder. Is that right? I don’t think so, personally.”
“It was that thinking that caused me to have Akane-san
locked up as the prime suspect. And this is the result. This is
the result of that, Iria-san. There’s nothing I can say about
what’s already over and done, but I refuse to make the same
mistake again. You understand, right? It’s too dangerous for
anyone to be left alone anymore.”
“Now you tell me,” she said with a smile. Under different
circumstances, it might have even been pretty. “Wasn’t it your
idea to have Akane-san locked up—sorry, secluded—in the first
place?”
“That’s correct. I’m not here to debate that fact. It was I
who suggested we lock her up in there, and so now it is my
duty to counter that suggestion. If I have to take responsibility
for what happened, making sure it doesn’t happen again is
how I’ll take that responsibility. At this point, it’s still too
early to determine who the killer is. We’re still not even
thinking about the things we need to be thinking about.”
Maki-san let out a big yawn. Possibly because she hadn’t
slept in two days, or possibly because she was bored by the
conversation. Most likely it was for both of those things.
She was just a bystander.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 1 7
“Well, I still think Hikari is the most suspicious.”
There was absolutely no sense of compassion in her words
for this maid with whom she had coexisted under the same
roof for all these years.
She was completely devoid of sentimentality. She spoke
with the icy-cold tone of someone simply reporting facts as
facts, with no emotion inserted whatsoever.
I thought I knew.
The answer to Kunagisa’s question from yesterday. The
reason this woman had been exiled from the Akagami family.
Akagami Iria. This world was all the same to her, by and
large. It all had the same lack of value. And so she was
searching for something of value; unable to find it, she was
able to rid her life of anything without any shred of hesitation.
I had been wondering what she had done.
I had assumed she had done something.
But in reality, maybe that was the wrong assumption.
Maybe it wasn’t that she had done anything wrong, but that
she couldn’t exist as part of the Akagami family. Furthermore,
maybe it wasn’t the family that had shunned her, but in fact
the other way around. It wasn’t out of the question.
And here I thought it was supposed to be her job to stick
up for Hikari-san.
“Well, let’s do this then,” I suggested without looking up at
Iria-san. “We can say for a fact that it’s no longer sate for
anyone to be alone. So let’s divide into teams. No complaints
about that, right, Iria-san? I don’t think I need to bother
explaining the purpose of making teams, right? It’s just safer
than moving around alone. And that way we can all watch one
another’s backs. Now, since I’ve been sticking up for Hikari-
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 1 8
san, I’ll be on her team. Her, Kunagisa, and I will be Team A.
How’s that sound?”
“Hmm, interesting.” Iria-san seemed genuinely impressed.
“You’re smarter than you look, huh? Teams, eh? Well,
naturally I’ll be teamed up with Rei and Akari and Teruko.
Then let’s have Maki-san, Shinya-san, and Yayoi-san on
Team C. Shinya-san and Maki-san have been confirmed as
innocent twice in a row now, so Yayoi-san can put herself at
ease. And even if Yayoi-san is the killer, it would be two
against one. Does that sound okay?”
“What if we just had everyone stay in the dining room
together? Until Aikawa-san gets here?” Hikari-san said,
looking over at me with the same worried expression. “That
way nobody has to be alone and the killer can’t take any
actions, either.”
“We can’t do that. You mean just stay put here? Don’t be
ridiculous.”
I spoke not only to Hikari-san, but to the entire group.
“Kunagisa and I have some moving around to do.”
For the time being, we decided to bury Akane-san’s body. As
was the case with Kanami-san’s body the day before, simply
leaving it there on the floor was out of the question. Iria-san
didn’t seem to have any plans to call the police anyway, so we
went ahead and did as we felt.
We decided it would be best to use the digital camera to
first take pictures of the scene of the crime as we had done the
day before, then go bury the body in the mountain woods
behind the mansion, so the three of us headed back to
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 1 9
Kunagisa’s room. But our plans would end up being slightly
modified.
“Gah!”
The instant Kunagisa entered the room, she let out a
scream that reverberated out into the hall.
I took a peek in and discovered the reason.
“This is… wow…”
“Ah, what the hell?” Kunagisa was uncharacteristically
vocal. “This is bullshit!”
Destroyed.
It was destroyed.
Inside her room lay destruction. All three of her
computers, the two PCs and the workstation. They had been
completely smashed to bits.
“Wahhh! Why did this happen?!” She frantically scrambled
over to the completely exposed, mostly unrecognizable mess
of mechanical parts. “Awfulawfulawfulawfulawfulawful! This
is bullying! Demonic! There is a demon on this island! It’s
Diabolos, Ii-chan! A tragedy! Uwaaa! This is the ruptured
organ compound fracture of computers! Even the monitors
are busted! Why?! Ah, this keyboard was impossible to build!
The holographic memory! Oh my God, the motherboard!!!
What happened to—oh my God, it’s been smashed! What the
hell is this?!?!”
She had lost it. Like flipping a switch. For a happy-golucky
girl like her, this was a fairly rare state of being. Or at
least it was the first time I’d seen her like this since coming
back to Japan.
“Why would they do something like this? Oh, it’s too
awful… Ii-chan Ii-chan Ii-chan… So whaddaya think?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 2 0
“It’s ghastly.” Even supposing these computers were a
nuisance, there was no need to go this far. They were smashed
up so bad, it seemed like overkill. “I wonder if they used some
kind of iron bar. It’s not a very clean method of destruction.
Or maybe it was a hatchet or something.”
“Why did this happen? Who did this? You think it was the
killer?” Hikari-san said in a whisper.
The killer? Maybe the person who murdered Kanami-san
and Akane-san was trying to create some chaos. But what was
the point? What did the killer have to gain by destroying
Kunagisa’s equipment?
“Oooh… poor me. I want to cry,” Kunagisa said, as if really
about to cry. “Hah… well, whatever. I already sent a backup
to my house and all. But still, I went to so much trouble to
build these. I didn’t see this coming. I guess next time I’ll have
to make the motherboard out of unbreakable parts.”
“Wow, backup to the rescue, huh? At least you won’t lose
the software you made.”
But in reality, it wasn’t much of a “rescue.” Kunagisa’s
computers weren’t the normal equipment used by your
average professional. They were all completely homemade, so
the external parts were actually worth even more than the
internal parts.
“Now we can’t even view what was on the digital camera.
It looks like the camera and the mobile memory are busted as
well. Oh, it’s too horrible. Does this person think money
grows on trees?”
I thought for a moment. “Hey wait, you’re one to talk.”
I snapped my fingers. As expected, the camera seemed to
have been destroyed very deliberately. Which made the
culprit’s motive entirely clear.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 2 1
“I see, I see. It makes perfect sense,” I muttered to myself.
“Yeah, this is surprisingly easy to understand. They must have
been afraid of us snooping around any further.”
“What do you mean?” Hikari-san asked. “You know why
this happened?”
“Yeah, I think so. You saw them yesterday, too, right?
Kunagisa’s pictures from the atelier had all been sent to the
hard disk through a USB connection. Whether or not the
culprit knew all that, they must’ve figured those images were
incriminating.”
The workstation and mobile memory had probably been
destroyed with extra care.
Kanami-san’s room.
Those images.
“I think that’s why this happened.”
We hadn’t told anybody about the mail or info from Chiikun,
so the killer wouldn’t have known about that, but
everybody knew about the pictures. Kunagisa slumped her
shoulders in realization of this fact.
“Ah. I didn’t even bother applying extra protection. I never
imagined anyone would resort to something like this.”
“This room doesn’t have a lock, does it?” Hikari-san said. “I
guess you were unlucky.”
I patted Kunagisa on the head.
“Keep your spirits up. I guess this means we can’t just sit
around happily waiting for this detective guy to show up.” I
put my hands on her shoulders and sort of half hugged her.
“No more playing around, huh?”
We didn’t know who the culprit was, and we didn’t know
the motive, either. But we did know one thing for sure: the
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 2 2
bastard had destroyed something precious to Kunagisa Tomo
for his or her own selfish reasons.
This was unforgivable.
“Huh? Hey. Wait, wait a second,” Hikari-san said as if
having suddenly thought of something. “Who did this?”
“Uh, the killer, right? We don’t know who that is right
now.”
“But we were all in the dining room, and then we came
directly here, right? Who could’ve had the time to destroy
everything like this?”
Whoa.
We had been in this room until Akari-san came. Then we
went to the storage room where the murder had happened,
but we were the last ones there. Everyone else was already
gathered. Then everyone went directly to the dining room as a
group.
If that was the case—or rather, that was the case. Logically,
there was nobody here who could have committed this
destruction.
“This is obviously the work of a human being, but nobody
had the time to do it. What the hell?”
It didn’t make sense. Yet another mystery to worry about.
Just like Kanami-san’s sealed room and Akane-san’s headless
body.
No.
This was different. This was a different sort of mystery. It
went beyond simply trying to figure out people’s alibis and
motives. It wasn’t a matter of tricks or gimmicks. It was
simply an impossibility.
Which meant…
“Which means maybe this is the key.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 2 3
I looked at Kunagisa. I looked at Hikari-san.
And then I thought.
If this was the key…
Then where the hell was the door?
Determining that the equipment was beyond repair, we
decided to continue with our planned course of action. And
by that I mean Akane-san’s burial.
We went to the storage room, placed her body on a big
stretcher, and headed for the mountain woods behind the
mansion. The stretcher was kept in the mansion in case of an
emergency, but I doubt they had had an emergency like this in
mind.
No…
Maybe they had.
This time we would bury the body alone, without a
sleeping bag. Hikari-san took the front of the stretcher and I
took the back. Despite her small frame, Hikari-san’s length of
service as a maid was apparent in her surprising upper-body
strength.
Kunagisa followed behind me carrying the shovel.
Carrying the back of the stretcher placed the corpse
directly in my field of vision, front and center. Even being
used to this sort of thing, it wasn’t the most pleasurable
experience in the world.
On the way, I remembered something I had meant to ask.
“Hikari-san, was Akane-san wearing the same clothes when
you brought the book last night?”
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“Yes, they were the same,” she replied. “Of course, she still
had a head, too.”
It wasn’t the type of joke you laugh at. It was far too true
to be funny.
The digital camera had been destroyed beyond all repair,
so naturally we couldn’t make a record of the storage room
where Akane-san was killed. This was probably exactly what
the killer had hoped.
Surely the killer was mocking us. But he or she was taking
Kunagisa’s memory too lightly.
“Hmm. Hmmhmmhmm. II we assume the killer broke
everything because he didn’t want there to be a record of the
scene where Kanami-chan was killed, why exactly was that?
Did the pictures show some concrete evidence? I don’t
remember anything like that.”
Inside her head was an image of not only yesterday’s crime
scene, but also of the storage room we had just visited, just as
accurate and precise as that digital camera. They didn’t call
Kunagisa Tomo a prodigy for nothing.
“Anything sticking out in your mind?”
“Uh-huh. Tons of things are sticking out. I’m trying to
narrow them down. Ermm, ah, right…” She began mumbling
to herself. Once she had gone into this kind of state, it was
best not to bother her. I looked back over at Hikari-san.
“So where should we bury her, Hikari-san?”
“I suppose away from Ibuki-san would be best.”
I couldn’t have agreed more.
Walking through the mountain forest for a while, we
eventually found a spot we thought would make a decent
burial ground, and decided to begin digging. Yesterday we had
had twice as many men, so today promised to be relatively
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exhausting. I had hoped Shinya-san would be able to help us,
but alas, he was on a different team. That and, for the average
guy, having to bury the corpses of two acquaintances in a
period of two days was more than a little nerve-racking.
Unless you were a guy like me.
In which case it was nothing to write home about.
“This should do.”
I brushed the hair out of my face. If this were summer, I
would’ve been sweating like crazy. I hoisted myself out of the
hole and lowered Akane-san’s body into it. Then, a brief,
silent prayer. I didn’t know whether or not there was a point
to such actions, but I figured it was better to do it than not.
Regardless of where or how I die, or who kills me for what
reasons, you won’t hear a complaint out of me.
The last words I had heard out of Akane-san. But did she
really mean it? Even being killed like this, had she crossed
over to the other side like a saint, without a single gripe?
For me, that was an impossible feat.
“I really wish we could bury her with the head, huh?”
Hikari-san said. “Ibuki-san, too. Why do you suppose the killer
cut the heads off anyway?”
“That’s the question of the week, I guess. But we keep
coming up with the same answer.”
That is, “I don’t know.”
I scooped up some dirt with the shovel and began burying
Akane-san’s body. My joints would be hurting tomorrow for
sure. If I still had the mental faculties to feel pain, that is.
There was no saying I wouldn’t be the next murder victim.
The chances weren’t very high, but it wasn’t impossible.
A serial killing.
Maybe it was already over with Kanami-san and Akanesan.
According to the information from Kunagisa’s old buddy
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Chii-kun, the pair had had some sort of relationship in the
past, although I couldn’t say what kind, so there was always
the possibility that the whole ordeal was already over. But
maybe that was just overly optimistic thinking.
At long last, Akane-san’s body was completely buried.
“Hikari-san, since we’re already out here, would you mind
taking me somewhere where we can see that storage room
window from the outside?”
“Certainly.”
She began walking.
Kunagisa followed behind, blue hair waving. Speaking of
which, I hadn’t put her hair up at all today. I decided to do so
properly once we got back to her room.
As we were walking, Hikari-san turned to me with a
serious expression. “Thank you so much.” Not knowing what
that was in regards to, I was taken aback.
“At breakfast, you stood up for me. So I wanted to thank
you.”
“Oh, well, I didn’t just do it because it was you. I just hate
the idea of making the same mistake again. Even putting
mistakes aside, I just hate repetitive actions, really.”
Maybe that was why my memory was so bad.
“Nyahaha, that is so you, Ii-chan,” Kunagisa giggled
childishly. “But really you did it for Hikari-chan, right? ‘Cuz
she’s right in the center of your strike zone.”
“What exactly is my strike zone?”
“She’s older than you, she’s a girl, she’s petite, she’s got
long hair, she’s slender, she doesn’t wear any rings or anything,
and she’s even wearing an apron dress.”
“I’ve never said anything about apron dresses.”
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“Also girls who wear jeans on the bottom and nothing on
top, librarian-lookin’ girls who dress in white uniforms and
wear glasses, gothy girls who are taller than you and have
brown hair and wear jerseys…”
“Don’t make me sound like such a freak.”
Damn. She sure was chatty.
But to be sure, Hikari-san was totally up my alley. In terms
of speed, I preferred the slight harshness of Akari-san’s
personality, but certainly I had no problem with Hikari-san’s
gentle “slowball.” I suppose Teruko-san was some sort of
disappearing magic pitch…
I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about.
“Hah…” Hikari-san gave an ambiguous smile tinged with
embarrassment. “Anyway, I wanted to thank you. My mistress
can be quite… severe in these cases. Plus, unlike yesterday
with Sonoyama-san, this time it seems like I must be the killer.
Even I couldn’t help but think so. At least with Sonoyama-san
there was the pretense that it was a sealed room, so really
nobody could have been the killer. But this time—”
“Don’t worry about that anymore, Hikari-san.” I was
becoming a little irritated, so I cut her off mid-sentence.
“You’ve already thanked me, and you’ve already shown your
sincerity, so you don’t have to keep thanking me for
everything.”
“But—”
“If the situation had been reversed, you wouldn’t have just
left me there on my own, right? I think you would have done
the same for me.”
“But I think if that happened, you would thank me.”
Well I’ll be damned. She was playing hardball.
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“I think he means that you’re a friend,” Kunagisa said.
“And we don’t doubt our friends. That’s why I don’t think Iichan
or you could be the killer.”
“Friends?” she nodded, brimming with emotion. “I’ve never
had friends before. I’ve been by my mistress’s side for as long
as I can remember.”
“I don’t have any friends, either. Neither does Ii-chan. So
we’d be happy if you’d be our friend.”
Kunagisa took Hikari-san’s hand.
Just looking at a sight like this was enough to bring a smile
to your face. But realistically speaking, it would’ve been hard
for Kunagisa and Hikari-san to continue a friendship, I
thought. From here on out, Iria-san would likely need Hikarisan
at her side more than ever before, and meanwhile
Kunagisa was scheduled to head back home. And once back,
Kunagisa was bound to stay holed up in her home all the time.
Kunagisa Tomo was a lonesome girl.
They often say that geniuses are completely self-sufficient.
If that was the case, Kunagisa fit the bill.
And most likely, unable to analyze the situation in any
other way, it was I who was the loneliest.
“Oh. it’s over there. The window.”
I looked around in confusion for a minute. There wasn’t a
window in sight.
“Oh, is it that one? I said, pointing to the only window I
could see, which stood at about the height of my chest.
“Yeah, that’s it.”
“But that height is—”
“It looks high up from the inside, but half this place is built
on a mountain, so…”
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While I listened to her, I looked into the room through the
window. You could make out a small puddle of blood, the
wooden chair, and the door. It was without a doubt the
storage room where I had been sleeping and where Akane-san
was killed.
Wow. So part of the mansion was buried in the mountain,
including this room.
“In that case, breaking in wouldn’t be so hard, huh?”
“But you can’t open the window from the outside. And it
doesn’t lock with just a latch, either, so you couldn’t get it to
unlock by rattling it a little.”
“Well, what about the possibility that Akane-san opened
the window on her own, letting the killer in?” Kunagisa said.
“Like maybe the killer knocked to get her to open it. Y’know,
like ‘anybody home?’ ”
“It’s hard to believe Akane-san would do anything to let
the killer inside. I mean, it’s Akane-san. Plus, this really is
quite a height. It feels all the more real when you’re looking
from the top down. I, for one, sure wouldn’t want to jump
down from the window.”
The window was the kind that tilted open, and only
partially, so it didn’t look like there was much room to make a
balanced jump, either. And it looked like if you didn’t make a
proper landing, you could easily break a bone, or even die if
you happened to hit your head.
“But even supposing Akane-san had accidentally let the
killer in, she could’ve easily called for help. The house phone
was right by her.”
“Maybe she was attacked in her sleep… Oh wait, I’m an
idiot. If she was sleeping she couldn’t open the window,”
Kunagisa said.
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“And even ignoring that fact, how would the killer get back
out? Even an expert rock climber couldn’t get up a flat wall
like that.”
“Teehee! Like a gecko.” Kunagisa poked her head inside
the window and looked around. “Oooh, it is a dangerous drop,
huh? What if the killer used rope?”
“Rope, huh? But there are no trees in this area to tie it
around.”
I looked around the area. Whether it had been deforested
or it had always been this way, the whole place was nothing
but a big grass plain, and there was nothing appropriate for
tying a rope around.
“And y’know, rappelling isn’t the easiest trick in the book,
either. I have some experience with it, but it’s pretty damn
tough. The skin from your hands peels off and stuff.”
“Not if you wear gloves.”
“Well, yeah, but I still think it’s pretty unlikely. They
might as well have brought out a ladder and stuck it through
the window. That’s probably more likely anyway,” I said.
“But a ladder wouldn’t fit through a gap this small. It
would get caught halfway, and then a person couldn’t fit
through.”
“Hmm, I wonder. Hikari-san, is there a ladder anywhere on
this island?”
“Well, no…”
“What about the possibility that someone brought one
with them?”
“I don’t think so. I would’ve noticed if someone brought
something that big.”
“How about a rope ladder? Then they could easily hide it
in their luggage, and it wouldn’t get caught in the window.”
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“Ii-chan, you even forget stuff you said yourself? If it was a
rope ladder, there wouldn’t be anything to tie it to. It would
be possible if they stuck some kind of metal hook in the wall,
but that would’ve left a hole. The wall looks fine as far as I can
see.”
That was true. This was just common sense, not the kind
of thing even worth bringing up. But for the sake of
confirmation, we were discussing it anyway. It was just
another form of “preestablished harmony.”
I faced Hikari-san.
“Have any ideas?” I asked. “Or even just any observations?”
“Hmm, nothing in particular…” she said as she approached
the window. “But assuming the killer didn’t enter through the
door, the window was the only other way to break in, huh?”
“Break in… but maybe they didn’t even have to break in.” I
was just coming up with this on the spot. “The chair is over
there, which means that must have been where Akane-san
was sitting and reading. Maybe the killer made some sort of
lasso out of rope, put it in through the window, caught it
around Akane-san’s neck, and then pulled her up. So she was
strangled to death. Then she was pulled up as far as the
window, where her head was cut off. How about that?”
Implausible, huh? At the very least, it didn’t have any
holes. The killer wouldn’t have had to sneak in through the
window, or even enter the room, and still could have killed
her.
There were no holes at—“Oh no, wait, that’s no good.”
“Why not? I didn’t think it was so implausible,” Hikari-san
said, confused. “If that was the case, anyone could have done
it.”
“Human bodies aren’t so light.”
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For a woman, Akane-san wasn’t small. She was taller than
average, and she looked like she must have weighed at least
110 pounds. She probably wasn’t as much as 130, but she
definitely wasn’t in the 90s, either. To lift her from this height
would’ve required not only a really tough rope, but some
incredible arm strength to boot. I definitely couldn’t have
done it. To pull someone up this high with just two arms was
a crazy feat of strength.
“Shinya-san’s probably the strongest one here, but he’s got
an alibi. And even if he’s the strongest one here, that’s very
relative. I don’t think even he could lift a human body by
himself. Not to mention that Akane-san would’ve been
resisting all the while.”
And while she was resisting, the house phone would have
been right beside her. If she even just kicked it over,
somebody would have discovered what was happening. It
wouldn’t have been a very wise method.
“Plus, in that case the window would have had to be open.
But would she have really opened the window and then
turned her back to it? She wasn’t stupid; in fact, quite the
opposite. So she was probably being somewhat cautious.”
Indeed.
Dammit. And here I thought I was getting a little warm,
but I was still on the wrong track. I felt an unpleasant
sensation, like I was in some twisted dimension. It was like
searching for the corner of a circle. Something was decidedly
off. Something was depressingly messed up. What the hell was
I doing wrong?
I felt as if I was being given the run around, big-time.
“Anyway, let’s go back to the room. There’s nothing more
to see here.”
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Not that there was anything to see back at the room.
Seemingly reluctant to leave, Kunagisa stayed gazing in
through the window for a while, but finally turned and began
to follow me.
“Did you spot something?”
“Uh-uh, nothing special. More important, I’m hungry.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Then let’s go have lunch,” Hikari-san said.
“Yeah,” I nodded.
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Don’t you have anything better to do?
Hikari-san had been completely relieved of her duties by Iriasan.
“Instead, go help Kunagisa-san and the other guy,” she
had been told. It was a soft way of saying, “No way in hell am
I going to entrust any of the housework to the prime suspect,”
or at least that was partially what she meant.
And thus, the three of us remained together even after
finishing lunch.
“Would you two go on ahead of me?” I said to the two girls
on the way to Kunagisa’s room. “I want to stop by Iria-san’s
room for a bit. Kunagisa, hold on to this.”
I pulled a small knife out of my pocket and handed it to
her.
“You’ve been walking around with something that
dangerous?” Hikari-san said in surprise.
“A young man always carries a knife in his heart.”
“And a young woman carries a pistol,” Kunagisa joked as
she took the knife. “Well, let’s go, Hikari-chan.”
“But…”
“It’s okay, it’s okay. Let’s leave it to Ii-chan,” Kunagisa said,
half dragging Hikari-san along. As long as they were together,
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 3 6
Kunagisa wouldn’t have any trouble going upstairs. That was
one of the reasons we were on a team of three.
“Well, I guess we’re going then.”
I did an about-face and began walking toward Iria-san’s
room.
Time to request another “audience.” I gave myself some
mental prep. Then I took in a deep breath.
I knocked on the thick door, waited for an answer, and
then entered. Inside the room, I found Iria-san and Rei-san, as
well as Akari-san and Teruko-san, which I guess I probably
should’ve expected since they were a team. All of them were
sitting on the sofa, elegantly sipping black tea.
Akari-san awkwardly avoided eye contact with me, as if
trying to escape. She must have been regretting going bananas
on me that morning in Kunagisa’s room. That was only
natural, but it was I who was at a loss for what to do with her
speaking so openly to me.
Iria-san’s mouth slowly curled into a smile.
“Is something the matter, Mr.… um… what was it? You’re
the one who proposed that we operate in teams, and now
you’re here alone? That’s a bit of a problem, now, isn’t it?
Hikari is on your team, you know—”
“Iria-san,” I interrupted. “Um, you still don’t plan on
contacting the police, do you?”
“Not a chance.”
A snappy answer.
An utterly cold, curt response.
She was just amazing.
You’re really wonderful, Akagami Iria-san.
“I don’t think that’s a good thing, to be honest,” I said.
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“Would you also care for some black tea?” It was Rei-san.
She stood up without waiting for my reply and walked over to
the pot. Iria-san shot her a look that seemed to have some
hidden meaning, but then looked back toward me.
“If the police came now, you’d be a sticky situation
yourself, don’t you think? Akane-san was killed because of
your suggestion, after all.”
“It doesn’t matter if it would put me in a ‘sticky situation’
anymore. I live to be given the run around. More important,
what about you, Iria-san? Akagami Iria-san. You might be
killed, too, you know. What do you think of that situation?”
With Rei-san’s invitation, I took a seat on the empty part
of the couch next to Teruko-san. Teruko-san made no attempt
to even look at me. Her vacant eyes stared off into space from
behind her black glasses. It was like her focus was out of
alignment or something. Or no, it wasn’t out of alignment. It
just wasn’t in tune with mine.
The black tea was good.
Iria-san took a long pause before answering me, as if trying
to intimidate me.
“What do I think of it? Of this situation? It’s terrible. It’s a
terrible event. Of course that’s not all I think, but what if I ask
you the same question? What do you think?”
“It’s a dangerous situation. I have no interest in sticking
around with a murderer in our midst.”
And I had no interest in sticking Kunagisa in such a
situation, either. I didn’t know how she felt about things
though. I had no idea. But as for me…
“Hmph. Do you think murder is a terrible thing?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 3 8
“Yes I do,” I answered promptly. “I do think that. Without
question. No matter what reasons they might have, murderers
are the most despicable type of human.”
“Hmm. So what would you do if you were going to be
killed? I mean, if it was kill or be killed, what would you do?
Just sit there and wait to die?”
“I’d probably kill. I’m not a saint. But in that moment, I
would consider myself the most despicable type of human. No
matter what kind… what kind of person he or she was.”
“You look like you’re speaking from experience.” Iria-san
gave me an unsavory smile. It was a wicked smile, perfectly
befitting a woman of such absolute power, with such an
overwhelming upper hand.
I thought she reminded me of someone.
Ah yes, Kanami-san. It was that same sort of “Didn’t you
know that?” kind of smile. But why would a nongenius like
Iria-san have a similar smile to Ibuki Kanami-san?
“You think murder must be punished? But imagine you set
some food in front of a mouse, and every time the mouse tries
to eat it, it gets an electric shock. What do you think the
mouse does?”
“Mice are capable of learning, so it would probably stop
trying to eat.”
“Wrong. Mice are capable of learning, so it would eat the
parts of the food that aren’t electrified.”
“Humans aren’t mice.”
“And mice aren’t humans.” She clapped both her hands
together. “Gee, as long as we’re discussing this, maybe you’ll
answer this for me. Why is it wrong to kill people?”
It was the kind of question you might ask a junior high
school student.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 3 9
She didn’t seem to be joking.
“Because it’s against the law, because it’s easier to function
in society if you believe that, because I don’t want to be killed
myself.”
“All of the above lack persuasive power.”
“I agree. So this is my answer: there is no reason. You need
a reason to kill someone. Like maybe you were pissed off, or
you just wanted to kill the person or whatever, but nobody
kills without some reason. But it’s not something you choose,
right? To kill or not to kill? That’s not something you choose.
That’s just drivel that people with a Hamlet complex spout.
The instant you embrace such doubts, you cease to be
human.”
Am I who suffers noble?
What a joke.
“Killing is wrong,” I said. “That’s an absolute. You don’t
need a reason.”
“Hmm, is that right?” She nodded with blatant insincerity.
“I suppose I can understand where you’re coming from. But if
we knew who the killer was, this case would be closed. Once
Aikawa gets here, we’ll find out who that is.”
“I don’t know this Aikawa-san.”
“But I do. Isn’t that enough? Akari, tell him when Aikawasan’s
coming.”
“In three days,” Akari-san answered, still without making
eye contact with me. “We asked Aikawa-san to come earlier
than planned. So…”
“There you have it. If we knew who the killer was, of
course you could just leave. You’re here on this island because
you’re a suspect. That’s the only reason a talentless, mediocre
boy such as yourself is here. Speaking of which, you didn’t
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 4 0
have an alibi when Ibuki-san was killed or when Sonoyamasan
was killed, did you?”
Thunk. I placed my still-more-than-half-full cup of tea
back in its saucer, let out a deliberate sigh, and slowly rose to
my feet.
“Please excuse me. I think we’re speaking completely
different languages here.”
“Indeed,” she sneered. “There’s your exit.”
“Teruko, see him back to his room,” Rei-san said to
Teruko-san sitting next to me. “So that he’s not all alone. You
shouldn’t have a problem with that, right?”
With a quick nod, Teruko-san got up from the sofa. I
didn’t fully understand what Rei-san had meant by that nor
how to react to it, but nevertheless Teruko advanced out of
the room on her own. I scrambled after her, leaving Iria-san’s
room behind as well.
By the time I got out to the hallway, Teruko-san was
already quite a ways ahead of me. What kind of an escort sped
out the door ahead of the guest? As usual, I couldn’t read her
mind at all. And it wasn’t just a matter of her doing things at
her own pace. I accelerated to catch up with her.
But more important…
My conversation with Iria-san really hadn’t gone anywhere
at all. I had more or less expected that, but still I was surprised
at how quickly it had died. It seemed Iria-san really trusted
this Aikawa-san. But did such amazing detectives really exist
in this world?
I hoped so.
I sincerely hoped so.
No, I was wishing for it.
Praying.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 4 1
“Maybe that’s all nonsense, too.”
I let out another sigh. I would just have to try again. It
didn’t seem likely that I would be able to progress very far
without the cooperation of the owner of this mansion. It was
nothing to brag about, but I could be surprisingly determined.
And I was a sore loser. The worst of the worst sore losers.
There was no way I would give up that easily.
Huh?
Did somebody say something just now? I could have sworn
I had heard someone’s voice. I looked around the hall, but
nobody was around besides Teruko-san and me. It must have
been my imagination. My ears were playing tricks on me.
Maybe I was losing it.
Hmm…
No.
It was the sound of a voice.
Which meant…
There was just one other, highly, highly unlikely possibility.
I knew that it was nearly impossible, logically speaking, but
could it have been? Was it possible?
“Teruko-san, did you say something?”
By any chance?
She stopped upon hearing my question.
“I said it would be better for you to just die.”
I was speechless.
It was the first time she had ever spoken in front of me,
and I never would have guessed it would be a line such as “it
would be better for you to just die.” That was just too much.
Was she for real?
And then she turned to me and stared from behind those
dark glasses, perfectly still.
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It was an accusing gaze, and I couldn’t help but wince. We
stood like that for a while, her staring me down, but realizing I
didn’t have the perseverance to beat her, I decided to just
ignore her and keep on walking. As I tried to pass, she grabbed
me by the arm and tightly clenched it.
Squeeze.
It felt like an electric shock had run through my elbow.
Without releasing my arm, she pulled me into a nearby
room and shut the door behind her. She forced me onto the
sofa. From there she sat down so that we were face-to-face,
and removed her black glasses.
“Those are just for show?”
“They’re so we can be told apart.”
She raised her face.
Her voice was exactly the same as Akari-san and Hikarisan’s.
That clear, beautiful voice.
“Is that right?”
“No, I’m lying. I just don’t want to look at your face.”
“No, I’m lying. I just wanted to see you make that face.”
“Can I help you with something?”
Unable to figure out her intentions, I knew that it would
be bad to get swallowed up in this bizarre situation, so I tried
my best to seize the initiative by asking questions. But she just
sat there looking around the room without giving any
response.
“I’ll give you a word of advice,” she suddenly said,
continuing to ignore my question. It was as if she were talking
to a ghost behind me. “You’d be best to live on your own.
When you’re around other people, you cause trouble for
them.”
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The worst part was, without her glasses, she was
completely indistinguishable from Akari-san and Hikari-san.
Being told this kind of stuff by not only Maki-san but now her,
too, was, to be honest, unpleasant.
I felt like I’d been betrayed.
“A person who does nothing but bother other people
should just stop being a person altogether. If you can’t do that,
then you’ve got to go on living alone. That’s what I think.”
“Why are you saying this?”
“But I’m the same way.”
A clear answer.
Her expression showed no change.
Not even a flicker.
“But you’re here with other people and—”
“We’ve stopped being people.”
We.
Exactly who did that include?
“This morning, Akari was rude to you. I apologize.” She
changed the subject without any segue. And her pale
expression and her tone of voice remained unchanged.
“Why are you apologizing?”
“That was me.”
“Huh?”
She continued, oblivious to my confusion.
“It wasn’t really me per se, but it was my body. The three
of us all share these three bodies. All three of us have three
personalities each, and each of us has the same personalities
and memories. So although the one screaming at you this
morning was Akari, it was really my body.”
“You’re lying.”
“Yes.”
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She kept a completely straight face. What was up with this
girl? She kept throwing me crazy curveballs. I didn’t know
where she was going with this at all.
“Now then, enough with the chitchat.”
And she thought this was just chitchat.
“Let me get to the point. I don’t think it’s very wise to be
yakking on and on about the police around my mistress. She
can be quite patient, but everyone has a breaking point.”
“Why is Iria-san being so stubborn about it anyway? She
says it’s to keep the peace here, but I can’t help but think
there’s more to it than that.”
And hadn’t the peace already been broken? She didn’t
seem to be interested in peace in the slightest.
“You really want to know?”
“I do.”
Teruko-san stood up.
She came over beside me. She leaned up against me. She
was stuck to me. Her body was all the way up on me.
“It’s because… no criminal likes the police,” she said, her
voice completely devoid of tone or cadence. “That’s why.”
I was at a loss for words for a moment, not quite clear what
she meant.
“Surely you’ve wondered why my mistress is on this island.
Why do you think she’s here?”
“Well, with that personality of hers—”
“She messed up.”
She was being a little sparse on the details, so I had no idea
where the conversation was headed. How could triplets raised
in the exact same environment have such completely different
personalities? It really was like multiple personality disorder.
“Huh? What do you mean by ‘messed up’?”
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“Kunagisa-san can’t handle extreme vertical motion. That’s
why you’re here, yes?”
“Yeah, that’s right.” I guess she wasn’t much for flattery. “Is
something wrong with that?”
“My mistress is the opposite of that,” she said eloquently.
It was almost like she was reading it right out of a script.
And a fairly dry reading at that.
“That’s why she’s on this completely deserted island.”
She immediately continued.
“Have you ever seen my mistress’s left arm? If you saw the
scars all over her wrist you would understand, too.”
The scars… on her wrist?
As dry and monotone as her voice was, it was deadly
serious as well.
“They called it the abuse syndrome. I’m sure even you’ve
heard of it?”
Abuse syndrome. She must have meant DLLR syndrome.
Indeed I had heard of it. A form of autism in which the person
can’t exist without harming him- or herself as well as others.
To be more specific, it was at the high end of the autism
spectrum. At any rate, it was an exceptionally bad, impossibly
unsavory, extraordinarily atrocious type of mental disorder.
In my time at the program I had read some literature about
it, but I had never actually witnessed a case of it in real life,
though I knew someone who had. As he had put it, “a person
capable of killing without bearing any sense of guilt is truly a
scary thing.”
Truly scary indeed.
Was she saying that was Iria-san?
But DLLR syndrome was such a rare condition that its very
existence was the subject of great suspicion. It was a fairly
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 4 6
compulsive condition, so it was supposedly extremely rare.
There hadn’t been a single case of it in Japan, and even in the
States there had only been a small, countable sample. But I
guess that’s the Law of Great Numbers at work again.
“Teruko-san, that’s—”
“Just as we are triplets, my mistress also has a twin,
Mistress Odette.”
Iliad and Odyssey.
That explained that.
“Is that right? So what’s her sister doing now?”
“She’s dead.”
“You mean it, right?”
“I mean it,” she said. “And the one who killed Mistress
Odette was none other than Mistress Iria. Do you understand?
Do you understand what that means? Have you grasped the
logic here? It means that you’ve just insulted my mistress with
your filthy mouth. ‘Murder is despicable, no matter what the
reason,’ huh?”
“I didn’t really mean to—”
“Your intentions are irrelevant in this case. At any rate, I
presume you understand why she won’t call the police now? If
you understand, please go back to your room. And please stop
making waves.”
Without another moment’s hesitation, she got up from the
couch. I could tell from her disposition that this conversation
was over.
But oh, oh Teruko-san…
“Don’t make waves”?
That was my line.
“Teruko-san!” I blurted spontaneously after her.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 4 7
Contrary to my every expectation, she stopped in her
tracks by the door.
“What?”
“Like…”
Like…
Liiiike…
“Like… say there was a kid who spent the first ten years of
his life locked in the basement without communicating with a
single person, including his own kin. Can you imagine what
that kid would grow up to be like?”
She didn’t answer.
Naturally I wasn’t hoping for an actual answer.
I just thought I’d try asking.
This girl here. This quiet, sallow-faced girl, living her life in
silence. To me, she was probably…
“You and I are totally different,” she said in a fairly harsh
tone.
It was like she could read my mind.
She spoke without even looking back.
“Don’t you dare make me out to be related to you in some
way. It’s disgusting and it makes me nauseous and it’s an
incredible nuisance.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
“You have nothing to belong to in this whole world. Not
just here, the whole world. If you’d like me to put it simply:
you’re a popped cork,” she said.
“That’s actually more than I wanted to hear, especially
from you.”
“It had to be me who said it, because nobody else will.”
She didn’t look back. She continued all the same. “It seems
you still think you don’t understand why Himena-san picks on
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 4 8
you so much, but the reason is obvious. It’s because she can
see what’s in your mind. Nobody likes filthy things.”
“I’m saying you’re filthy.”
“No need to repeat that… I’m fully aware of it.”
“Oh, you’re aware of it? And yet you manage to go on
living. Well, that’s the spirit. That must take a lot of
willpower. That’s worthy of respect. Or could it be that you
think there’s someone out there who will like you even after
you’ve revealed yourself to them? Do you actually believe
someone out there will choose you? Then you really are a
popped cork.”
There was nothing to say. Her words echoed. They were
too heavy for me. I was going to collapse. Fall to pieces.
“How dare you barge into other people’s lives when you’re
harboring such a monster inside yourself? You’re lower than
an insect. You’re shameless. The world isn’t that forgiving.
How grossly conceited you are. And that’s why—”
She opened the door. Then, for a moment, she looked back
at me.
It was…
The expression of a woman staring at the object of her
truest heartfelt loathing. It was an ice-cold look.
“You should just die.”
Ka-thunk.
The sound of inorganic matter.
The door closed.
The power drained from my body. It was like the feeling
you have when your shackles are removed, but without the
sense of liberation.
“Jesus.”
What a circus. I felt as if I were going to be crushed.
Completely pulverized.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 4 9
“This is the nonsense to end all nonsense, seriously.”
Left all alone, I sat and thought.
Now what was it? I tried to recall everything she had said.
Unlike Akane-san’s conversation the previous night, there was
no theorizing this time. There was no reasoning, no
explaining, just the naked truth thrust in my face.
“Oh man, that did me some damage for real.” I shook my
head.
Don’t think about it. There are other things to be thinking
about now. I got up from the sofa and left the room. Looking
around the hallway, not even Teruko-san’s shadow remained.
She was pretty light on her feet. Maybe that was another way
in which she resembled me.
Anyway, all that mattered now was the information
Teruko-san had left me with. The scars on Iria-san’s wrist. Her
“background.” The fact that she had killed her sister… and in
so doing had been exiled to this island. Her abuse syndrome.
Autism.
Thinking of that, surely it was clear why she wouldn’t call
the police.
“Wait a minute. Hold it.”
A revelation. I had seen Iria-san changing clothes right
before my eyes yesterday. The first time she had granted me
an audience. But there was not a scratch on her wrist. Not
that I was staring at just her limbs the whole time, but surely I
would have noticed such an imposing scar if it had really been
there.
“Wait wait wait…” I stopped in my tracks, scratching my
head. “What the hell is this?”
Essentially Teruko-san was a big fat liar.
Just like me.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 5 0
On the way back to Kunagisa’s room, I ran into Team Makisan,
Shinya-san, and Yayoi-san. They were apparently on their
way to eat. I was a little jealous; with Yayoi-san on their team,
they could eat amazing food whenever they wanted. Not that
I had any complaints about Hikari-san’s cooking.
“Ahaha… boy. Ahahahahahahaha. Aaaaahahahahaha… ha.”
At the very sight of me, Maki-san burst into laughter. I was
beyond finding this rude anymore. It was no less expected
than the changing of the seasons.
“What is it this time, Maki-san? You’re always so bustling
with energy.”
“Ahaha. Young man, it looks like Teruko-san did a real
number on you. Oh, my stars. That’s what you get.”
“How do you know?”
“You’re still asking me that? Thanks for an amusing show,
Mr. Spineless. You must never get bored. I’m jealous.”
For sure, Maki-san must have led a boring life. She knew
all that had happened, all that was happening, and all that
would happen. It was like watching a nonstop stream of
movies where you already know the ending. There was no
doubt that that sucked the fun out of living.
“That’s not exactly true,” she teased. Was she drunk? She
seemed oddly high. The inside of her head must’ve looked like
mentaiko.
Gah, she glared at me.
“Say, should you really be alone at a time like this in a
place like this?” Shinya-san still looked a little blue, but he
seemed to have calmed down quite a bit, and he was no
longer pale. Even though it can be cruel sometimes, in the
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 5 1
end, time really is kind to us all. “Kunagisa-chan and Hikarisan
must be a little edgy on their own. They’re just petite little
things. And Hikari-san is the prime suspect right now, right?
Your beloved Kunagisa-chan could be in danger.”
He seemed to be half joking, but it was clear that he really
was worried about me. I bowed to him in gratitude.
“Eehehehe. You’ll have to excuse us now, Mr. Half-Baked.
Don’t think too hard,” Maki-san teased, and then turned her
back on me. Shinya-san shot her a look.
“If you’re feeling responsible for Sonoyama-san’s death, I
don’t think you should worry about it. You did everything
that was in your power. You couldn’t have done anything else.
You did your best,” he said to me.
“Thank you so much.” I bowed and thanked him.
“Well, see you later.” With that, he turned around as well.
Yayoi-san had given me a few odd looks that seemed to
mean something, but with no more than a slight nod of her
head, she went off with the other two and headed for the
dining room.
“What was that about?”
There wasn’t anything suspicious per se, but something
was strange.
“Eh, I guess it’s not really anything to worry about,” I
muttered to myself.
Upon returning to the room, I found Kunagisa nose-deep
in busted-up computer parts while Hikari-san was doing some
cleaning. Word had it that Hikari-san was a total neat-freak.
Come to think of it, she did always seem to be cleaning. I
supposed it was one form of workaholism. Was there not a
single normal person on this island?
“Hey hey, Ii-chan. You’re just in time.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 5 2
“For what?”
“Putting my hair up.”
Gotcha. I approached her from behind. I decided to give
her a whole bunch of mini-braids, and began braiding together
small portions of hair.
“Ahhhh,” she sighed with pleasure.
“Tomo-san. Is it okay if I clean up that mess?”
“Don’t call it a mess. I can still use some of these parts, so
I’m retrieving them now. You gotta reuse stuff. Recycle,
recycle, for Mother Earth! Recycling’s important, y’know. Mmhmm.
But what should I do, huh? Maybe I can make a secret
weapon to stop that killer.”
She sure knew how to keep her chin up. Not that I wanted
to be like her, but you had to admire her positive thinking.
Even if it was just because she had never known negative
emotions.
Sigh.
“Oh, right. Hikari-san, do you have a memo pad or
something? And something to write with?”
“They’re in that cabinet. Do you need them?”
“I want to write up an outline of the current situation.”
We had made an alibi chart yesterday, but the data had
been smashed to smithereens along with the computers.
Therefore I wanted to create a new chart that included
updated information.
“I see,” she said and headed to the cabinet.
“Oh, hey. Tomo, I forgot to tell you, remember that
painting? I figured out what was strange about it.”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah, you were saying something about that,
weren’t you? So what was it?”
“The watch.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 5 3
“Watch?”
“Yes, the watch. When I was modeling for the picture in
Kanami-san’s atelier, I hadn’t been wearing a watch. It was
broken and I gave it to you to repair. So there wasn’t anything
on my wrist.
“Nonetheless, on the canvas, there was a watch painted
onto it.”
Kunagisa looked puzzled for just a moment, then reverted
back to her usual expression and delivered a stock question.
“Mmm. Don’t you think it’s just an error? I can’t imagine it’s
very important.”
“Well, yeah, maybe, but…”
“Which?”
“How about a subject and predicate?”
“The watch display. Was it the blank one, or the one after I
fixed it that displays backwards?”
“Oh, well, actually, I’m sort of faced inward like this, so I
couldn’t tell.”
“Mmm,” she nodded. After a moment’s thought, she said,
“Yeah, I think it’s just an error. More important, I thought of a
clue, maybe. Akane-chan’s murder was like… her headless
body was all, errr…”
“Errr?”
“Her hand was kinda…”
She tilted her head to the side and folded her arms.
“Well, not her hand, but her fingers. There was something
unnatural, I mean really unnatural about them, I think… Aw,
man, my memory capacity has hit its peak. It feels like there’s
a big mosaic in my head. Hey, Hikari-chan, did you notice
anything weird about her fingers?”
“Hmm…”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 5 4
Hikari-san, who had returned at some point, sat down on
the carpet next to Kunagisa so that she was facing me.
“Sorry for the wait. Here’s some paper and a pen.”
“Thanks.”
I took the supplies from her and, while recalling the chart
we had made yesterday, whipped up a new alibi list for the
Ibuki Kanami and Sonoyama Akane murders, including
everyone on the island.
Ibuki Kanami
(murdered)
Sonoyama Akane
Before earthquake: X
After earthquake: X
(murdered)
Kunagisa Tomo
Before earthquake: O (Ii-chan, Hikari, Maki, Shinya)
After earthquake: X
O (can’t go down stairs alone)
Sashirono Yayoi
Before earthquake: O (Iria, Rei)
After earthquake: X
X (sleeping)
Chiga Akari
Before earthquake: Δ (Teruko)
After earthquake: X
O (on the mainland)
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Chiga Hikari
Before earthquake: O (Ii-chan, Tomo, Maki, Shinya)
After earthquake: X
X
Chiga Teruko
Before earthquake: Δ (Akari)
After earthquake: X
O (on the mainland)
Sakaki Shinya
Before earthquake: O (Ii-chan, Tomo, Maki, Hikari)
After earthquake: O (Maki)
O (Maki)
Handa Rei
Before earthquake: O (Iria, Yayoi)
After earthquake: Δ (Iria)
Δ (Iria)
Himena Maki
Before earthquake: O (Ii-chan, Tomo, Hikari, Shinya)
After earthquake: O (Shinya)
O (Shinya)
Akagami Iria
Before earthquake: O (Rei, Yayoi)
After earthquake: Δ (Rei)
Δ (Rei)
Phew. Or something like that. Staring at the chart, I let out
a sigh.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 5 6
“Alibis, huh? But y’know, this doesn’t really mean all that
much, does it? We’ve pretty much shelved the idea of it being
a cooperative crime up until now, but if you consider that
possibility, this chart doesn’t mean squat. Especially looking at
these two- and three-person alibi testimonies.”
There was also the possibility that people other than the
killer had lied just so they wouldn’t be suspected, and if you
considered that, this charted information was even harder to
swallow.
Well aware of the futility of it all, I decided nonetheless to
write up a similar summary outline of the murder incidents
themselves.
Victim:
Ibuki Kanami
Conditions:
Sealed room
River of paint (solved)
Time of incident:
Night, presumably after earthquake
Notes:
Decapitated body
Killer unknown
Victim:
Sonoyama Akane
Conditions:
Sealed room
Open window in a high location (unsolved)
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Time of incident:
Between 2:00 and 9:30 a.m.
Notes:
Decapitated body
“And… killer unknown.”
I finished writing and put the pen down.
“You’re forgetting about the third incident, Ii-chan,”
Kunagisa immediately objected. “The Poor Kunagisa-chan
Incident.”
“Oh, right. It pales in comparison, but that’s a mystery,
too, huh.”
“Don’t say that! To me this is a greater tragedy than having
my head cut off! As long as they’ve gone this far, I wish they
would cut my head off!”
“Okay, okay.” I picked up the pen again.
Victim:
Kunagisa Tomo(‘s computers)
Conditions:
Unsealed room
No lock, enterable by anyone
Time of incident:
Between 10:00 a.m. and the end of breakfast.
However, everybody in the mansion was together
at that time. A time-sealed room?
Notes:
Destructor’s goal presumed to be the destruction of
image data taken from the scene of Ibuki Kanami’s death.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 5 8
“A time-sealed room, huh?”
The first incident involved a room sealed by a river of
paint. The second, a room sealed by an unreachable window.
A room sealed in terms of height. And the third incident was
sealed in terms of time.
“The second, third, and fourth dimension, huh?”
“That sure makes it sound like a crime of enormous scope.
Say, Hikari-san, this question pretty much completely
undermines any pretense we’ve had up until now, but… is it
possible there are other people on this island?”
“It is not,” she stated confidently. “There’s only one spot on
the whole island where ships can dock, so I think I can say
that for certain.”
“I see.”
But if that were really true, then it would have been
absolutely impossible for this to have happened to Kunagisa’s
computers. With enough wit and wisdom, a person could
feasibly get through a sealed plane or conquer height, but time
was the one dominion impenetrable by man.
“So I wonder if there’s some kind of trick to this as well.
Like a remote control or something. Mmm, but this is
obviously the work of a human being.”
“Hikari-san, is it possible that one or two people maybe
slipped away in the midst of all the contusion of discovering
the body? I mean there was a headless dead body right before
our eyes. Maybe someone took advantage of the situation and
walked off while we were distracted.”
“I… don’t think so…”
Hikari-san was still unconvinced. Even I couldn’t help but
scratch my head at the idea, and I was the one who had
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 5 9
brought it up. In reality, we probably would’ve noticed if
someone had disappeared from the room.
“First incident. Anybody could have done it—that is, if you
consider the possibility of a cooperative crime. But we’ve at
least figured out how they did it, and we know it wasn’t really
a ‘sealed room’ after all. Now, second incident. This time, we
have no idea how they did it.”
“But I, as an exception, could have done it,” Hikari-san
said.
I nodded. “And then the third incident. Nobody could have
done it. Moreover, there was no possible way it could have
happened.”
The incident itself was rapidly growing more complicated.
This didn’t bode well for the next incident.
“Jesus, what the hell kind of a cycle is this?”
“Well, I don’t think this was all planned out intentionally.
Hmm, but it doesn’t feel right to write it all off as a
coincidence, either.”
“Anyway, let’s stop thinking about all this disheartening
stuff,” I said. “Alibis, sealed rooms. Tricks, gimmicks, setups,
fakes. Whatever. Let’s just agree that someone is using some
unimaginable method to fool us all.”
“Maybe it’s a virtual machine.”
“Yeah, that.”
I guess.
They often say in old mystery novels that it’s harder to
make a puzzle than to solve one, but I don’t think that’s true.
Creating a puzzle or trick or what have you is far easier. In
creating a puzzle, you’re free to display events from whatever
angle you please, completely catering to your own
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 6 0
convenience. Solving the puzzle, on the other hand, can only
be done from that one presented angle.
So for now we just had to place the issue aside.
“But don’t you think we should at least consider alibis?
That’s pretty much all the information we have right now,”
Hikari-san said. “And if we start making emotionally charged
arguments, everyone will become suspicious. I mean, didn’t
Sonoyama-san become the prime suspect after Ibuki-san was
murdered because they hated each other so much? But look at
what happened because of that.”
“Yeaaah, but— It really would’ve made sense if Akane-san
was the killer.”
And now Akane-san was dead, too.
“What about the thought that Sonoyama-san killed Ibukisan,
and then someone killed her in revenge?”
“If that were the case, then I guess Shinya-san would be
the most likely to have killed her. He was Kanami-san’s
caretaker and closest friend.”
“But Shinya-chan had an alibi. Even if you set that aside,
how would he have known Akane-chan killed her?”
“Maybe he didn’t, maybe he just had a hunch. Mistaken
revenge may not happen every day, but it’s not unheard of. If
you think about it, what’s the deal with Shinya-san and Makisan?
They’ve got alibis two days in a row. In the middle of the
night. Don’t you think their having alibis is conversely kind of
suspicious?”
“It is a little, huh? Maybe they’re synchronizing stories in
secret. But you know, Himena-san doesn’t really seem the
type.”
Himena Maki. The indescribable fortune-teller with
superhuman abilities. The absolute absolutist, able to gaze
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 6 1
upon the inner workings of men’s minds and hear any and all
things. Something about her resembled Kunagisa. It was
weird.
“What’s up with you, Ii-chan? Have you fallen for Makichan
or something?”
“Geez, don’t say that. But you know, a spaced-out woman
like her can’t be expected to have the best common sense.”
Man, this really was all futile. I felt like we had already
considered every possibility. It was like we were stranded.
What else was there left to think about?
“It kind of seems like maybe Akane-san knew she was
going to be killed.”
“Huh?” Hikari-san leaned forward in surprise. “What do
you mean?”
“It just seemed that way. Last night, I had a conversation
with her through the door, and at the time, well, it was like
she was at peace. She was quoting Ryokan and stuff. It was
really out of character.”
“Hmm, I wonder if she knew who the killer was,” Kunagisa
said.
Indeed, that was a possibility. She was Sonoyama Akane of
the ER3 system’s Seven Fools. Even without conducting an
investigation, if she had a hunch about who the killer was, it
was pretty much sure to be right.
“By the way, Hikari-san. I was just talking with Terukosan—”
“What?!” She was even more shocked than before, as if I’d
just made some ungodly remark. No, not shocked, exactly. It
was more like she was thinking, “Why would you tell me such
a blatant lie?!”
“Y-you mean… Teruko talked?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 6 2
“Yeah. I was pretty surprised, too, but the real problem
was what she said.”
I explained to Hikari-san and Kunagisa what Teruko-san
had told me. Of course I cut out the latter half. I was never
one to go around boasting about my own faults.
“So what does it mean, Hikari-san? How much of it was
true?”
Hikari-san wore a completely perplexed expression as she
muddled out a vague response. “Um,” she muttered. “Um,
well, um…”
“Akari-san was ranting about something strange this
morning as well. ‘I’m so tired of this’ or something like that.
What was she talking about?”
She was still stumbling over a response. At last, she looked
up at me, seeming to have made up her mind. But still, her
eyes darted back and forth as she deliberated for another
moment. Finally, she opened her mouth.
“It’s all true.”
Huh.
Admittedly, that was not the answer I expected.
This time it was my turn to be speechless. It was all true?
Huh? What did she just say?
“I’ll talk because it’s come to this, and because I choose to
trust you. And because I owe you.” Hikari-san fell silent once
again, and then, looking more lost than ever, finally continued.
“Yes, my mistress is technically a criminal. We serve her in full
awareness of that.”
“And that’s why you won’t call the police?”
“We just work for her. We don’t do anything else. Ever
since coming to this island, various things have happened.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 6 3
That’s how we eventually met Aikawa-san, who you’ve been
hearing about.”
Various things? What various things?
The incident on this island.
Come to think of it… Come to think of it, the other
night…
“Hey, Tomo.”
“Yeah, Ii-chan?”
“I seem to recall you saying something the other night
along the lines of ‘I’m interested in the incident that happened
on this island,’ but is this just another figment of my awesome
memory?”
“Nope.”
“Then you knew?”
“Yup,” she nodded with a giggle. “It’s pretty well-known
info. Lots of people know, but nobody ever talks about it. Not
a lot of people are looking to make enemies with the Akagami
Foundation.”
So, Kunagisa’s hobbies hadn’t changed since the good old
days. Maybe the passing of five years wasn’t enough to alter
her nature.
“Actually, it was mixed in with the rest of Chii-kun’s
information, but I thought it might be better to keep it a
secret from you, so…”
“Why?”
“ ‘Cuz I knew you’d make that face.”
Aha.
Come on…
I was drained.
Pallidly, falteringly, painfully, Hikari-san continued.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 6 4
“Once we started planning this ‘salon,’ my mistress was
able to calm down a bit, but… I can understand Akari’s
feelings of frustration. But you know, this is our job.”
A job, huh? If she really meant that, it was quite a
statement. I was honestly impressed. I respected any person
who lived solely to fulfill their role, regardless of what that
role was. It was something I could never do.
So Hikari-san, too, was truly immersed in the deepest
depths of her abyss.
“Huh, so that’s the deal, huh?”
But what did that mean? If the killer knew all this and
knew Iria-san couldn’t call the police, then…
Then the remarkable boldness, audaciousness, and
fearlessness of his or her actions all suddenly made sense.
“Okay, Hikari-san, well…”
Just as I was about to ask for the details of this famous
island incident, there came a knock at the door.
It was Yayoi-san.
“I have to go to the bathroom.” That’s what Yayoi-san had
told Maki-san and Shinya-san in the middle of lunch before
breaking off from her team and coming here. It was a pretty
typical and hackneyed lie, and Maki-san could read minds
anyway, and even under-the-weather Shinya-san probably
could’ve seen through it, but one look at Yayoi-san’s sickly
blue expression, and they probably wouldn’t have called her a
liar if she said a pack of devils were on their way to the island
on turtleback.
She sat down on the sofa and said nothing.
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She seemed strangely wary of Hikari-san’s presence. Maybe
she, too, thought Hikari-san was the killer. It wasn’t such an
unexpected assumption, to be honest.
“Can we assume you came here because you wanted to tell
us something, Yayoi-san?” It didn’t look like this was going
anywhere on its own, so I went ahead and asked.
“Yes,” she nodded weakly.
“Um, you two are doing some investigating, right?”
“Well, that’s the plan. It’s become a personal matter at this
point, after all,” I said, looking at the computer parts in the
corner of the room. “What about it?”
“Well, if you’re investigating, I suppose the facts need to be
accurate, right?”
“Yeah, well, naturally.”
“If you proceeded from here with inaccurate information,
there could be a third incident, right?”
“Fourth.”
“That’s right, Yayoi-san.” We ignored Kunagisa’s protest.
“That’s the situation. Um, Yayoi-san, I don’t really understand
what it is you’re trying to say. It looks like you came here to
help us, but am I wrong? Did you come here because you
don’t like being on a team with Shinya-san and Maki-san?”
“No, that’s not it,” she mumbled. “It’s just… I— I told a lie
I can’t take back.”
“A lie?”
“Yes. That night… I really was with Iria-san talking. It was
only up until the earthquake, but that much is an honest fact,”
she said. “But Handa-san… Handa-san wasn’t there.”
Hikari-san’s face went stiff.
Rei-san—Handa Rei.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 6 6
It was suddenly clear why Yayoi-san seemed so nervous
around Hikari-san and why she had seemed so unnaturally
detached since the other day, staying holed up in her room all
the time.
The ice was melting.
The other morning during the alibi check, Iria-san had said
herself that she, Yayoi-san, and Rei-san were together.
Everyone else was questioned one by one, but when Yayoisan’s
turn came, Iria-san spoke for her. I had thought this was
simply because they had been together, but it seemed that
wasn’t why after all.
Iria-san…
Akagami Iria was covering for Handa Rei.
Yayoi-san slumped down with her shoulders drooped. It
was like she had been relieved of a terrible burden or freed of
a curse.
“Why?”
Why had she kept silent about such an important detail up
until now? It was a question I was in no position to ask. This
was Iria-san’s island and Iria-san’s mansion, and it was Iria-san
who had invited Yayoi-san here, and she was, after all,
Akagami Iria. If Iria-san said, “I was with Yayoi-san and Reisan,”
who could argue? Who could just call her a liar?
Like anyone could say that.
“I didn’t think it was a big deal at the time,” Yayoi-san
finally said. “I just figured she was looking out for her own.
But thanks to that, Akane-san became the only person
without an alibi, and she was locked away and… killed.”
She was speaking like a burst dam. I sat and listened in
silence. Kunagisa and Hikari-san did likewise.
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“And then regarding last night, Iria-san said she was with
Rei-san again. All night long. But who could believe that? She
said they were discussing what to do from here on, but why
would that take all night?”
“Well, it’s possible.”
“I don’t think so. Just because someone lied the first time
doesn’t mean they lied the second time, but the chances are
pretty high, right? And Hikari-san”—Yayoi-san glared over at
Hikari-san—“Hikari-san is one of Iria-san’s inner circle, too,
but Iria-san didn’t even try to cover for her, did she? Why is
that? Why would she cover for Rei-san but not for Hikari-san?
Isn’t it because she knew there was no need to cover for
Hikari-san? Isn’t it, conversely, because she knew who the killer
was?”
“Are you saying Rei-san is the killer?”
I was surprised by this. I didn’t think the conversation was
heading in this direction. But Yayoi-san seemed absolutely
serious.
“Certainly her alibi is rather dubious now—that is, if we
can believe what you’re saying.”
“It’s the truth. Whether you believe me or not, it’s the
truth,” she said. Hikari-san looked like she had something to
say, but as if having realized something, she remained silent.
She chewed on her lip with a painful expression.
“Let’s just hold on a second here.”
If Rei-san didn’t have an alibi that night, how did that
change things? Maybe not all that much, but the fact that Iriasan
had lied was unarguably huge.
Rei-san wasn’t in Iria-san’s room that night. That meant
they weren’t together after the earthquake, either.
Which meant…
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 6 8
“Mmm. Hey, Yayoi-chan.”
“What is it, Kunagisa-san?”
“Why do you think Rei-chan is the killer? She’s the head
maid. She’s the confidante. She’s a hotshot. She’s even closer
to Iria-chan than Hikari-chan and the others are. So maybe
Iria-chan just covered for her out of friendship. And we really
don’t know if she was lying the second time, even if she was
lying the first time. And if Rei-chan really was the murderer,
then that means Iria-chan knew about it, right? Why would
she cover for—”
“What if Iria-san ordered the murder?”
Gulp, someone swallowed audibly. For all I knew, it could
have been me.
“I don’t think that’s the case. Kanami-chan and Akanechan
were both invited here as guests. What’s the point in
bringing people over and then killing them?”
“What if she invited them here to kill them?” Yayoi-san
pressed on. “Iria-san invited people here. And then those
people were killed. If you look at it that way, it’s not so
unthinkable.”
Was Iria-san using Rei-san in a plot to kill those two, as
well as possibly a third, fourth, and fifth? It seemed like a
highly unrealistic notion, but there was no proof against it.
Yeah. And on that note, hadn’t I just heard the proof for it
from Teruko-san and Hikari-san?
Handa Rei.
The head maid.
As Hikari-san, Akari-san, and Teruko-san’s boss, she was in
the closest position to Iria-san herself. So how about it? Was
that the answer? Was that what it all came down to?
Akagami Iria.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 6 9
Named for that great ancient Greek classic epic, Homer’s
Iliad, the work that told of the great war with Troy over
Helen. All of the characters in that epic thought they were
being manipulated by the gods. Was that it? If that was the
answer…
As I thought, Yayoi-san continued on.
“Do you know why I was called here?”
“Because you’re a genius, right?”
She grimaced.
“Well, Ibuki-san was a painter—a magnificent artist.
Sonoyama-san was a scholar—fine. Maki-san is a fortuneteller—whatever.
Kunagisa-san’s an engineer, yes? That’s
wonderful. But I’m a chef. Unless she’s some kind of gourmet
cuisine nut, why would she call such a person here? I don’t
think cooking is really that special.”
I was silent. Hearing her say that, there was no possible
response I could give.
“And do you know why Ibuki-san and Sonoyama-san had
their heads cut off?”
“That’s a sudden change in topic.”
“No, it’s not,” Yayoi-san said with a stern expression and
tone to match. “You are what you eat. It’s an idea that exists in
Chinese cuisine. If your liver is bad, you should eat liver. If
your stomach is bad, eat stomachs. In other words, if part of
you isn’t working right, you should eat that same thing. I’m
sure you’ve heard of this?”
“Hang on now, Yayoi-san. This is…”
This… This notion…
“Who called Ibuki-san and Sonoyama-san to this island?
Who?” Yayoi-san screamed. Her voice reverberated throughout
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 7 0
the room. The sound lingered in my ears. But I was so
confused at this point I didn’t even care.
Hold on… hold on a minute, here. Did she mean what I
thought she meant? Just wait a second. Hold the phone. I’m
begging you, just give me a little time.
“I’ll say it one more time. No, I’ll say it as many times as it
takes. Why would the killer cut off their heads? Why would
the killer take the heads with her? Where did she take them?
And who was it who invited those two women here? Who
brought these renowned geniuses here? What was inside those
heads the killer carried off?”
If jewels are stolen from a murder scene, it probably means
the killer was after the jewels. If cash is missing, he must’ve
been after cash. Such thinking was just plain common sense.
And in this case, it was the victims’ heads that were
missing.
Yayoi-san continued. “Why was I invited here? Why was I,
not an artist or a scholar or a fortune-teller or an engineer but
a mere chef, invited to this island? Why have I been given
special treatment and allowed to stay here indefinitely?” Her
voice sounded like it was being squeezed out.
It was a voice seeking rescue.
She had probably been brooding over this. From the
moment she had given her false testimony. From before
Sonoyama-san was killed, and indeed the half day following
her death as well, Yayoi-san had probably been thinking about
it nonstop.
Yayoi-san turned toward Hikari-san and began her hopeless
screaming once again.
“What… Just what are they going to make me do?”
Gulp—someone swallowed again.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 7 1
This time it was definitely me.
Was it possible? Such a notion… Wasn’t the acceptance of
such a notion itself unforgivable?
If that was really what was going on, why now? It wasn’t
like this whole “salon” thing had just started. If that was Iriasan’s
little game, she would’ve done this in the past.
No, the five geniuses on this island right now were all
world-class, top specialists in their respective fields. Had Iriasan
been waiting for this exact timing?
“That’s impossible!” Hikari-san shrieked. It was like she
had exploded after holding it in until now. “The idea that my
mistress would do such an inhuman thing, such a cruel thing
now…”
“Now”?
I’m so tired of this.
The past.
Various things. So tired. Now. Why now? I’m so tired of this.
Please don’t make waves. I’m so tired. Tired, so tired. Even though
I’m so tired.
But Yayoi-san didn’t relent.
“I’ve been keeping an eye on Handa-san since yesterday
morning,” she said. “You know how the longer you watch
someone, the more you start to notice their similarities to you,
or you start to feel their humanity? Their humanness? Some
kind of closeness. You know? It’s like ‘Oh, this person is just
like me.’ I felt that way with Iria-san. She’s human, just like
me. She lied, but she’s still a human being. But Handa-san…
That woman frightens me. How could I not be afraid of a
woman like that whose whole life is an act?”
“That’s—” Hikari-san interrupted with her head hung.
“That’s… that’s… that’s…”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 7 2
But it seemed there was no end to that sentence. Even so,
Hikari-san tried desperately to defend her mistress. In
accordance with her duties. It was too heartbreaking—to the
point that it was laughable.
“I see. Yayoi-san, I basically understand what you’re trying
to say. You’re trying to say this, right?”
I tried my best to force my way into their conversation, but
it was hopeless. Yayoi-san continued her relentless
questioning.
“Akari-san and Teruko-san were on the mainland calling on
a detective? Who can prove that? Who’s the one who won’t
contact the police? Who’s the one who won’t let us leave this
island? Maybe you were left out of the plans, Hikari-san, but
where’s the proof of that? They called you the prime suspect,
didn’t they? Where’s the proof saying you aren’t just a
scapegoat here to shake things up? No, maybe you’re in
cahoots with Iria-san, here to make trouble for Kunagisa-san
and—”
“Please stop this. Yayoi-san, that’s enough,” I said quietly.
“Please stop insulting our friend. Kunagisa and I both dislike
getting angry. But we’re not afraid to do what we must.”
My gaze was probably fairly cold, and she shivered for a
moment at the sight of it. She had the same look of uneasiness
that she had when she entered the room.
“I’m scared. I’m scared. I’m scared. I’m just scared.”
“Yes, I understand that.”
“This is a deserted island. There’s nowhere to run. If this is
all what I think it is, maybe I won’t be killed. You weren’t
invited here as a genius, so you might not be killed, either. But
your dear friend Kunagisa-san is in danger. Not even God can
guarantee that she won’t be the next one to have her
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 7 3
shoulders flattened, if you know what I mean. The time for
leisurely investigations has already… I mean, I think we need
to do something fast. I didn’t come here to hiss at Hikari-san. I
came here because Kunagisa-san is an engineer. Can you
operate a boat, by any chance? If so, let’s get out of here on
that cruiser and—”
“Hold on.” I held up my right hand. She looked up at me
with a confused expression. Hikari-san eyed me curiously as
well. Only Kunagisa remained staring off into space, a
somewhat irritated expression on her face. I was probably
making the same face.
Um, where was I? Why did I interrupt Yayoi-san?
Oh, right.
“Please say that again.”
“Huh?”
“That thing you said. Say it again.”
Yayoi-san tilted her head at me a bit.
“If so, let’s get out of here on that cruiser—”
“Not that.”
“Can you operate a boat, by any chance?”
“No, not that, either.”
“Uh, I didn’t come here to… yada yada yada?”
“No. Not that. Something grabbed me, but that wasn’t it.
Before that.”
“I don’t remember.”
“Well remember. What did you say before that?”
“We need to do something fast… The time for leisurely
investigations has—”
“No. We already understand that. We need to do something
fast? That’s practically a catchphrase. I don’t care about the
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 7 4
stuff we already know. I think it was a little before you said
that.”
“That’s all I got. That’s as far as I can recall.”
“Tomo!” I looked over at Kunagisa. “You remember, right?”
“Yup,” she nodded.
She slashed her hand across the front of her neck.
“I’m gonna get my shoulders flattened.”
“Bingo.”
Yes. That. It had grabbed me. Was that because it suggested
something I’d rather not imagine? Nope. It wasn’t nearly
something that trite. It was something totally, completely
different.
Now this, this was the key. The Rosetta Stone.
“Um…”
“Silence please. I’m thinking. I think I’m on the right track.
Definitely. It’s simpler than the geography of Kyoto or
Sapporo. We have a hypothesis and conclusion now, so all
that’s left to do is prove it.”
I thought.
Kunagisa thought, too.
All the ingredients were probably there. I could sense it.
Or we already had all the ingredients a while ago. They were
all lined up in front of my face, to the point that it wouldn’t
have been strange if I had realized the truth as soon as
Kunagisa’s computers were smashed. The smashed computers
weren’t the key after all, they were another ingredient.
And now I had the key. This time, I had it.
And just as any door will open once you’ve obtained the
key, so, too, would I soon arrive at a solution. It was like a
zero-sum game. Like a simple maze with a watertight winning
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 7 5
strategy. Kunagisa probably had it, too. The mountain of sand
was almost complete.
“Now this really is nonsense.”
And after a while…
“Is this it?” I muttered.
But this was…
“No way… this can’t be right.”
This couldn’t be right. Like this could possibly be it. What
logic was this?
But there were no contradictions, it was all consistent, it all
made sense—it was complete. There was no other possibility
left. It didn’t look like there was any more sand to pile up,
either.
Something felt uneasy. Something was strange. No matter
how many mental checks I did, I couldn’t feel satisfied about
it, like the final question on an exam. I definitely wasn’t
wrong, but something felt off nonetheless. It was that kind of
feeling. I couldn’t shake it.
What was it… this vague, sickly feeling?
“What do you think, Tomo?”
“Mmm,” she moaned.
“There’s no ‘what do you think’ about it. There’s only one
possible train of thought. So that’s why the fingers seemed
strange, huh? But this means…”
It seemed Kunagisa had the same sense of anxiety. Yayoisan
and Hikari-san stared at the two of us like we were from
Mars. Venus, maybe. I guess that’s a trivial matter either way.
“I guess that’s the only possibility, huh?” Kunagisa was first
to fall before the reality of the situation. “I can’t think of
anything else. It must be the only possibility.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 7 6
“Yeah. If there’s only one possibility, it’s got to be the right
one, no matter how unbelievable it seems.”
It looked as if we had to rely on selective thinking in the
end. If Akane-san heard about it she surely would have gotten
angry, but we no longer had to worry about that. At least
insofar as this was in fact a case of serial murder committed by
a person, there was only this one possibility. One possibility
with one hundred percent odds.
Okay.
Time to just accept it.
I didn’t like it at all, but this was reality, this was the truth.
And those were just my nonsense-ridden sentiments anyway.
“Looks like we’ve reached an agreement, Ii-chan,” Kunagisa
said. “So what now?”
“What now, indeed. Hmm, this place is a little too big.” I
continued my pondering. I was more cut out for something
like this than Kunagisa was. I may not have been any good at
actual shogi, but if this, too, was a sort of shogi problem, I had
it down.
“Now then, Yayoi-san, Hikari-san, could I ask for a little bit
of your cooperation?”
“Huh?” The lovely duo let out a collective question mark.
I rose to my feet. “The top of the inning is finally over.
We’re down by a lot of points, but it’s not a called game yet.
This is where we get that third out and launch our attack in
the bottom of the inning.”
“Yayoi-chan on first. Hikari-chan in center field. Yours
truly as catcher and Ii-chan as pitcher.”
Boing, Kunagisa jumped up off the bed and flashed a smile
bright as the blue sky.
“Launching counterattack.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 7 8
End it.
By the way.
In Russian, “the crow’s wet feathers” supposedly means
“the peak of despair.” Given that, you could romantically
describe this island as the ultimate destination for those in
despair. Just as the opposite of affection isn’t hatred, but
indifference, the opposite of hope isn’t despair. Surely the
opposite of despair is apathetic acceptance of all things. That
sheer apathy laced with the absolute conviction that allows
you to approve of all things, saying, “Yeah, that’s fine”—that is
the opposite of hope.
Everything is here, so what more could I possibly need?
This apathy I felt was way over the line of normality. The
proverbial destination of all of one’s emotions.
That noninterfering realm on the other side of the lake that
we all view at some point or another with admiring eyes laced
with envy. That domain on the other side of taboo, connected
to reality by a big equals sign.
To reach said domain, you had to make many sacrifices.
What’s more, it was a one-way ticket with no guarantees.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 7 9
However, even then, there are people who reach it—
whether by some mistake, or through knowledge.
Ibuki Kanami, Sonoyama Akane, Sashirono Yayoi, Himena
Maki, Akagami Iria, Chiga Akari, Chiga Hikari, Chiga Teruko,
Handa Rei.
And Kunagisa Tomo…
This is all probably a big old heap of ridiculous mumbojumbo.
Nothing but boring, worthless nonsense. And the
continuation of this nonsense is unwholesome at best.
Really now, what kind of a clown was I?
“Have you figured something out?”
The fifth dinner assembly.
Teruko-san had her personal chores to attend to, so her
seat was empty, but the other nine of us were all gathered
together. Nine people. Until the day before yesterday, just
two days ago, there were twelve of us surrounding this round
table.
“Do I have to ask again? Kunagisa-san, you all are still
doing some investigating, correct? Well, have you figured
anything out?” Iria-san asked.
She seemed to be having an awful lot of fun. I’m sure she
was. Of course it was fun.
Because she had probably created a whole world in her
head. Because this island, this Wet Crow’s Feather Island, was,
in itself, her whole world.
“Shall I ask again?”
“We know absolutely, positively nothing at all,” I answered.
“So what about it? Is there a problem?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 8 0
“Oh, no. I was just thinking, I guess there’s nothing we can
do without a specialist after all,” Iria-san said with apparent
interest. “Well, I guess the best thing then is to continue
operating in teams like this for the next three days.”
“Three days?” Shinya-san said. “I must say, you seem to be
expecting quite a bit from this person. Just what kind of
person is this Aikawa-san, anyway? How did you meet?”
“That’s a private matter,” Iria-san smirked. “But I will tell
you what kind of person. Hmm, what should I say? Aikawasan
is a very frightening person. Well, that’s what you’d
expect from the world’s most powerful contractor. But also
incredibly intelligent. I’m sure this case will be solved in no
time. Hehehe, I really can’t wait.”
The detective, huh?
Solving the case before the lead detective even got here
probably disqualified me as a supporting character, I thought.
But my life was on the line here, too, and there were various
complicated circumstances. I couldn’t just sit around and wait
for the main character to show up. It was his own fault for
being late.
“Kekekeke,” Maki-san snickered next to me.
She seemed to be having an awful lot of fun as well. I
didn’t know whether she was reading my thoughts or
watching the whole farce. Surely it was at least one of those,
but that probably wasn’t the only reason she was laughing.
Really, just who was this woman who was able to continue
laughing even after knowing everything in the entire world?
She was probably deserving of respect. Still, I avoided eye
contact.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 8 1
“I’m told Aikawa-san will be here by the afternoon three
days from now at the latest. After that, I’m sure everything
will soon be—”
As Iria-san expounded over this detective of hers, she was
interrupted by the sound of overturning flatware and pots
banging together, accompanied by a screech.
“Enough!”
It was Yayoi-san.
Rising from her seat, Yayoi-san used her right arm to shove
off the table all of the food she herself had made. She then
proceeded to take the now dirty tablecloth and yank it,
causing all the dishes to come toppling off the table and
shatter. A string of ear-shattering noise echoed through the
dining room.
“Enough of this!”
She banged her hands on the table.
“Sashirono-san…”
In an effort to settle her down, Hikari-san rose from her
seat as well and approached her, but Yayoi-san gave her a
violent shove.
“What is all this? Give me a break! I want out of this farce!
Detectives? Sealed rooms? Decapitated corpses? This isn’t
some mystery novel. Don’t you realize people are being
killed? Why the hell are you eating during this kind of
discussion? Their heads were cut off! Don’t eat my food while
you’re talking about such a thing! You must all be crazy if
you’re able to stay so calm about all this! Why don’t you care
that people were killed? You’re all disgusting! Since when was
it okay to kill people in this country?”
“Sashirono-san…” Hikari-san said from the floor. “Please
calm down.”
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“You’re the killer!” Yayoi-san screamed even louder. “It’s
obvious! We already know that! You were the only one with a
key to that storage room, and you visited Sonoyama-san’s
room in the middle of the night, didn’t you? That’s when you
killed her! And you must have killed Ibuki-san, too!”
“You don’t have any proof. You shouldn’t say such things
without any proof, Yayoi-san.” I tried my best to stay cool as I
reprimanded her. “There’s no proof that Hikari-san is the
murderer.”
“Proof? I don’t give a hoot about proof!”
“But there’s no reason Hikari-san would have done such a
thing.”
“It’s not like you can expect to understand how a maniac’s
mind works! She’s probably going to use it in some kind of
ritual! To call upon God! No more, no more, no more!!! Why
are you trying to come near me? You think you’ll take my
head next? Never!”
“Yayoi-san, please calm down.”
“I’m plenty calm! I’m fine! You are all the crazy ones!
You’re all nuts! You’re all disgusting! Get yourselves together!
I can’t stand you! I can’t even talk to you! What language are
you all speaking? Detectives? Sealed rooms? Severed heads?
What the hell language is that? Am I the only one from Earth
here? If that’s the case then I’ll just leave right now. I don’t
want to be on this maniac island anymore. I don’t want to talk
to you people!”
Bam! She slammed the table once again.
“I don’t trust any of you! From now on, I’m staying in my
room. I’m barricading myself in. Call me when you’re ready to
send me back to the mainland! Otherwise, leave me the hell
alone! Don’t come near me!”
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With that said. Yayoi-san stormed off toward the dining
room exit.
“Sashirono-san,” Hikari-san called once more, but Yayoisan
didn’t even look back, and eventually she was gone from
sight.
A brief, awkward silence.
“Oh my,” Iria-san eventually said with slumped shoulders.
“And here I thought she was so polite. What a temper.”
She continued. “Oh, what now?” She sighed. “Aikawa-san
is going to all the trouble to come here, I can’t just send one of
the suspects home. Hikari, this is your responsibility; go do
something to convince her.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Hikari-san said with her head down.
“Understood, my mistress.”
“Ohhh, dinner is all ruined. Akari, will you hurry and make
us something? Now just where has Teruko gone at a time like
this?”
Indeed, dinner was ruined just as Iria-san said, but it was a
necessary sacrifice. It wasn’t my money, and of course you
shouldn’t waste food, but I wasn’t the one who had done it
anyway. It was Yayoi-san, the one who had made the food in
the first place.
Kunagisa stared at the fallen, smashed dishes with a look of
despair. Not the food, but the dishes. Perhaps she was
thinking of her destroyed computers, which were the same
shade of white.
“Hey, catcher.”
“Mmm?” Kunagisa looked at me. “What, Ii-chan?”
“I better get going. I’ll leave this to you.”
“Gotcha,” she nodded.
I rose from my seat and headed for the door.
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I could hear the sound of trouble brewing behind me. I
turned to find Kunagisa had climbed over the table and
jumped Shinya-san. It was admittedly a slightly enviable sight
for me, but for now, I had to let it go.
Besides, I couldn’t take Kunagisa with me.
Running down the hall with one eye closed, I climbed the
stairs and eventually spotted Yayoi-san by her room. She was
leaning up against the wall, a vacant look on her face.
She looked up at me. “Ah,” she sighed with relief. “How
was I?”
“You gave a star performance.”
“Performance, huh? It was more than half true, really,” she
said as she continued walking with me. “But is it really true? Is
that person really the killer?”
“You checked it yourself right?”
“Yeah, the smell was right, but… I don’t have that much
faith in my sense of smell. I’m not a dog, after all.”
“You’re just like one though.”
“That’s not a compliment, you know.”
Yeah, I knew. Kanami-san once told me something similar.
It’s not a compliment if you say, “You’re like a such and such.”
Well, what woman wouldn’t be offended after being
compared to a dog? I apologized innocently.
We had arrived at the door to Yayoi-san’s room.
“So, what do we do from here?”
“Yayoi-san, please go back to the dining room. It’s
dangerous here.”
“Then why are you doing it?” she asked, simply out of
suspicion. “I feel like there must be another way. This is just
my speculation, but it feels like you deliberately picked the
most dangerous possible option.”
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“In this world there are people who die from eating too
much and people who die from starvation, and the former is
overwhelmingly more common. But it seems you’re the latter
type.”
“Don’t overestimate me.”
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
With that she gave me a nod and slowly headed back the
way we had come.
“Dangerous, man…” I whispered to myself. Of course, I
was well aware of this. I had complete understanding of the
dangers I faced when I decided to do this, which I suppose
really did make me the starving-to-death type.
Now that’s nonsense.
After a brief mental preparation, I slowly, gently opened
the door to Yayoi-san’s room.
Dark inside. Unable to see much of anything, I took a step
inside.
Swoosh.
The sound of sliced air.
I did a forward roll and slid into the room. Then I rose to
one knee and opened the eye that had been closed. This way I
could make out the inside of the room at least a little bit.
Someone closed the door behind me. I could see the face
clearly, and in that moment learned that my hypothesis had
been correct. My opponent wore a slight look of surprise, but
only held it for a moment before brandishing a hatchet—a
hatchet!—at me.
Silent.
My attacker didn’t say a word.
With a deep breath, I rose to my feet. It had been quite
some time since I had done any acrobatics. Not that I had
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 286
been bad at it, just that my skills had definitely dulled in the
few months since coming back to Japan.
As if realizing the immediate need to settle this, my
attacker moved first, shuffling toward me. With Kunagisa
holding Shinya-san down, someone would eventually come
and save me as long as I could buy some time. There was no
need to go on the offensive. In fact, I wanted to get out of
there, but my attacker was standing between me and the door,
so that probably would’ve posed quite a challenge.
For now, I just had to focus on dodging attacks. This sort of
passive thinking had me written all over it, but it was no good.
In focusing my gaze entirely on my attacker’s hatchet, I
completely neglected to pay any attention to my feet.
My attacker faked with the hatchet, then came at me with
a leg sweep. It made a glorious connection. Unable to even roll
back to my feet, instead my back slammed into the carpet. My
attacker proceeded to mount me and pin down my shoulders.
It all happened in a single instant.
The match was essentially over. Maybe I should have spent
those mornings running marathons instead of just going for
walks. Or maybe I should have continued going to the dojo
even when I got back to Japan.
“Ah… ahhh…”
Ah well, truth be told, it didn’t really make much
difference whether I was killed or not. At this point, Kunagisa
had probably already explained everything to the others, and
Yayoi-san had already returned to the dining room as well.
Either way, there was no chance my attacker would escape. I
had lost the match, but the tournament was ours.
So this was fine. Now then, the hatchet. Use the hatchet.
“Die.”
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My attacker’s cold, familiar voice. I realized I had
completely given up. What was this sensation? Why? Why
was I even willing to give up my own life?
I didn’t want to live?
It wasn’t that I wanted to die, but I didn’t want to live,
either. Life was a big hassle, but I wasn’t jumping at the idea
of death specifically. Was there nothing important to me?
Nothing I wanted? Nothing I wanted to protect? Is that why I
was so ready to give up?
“No.”
No.
It was because even if I died here, no one would be
bothered. Kunagisa wouldn’t be bothered.
Maki-san.
Did you know this was coming? If so, I suppose I’m
grateful that you didn’t let me know about it. I now knew the
reason Maki-san, who knew all, had said nothing. You die
exactly when you should, though I wasn’t quite in that frame
of mind yet.
Indeed. Just as Teruko-san said, I really should just die.
Seriously.
Hey…
But the hatchet wasn’t coming down. It was raised way up
in the air, and then just stopped. Looking up in confusion, I
saw not a taunting expression, but rather a twisted grimace as
my attacker struggled and fought to bring the hatchet down.
“You don’t close your eyes, do you?”
There was another person! It wasn’t the voice of the
person on top of me. I couldn’t see from where I was, but this
third person must have grabbed the hatchet while it was up in
the air and refused to let go.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 8 8
Who was it? Had Yayoi-san come to save me? Had
Kunagisa followed me here? But neither of these seemed like
feasible possibilities.
The third person wrenched the hatchet upward and in the
same instant delivered a beautiful, truly glorious low kick to
my attacker’s now completely open side. Unable to take the
blow, my attacker rolled off me and slammed into the nearby
sofa. In another instant, though, the assailant was back on two
feet and face-to-face with the third person.
In one fell swoop, I had become a mere spectator.
At this point, for some reason, the third person threw away
the hatchet. And here there was such a golden opportunity to
use it. Could this have been a gesture of sportsmanship? At a
time like this?
Unlike when fighting me, this time my attacker attempted
no reckless leaping. But there was a time limit here. If this
didn’t get settled fast, there was a chance Kunagisa would
finish explaining everything and bring the others here.
But this third person didn’t repeat my mistake. Bam, came
the sound of feet hitting the floor as the third person sprang
toward my attacker, covering as much as six feet in a single
stride. In a Japanese kenpo-style motion, the third person used
the momentum from the leap to deliver a straight punch.
Instead of dodging back or to the side, my attacker instead
contorted diagonally, both dodging the punch and closing in
on the third person at the same time. My attacker then
grabbed the third person by the throat, but the third person
delivered another straight punch without even trying to avoid
my attacker’s clutch. My attacker, still in offensive mode, was
unable to dodge. The punch connected straight with the
heart.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 289
“Huh…”
My attacker let out a groan but refused to release the third
person’s throat. Then, almost effortlessly, my attacker slid past
the third person’s side and delivered a back kick to the calf.
The third person stumbled.
It appeared my attacker intended to use this opportunity to
slam the third person into the floor. Watching from the
sidelines, even I thought this was the end. But it didn’t end.
The third person used my attacker’s arm as a pivot axis and
swung up while shifting in midair, causing them both to fall to
the floor together with my attacker’s arm in a lock. It was a
judo offense-through-defense technique.
Another instant. The surprisingly dull, almost anticlimactic
sound of breaking bone echoed through the dark room. The
third person released the arm and stood up. My attacker
followed suit and began to stand up, too, but before managing
to get up all the way, took a merciless kick to the already
seemingly broken arm. My attacker flew through the air and
over the sofa. Then came the sound of the shattering glass
table. And my attacker fell back on the sofa.
“Phewwww.” The third person exhaled a deep breath with
complete calm.
We had a winner.
I was utterly speechless.
At last, the third person faced me. And then, without so
much as a smirk, said, “When you’re about to die, I think you
should close your eyes.”
“Didn’t you say guys like me should die?” I mumbled
faintly.
“Oh, that.” She tilted her head. “That was a lie.”
Teruko-san said.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 9 0
Slowly shaking my head, I held my hand out to her. I
figured the chances were about fifty-fifty, but she grabbed my
hand and pulled me to my feet.
“What are you doing here?”
“No reason. It was just inevitable.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s just nonsense.”
Now that…
That was my line.
Sigh.
“Thank you.”
After pulling me back to my feet, she let go of my hand
and looked at me with those out-of-focus eyes.
“No need to thank me. More important…”
A brief pause.
“There’s something that’s been bothering me.”
“What?”
This was a fairly heavy statement to make. What was she
about to say? I couldn’t even imagine.
Dark.
My eyes had completely adjusted to the darkness, but even
still, I couldn’t read Teruko-san’s expression.
Just like my own heart.
Just like the hearts of others.
“Your question from this afternoon,” she said, with that
same old pale tone and cold gaze. “I know you were speaking
metaphorically… were you talking about Kunagisa-san or
yourself?”
The child locked in the basement.
Deprived of communication with anyone else for ten years.
“Ah…”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 9 1
Once again, I reached out to touch Teruko-san’s hand for
no reason at all.
For an instant, our fingers touched. And then, in that
moment of separation…
An eardrum-shattering sound. The feeling of a shock wave
running through my entire body. Teruko-san’s body slumped
onto me. Like deadweight.
I held on to her as she rested her entire weight on me. But
there was no time to stand there and savor the warm touch of
her expectedly light body. My eyes were still glued to the sofa.
Or, to be more specific…
To the woman sitting there holding a handgun. Sitting
there, totally aloof.
My eyes were glued to it. It was a black gun, a relatively
popular model. I had even seen a few overseas. I sure didn’t
expect to see one in this country, though. She had a Glock?
Why she hadn’t used the gun until now was obvious. No
matter how big this mansion was, it wasn’t big enough to stop
the sound of a gunshot from reaching every corner of it. In
other words, this was probably the final ace up her sleeve. It
was an illegal move, the absolute forbidden method.
In which case…
In which case the day was mine. I still had my ace, though
maybe I had let the time to use it slip away.
And so the conclusion continued. The resolution to the
final scene.
A voice. A faint voice. And then, the gun barrel turned
toward me.
She said something I couldn’t hear, my ears still ringing
from the gun blast. My eardrums were probably okay, just
momentarily paralyzed. But in a situation like this, that meant
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 9 2
the same thing. It didn’t look as if she were going to wait for
my hearing to come back.
What did she say? It kind of bothered me. This was a
checkmate.
Farewell. How stupid. What were you trying to do? You want to
die in a place like this? What were you living for anyway?
She was probably saying something along those lines. Or
no, maybe she wasn’t saying anything at all.
Either way, there is no meaning in words you can’t hear.
Just like there is no meaning in feelings you don’t express.
Out of steam, I looked at her. Over Teruko-san’s shoulder.
Fast the muzzle of the gun.
“Ah.”
Just as I thought. Just as I thought, this was the end.
Naturally I didn’t believe anyone was coming to rescue me
from this crisis… and this was pretty much what I expected to
happen. Of course, I didn’t mean to get Teruko-san involved,
but aside from that, everything had gone more or less
according to plan.
That’s because my one and only plan was to not involve
Kunagisa. Nothing else mattered. Really, it didn’t matter. I
was apathetic and indifferent. There was no future. There was
no past. I had forgotten about being born long ago. Oblivious
to the fact that I was alive. Reality was nothing more than a
synonym for illusion to me, and that was never an antonym
for dream.
At this point.
Teruko-san’s body resting on me. My throbbing ankle pain.
My paralyzed train of thought. My breaking values. My
melting ethics. My collapsing morals. Kanami-san’s neck.
Akane-san’s neck. The truth behind the incident. The culprit.
The killer. The murderer.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 9 3
The splitting girl. None of it mattered now. I would forgive
it all.
So…
Pull that trigger. Please end it.
K-chink.
The sound of the gun cocking.
A sound I had heard a million times abroad.
And so, finally…
Here.
“Ii-chan!”
The sound of the door slamming open. Light pierced the
room with such ferocity that my eyes stopped functioning for
a moment. But there was no need for visual confirmation of
who was pointing the gun on me. Even with my stunned
eardrums, her voice had managed to reach me.
But I could barely believe it.
Kunagisa Tomo was standing there alone.
Ridiculous. That wasn’t possible. I had left her on the first
floor so that she couldn’t do this. I had left her on the first floor
because she was unable to climb stairs alone. She wasn’t
supposed to be able to come here alone.
But she was indeed alone. With tears in her eyes. She wore
a terribly exhausted expression. She was panting. Clutching
her chest. She looked as if she were ready to collapse at any
moment, but she forced herself to remain standing.
And she was alone.
“This is…”
Wait a minute here. This can’t be. Someone must be with
her. If no one was with her, it would have been impossible for
her to climb that spiral staircase. Maybe one or two steps, but
not this.
It was impossible.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 9 4
Had she really come all the way up here alone, despite her
affliction?
All this way?
To be sure, it wasn’t physically impossible. But obsessivecompulsive
disorders aren’t something to be taken lightly.
They aren’t so minor that you can just conquer them with
willpower. I know for a fact that defying one’s own
subconscious is no walk in the park.
However… however, Kunagisa had heard the gunshot.
And despite it being deathly agonizing, despite it being so
painful that in a worse-case scenario she really might have
died, she had forced herself up the stairs. Forgetting to even
bring someone along. Suppressing the urge to vomit.
Clutching her own heart. Forcing those reluctant legs to keep
moving. Lashing at her own fear-ridden soul. With that heart
much too fragile for living. Enduring the anguish of the depths
of Hell. All just to reach me. Casting all things aside.
Kunagisa. For me.
“Why?”
The pressure. It was heartbreaking to the point of brutality.
I really was a clown… feeling like this.
This pathetic feeling—what was the name for this?
“Why are you…”
Why are you always, always… shaking me up?
You.
Really. Since the ancient past.
Nothing’s changed.
Fwip.
The woman removed me from her sights and retrained
them on Kunagisa.
“Hey!”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 9 5
What are you doing? You were going to shoot me. Why do
you have to aim that gun over there? No such necessity exists,
dammit. Or are such things meaningless to you? Are things
like necessity and reality nonexistent in that skewed world in
which you live?
The light.
Gradually my eyes were adjusting. Hers were probably
doing the same. Kunagisa, however, who unlike us was
adapting to the dark, not the light, couldn’t yet make out my
attacker’s features. Dark adaptation takes longer than light
adaptation. Consequently, if she were to shoot now, there was
no way Kunagisa could dodge it.
I jumped up.
But by the time I was on my feet, it was too late. There
was no point. There was no way I could make it to Kunagisa
in time. I couldn’t outrun a bullet. Even if I could, there
would be no point. I couldn’t just die in front of Kunagisa. I
was too late. I was too late, just as I was years ago. Just like all
the time.
In which case…
There was nothing I could d—
“Oh.”
It seemed Kunagisa was able to spot me. Without even
casting a glance at the handgun, without letting my attacker
even enter her field of vision, she stuck a finger out at me and
grinned.
“Ah, thank God. You’re okay, right Ii-chan?”
With that smile. With that selfless smile. With that ragged,
worn-out smile. With Kunagisa Tomo, who was completely
oblivious to the circumstances.
I was…
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 9 6
Truly…
“I’m in love with her,” I said to myself.
Yup. It was something I had always known. It was so
obvious to me there was never a need to put it into words.
There was no need for words between us.
Of course, it was a completely self-aware matter. From the
instant I had met her, I had chosen Kunagisa Tomo. To the
point that I didn’t care about anything else. I didn’t need to be
loved or even chosen.
“Please stop,” I begged my attacker.
She remained motionless for a while, but then, “Hehe.
Hehehe…” She spun the gun around and pointed it at the
ground. She continued laughing for a while.
“Hehehehehehe… haaaahahahaha…”
Like she was truly having a ball. Laughter like singing.
Dragging my feet, I made my way over to Kunagisa and
grabbed her by the shoulders. Her body had become
thoroughly hot. That was enough to discern just how much
she had struggled to make it here. I held Kunagisa to cover
her, and trained my eyes back on my attacker.
She was looking back at us. Looking at us holding on to
each other.
“Well, I’ve still got some complaints, but”—she opened her
mouth—“eh, from a guy like you, just hearing something that
honest is good enough for now, I guess,” she said. “That’s what
I was waiting to hear last night, after all,” Sonoyama Akane
said cynically, and tossed the handgun aside.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 9 7
“Uwaaa, you’ve got a huge bruise here, Ii-chan.”
With my pant leg rolled up, Kunagisa patted the bruise on
my ankle. This blue-haired goon probably didn’t realize how
much that patting hurt. Hikari-san had brought me antiswelling
medication, so I stuck it on. It felt as if all the warmth
had drained from my body.
This was comfort?
“Akane-chan was sooo tough. Not that she ever looked like
much of a pushover,” Kunagisa said. “Didn’t you know, Iichan?”
“Why would I? Who could’ve known one of the Seven
Fools would turn out to be so freaking tough? This isn’t a
video game or something.”
She was a complete force to be reckoned with. I hadn’t
expected her to be so overwhelmingly tough, and I certainly
hadn’t expected her to have a handgun prepared. I had had a
number of brushes with death by now, but this was by far the
most dangerous.
“If Teruko-san hadn’t come to my rescue, things would’ve
gotten really bad.”
“You have to be careful. That body doesn’t belong to you
alone, you know.”
“Says you, woman.”
Since the showdown, we had entered a phase of treating
the wounded, dictated by common sense as the primary
concern. At the time, I hadn’t thought anything of it, but after
a while, the damage from that initial leg sweep became much
more apparent, so I was now undergoing treatment in
Kunagisa’s room.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 9 8
“You hit your back as well, didn’t you? Did it hurt?”
Hikari-san said. “Please take care. Akane-san was in the karate
club in high school, you know?”
“I think I’ve heard that before…”
“She even participated in the national tournament.”
Man, teach me that stuff.
“Yeah, but apparently she only won five matches.”
“You only need five matches to win the national
tournament.”
As for Akane-san’s wounds, first there was her broken right
arm. Then there was that first kick, which had apparently
broken four ribs. Even in that early phase of the showdown
she had suffered a major wound, yet she was still able to jump
around like that. It was no small feat.
Meanwhile, Teruko-san was undergoing treatment with
Akari-san. Skin around her throat had been scratched off from
when Akane-san was strangling her, and there had been some
bleeding, but she had suffered no other notable wounds. At
the time of that gunshot, I had thought the bullet had hit her
square in the back, but in fact it hadn’t hit her at all. I thought
she had fallen into my arms from the force of being shot, but
it was actually the result of her dodging the bullet. Perhaps it
was her reaction to the sound of the gun being cocked. She
was like one of Charlie’s Angels.
Not to mention that, afterward, she was playing dead.
“Actually, that’s not quite right,” Hikari-san said. “I’m sure
she was just shielding you.”
“Shielding me?” Indeed, depending on how you looked at
it, that wasn’t an impossibility. “So you’re saying she was
risking her life for me?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 2 9 9
“No, her life wasn’t particularly in danger. Teruko’s apron
is bulletproof.”
“Bulletproof?”
She wasn’t an angel, she was a battle maid. What the hell
had happened to reality?
“Yes. Spectra is sewn into her clothes. Unlike Kevlar,
Spectra can withstand any number of shots without
weakening. And it’s light so you don’t get sweaty. Teruko is
nigh invincible at short range, but she takes caution with longrange
defense. See how long the skirt is on this apron dress?
That’s because it works like an aikido hakama.”
It sounded like a terrible joke, but it was hard to tell based
on Hikari-san’s expression. Maybe it was better to just let it
go. “But why is Teruko-san so strong? Are you that strong,
too?” I asked.
“No, Teruko is our mistress’s resident bodyguard, in a
sense. Our roles are fundamentally different. Up to now,
you’ve never seen all three of us doing the same job, have
you?”
Come to think of it, it did seem as if Hikari-san and Akarisan
were always the ones at work. As a former participant in
the ER3 program, maybe it was unforgivable that I hadn’t
noticed until now. Yeah, it sounded pretty bad.
“But I’m sure glad she rescued you. I’m sure you’ve noticed
by now that she can be awfully cold. Saving you is one thing,
but staking her own life to shield you… It almost doesn’t
make sense.”
“Yeah, about that. Why did she do it?”
“Well, she’s a whimsical girl.”
Just like everyone else here.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 0 0
But it wasn’t completely beyond my comprehension. I still
didn’t know for sure how Teruko-san felt, but insofar as she
was still a mystery to me, I was no doubt just as much a
mystery to her.
Surely, she just wanted to ask about me.
“That’s just a bunch of nonsense, though…”
Come to think of it, she had seemed abnormally strong
when she grabbed my arm that afternoon, but I never would
have imagined that that was some kind of foreshadowing.
“It seems like your back and hips are okay. You didn’t hit
your head, did you? Well then, that’s a wrap,” Kunagisa said,
and, sticking close to me, began to massage my shoulders. This
was Heaven.
“Now then, shall we head back to the dining room?”
This was Hell.
Right. The noninjured guests had all been left waiting
anxiously for Kunagisa and me in the dining room.
Unbelievably. Terrifyingly.
“Tomo, you go on alone. These injuries are way worse than
I thought. I don’t think I can go.”
“Whatever. But y’know, Ii-chan, this is your chance to look
good in front of Akari-chan. If you’re smooth, you might get
something out of it.”
“Oh my, do you have Akari on the mind? She loves smart
people, you know.”
Kunagisa and Hikari-san were happily double-teaming me
with suggestions. What were they, middle school students?
“Tomo, you know how much I hate stuff like that. You
don’t need me to explain it, right? Just think something up
yourself.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 0 1
“Ii-chan, didn’t you do this kind of thing abroad?
Performances or presentations or what have you?”
“Well, yeah, but they were Hell every time. They would
always bitch at me, you know, like ‘Quit talking around the
subject’ or ‘You’re being too vague’ or ‘Nobody’s interested in
your problems.’ Ah, I know, I know. I should just do it, right?
Just do it.”
“Don’t weasel out of this,” Kunagisa’s smirk said.
“Come on, you’ll get in trouble. You have to be more
cheerful about this. I know that’s probably impossible for you,
but anyway, let’s get going. Tie my hair up first.”
“Huh? You don’t like it that way?”
“It feels like my head is being pulled on. One or two tails is
better after all.”
“Mmm, and here I liked it.”
“Tomo-san, would you like me to do it?”
“Uh-uh,” Kunagisa shook her head.
“Putting my hair up is Ii-chan’s job.”
Yes’m. I redid her hair, and…
…and our preparations were complete.
“Well, let’s go.”
Slowly the gates of Hell opened. I was feeling quite heavyfooted,
and it wasn’t just because of my injuries.
“What a buncha nonsense,” I muttered as I arrived in the
dining room. Everyone besides Akane-san, whose wounds
were severe, was gathered together.
That of course included Shinya-san.
As if he had already given up, as if a burden had been
taken off his shoulders, he had a calm air about him as he
watched us walk through the door. Maki-san sneered at me,
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 0 2
making me think I was about to be harassed again, but she
remained silent.
Lined up on the table was the remade food Yayoi-san had
prepared while I was being treated. Possibly because Yayoi-san
had calmed down, this time the food was remarkably fancier.
Akari-san, still feeling awkward, avoided eye contact.
Teruko-san had bandages wrapped around her neck.
Rei-san watched over the scene in complete silence.
And then there was Akagami Iria-san. She was looking at
me with challenging eyes.
“Well then, shall we have you begin?” Iria-san said to me as
I took my seat. “What is all this?”
“Allow me to explain. Sonoyama Akane-san of the ER3’s
Seven Fools is the killer, and Ibuki Kanami-san’s caretaker,
Sakaki Shinya-san over there, is her accomplice.”
Silence.
“And?”
“That’s it.”
“Give us thirty minutes,” she insisted. “The first thing I
want you to explain is what Sonoyama-san was doing in
Yayoi’s room.”
“That’s easy. Yayoi-san flew out of the dining room, right?
Thus, Yayoi-san was the next person to be somewhere by
herself, so Akane-san used it as an opportunity to kill her.
“The idea had been to have Akane-san’s plan backfire, but
instead things had backfired on me and Teruko-san had saved
me. And ultimately I had had to rely on Akane-san’s
kindness.”
That hatchet she had brandished at me, surely it would’ve
lopped my head off.
“I’m very grateful to Teruko-san.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 0 3
“No, I don’t mean that. You know what I mean. Wasn’t
Sonoyama-san killed? In that sealed storage room?
“As you saw, she’s alive.” I shrugged. “Assuming she
doesn’t have a twin, I think we can all agree that it was
Akane-san.”
“So what about that headless body in the storage room?”
“Well, Akane-san is alive, so that wasn’t her body. That’s
just logical thinking.”
“It was someone else’s corpse?”
“If you see a headless body, beware of switching. It’s a
cardinal rule of detective novels, right? I’m sure your darling
detective would say the same thing.”
Iria-san tilted her head at me as if to show that this was
beyond her comprehension. “Um, just wait a second. I’m
thinking.”
She wanted a moment to contemplate things alone. I was a
bit impressed by her spirit. “Umm…”
“Well, in the meantime, might I ask something?” Shinyasan
raised his hand. “I’ve got a question for you there.”
“I don’t mind,” I nodded. I thought for sure I’d be asked
when I realized the truth behind the incidents or how I
figured out the killer or something like that, but Shinya-san’s
question was totally different from my expectations.
“Is that wound on your foot okay?”
“Yes. It’s made a bruise, though.”
“Really? So it’s not broken. That woman…” he snorted.
“Or maybe she couldn’t break it, though that’s not like her…
or is it?”
I wasn’t sure what all his whispering meant.
Finally, “Nah, it’s no good,” Iria-san said capitulatingly. “I
don’t get it at all. There was really a switch?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 0 4
“There was. Kunagisa’s computers were destroyed, right?
The third incident. Nobody could have done that. Literally,
precisely nobody. Everybody served as everybody else’s
witness, so alibis and accomplices weren’t even a matter of
concern. We were all watching one another the whole time.
Nobody could have done it. Nobody who was there, anyway.
Therefore, the only person who could’ve done it would have
been someone who wasn’t there with us. That’s just logical
thinking.”
“I gathered that much,” Iria-san said. “You don’t need to
keep emphasizing that it’s logical. You’re kind of a smart
aleck, aren’t you? So whose headless body was that in the
storage room? Everybody was here together. There wasn’t a
single person who could have been switched with Sonoyamasan’s
body. Isn’t that strange to you?”
“Well, it is strange, but…” I decided to give her an easy-tounderstand
analogy. “Do you know this quiz? Or actually, it’s
more like a trick or a form of fraud, but anyway…”
I pulled out the alibi chart and turned it over to the back.
There I drew a big rectangle, then drew nine lines through it.
In other words, a ten-box chart.
“What is that?” Iria-san asked. “Something to do with this?”
“Please pretend these are telephone booths. Ten telephone
booths. Now let’s put eleven people in them.”
“Phone booths?”
“Oh, I mean, they’re just boxes. They could be rooms.”
“Ten rooms.”
“Yup,” I nodded.
Incidentally, this was a magic trick I had picked up from a
book I read while in elementary school.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 0 5
“Okay, so let’s say A-kun tries to enter the first box, but a
second person enters it before him.” I wrote an X in the first
box. “Now for the third person.” I wrote an X in the next box.
“The fourth person.” I wrote yet another X in the next box.
“The fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth people. The ninth
person, and the tenth person. So now we’ve got ten people in
boxes. But there’s still one box left over. So let’s stick that first
guy, A-kun, in there.” I drew an X in the final box. “And so
we’ve fit eleven people in ten boxes. Do you get it?”
“That’s stupid,” Iria-san said. “The first person never
entered the box, so it was off by one person.”
“Yes, that’s correct. It’s a rudimentary trick that anyone
can figure out with a little thought. But if done with the right
timing and skill, nobody notices.”
“Yes they do.”
“They don’t. We didn’t notice.”
“I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about. And this
is all off-topic. I’m asking whose body that was in the storage
room. Everybody was gathered here. No matter how you look
at it, that makes us one person short. Or are you saying there
was a thirteenth person on this island?
“Not possible. There were twelve people on this island.
Let’s assume that’s a given.”
“Well then, who was it?”
“As of now, there are eleven people alive on this island.
Akagami Iria-san, Chiga Akari-san, Hikari-san and Teruko-san,
Handa Rei-san, Himena Maki-san, Sashirono Yayoi-san,
Kunagisa Tomo, Sakaki Shinya-san and Sonoyama Akane-san.
Then, finally, there’s me. So the answer should be clear.”
I allowed a brief pause.
“It was Ibuki Kanami-san.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 0 6
“With the corpse wrapped up in a sleeping bag, it didn’t get
dirty even when we buried it. After we left the burial site,
Shinya-san dug Kanami-san’s body back up. Then, with body
in tow, he headed for the storage room window. From the
outside, I mean. He knocked on the window and Akane-san
opened it from the inside. In went the body, and they made
the switch. That’s basically it.”
Taking a look over the crowd to see their reaction,
especially Shinya-san’s, I continued.
“It was strange. When we went to bury Kanami-san’s body,
Shinya-san brought a sleeping bag along. It was a coffin. But
hold the phone there a second. Why would he have a sleeping
bag? Maybe if this was a camping trip, but nobody would
bring a sleeping bag when they’ve been invited to a mansion.
So maybe it was already at the mansion to begin with? See,
that’s what I had thought. I thought Iria-san had offered it to
him for the sake of the burial. Certainly in a mansion like this,
a mansion that offers beds with canopies even in the guest
rooms, it’s a little unnatural for there to be sleeping bags lying
around, but it’s not impossible. So that’s what I thought. But
the second time, when Akane-san’s corpse—actually Kanamisan’s
corpse again—was discovered, Hikari-san brought us a
stretcher. Is there some reason you would offer a sleeping bag
for the first person but not for the second? Not likely. Even if
there was a reason, Hikari-san would’ve told me. And so one
assumption crumbles. There were no sleeping bags here after
all. Shinya-san must have brought one himself even though
this isn’t camping. It’s as if he knew from the start he would
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 0 7
need something in which to bury a body. He knew that he
couldn’t let the body get dirty.”
“So he… recycled the body?”
“Bingo, you’ve got it. Shinya-san and Akane-san murdered
Kanami-san and from her created a new, ‘phantom’ corpse.
That’s basically it.”
“But there was blood in the storage room,” Iria-san said. “If
that body was a day old, there wouldn’t have been so much
blood.”
“There was no way for us to determine whether or not that
was Akane-san’s blood. Maybe the police could have. Indeed,
if the police were here, this crazy incident never would have
happened. But you didn’t want to call the police.
Understandable. Due to certain circumstances, you couldn’t
call them. Knowing that, Akane-san was free to assume that
even if there was another incident, the police wouldn’t come.
The blood could have been from a blood bank or even from an
animal. We’ll have to ask Akane-san or Shinya-san to find
out.”
But Shinya-san remained silent, refusing to answer. I let it
be and continued. “In the same sense, if the police had been
here, they could have told us that the body was a day old
already. But we’re not professionals. All we know is the
difference between dead and alive. Maybe after ten days we’d
be able to discern the age of the corpse, and maybe a little
faster in the summer, but this isn’t the summer. This is the
season of blooming cherry blossoms.”
“So they changed the corpse’s clothes?”
“Yes. Akane-san called Hikari-san to her room in the
middle of the night just to show her what she was wearing.
Kanami-san’s body was already in the room at that time. That
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 0 8
room has an inward-opening door, so all she had to do was
hide the body in the shadows behind it. As long as she came
out to greet Hikari-san, Hikari-san wouldn’t enter the room.
This was likely the riskiest part of the whole ploy. If there was
ever a point that proved Akane-san was going out on a limb, it
was this scene. But she had to go out on a limb. As I said
before, she did it so that she could make us all think Kanamisan’s
body was hers. Also, to narrow down the time of the
murder and to give her accomplice, Shinya-san, a solid alibi.”
That night, Shinya-san was with Maki-san drinking the
whole night. Maki-san had invited him, but supposing she
hadn’t, he probably would’ve invited her. Or it’s even possible
that he would have invited us instead of Maki-san. Of course,
now that all was said and done, that was just a trivial detail.
“That’s also why they smashed Kunagisa’s PCs. The PCs
and digital camera contained images. Images of Kanami-san’s
corpse. If we carefully compared those images with Akanesan’s
corpse in the storage room, there was a chance that we
would realize they were in fact the same body.”
“Actually, that’s true,” Kunagisa said. “Something had been
bothering me. The hands, or the fingers or something. Yeah,
that’s it, huh? It’s not like Kanami-chan and Akane-chan have
the same fingerprints.”
She let out a sigh. It seemed she was disappointed in
herself for not noticing right off the bat. Everyone else
probably thought she was joking, but I knew she probably
wasn’t.
For crying out loud.
“But why would they do such a thing?”
“There are altogether too many possibilities as far as that’s
concerned, but in my opinion she was trying to ‘erase her
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 0 9
existence.’ Akane-san created a phantom ‘thirteenth person’
by using the same body twice, and in so doing succeeded in
erasing her own existence. There are plenty of hiding places
around here. It’s a huge mansion, and many of the rooms
aren’t locked. And there’s always the possibility she was
outside the mansion.”
“Why would she need to erase her own existence?”
“That’s simple. Isn’t it obvious? If she became a victim, if
she herself was murdered, she would no longer be under
surveillance. She would be free to move about, beyond the
confines of thought and reason, like some kind of invisible
woman. In which case, breaking Kunagisa’s computers, for
example, became a simple task. Even causing a fourth
incident, such as another murder, would have been simple.
But again, we won’t know for sure what they had planned
unless we ask Akane-san or Shinya-san.”
“We were going to kill everyone.”
This time he was gracious enough to answer. He spoke
with a coldness that told of his complete surrender. He spoke
with indifference.
“Everyone on this island. But to do so, she had to remove
herself. It became apparent that her ability to move around
would be cut off, either by the forming of teams or by having
everyone stay together in one place, so she had to remove
herself from everyone.”
And once she was on the outside, she would just start
picking people off one at a time, starting with the easiest prey.
Shinya-san let out a weak chuckle. “And here she did such a
good job of removing herself from the party. I never would’ve
thought she wouldn’t even be able to kill a single person. I
thought she’d at least get through half of you.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 1 0
“Shall we have you explain the rest then, Shinya-san?”
“No,” he shook his head weakly. “I’ll leave it all to you.
That’s your role here. It’s your job.”
I nodded without saying anything. “Well then, I don’t think
I need to explain the first sealed room at this point, do I? That
was just a trick to distract us. They just needed to buy time
until the second incident. It might not have been specifically
planned to go down that way, but rather just a coincidental
product of the Law of Great Numbers. Maybe the earthquake
just happened to occur and she thought of it right then. Of
course she was planning the murder all along, but maybe she
only decided on a specific plan once the earthquake occurred.
Supposing that was the case, it was some incredibly quick
thinking. You can’t help but be impressed. Anyway, there was
an earthquake. Then Shinya-san called. However, it wasn’t
Kanami-san on the other end, but Akane-san. Then Akane-san
killed Kanami-san. Shinya-san said Kanami-san had said ‘the
paint spilled,’ but that, too, was a trick. He used vague
wording so that even if the trick was exposed, he could weasel
out of it. Even I was tricked by that.”
“Heh heh,” Shinya-san laughed.
“That’s simply a coincidence.”
“Well, I can’t speak as to that, but anyway, Akane-san
killed Kanami-san. Then she put together that ‘sealed room.’
By intentionally spilling the paint.”
“Well, at least I wasn’t wrong when I originally said she
was the killer.”
“That’s right, Iria-san. Certainly it was a high possibility.
But that’s all it was. Because Akane-san had created that
sealed room, we couldn’t say for certain. Of course, that was
the whole point of the sealed room. To put herself under the
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 1 1
‘perfect level of suspicion,’ she placed herself in a position
where she was the prime suspect, but where nobody could
prove that she did it. Then she was locked in the storage
room.
“Granted, I was the one who had suggested it, but even if I
hadn’t said anything, Shinya-san surely would have. There
were only so many rooms with locking doors, so it would have
been easy for them to guess where she would be held, and
there had already been plenty of time for them to get to know
the mansion. Of course, we can only speculate here, and if
you don’t feel like talking to Shinya-san about it, we’ll never
know the true answer.”
On that note, it seemed to me that Akane-san’s big tiff
with Kanami-san was also done to intentionally show their
sour relationship. Akane-san had wanted to put herself in that
risky position.
You know, for later on.
I didn’t know whether the fact that Akane-san was the
only one without an alibi (well, actually Rei-san, too) was
pure luck, or whether she had figured out a whole strategy.
But it was probably just a coincidence.
That’s what I thought.
“So then she switched with Ibuki-san’s body?” Iria-san said.
“And then showed herself to Hikari-san in the middle of the
night, put the clothes she had been wearing on Ibuki-san,
escaped, and… then she hid away somewhere in the mansion,
right? Then during dinner she was hiding right by the dining
hall listening in on Sashirono-san’s hysteria. She overheard her
saying she was going to lock herself up in her room. So she
turned back and hid herself in Sashirono-san’s room. There’s
no lock, after all. Then there was the setup. Hmm, so that
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 1 2
means Sashirono-san’s breaking down and accusing Hikari was
all a ruse you set up, doesn’t it?”
“Yes,” I nodded. “We could’ve just found her at that point
if we had searched the whole mansion, but it’s so huge. It just
seemed like it would be a big hassle, so we set a trap instead.
It was risky, though.”
“The amazing thing about you is that you were able to just
write that off as ‘risky.’ ”
I didn’t know who was speaking for a second, but it turned
out to be Maki-san. It was the first time she had given me a
compliment without a hint of sarcasm. I was just a little bit
pleased.
“But hang on a second.” Iria-san placed a hand on her own
head and remained like that for a moment. “Something still
seems off,” she said. “Hmm, what is it? Something seems
strange to me.”
“Are you wondering how Akane-san got out of the storage
room?”
“Yeah, that’s it!” Iria-san said with a clap of her hands.
“That’s it. You haven’t explained that yet. Did Shinya-san pull
her up? Did she literally switch places with the corpse?”
“Nope. Shinya-san was only outside the mansion when we
buried Kanami-san’s body in the mountains. At that time, he
did drop the body into the storage room, but he didn’t pull
Akane-san out. Hikari-san saw her the following night at two
a.m., right? Plus, Shinya-san had an alibi that night as well. So
he couldn’t have pulled Akane-san out. That much is certain.”
“Then did he drop a rope ladder down there or
something?”
“That’s not it, either. A rope ladder would’ve left a hole
somewhere. I suppose it would’ve been possible if the rope
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 1 3
was long enough, but Hikari-san saw that the window was
closed at two a.m. Akane-san couldn’t have tied the rope
outside from the inside of her room. She would’ve needed an
accomplice, but as I said, Shinya-san was busy at the time
creating an alibi for himself with Maki-san.”
“Then it’s impossible,” Iria-san pouted. “My head is
spinning in circles. I feel like I’ve got cyanosis here.”
“You must mean vertigo.”
“That’s the only kind of thing you ever explain, huh?” she
grimaced. “Well? You must know the answer, right?”
“Yup,” I nodded.
“She was locked in a room with a door that can only be
unlocked from the outside, and a window that opens freely,
and she wanted to get out. Iria-san, what would you have
done in that situation?”
“I can’t possibly imagine.”
Spoken like a true princess.
“Well, what about you, Akari-san?”
I had already explained it to Hikari-san and Yayoi-san, so I
asked Akari-san. I could’ve asked Teruko-san, Rei-san, or even
Maki-san, but Akari-san was my favorite, after all, and I was
hoping to break the awkwardness lingering from the morning’s
events.
“I… I guess I would stretch my arms up and jump.”
“Right. But even if you jumped, you wouldn’t reach the
window.”
“We’re talking about the storage room, right? If I was
locked in there, and jumping didn’t work… next I would try
standing on a chair, stretching my arms up and jumping.”
“Even then you don’t reach.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 1 4
“Then it’s simple,” she said with a forced cheerful
expression. “I’d give up.”
“That won’t move this conversation anywhere.”
“Well, it’s over, right?”
Wow, she was blunt. Maybe it wasn’t awkwardness, maybe
she just plain hated me. Well, whatever. Time to change the
channel.
“Akari-san says she would have used a chair. That’s
basically what anybody would do, right? Like a monkey trying
to reach a high-hanging banana.”
“Are you calling me a monkey?” she screamed, her face
bright red. “Aren’t you rude! You don’t know the meaning of
the word delicacy, do you? Are you trying to infuriate me?”
My mistake. It seemed I had changed the channel in the
wrong direction.
“No, that’s not what I meant. And you don’t have to get so
angry. Monkeys are adorable.”
“I’ve never been so insulted in my entire life.” She cast her
face away from me. “From now on you and I don’t know each
other.”
Her disdain for me was unquestionably clear. I was a little
bit shocked. Dammit, Kunagisa, what about impressing her
with my smarts? It was the exact opposite outcome.
“Um, that’s not good. Anyway, you stand on a chair. Just
like anyone would. You jump, you stretch your arms out. You
still don’t reach. So what now? It’s simple. You just get on a
taller chair.”
“There’s only one chair in that room.”
“Well, ‘chair’ is just a metaphor. It could be anything. So
what was in that room?”
“Nothing. Books? The futon? A lamp and table?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 1 5
“There was something else, wasn’t there? Something we all
saw. It was practically all we saw.”
A silence fell over the crowd. Maybe they couldn’t think of
it, maybe they had thought of it. Either way would’ve
warranted such a reaction.
It was Iria-san who finally answered.
“It was Ibuki-san’s corpse, wasn’t it?”
“Bingo,” I nodded.
What else needed to be said?
“Rigor mortis reaches its peak at around the first twentyfour-hour
mark—well, depending on your sources. It was
about two a.m., give or take, so almost exactly that much time
had passed since Kanami-san was killed. Her body was
probably stiff as a pole. I’m sure getting those clothes on her
was no cakewalk, but there were merits here as well. I guess it
had an upside and a downside.”
“No cakewalk? It was a suit, for crying out loud. How do
you get that on a stiff corpse? Maybe her joints were still
moving, but still…”
“Then she could’ve brought two pairs of the same outfit.
That way she could get it on the body while it was still
relatively loose in the afternoon. Maybe Kanami’s removed
dress was hiding behind the door,” I continued without
pausing. “I arrived at this train of thought based on her reason
for cutting off the head. That was, of course, so that Kanami’s
body could play the role of two people. Her face was a
hindrance. But I believe there is one more reason she cut off
the head. She may be the only person to have ever cut off
someone’s head for this reason. Yup. To flatten her shoulders.”
“You mean because if she hadn’t done that, if the shoulders
weren’t flat, she couldn’t have used them as a step? Because
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 1 6
Kanami-san wasn’t a sturdy stepping stool?” Akari-san asked
weakly, as if stricken with fear, or else hoping for some other
answer.
“Is that what you’re saying?”
“Yes,” I nodded. “Not just a step, but a ‘staircase.’ First she
placed the chair, then stood Kanami-san’s body up next to it,
letting it lean against the wall a little. Then she used the chair
as her first step, the body as her second, and made a final leap.
Like a hop, step, and jump maneuver. Then she stretched out
her arms and finally reached the window.”
Kanami-san was always confined to a wheelchair, so I
wasn’t sure of her exact height, but considering Akane-san
had thought to recycle the body that way, she was probably
about as tall as Akane-san. And that was none too petite. Even
without the head, she was at least five feet tall. If you added
Akane-san’s own height, it was a little over ten feet. Plus she
was extending her arms. Plus she jumped. As long as her hand
made it to the window, all she had to do was pull herself up.
The impact from the jump probably caused Kanami-san’s
body to topple over, but that was all the better. It would be
hard for anyone to tell the body had been used as a step.
And that’s exactly why the head had been lopped off from
the very base of the neck.
“It couldn’t have been that easy. I mean, come on…”
“She didn’t have to succeed right away. I mean, she could
have tried any number of times. It’s not the type of thing you
can do in one or two tries, but eventually she succeeded, and
knocked Kanami-san’s body down in the process. To be
greedy, she probably wanted to close the window, too, but
you can only do that from the inside, so she probably just gave
up on it. When we went and examined Akane-san’s—by
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 1 7
which I mean Kanami-san’s—body the next day, the peak of
the rigor mortis had already passed, and the body had become
somewhat loose again. Of course I’m no specialist, so I can’t
really say for certain.”
“That’s…” Akari-san was turning blue. It was the same
broken down Akari-san I had encountered this morning.
Infuriated, or deep in despair. “It’s too terrible. It’s too
terrible. I can’t forgive this. To kill a person, and on top of
that cut her head off, and then dig up her buried corpse, and
on top of that disguise it as the body of someone else… that
alone is unspeakably foul. But to then use the body as a chair,
as a staircase, as a stepping stool?”
“ ‘It’s difficult to sit on a living person. To sit on a living
person for nearly thirty minutes is nearly impossible. But I
wouldn’t say sitting on a dead person is very hard at all,’ ”
Shinya-san recited. “The words of Oe Kenzaburo. Don’t you
know it, Akari-san?”
Still blue in the face, Akari-san shook her head with a look
of disgust. She looked like a small frightened animal. Like she
wanted to deny reality.
I couldn’t help but sigh.
A corpse is something that’s been thoroughly spent, with
no sentience or personality or even a spirit remaining inside it,
just as it no longer has a will or an essence. It is nothing more
than a “thing.” And the owner of that “thing” utters no
complaint as to what might become of it, and even supposing
it wanted to, he or she was in no place to do so.
There was a headless body. She recycled it as her own
body.
There was a headless body. She used it as a staircase.
So what?
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 1 8
When you die, that’s the end. The fact that you lived is
irrelevant. It’s nothing more than a fact. Everybody has a
different idea about it, and that’s their right; you can’t
complain about what others believe.
I let out another sigh.
“So that’s it, Iria-san. The minor details are a pain to
explain, so please think about them for yourself. I’m sure
there’s an easy answer for everything else. Unfortunately, I’m
not a nice enough guy to explain it all. Please reason things
out on your own.”
“The minor details, huh?” Iria-san said. “What about the
motive? I don’t think you can write that off as a trivial or
minor detail.”
“You’ll have to ask the murderers directly.”
I repeated the same line I had already said a number of
times by this point, and looked over at Shinya-san. So did
everyone else. With a look of capitulation, Shinya-san
prepared to give an answer, when a voice came from behind
my back.
“You don’t have to answer that, Shinya.”
I looked back. Standing in the entrance to the dining room
was Akane-san. She was supposed to be resting in the
bedroom. How long had she been there? How much of my
nonsense had she heard?
Her arm was in a brace, but she still wore a fearless
expression as she looked down upon the crowd sitting at the
round table.
“Akane-san…”
ER3 system, Seven Fools, Sonoyama Akane.
Akane-san, who had claimed that she would never
complain, no matter who, when, why, or how she was killed.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 1 9
But did that just mean she would forgive herself no matter
who, when, why, or how she killed?
“Hah,” she laughed. “Motive? Motive, you say? How silly.
What a meaningless thing that is in a world this big. It hurts
my brain to think about why you would even care about such
trivia. I don’t get it at all.” She gave a sardonic smile as she
continued. “I was just trying to eat those brains of yours.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 2 1
Where are you?
Who are you?
As luck would have it, just as Kunagisa and I had originally
planned, we were able to return to the mainland on the
afternoon exactly one week after we had arrived. Kunagisa
having a tendency (albeit not as compulsive as her vertical
motion thing) to hate changing plans once she’s made them,
this set me at ease a bit.
But if you looked back, Kunagisa’s original purpose in
coming to the island was, at least in part, to satisfy her interest
in the “various things” that had occurred there in the past. I
asked her about it.
“My investigation is basically over,” she said.
It seemed she had been up to some “various things” herself.
Not that I wasn’t wondering what she had been up to, but if
that was the case, there was no problem for now. I just
wanted to get home anyway.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 2 2
I sat on a sofa in a room on the same cruiser that had
brought us to the island. Kunagisa lay sleeping on the sofa
across from me.
Now that we were set to return to the mainland, I had half
expected something to happen with Hikari-san or Akari-san,
but they gave nothing more than the usual, dutiful formalities.
Thank you very much. Please visit again if you have the chance. Take
care now. I don’t even have to get into Teruko-san’s farewell.
She left me without a single word, as if to say, “I’ve already
spoken to you enough to last a lifetime.”
But whatever.
That’s how my life goes.
Sonoyama Akane-san and Sakaki Shinya-san.
The two perpetrators of this crime were of course no
longer allowed to stay on the island, and were currently laying
low in the next room. I didn’t know what they might be
talking about.
We were heading back to the mainland as planned, and
they were heading back because they had been kicked out. It
was technically the opposite of being island exiled, but if you
thought about it, the word mainland was wholly subjective.
Yayoi-san and Maki-san remained on the island.
Yayoi-san’s doubts regarding Iria-san and Rei-san seemed
to have been swept away, but I wondered if that was enough.
Of course, it was up to Yayoi-san to decide how she lived her
own life, and not my place to butt in.
As for Maki-san… that woman was a sly fox to the very
end.
“So how much did you really know?” I asked her before
leaving the island.
Maki-san responded with an ambiguous smile.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 2 3
“Well, you know. Maybe I don’t really know anything. Like
the whole thing was really just an act.”
“You know, I get the impression you knew about Akanesan
and Shinya-san’s plans all along, and you were aiding them
in creating alibis.“
“What if I was?” she said nonchalantly. “What if I was?”
“Then you’re an accomplice. That’s all.”
“But it’s not like I had heard anything from Shinya-san, and
he didn’t try to tell me anything.”
“If he had, you would’ve been abetting a murder. You
invited him over two nights in a row, helping him create an
alibi that was hard for me to trace. So what’s the real story? If
you were really cooperating with Shinya-san, then…”
“Then what?”
“Nothing. I guess nothing would happen,” I shrugged.
“Nothing at all.”
Maki-san snickered at me.
In reality I wanted to tell her something, but there was no
point. If she really possessed those powers there was no need
to say anything, and even if she didn’t there was no need.
It’s just that I had doubts. Shinya-san and Akane-san’s
serial murder plot just seemed too perfect, like it relied on one
too many coincidences. In presenting my findings to Iria-san, I
had made great efforts to step around that. It’s not that their
plans had been sloppy. It was like they had been unrehearsed,
yet at the same time, everything had been prepared ahead of
time. Or rather, it felt like luck was very much on their side…
Yeah, it was like they had factored in coincidences and made
friends with luck. As if the layout of the entire island and
everything on it were on their side.
“Nonsense, huh?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 2 4
Of course they probably were all just coincidences, and
probably just examples of the Law of Great Numbers, and
those two had simply won a bet, so to speak. Anything will
look fishy if you think about it selectively.
“Occam’s razor?”
However.
On that island was someone who knew everything, and I
do mean everything, even the future.
Was even this a coincidence?
Sigh.
Indeed, it probably was. I could draw no other conclusion.
Even if it wasn’t a coincidence, it was all over already, and
there would be no way to prove it, plus Shinya-san and
Akane-san sure weren’t talking, so there was no point in
pursuing it. Even if there was a point, it had nothing to do
with me, and even if it had something to do with me, I wasn’t
interested.
So that was the situation. Instead, I asked a question.
“Are you the one who told Teruko-san I was in trouble?”
There was no reason anyone should’ve known I was about
to be done in by Akane-san in Yayoi-san’s room, and thus
there was no reason Teruko-san should have conveniently
busted in with all the grace and good timing of an action
heroine like that.
Unless there was someone who could predict the future,
that is.
“Do you think I would do something like that?”
“No.”
“Then I probably didn’t, did I?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 2 5
She gave me a wicked smile. I decided any further inquiry
would be meaningless, so I didn’t even thank her. There was
no reason to.
“I wonder what’s going to happen now. To the island, to
Iria-san…”
“Mmm.” Maki-san gave an expectedly short response.
I shrugged once. “Well, how about telling me what’s going
to happen to me and Kunagisa? As a continuation to that
‘compatibility reading’ from the other night. Are the two of us
going to stay like this forever?”
“My readings are expensive.”
“In that case I’ll have to decline,” I said.
“The two of you will stay that way for a little while
longer,” she said, answering me the very second I had given
up. What a perverse contrarian.
“A little while?”
“Yes, a little while.”
“How long?”
“Two years plus change.”
I tilted my head at her.
“You mean it’ll turn into something else after two years?
Or it’ll completely fade away?”
“Well, I don’t know.” She laughed a bit cynically. “I can’t
see more than two years into the future.”
Hadn’t heard that before. I probably failed to hide my
surprised expression.
“It’s a secret though,” she continued. “So I don’t know
what will become of you and Kunagisa-chan two years from
now.”
“You mean that’s the limit of your power?”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 2 6
“I mean I’m going to die,” she said plainly. “Time is not on
my side. As far as I’m concerned, all time stops at that point.
Two years from now, on March 21, at 3:23 p.m. That’s the
date and time that I will die.”
All I could do was be silent.
“Spewing guts and brains all over the place, it’ll be a fitting
death for a heretic like me.”
“Can’t you avoid it?”
“When the time comes, be sure to get my killer. Just like
you did this time. I’m asking you now as a favor.”
“What’s the point in asking a favor if you won’t be able to
see whether or not I’ve fulfilled it?”
“That’s true,” she seemed to say as she stuck out her right
hand, her chest out as if to express pride that she, too, had an
unforeseeable future.
“Let’s shake hands.”
“Sure. Might not be bad to pretend we’re friends now that
we’re at the very end.”
Even having said that, I couldn’t grab her hand.
I still had no idea why she had picked on me so much. It
probably didn’t matter, and it was probably actually better
that way.
However…
I still had some doubts.
“Excuse me.” The cabin door opened and in walked Reisan.
“We’ll be docking soon. Please get ready.”
“Sure,” I replied.
Time to wake up Kunagisa.
She seemed to be sleeping awfully comfortably so I didn’t
really want to, but I couldn’t just leave her be. Although that
would have been pretty funny.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 2 7
“Um, thank you so much for everything.” Rei-san took the
time to say. “You, especially. We’re grateful to Kunagisa-san as
well, but you…”
“Did you have a blast, Akagami Iria-san?”
“Sure,” Rei-san nodded without any particular sign of
surprise. “You bet. I had tons of fun.”
Akagami Iria-san grinned a genuinely happy grin. A smile
she hadn’t given once during her performance as Rei-san. This
wasn’t acting, it was a real, human smile.
“How did you know Rei and I switched? Since when?”
“I just thought of it now. It was just a wild guess. I figured
if I was wrong you’d just get a little ticked off, it wasn’t like a
breach of your human rights or anything,” I said to her. “If you
had left this room quicker I probably wouldn’t have even
noticed, or at least I wouldn’t have said anything.”
“Is that right?” she nodded. “I always get sloppy at the end,
huh? My grandfather used to say it all the time. But you must
have had some reason to think that. Please, enlighten me.”
“What’s it to you?”
“I can use it as future reference.”
She was going to keep doing this?
“Well, yeah. Yayoi-san still hasn’t noticed, plus Maki-san…
well, I don’t know about her.”
She snickered. Seeing her childish demeanor, she seemed
to lack a certain refinement in comparison to the “real” Iriasan,
the one on the island—Rei-san, that is. It was like the fake
version was more real than the real one.
She just seemed to be very free.
“Well, let’s see,” I said. “You didn’t talk very much, did
you, Iria-san? It was so unnatural. I’m sure you thought that if
you spoke you would give yourself away, but on the other
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 2 8
hand, not talking at all was just as much of a blunder. So you
made Teruko-san act silent as well to create a sort of universal
‘lack of presence,’ thereby covering yourself.”
“No, that’s just her nature,” Iria-san said. “I can tell her
apart from the other two even if she’s not wearing her glasses.
‘Cause she never talks.”
Apparently that was her nature.
Well, if you thought about it, it didn’t really seem like
Teruko-san had been acting.
“Is that right? Well, either way, I figured if that Iria-san
was an imposter, there was only one possible person it could
have been. After all, Akari-san, Hikari-san, and Teruko-san are
triplets. I guess it’s a little counterintuitive that they couldn’t
have swapped places because they’re triplets.”
“You said it,” she smiled.
It was the smile of someone addressing an equal.
At least that’s what I thought.
“And then there was something about your aura. Like,
Teruko-san never seemed to be doing much work. That’s
because she was mainly your bodyguard. But I never saw Reisan
do much work, either. I was wondering about that.”
“I poured your tea, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, it was great.” I had forgotten to thank her earlier.
“Oh yeah, and also, the first time I visited your room, you
were sitting on the sofa and Iria-san was standing. It seemed
like it should’ve been the other way around.”
“My, my.” She was gleeful. I supposed Rei-san had been
copying such mannerisms all along, but there was nothing like
the real thing. “Go on.”
“Right. Where was I…”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 2 9
If you thought about it, Akari-san and Hikari-san obviously
knew about the switch, which meant that they, too, were
quite the pair of little actresses. Especially Hikari-san. As spry
and pitiable as she was, I never would’ve guessed she was lying
all along.
Somebody owed her an Oscar.
“The nail in the coffin was when the fake Iria-san covered
for you. That night ‘Iria-san’ and Yayoi-san were together
talking all night. Makes sense, right? Rei-san was probably
asking her for culinary advice. She’s really a maid, after all, so
it wouldn’t be that strange if she had an interest in cooking.”
“Yeah, Yayoi-san believes Rei is me, so she doesn’t ever
spend much time with the real me. That was my
miscalculation.” she sulked. “And hey, come to think of it,
where does Rei get off imitating me like that? I don’t change
my clothes in front of random people, and my personality isn’t
that crappy.”
Apparently her personality wasn’t that crappy.
Hmm, sounded like another lie to me.
“So what were you really doing that night, anyway?”
“That’s a secret.”
“It’s a secret?”
“A lady never discloses her evening’s affairs,” she said
mysteriously.
I had a feeling if I pressed any further it would just tick her
off, so I decided to let it go. I wasn’t looking for any more
trouble. I didn’t like “making waves,” after all.
“Anyway, even though ‘Iria-san’ did nothing to protect
Hikari-san, even treating her like a criminal, she went as far as
lying to save your hide. Why? Because Rei-san is closer to Iriasan
than Hikari-san is? Maybe. But something about that
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 3 0
answer doesn’t float my boat. Living on a deserted island like
that, I would think you’d all get pretty close and cozy. And I
don’t think human beings are such a cold species.”
“That’s true,” Iria-san said. “Those girls are like my family.
My precious family, who stayed by my side even after I was
exiled.”
Exiled.
And the reason for that exile?
“Even so, ‘Iria-san’ protected ‘Rei-san’ but not Hikari-san.
Why? Could it be because ‘Rei-san’ was really her superior,
someone she had sworn allegiance to?” I clapped my hands
together. “Something like that, right?”
“You’re marvelous. I want to hug you.”
“I don’t mind.”
“I will refrain,” she giggled innocently.
“This time I have a question. Why exactly did you switch
places with Rei-san and pose as a maid? Was it because, as the
granddaughter of the Akagami family, you couldn’t show
yourself unguarded in front of the guests, even though you
were exiled?”
There was no guarantee that there wasn’t some unsavory
individual mixed in with all those geniuses. As our prior
investigation had indicated, sometimes these things happen.
Thus, she had prepared an imposter—a body double.
Was that it?
But Iria-san shook her head daintily. “Nope,” she said. “I
just wanted to see who would notice first. Just a little prank.
No reason, really.”
A prank.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 3 1
It was the kind of line that made your knees wobble, and I
didn’t think she was lying this time. And until now, not a
single one of those so-called geniuses had caught on.
In all these years, unnoticed by anyone, geniuses are
nothing special.
Perhaps that was what Iria-san thought. And she would
probably continue to think so.
“But you noticed.”
“If you hadn’t gone a little too far at the end there, I
wouldn’t have. Even if I had noticed, I wouldn’t have said
anything. You should have just stayed at the mansion instead
of coming on this boat with us.”
“Well, I have to go apologize to Aikawa-san for all the
unnecessary hoopla. There’s still a visit scheduled. We’re
going to meet straight after dropping you off. Oh, Aikawasan’s
going to be ticked. Not a person you want to see get
angry. Even though it’s inevitable. Plus, well, I wanted to talk
to you like this. You showed me such a good time, after all.”
“It’s an honor.”
“Say,” she said sweetly, “won’t you return to the mansion
sometime? Kunagisa-san, Maki-san, Yayoi-san, and you. I
think you’d make a terrific family. I hear you’ve taken a liking
to Akari and Hikari. I don’t mind letting you have your way
with them.”
“That’s not the kind of thing you say to a family member.”
“True, but I’m serious. I’m always serious. So how about
it? Like my proposition?” She stuck her tongue out at me.
At this point I was becoming disgusted. You couldn’t just
write this off as free-spiritedness or vibrancy or lack of
restraint.
“I don’t like murderers.”
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 3 2
“Ehehehehe,” Iria-san laughed.
I didn’t know why she was laughing.
“Regardless of their reasons?”
“Regardless of their reasons.”
She nodded. “I’m not sure what you heard from Hikari and
Teruko, but you can’t possibly be thinking they told you
anything but the truth. Those girls are generally liars. I think
the fact that they never told you about me and Rei’s switch is
proof enough of that.”
“Eh…?”
“The reason I didn’t call the police was simply because it
wouldn’t have been any fun that way. Absolute authority is so
unromantic,” she said as she rolled up her left sleeve. This
revealed a lovely, perfectly unscarred arm. “Please excuse me
then,” she said with a smile, and left the room.
“Hey, hey…”
Sigh…
Sure didn’t see that coming.
What was real and what was fake?
Who was real and who was fake?
It’s a mixed-up world, and I for one never claimed to know
anything, nor do I think all people are honest and all things are
as they seem.
What was it?
The truth.
“Man, what a load of tomfoolery.”
It wouldn’t be long now. I thought to wake up Kunagisa,
but seeing her peaceful face as she mewed like a kitten made
me lose the motivation. It wouldn’t be too late to wake her up
after we reached the coast. The rule of thumb is, the longer
you can stay dreaming, the better.
ZAREGOTO: THE KUBIKIRI CYCLE ■■■ 3 3 3
Nevertheless.
Family?
“Man, I’m gonna regret turning down that proposition,” I
said to no one in particular, expecting no response. But I knew
there was only one response one could give. For me, there was
only one person I could ever call family. “What a load of
nonsense,” I muttered in the usual way.