Well hello! Here is a new chapter of Azure Redi-fanfiction. I used a small illustration for this from the Ginga Nagareboshi Gin-anime, which I do not own the rights to. I start planning the next chapter. See you in the next chapter.
Shizuka, and Ran were skiing down the snowy ski slope.
The sun made the snow sparkle beautifully.
"Heh heh!" The girls were having fun, then stopped in front of Kogorō smoking a cigarette in front of a tree.
Kogorō's feet were skis, the poles of which leaned against the tree trunk behind Kogorō.
"Huh? Dad, aren't you going skiing?" Ran asked.
"You idiot!" Kogorō said. "Before I ski, I want to remember all this. That huge sky without a single cloud, and the splendor of nature covered in white snow!"
Ran took the skis off her feet, and crept up behind Kogorō, smiling a little mischievously at the same time.
"Hi!" Ran pushed Kogorō from the back, causing Kogorō to slide down the slope of the hill on his skis.
"Aaaah!" Kogorō was startled, meandering down the hill until he ran into the trunk of a large tree, the branches of which snow fell to the ground, and onto Kogorō:
"Shit! I knew we shouldn't have come!"
"Aren't you at all afraid that your father will be angry with you for that?" Shizuka asked Ran after taking the skis off her feet.
"No", Ran said.
(Later)
"What? Did you drop the key to our rental cabin?" Ran asked standing with Shizuka and her father in front of their rented cabin as Kogorō searched his pockets and their belongings were covered in snow.
"Shit, it's because you two were horsing around!" Kogorō said. "Anyway, the only thing we can do is call the manager and ask him to bring us a spare key".
"There's no phone booth here!" Ran said looking at the gray building in the distance as the sun set and dark clouds appeared in the sky. "That cabin over there is under construction, and all the ski buses have already left".
Then the wind blew the snow a little.
Ran looked to the right to see there, a large villa that looked like a mountain mansion:
"The only place nearby is that cabin over there".
Chirp! Birds were chirping somewhere.
"Hmph! I can't possibly owe some rich loser who built that cabin!" Kogorō held his hands in a gust. Then he took the other pole of his skis, and ran to the veranda of the rented house, raising the pole higher:
"We have no choice but to break in!"
Ran ran behind his father, and grabbed his father, stopping him.
"Don't, Mōri-san! You'll have to pay for it later!" Shizuka shouted as she walked onto the veranda.
"Hey! Could it be that you are", Someone said in surprise, causing Kogorō to stop, looking back like the others to see a black passenger car stopped in front of a gray house. "Ah, you are a detective after all, Mōri Kogorō-san! I always enjoy reading about you in the magazine!"
The driver of the car was a slightly round, 53-year-old man with bald head. He had a black mustache and slightly tanned skin. He was an old man, and a short man, who was bald except for the back of his head, and the sides of his head, where black hair showed. He was dressed in winter clothes, which included a green coat, a red scarf, a blue sweatshirt, blue pants, and black boots.
"I'm Oyama Masashi. Professor of Surgery, from the 1st Division", Man said.
(Later)
"Wow, what a great place to stay! Such a sophisticated place with high quality color and design!" Kogorō looked at Masashi's villa as he stood with the others in front of Masashi's villa. The villa had two floors, and the outer walls were brown like the veranda, and like Masashi's car, a gray passenger car was parked in the front yard of the villa.
"Who was talking about 'rich losers' not too long ago?" Shizuka thought.
"Oh, I still haven't asked your names", Masashi told the girls as Kogorō walked onto the verandah. "Are you Mōri-san's daughter?"
"Yes. I'm Ran", Ran said, then looked at Shizuka. "She is Miyamizu Irene-san, the niece of one of our acquaintances. We take care of her by helping her uncle while Irene-san's parents are abroad on business trips. Irene-san is now my father's assistant".
"Ooo!" Masashi smiled.
"Evening", Shizuka said.
"My assistant plans to become a detective at some point. I also mentor my assistant, which has paid off well". Kogorō said looking at the door knockers that looked like lion, or tiger heads:
"Even lions decorating this door, or tigers are awesome!"
"Huh! I just wanted a horse for those door knockers, but you don't always get what you want", Masashi said looking at Kogorō.
"Well...horses are probably better than lions, or tigers," Kogorō said.
"No, I'm not talking about that," Masashi said as the red passenger car was parked in the villa's front yard.
"Oyama-sensei!" A woman carrying a paper shopping bag full of vegetables walked out of the red car. The woman then closed the car door as the others looked at her.
"Oh, Nakahara-kun!" Masashi said.
"You're late! Everyone's been waiting. Who are those people?" Nakahara asked as he saw the people accompanying Masashi. He was 30 years old. Nakahara was a middle-aged, normal-height woman with straight, short, brown hair. She was dressed in warm clothes that included a yellow scarf, a red jacket, a green sweatshirt, a red skirt, and gray boots.
"He is Nakahara Kaori, a doctor who works at Toto University Medical School Assistant of Surgery, 1st Div", Masashi said. "Oh, they are my acquaintances. I happened to run into them earlier".
The others looked at Masashi curiously.
(Later)
"I see. So you're all doctors at the same university?" Ran said while eating the hot pot for dinner with the others.
"Yeah. Everyone here works under Oyama-sensei", One man said. He was Kanazawa Tomoyasu. Tomoyasu was quite tall and had straight black hair parted on either side of his head. He was wearing a brown sweatshirt, gray jeans, white socks, and blue sandals. He was a 48 year old doctor working from Toto University Medical Shool as Asst. Professor of Surgery. in 1st Div. "Doctors always have their own cliques. I've studied under Oyama-sensei for decades!"
"I moved here three years ago from a mediocre professor I worked with. I feel good about this job", Tobita Ginji said, holding a white sake cup in his right hand. He was a 31-year-old, middle-aged man of normal height, with straight, black hair and big bangs. He was wearing a blue sweatshirt, gray jeans, white socks. His skin was tanned and he had black eyes. He was a doctor who worked at Toto University Medcal School Assistant of Surgery. in 1st Div.
"That thesis that Oyama-sensei announced the other day was amazing", Kaho Ezumi said. She was a 30-year-old, middle-aged, normal-height woman with medium-length, brown, wavy hair. She was wearing a light brown jacket, a white shirt, a light brown skirt, white socks, and black shoes. As an accessory, she had a pink ribbon on her head and glasses. She wore pink lipstick. Kaho, like others, worked as a doctor at Toto University Medical School Assistant of Surgery, 1st Div.
"Oh, you mean 'developing a genetic treatment for bowel cancer'?" Kaori said sitting with the others on the floor cushions by the Dining Table.
"His thesis is the talk of everyone in the department," Ezumi said.
"With the brain of a genius like mine, it's child's play!" Drunken Masashi said. "Heh heh!"
(Later)
Ezumi returned from the kitchen carrying a tray with white drinking bottles, sat down on the floor, and placed the tray on the table:
"Thanks for dinner!"
There were already white drinking bottles on the dining table, some of which were already empty.
"Oh no! I forgot to buy some snacks to go with the alcohol!" Kaori said.
"Huh?!" Ezumi was surprised.
Kaori turned around, picked up her coat from the floor, and stood up, putting the coat on:
"I'll make a quick trip to the convenience store at the foot of the mountain".
"I'll take the chips!" Ezumi said.
"Dried cuttlefish for me!" Tobit said.
"I'll take the salad", Tomoyasu said.
Kaori sat on the floor, and took things from the floor, and then gave the pen, and anger to Tobita:
"Okay, okay, I'm going shopping, so write everything down".
"Alright", Tobita started writing the list.
(Later)
"That convenience store closes before ten, so hurry up, okay?" Ezumi asked Kaori as she stood with the others at the villa's front door.
"Yes", Kaori shouted to the others, closed the car window, and drove away from the front yard of the villa.
"H-Hey, what time is it?" Masashi asked.
"It's 8:58", Ezumi said looking at her watch.
"Oh no!" Masashi ran into the lobby, kicked off his outdoor shoes on the floor of the lobby, put on his slippers, and started running down the hallway of the villa as others watched him.
"What's wrong?" Ran asked.
"It's time for a special television show", Ezumi said. "Oyama-sensei is totally enthusiastic about this drama. It's popular at the moment, getting a TV rating of 30%".
"Oh, I'm watching it too!" Ran said.
"Huh? Where are you going Tobita-sensei?" Ezumi asked as Tobita came into the lobby, leaving his slippers in the lobby, and put on his outdoor shoes, and opened the car door and got into the car.
"Night skiing", Tobita said and walked towards the gray passenger car. Now he was wearing a dark blue jacket, and gray shoes. "I still haven't skied enough. I'll be back at eleven!"
After closing the car door, Tobita drove away from the front yard of the villa.
"Then I guess I'll enjoy the bath until the snacks come", Tomoyasu said as he went inside with the others.
"Hey, did you already call the manager of our cabin to get a spare key?" Shizuka asked Ran.
"Aaaah! I completely forgot about that!" Ran said in shock.
"What's wrong? You can all stay here tonight!" Ezumi said, and closed the villa's front door. Then they went to the mess hall, and saw Kogorō sleeping drunk against the wall of the room. "Besides, I don't think your father is in any condition to leave".
"Krooh wipe!" Kogorō snorted.
"Predictable", Shizuka thought. Shizuka had seen many times Ran's father sleeping drunk While living with Rani, and Ran's father.
(Later)
Shizuka and Ran were washing dishes in the kitchen.
"I'm going to take out the trash", Ezumi left the kitchen carrying trash bags in her hands.
"Okay", Ran said.
Woohoo! From the kitchen window you could easily see how the wind outside was so terrible that the branches of the trees in the forest near the villa were swaying a lot because of the wind.
Masashi was sitting in an armchair watching TV.
"Wait, Tsutomu-san!" A woman, and hugged Tsutomu She looked a bit like Ran, and she was wearing an orange jacket, and her eyes were black. "Do not leave me!"
"It's no use, Mitsue-san!" Man was wearing a uniform that resembled Teitan Koko's uniform. He was tall, and athletic, with tanned skin, black eyes, and black hair.
They were standing in an autumn forest, and the weather was sunny.
"We are fated to never be together!" Tsutomu said.
Masashi held a smoking cigarette in his right hand. On the table in front of him was a checkered tablecloth topped with a cigarette lighter and an ashtray.
The television was the only source of light in the otherwise dark room, and Masashi cried a little.
Flahf! The window of the room opened like a curtain, but Masashi couldn't hear it because of the sad background music coming from the TV.
"Why? Why can't we be together?" Mitsue asked.
Masashi was very focused on watching the show and didn't see it when someone walked up behind his chair and prepared to hit him with something.
Kaori later returned to the villa carrying a plastic bag:
"I'm back".
"Welcome back, Kaori", Ezumi said as Kaori walked in front of Ezumi. "This blizzard must have been tough".
Then the villa door was opened, and closed when Tobita returned to the villa.
"Tobita-sensei!" Ezumi said.
"Ugh! This blizzard came out of nowhere. There's no way I'm skiing!" Tobit said.
(Later)
Later, everyone sat on the floor cushions by the Dining Table.
"Ah. Only this warms me!" Tobita said after drinking some sake.
Then the sliding door opened, and Tomoyasu walked into the room, closing the door behind him.
"Oh, shall we start drinking already?" Tobita asked Tomoyasu who had just entered the room and was now wearing a change of clothes.
"How was your bath?" Ezumi asked.
"Yeah, that was great", Tomoyasu said after closing the sliding door to the room, and sat down at the table. "Huh? Where's the salad I ordered?"
"Sorry. It was sold out", Kaori said looking at the list. "There wasn't even ice cream. Who orders ice cream in this weather?"
"It's probably Oyama-sensei. He loves ice cream", Tobita said.
Shizuka looked at Kogorō sleeping on the floor of the room, and then at the wall clock.
"What's wrong, Irene-san?" Ran asked.
"That drama should end at ten, but Masashi-san must be late", Shizuka said.
"Oyama-sensei always records that show, and watches the good scenes over, and over again", Kaori said.
"It's already 10 past 10", Shizuka said.
"I know, but Oyoma-sensei always watches that show alone. He doesn't want to miss any details. And maybe he cries while watching that drama, and doesn't want us to see him cry while watching that drama", Kaori said.
"Phew!" Bound with ropes and covered in bloody wounds, Masashi breathed against the cloth tied in front of his mouth with the knife at his back as he lay on the floor of the room:
"So that person invited me to this lodge to kill me! But I won't let you get away with this. The great detective Mōri Kogorō is here. He understands this message!"
Masashi tried to sit up on his knees.
"What? Mōri Kogorō" Tobita asked looking at the others still sleeping Kogorō. "That person who is in all the newspapers?"
"Yes. My father is a detective", Ran said.
"It's past eleven now", Shizuka said looking at the wall clock. "I think Masashi-san is late".
The others also looked at the wall clock.
"I'll go see then", Kaori stood up, and left the room. Kaori walked down the hall, and stopped in front of Masashi's room door.
"Is he really the famous detective?" Tomoyasu asked looking at Kogorō.
"You can't tell just by looking at him", Tobita said.
"Yeeeeeeee!" Kaori's scream startled everyone, and woke up Kogorō.
"Kaori-san!" Shizuka ran out of the room with the others following her.
"Hey what's wrong?" Tobita asked. When they ran into Masashi's room, they saw a stabbed Masashi leaning against the long table in front of the wall, and a shaking Kaori sitting on the floor of the room.
"Oyama-sensei!" Masashi's acquaintances screamed in shock at what they saw.
The men ran up to Masashi, and began to examine him as Ezumi helped Kaori stand up, and like the others walked closer to Masashi.
"It's not helping. He's not breathing anymore", Tomoyasu said.
"I-it can't be!" Ezumi shouted.
"Anyway, let's free him from the ropes", Tomoyasu said.
"Don't touch him!" Kogorō said coming to you, and the others looked at Kogorō. "It causes problems when the crime scene is messed up!"
"Dad, the police, and the ambulance drivers said they can't come here for a while because of the snowstorm!" Ran ran back into the room. He had just tried to call the police, and an ambulance, but it hadn't worked because of the snowstorm.
"I see. There seems to be no choice", Kogorō said. "I think this is a job for... the great detective, Mōri Kogorō!"
"He's still drunk!" Shizuka thought doubtfully.
Later, Kogorō took pictures of the crime scene with a camera while others stood near the door of the room.
"FYI, nobody touched anything here, right?" Kogorō asked looking at the others.
"The only thing we touched was Oyama-sensei's body", Ezumi said.
"What about you Nakahara-san who found the body?" Kogorō asked.
"No, I didn't touch anything. I saw him covered in blood, and I freaked out so much I fell down next to the door", Kaori said.
"Were there any valuables in this room?" Kogorō asked.
"I daresay the victim's cause of death is blood loss from the back stab", Shizuka thought, looking at the large bloodstain on the large green carpet on the floor near Masashi. "There's no duct tape anywhere but the window, and apart from the broken window pane, there are signs of a break-in, so the perpetrator might be just one of the people in this villa, but it's still too early to say anything until the evidence is found. So the room needs to be searched properly. There is however, it's quite likely that the perpetrator came in through that broken window, and tied up Ooyama-san, and put a cloth over the victim's mouth so that the victim wouldn't scream when he was attacked".
Shizuka walked in front of the window, and saw the footprints in the snowdrift below the window that went straight towards the window, and then Shizuka walked in front of the couch closest to the door of the room.
"I'm pretty sure Oyama-sensei's safe is right next to the TV", Tomoyasu said. "It's the only one that might contain valuables that a burglar could steal".
"Let's see", Kogorō walked over to the dresser on the right with a handkerchief in hand, and opened its door to reveal a gray safe door, then looked at the others. "Whoa, the lock on the safe is scratched! What's inside this safe?"
"It's probably money", Tomoyasu said. "Oyama-sensei always had huge amounts of cash with him".
"Hm. So the murderer was looking for money", Kogorō said.
Shizuka walked over to the other table between the two sofas in the room and the armchair, as the orange checkered tablecloth on that table was bloody, and it was partially on the floor, and there were blood stains on the table. The blood stains on the tablecloth moved along the floor towards the victim.
"What's wrong with this bloodstain?" Shizuka thought, and then looked at the spot on the table where there was blood in a neat line on top of the table, and one corner on either side, and then looked at the table cloth for outside blood marks. "As if the victim had crawled up the wall. And why is the victim on his knees? The blood on the table stops suddenly. I see. The tablecloth slipped off the table when the victim touched the tablecloth. Those blood stains are the marks of the rope! Could this be the death note Oyama-san left behind?"
Kogorō walked to the window, looking at the window in one place, brown duct tape:
"So the perpetrators entered by smashing the window after silencing the sound of the window breaking with duct tape".
Kogorō closes the window, looked at the footprints in the snow:
"Hmph! Looks like the killer was nice enough to leave footprints for us outside. Heh heh! I've almost figured this one out".
"It's really cold outside", Shizuka said looking at the blizzard.
"There's an easy solution to that", Kogorō said closing the window.
"Excuse me, but could you examine his body?" Kogorō asked looking at the others. "I think you doctors would be better suited to that than I am".
"Alright", Tomoyasu said, removing the ropes from around Masashi.
"How horrible!" Tobita examined the victim with the others. "Oyama-sensei's favorite gold watch is completely covered in blood".
"This is not the time to say such things!" Kaori said.
"We think the estimated time of death is between 10:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.", Tomoyasu said as a pale blue, almost white cloth was placed over the victim.
"I see. So this happened while he was watching that TV drama", Kogorō said, writing the matter in his notebook.
"Yes", Kaori said.
"He has multiple wounds on his body, but the immediate cause of death was suffocation from two wounds that we believe pierced his lungs", Tomoyasu said.
"Suffocation?" Kogorō asked.
"It means he couldn't breathe because his lungs couldn't expand after the puncture to them", Tobita stood up. "It probably took about 10 to 15 minutes for him to die, and it's a painful death too".
"Would it have been something like a grudge?" Shizuka thought.
Ezumi stood up:
"This is terrible! Who could have done such a thing?"
"This is likely a case where the criminal was after the victim's money", Kogorō said. "When the murderer came in through the window, he tried to threaten Oyama-san, who was watching TV. He asked the victim for the combination of the safe to open the safe, but the victim did not want to talk. The murderer did this act in a rage, and escaped through the window".
"Do I have to do everything?" Shizuka looked at the victim:
"But why wasn't the victim's watch taken?"
"What do you mean?" Kogorō asked.
"Oyama-san was bound before, wasn't he? If that's the case, then he's really lucky the killer didn't take that gold watch", Shizuka said.
"It's strange. A person after money wouldn't leave a watch like that behind", Kogorō said. "Could it be that the murderer is a complete jerk? Or the motive was not theft".
The others looked at Kogorō in disbelief.
"How could he be able to work in the police homicide squad if he already missed something at that point?" Shizuka thought:
"But don't you think the murderer is terribly brave? Look at the footprints outside the window! They're heading for this room in a single line without wavering at all".
"Hmph! What's that supposed to mean?" Kogorō asked.
"If I were the perpetrator, I would definitely be afraid of someone being inside, so I would only break in after observing this room for a while. From what I've heard, some people don't know what fear is," Shizuka said. "On one show I watched, there was a tosa dog named Rikio who was so strong that all the dogs were afraid of him. He ate bear meat since he was little, and his owner assumed it was a good thing. However, that dog was too brave and didn't know what fear was was. That dog was rather bold. That dog attacked as soon as he saw the bear, but courage was the dog's fate. It only took one blow, when the bear crushed the dog's skull under the bear's front paw, knocking the dog's head to the ground. This situation even reminds me a little of what I read About Sankebetsu higuma jiken, because the bear that made that attack did not hesitate to attack people in some situations (Sankebetsu brown bear incident. The following thing is taken from the wiki):
The Sankebetsu higuma jiken, also known as the Rokusensawa Bear Attack (六線沢熊害事件, Rokusensawa yūgai jiken), or the Tomamae Brown Bear Incident (苫前羆事件, Tomamae higuma jiken) was a series of bear attacks that occurred from the 9th to the 15th. December 1915 at the beginning of the Taishō era in the remote area of Hokkaido, Japan. Over the course of six snowy days, a male Ezo brown bear attacked several homes in one village, killing seven people and injuring three others. That incident has been called "the worst animal attack in Japanese history." The attacks only stopped when the hungry bear, which was so smart that it started tricking people, was shot dead. The background of that case was as follows:
At dawn in mid-November 1915, an Ezo brown bear appeared at the Ikeda family's house in Sankebetsu Rokusen-sawa, a small pioneer village in Teshio Prefecture, about 11 kilometers inland from Hokkaido's west coast. The family horse was loudly frightened by the surprise encounter, but the bear ran away after receiving only harvested corn (does harvested corn mean harvested corn?). Sankebetsu was recently inhabited at the time, so wild animals invading the village were common.
On November 20, 1915, the bear reappeared in the village. Worried about the horse's safety, the head of the Ikeda family called his second son, Kametarō, and two matagi from his own and from a neighboring village.
When the bear reappeared on November 30, they shot it but failed to kill it. The next morning, they followed the bear's tracks that led to Mount Onishika. Along the trail, the hunter found traces of blood, but a blizzard forced them to turn back and return to the village. The bloodstains led the group to conclude that the bear, now injured, would no longer attack the settlements. However, they were wrong, and quite badly. The bear continued its attacks on Sankebetsu.
December attacks
December 9: The Ōta Family
On December 9, 1915, at 10:30 a.m., a giant brown bear appeared at the Ōta family's home. In the house were the farmer's wife, Abe Mayu, and Mayu's baby, Hasumi Mikio. Mikio was bitten on the head and killed. Mayu fought the bear, apparently by throwing firewood at the bear, and tried to escape from the house. He was overtaken, knocked down, and dragged into the Sankebetsu Imperial Forest. According to contemporary descriptions, the scene resembled a slaughterhouse with pools of blood on the floor.
December 10 Search
Early in the morning, Saitō Ishigorō and Miyoke Yasutarō left the village to run errands. In the meantime, a search party of thirty men was organized to capture the brown bear, and to find Mayu's remains. When that search party entered the forest no more than 150 meters (160 yards) away, that search party met the bear. Five men shot, but only one managed to hit the bear. The enraged animal retreated into the forest, and the men escaped injury. After the bear had escaped, the hunters searched the area and found dried blood in the snow at the base of a Sakhalin spruce. Under the snow was Mayu's body, with only the head and parts of the legs left. The bear had hidden Mayu's body in the snow in an attempt to protect it, and to hide it from scavengers: proof that it was this brown bear in the attack.
Back to Ōta's place
The villagers believed that once the bear had tasted human flesh, its return to the settlement would be guaranteed. The villagers gathered at the Ōta family home with guns. Around 20:00 that night the bear reappeared in the village. Although the villagers had been waiting for the bear to return, they were still panicking about it. One man managed to shoot at the bear. When a group of 50 guards reached the 300-meter (330-yard) end of the neighboring Miyoke house, the bear had disappeared into the forest. The group regrouped and headed downstream following the bear's trail.
Miyouke's family
When Miyouke's family first got the news of the Ōta family's attack, the women and children living in the village sought safety outside of the guards' patrols. The guards were eating when news of the bear's return to Ōta's farm reached them, and they marched away. The bear that escaped death in the Ōta house now escaped to Miyouke's homestead.
Yayo, Miyouke Yasutarō's wife, prepared a late meal while carrying her fourth son, Umekichi, on her back. He heard a rumble outside, but before he could investigate, that bear broke into their house through the window of the house, and entered the house. The cooking pot on the fire fell over, extinguishing the flames, and in the panic, the oil lamp went out, leaving the house in darkness. Yayo tried to run from the house, but her other son, Yūjirō, grabbed her legs, tripping her as she ran. The bear attacked him, and Puri Umekichi.
Odo had stayed in the house as the only bodyguard. When he ran to the door, the bear released the mother and the child to chase after Odo. Yayo then fled with her children. Odo tried to hide behind the furniture but was clawed from the back. The bear then mauled Kinzō, the third son of the Miyouke family, and Haruyoshi, the fourth son of the Saitō family, killing them, and Puri Iwao, the third son of the Saitō family. The next target was Take, Saitō Ishigorō's pregnant wife. He too was attacked and killed and eaten. In later testimony, the villagers heard Take begging the bear not to touch his belly, but to eat his head instead.
The rangers who had tracked the bear downstream realized they weren't actually on it. As they hurried back to the settlement, they were met by a seriously injured Yayo, who broke the news of the attack on the Miyouke family's house. The group ran there to save the survivors. When they arrived, the house was dark, but the sounds of the attack could still be heard. Believing that the bear had been killed, all the guards inside suggested setting the house on fire. Yayo denied this, hoping that some of the children would still be alive.
The guards were divided into two groups: one guard consisting of ten men would guard the door of the house, while the other group went to the back of the house. After receiving the signal, the group behind raised the club shouting and rattling their weapons. As expected, the bear appeared at the front door of the house. The men there had huddled together at the end of the line of fire suppressed by a guard whose own rifle misfired. Amid the general confusion, and the danger of crossfire, the bear fled into the night. They entered the house, and saw torches made of birch branches bearing the consequences of the attack.
Rikizō, and Hisano, the first son and daughter of the same relatives, were injured but survived. The villagers gathered at the school, and the seriously injured were accommodated in the Tsuji family's house near the river. After the event, only Russian and Japanese war veterans remained at their posts.
Yamamoto Heikichi and "Kesagake"
Meanwhile, Saitō Ishigorō, unaware of his family's fate, made a report to the authorities and the district police before returning to Tomakomi, staying at a local hotel.
Miyouke Yasutarō had heard that a local man named Yamamoto Heikichi was a professional bear hunter, so visited his house. Yamamoto was certain that the bear was the dreaded man-eater, which he nicknamed "Kesagake" (袈懸裟け) or "Slash from Shoulder", a back-to-chest white pattern that had previously been blamed for robbery and the deaths of three women in a neighboring village, but by now he was pawned his gun to get money to buy alcohol, and refused Miyoke's plea for help. Unable to return home, Yasutarō stayed in Onishika (now Obira).
December 11
On December 11, Miyoke Yasutarō and Saitō Ishigorō returned to Sankebetsu. Noticing the villagers who had gathered at the branch school, they pieced together the story of the crush. A group of men including Miyoke and Saitō were formed to kill the bear. Believing the bear would reappear, they decided to wait for the bear at Miyoke's apartment, but the night passed without an attack.
December 12
News of the bear's appearance in Sankebetsu reached the Hokkaido government office, and a sniper team was formed under the leadership of the Hoboro (now Haboro City) branch police station. Weapons and volunteers for the team were collected from nearby towns, and after receiving permission from the Teishitsu Rinya kyoku ("Imperial Forestry Agency", now Rin'ya chō), the team left for Sankebetsu that evening. Chief Inspector Suga, the branch commissioner, went up to Rokusen-sawa with the intention of looking at the Miyoke family's house, and assessing the situation of the sniper team, and met everyone who came up from the mountain pass.
The brown bear did not appear on December 12th.
It was decided that the bear would probably try to retrieve the bodies of those it had killed, but there were no remains in the Miyoke family's house. Therefore, a new plan was proposed: try to lure the bear out with the victim's body. The plan was widely condemned, especially by the Ōta, Saitō, and Miyoke families, but it was decided that it was the best plan for the village's future.
During the day, the strategy was implemented. A sniper team of six (which now reluctantly included Yamamoto Heikichi) waited inside the house, but the bear stopped, appeared to check the inside of the house, and then returned to the forest. The bear did not appear again that night, so the plan ended in failure.
December 13
At dawn, the search party discovered that the Ōta family's house had been ransacked. The bear had eaten the people's winter food stores. and robbed houses. The bear had damaged at least eight houses, but so far no one has found it. Police captain Suga motivates the men by cheering from the village outside. As there were now 60 armed men, it was decided that they should hunt in the surrounding mountains.
Kesagake now seemed to lack caution, and stretched its territory downstream. Suga understood the growing risk of the situation. He made an ice bridge as a line of defense, and then organized snipers and guards.
A sniper on the bridge that night thought he saw something in the shadows of the stumps on the opposite bank. Upon receiving this information, Suga thought that it might be the man's shadow. When he spoke to it, however, he received no response, and ordered the snipers to open fire. At that moment, a shadow, apparently a bear, disappeared into the forest. They were disappointed because they did not succeed in killing the bear, but the captain thought he heard some kind of answer from it.
December 14
The next morning, the group explored the opposite shore, and found a bear's footprint and blood there. As Kesagake was again wounded, and the approaching blizzards threatened to cover the tracks, it was decided that this was the most critical opportunity to hunt, and kill the bear. Yamamoto, who I said earlier, and guide Ikeda Kamejirō immediately went after the bear. Yamamoto decided to track the bear with a team of two because it would be faster than a larger team.
Yamamoto sensed Kesagake's behavior and managed to track him down. He noticed the bear resting near a Japanese oak tree. Approaching within 20 meters of the bear, he opened fire. The first shot hit the bear in the heart, and the second in the head, mortally wounding the animal.
The bear was unique in its measurements: 340 kg (750 lb) and 2.7 m (8.9 ft) tall, with dark brown and golden fur, an unusually large head compared to its body, and an estimated adult age of about 7–8 years. 7] An autopsy was performed on the bear, during which parts of its victims were found in its stomach. It is said that the villagers canned, boiled, and ate it as revenge for the swallowed victims. Although the bear's skull and part of the fur were preserved at the time, they were later lost.
The latter
Immediately after the shooting, a huge rainstorm hit the Rumoi and Soya areas day after day, and the residents called it the "Brown Bear Storm" (羆嵐, Higuma Arashi), which has become the title of several novels and movies about the event.
Yayo, who received head wounds in the attack, fully recovered, but Miyoke Umekichi, who was bitten by a bear while the child in question was being carried on his mother's back in those days, died of his injuries less than three years later. Odo recovered from his injury and returned to work, but the next spring he fell into a river and died.
Some people began to believe that the bear was a demon. After the attack, most of Rokusen-sawa's villagers soon left, and it quickly became a ghost town until 1946, when six families from Osaka came to settle in the area for post-war revitalization. The place was renovated in 1990.
Ōkawa Haruyoshi, who was six years old at the time of the incident and the son of Sankebetsu village mayor Ōkawa Yosakichi, grew up to be a prolific bear hunter. He vowed to kill ten bears for every victim of the attack. By the time he was 62, he had killed 102 bears. He then retired and on July 5, 1977, built the "Bear Harm Cenotaph" (熊害慰霊碑, Yūgai Ireihi), a shrine where people can pray for dead villagers.
On May 6, 1980, Ōkawa Takayoshi, Haruyoshi's eldest son, hunted a 500 kg male bear, nicknamed the "Tarō of the North Sea" (北海太郎) and Hokkai郎, after eight years of chasing. filled with specimens in the Tomamae local museum.
Records
Kimura Moritake, an agricultural and forestry technical director who had been working at the Asahikawa Kotanbetsu District Forestry Office since 1961, began to investigate the case in order to make a permanent record of it. Forty-six years had already passed, and little official material remained, so Kimura tracked down the people who lived in Sankebetsu at the time, and carefully recorded their stories. It was not possible to get a complete and accurate picture of the events because many of the villagers had already died, and most of the survivors were not cooperative due to the gruesome nature of the attack. Kimura's account of the attack was republished in 1980, and published in 1994 as Kyōdō Bunkasha as "Devil's Valley" (慟哭の谷, Dōkoku no Tani).
Analysis
People believed that the attack was caused by the bear waking up early in winter hibernation due to hunger: in Japan, the term "animal without a hole" (穴持たず, Anamotazu) refers to a failed hibernation. This would have led to increased brutality. However, the bear did not actually attack the humans until one of them shot it.
Since the end of the Edo period, pioneers had deforested the area, using firewood to process herring as fertilizer, and they reclaimed the inland area from the beginning of the Meiji period. The loss of forests and the increase in settlements brought people and bears closer. Lack of natural prey from deforestation, and human destruction is a common reason for wild animals such as brown bears (or leopards, and tigers in India) to seek food near human settlements".
The others were surprised by what they heard.
"Dad, does that mean?" Ran asked.
"Scraping the safe, tying up Oyama-san was a disguise to make it seem like money was the motive", Kogorō said, then looked at the doctors. "The murderer knew that the victim would be watching TV alone during that time. In other words, that means the murderer is one of the four of you!"
"Yes. It has to be. Kogorō is no longer drunk, so he won't be making any drunken assumptions anymore", thought Shizuka.
The doctors were nervous about what they heard.
"I don't believe it!" Kaori shouted.
"Are you serious?" Tobita asked.
"I'm asking each of you to tell me your alibis between 10:30 and 10 p.m.", Kogorō said.
"I went to the convenience store", Kaori said, taking a shopping list out of her pocket. "I left at 9:00 am and came back around 9:50 pm. This is the shopping list that everyone made before I left. The only things I couldn't buy were salad and ice cream, both of which were sold out".
"But if you drove fast, you could have gotten back sooner", Kogorō said.
"It takes at least 40 minutes round trip!" Kaori shouted. "If you don't believe me, try it yourself by driving my car!"
"I went night skiing," Tobita said. "Like him, the ski slopes are a 40 minute round trip drive".
"Do you have any proof?" Kogorō asked.
"Yes, I have", Tobita took out of his pocket a light blue, and a blue ski card (receipt certificate) with numbers. "This is a night ski lift ticket dated today. See? It even has the time written on it".
"I was with Ran-chan, and Irene-chan cleaning up and washing the dishes", Ezumi said.
"He's telling the truth, dad", Ran said. "He only left for two or three minutes to take out the trash".
"I was in the bath at 9 after 10", Tomoyasu said, scratching the back of his head with his left hand.
"Besides Kanazawa-san, one other person has a variable alibi", Shizuka mused as she sat on the couch. Then he saw a bloody lighter on the couch, and took it out of his pocket with a handkerchief, looking at it. "B-Bloodstains?! Huh? Why isn't there blood on the couch? So someone put it here after the blood dried? Wait! Could that be the bloody tablecloth".
Shizuka stood up, bent down in front of the tablecloth on the floor, and placed the lighter in the blood-edged square pattern on the tablecloth, which was the same size as the lighter Shizuka had just found.
"It fits that spot perfectly", Shizuka thought. "So this is where this lighter used to be. Is this it? That's right! Oyama-san said this today:
"I just wanted a horse for those door knockers, but you don't always get what you want". He said that when Ran and I told Oyama-san our names. Now I get it! By "horse" the victim meant that horse! So this is Oyama-san dying after all! The meaning of Oyama-san being on his knees, the mystery of the bloody lighter on the sofa, so everything makes sense! Just like this death note says the murderer can only be that person!"
Shizuka put the lighter back on the sofa, then walked to stand behind the sofa:
"Mōri-san, there is something strange on that sofa".
"What's weird?" Kogorō asked looking at Shizuka.
Shizuka touched Kogorō's neck with her stun ring, and sat Kogorō down in a nearby armchair, and sat herself on the floor behind the back of that armchair.
"What's wrong, dad?" Ran asked.
"I have it all figured out!" Shizuka mimicked Kogorō's language. "Murderer. I just solved the murderer that killed Oyama-san!"
The doctors were nervous about what they heard.
"First, Tobita-san said he went night skiing", Shizuka said, causing Tobita to be surprised. "He wouldn't come up with a story that's so easy to check. Next is Ezumi-san. You only left Ran, and Irene visible for a minute or three. It would have been impossible to kill Oyama-san in that time. That leaves two people without an alibi, and they're Kazawa-san, and Nakahara-san".
Kazawa was surprised.
"Wait! I bought all the things that were on the list", Kaori said, showing her list again.
"Then how much did they cost?" Shizuka asked.
"I do not remember!" Kaori said.
"No, it's not that you don't remember, you just don't know", Shizuka said. "It's because you bought a large number of different snacks beforehand".
"Huh?!" Kaori was surprised.
"You brought all that this afternoon when you went to buy the ingredients for the hor pot I had for dinner", Shizuka said. "Before the crime, you took everyone's orders and pretended to drive away. Then you parked the car a short distance from the villa, and took everything that was on the list from there. By doing this, you created an alibi for yourself to go and kill Oyama-san".
"Don't make things up like that without proof!" Kaori shouted.
"It is not an unwarranted accusation, for you also understood that there is still evidence in this room that proves you are the murderer!" Shizuka said. "Look at the table".
The others looked at the bloody table.
"The blood suddenly stops. Doesn't that make you think there was something there?" Shizuka asked.
"Tablecloth!" Kazawa looked at the tablecloth on the floor.
"Place it on the table so that the tablecloth and the blood stains on the table match", Shizuka said.
Kazawa and Tobita put the tablecloth on the table.
"It's the death note that Ooyama-san left behind", Shizuka said.
"What does this mean?" Kazawa asked.
"Remember that Oyama-san died sitting on his knees on the floor", Shizuka said. "It's not self-evident. All five of you have the same kanji as shogi pieces".
"Shogi?" Kazawa, Nezumi, and Tobita asked.
"Now that you mention it, Oyama-sensei always said that if he has a horse, he has everything", Ezumi said.
"That's right. Your names represent every shogi piece except the knight", Shizuka said. "Ran, take the lighter from the couch and put it on the table on the newly laid tablecloth".
"Okay", Ran took a handkerchief from the pocket of her skirt, and put it on the lighter on the sofa on the tablecloth, in the lower left corner of the table.
"The blood stains are only in one place on the lighter and the napkin sticks", Shizuka said.
"So it was earlier at this point", Ran said, then was surprised to remember something about shogi. "This is a rook piece!"
"That's right. That's the tower's starting position", Shizuka said. "In other words, this death message refers to a person who has the same kanji as the carriage. In other words, that death message means that Nakahara Kaori-san is the perpetrator!"
Kaori was angry, and couldn't say anything.
"But how did you know that before the tablecloth was put back on the table?" Kazawa asked.
"Please look closely at one spot on the tablecloth", Shizuka said. "Only at that point there is a long trail of blood. In other words, that space corresponds to the end of the table where there is blood".
"I see", Kazawa said after checking it out after walking to the other side of the table.
"The table, and the tablecloth must have gotten dirty by accident!" Kaori shouted.
"Then why did you move that tablecloth out of its proper place?" Shizuka asked which made Kaori surprised. "You were the one who moved the tablecloth, weren't you?"
"No! The tablecloth falling on the floor was caused by the fight between the murderer and Oyama-sensei!" Kaori shouted.
"It's not possible. The blood on the table will suddenly stop!" Shizuka said. "There is no blood on the couch where the lighter used to be. This proves that the tablecloth was moved after the blood had completely dried, and at the same time something happened that the lighter flew off the tablecloth onto the couch where it was just found. Otherwise saying, the murderer returned to the crime scene, and realized the death message after seeing it. Then that person moved the tablecloth off the table. Am I wrong, Nakahara Kaori-san?"
"Kaori", Ezumi said in disbelief when Kaori was unable to speak.
"The mistake you made was actually realizing the message after you shouted", Shizuka said. "One thing you said earlier, namely that the salad and the ice cream were sold out. It might be possible with the salad, but there's no way it's possible with the ice cream".
"That's enough!" Kaori shouted, and smiled. "That's right. I killed him!"
"Kaori, why did you kill him?" Ezumi asked. "You two got along so well!"
"Yes. I respect him, like a father", Kaori said. "And that's why I couldn't forgive him...and I especially couldn't forgive him for stealing my thesis!"
"Thesis? You mean then?" Kazawa asked.
"Are you talking about 'Development of genetic therapy for bowel cancer'?" Tobita asked.
"That's right! Oyama-sensei stole that job from me! Actually I did that job!" Kaori shouted. "Oyama-sensei stole from me the thesis that I put all my passion into for the past six years! I wrote this thesis thinking about my father who died".
"Ah!" Kazawa became nervous.
"My father died of colon cancer when I was young", Kaori said. "That was the reason I became a doctor. The reason I focused on that research was so that other people wouldn't have to go through what my father went through! But...But Oyama-sensei didn't just steal my thesis that I finally finished, for that man also told me thus...
"It's no use! No one would believe that this thesis is really yours! And when I publish that thesis, the scientific community is more likely to pay attention to it than to your words if you tried to prove that it's really yours . That would make your dead dad so happy! Ha ha!"
That's when I came up with this plan. Because Oyama-sensei mocked my father's memory, I decided to punch holes in Oyama-sensei's lungs, and make him die one of the most painful deaths possible!"
The others look at Kaori in shock.
"But I didn't even think that Oyama-sensei could come up with this death message in his painful, last minutes", Kaori said. "But you made one mistake, Mr. Detective. Actually, I assumed that someone would order a salad, and ice cream. The salad was actually sold out, but I brought the ice cream".
Shizuka looked at Kaori in surprise.
"Then why?" Ran asked.
"The ice cream melted in my car", Kaori said crying. "I put everything everyone ordered in the passenger seat and I thought:
"Okay, now I'll go kill Oyama-sensei". But suddenly I started thinking about my father, and I was lost in thought. So the ice cream melted because of the car heater...It's absurd! I was in my car with the ice cream I bought for Oyama-sensei! It's...it's absurd!"
(A couple of days later)
"Death messages. When the time comes, they can be in the most unexpected places. There are things that don't seem inappropriate, but if you change your perspective, it's a different matter. Sometimes it's hard to believe how badly a man-made theft can affect other people, and especially to people who have had something important stolen from them. It's made worse by the fact that those who stole the thing stolen from them show no remorse for their actions", Shizuka thought as she lay on her bed, finally falling asleep as the sun went down.