- I found Enbi after entering a tunnel on a private road. I picked her up because I thought she might have run into some trouble.
- I heard a rumbling behind me. The tunnel collapsed, isolating us.
- No cellphone signal.
- Thereâs a mansion on the slope of the mountain. The two of us are headed there in the hopes of finding a landline phone.
Hayabusa: âI glossed over it as âpicked her upâ, but as soon as I called out, a brat with eyes like rusted blades suddenly hit me on the side of the head. And with the bottom of a gigantic flashlight!â
Enbi: âO-oh, câmon. When a fragile little girl is walking along a mountain road and a strange adult calls out to her from a car, of course her self-defense instincts are going to kick in! Really, detective, you shouldâve just shown me your police badge right away.â
Hayabusa: âAnd I also glossed over it, but the fact the Mystery Freak was walking on the mountain road alone is a pretty important point.â
Enbi: âWhat about you, detective? Were you there for work? Or just out for a drive?â
5-6 PM
Hayabusaâs Notes:
- A storm blew up on the way to the mansion.
- Enbi and I arrived at the mansion.
- When we knocked on the gate, a mysterious butler with a bandaged face answered.
- We were welcomed in and found an insane interior with every floor, wall, and ceiling except for the exterior walls and roof made from transparent reinforced glass.
Enbiâs Memos:
- The mysterious butler (ha ha) and Enbi-chan know each other.
- The detective seemed to think he could use their phone. â But the black landline phone(!) isnât working either.
- The mansionâs wife, Hoshimi Akua, is doing some remodeling even though the butler and the maid (sparkle sparkle) are trying to stop her. She was even moving the paulownia dresser. (âSheâs surprisingly strong.)
Hayabusa: âYâknow⊠You had a tensely sour look on your face the entire time back then, but your memos are pretty cute.â
Enbi: âWell, of course! Enbi-chan is cute from head to toe! Ah, whatâs that sigh for, detective!?â
Hayabusa: âAnd that was how we were let inside the mansion.â
Enbi: âMhh! A-anyway, thatâs the rumored Glass House. By the way, this is how it was introduced on the builderâs website.â
âA Record of Our Officeâs Past Jobs (with permission from the owners, of course)â
The Natsukawa Construction Planning Office does more than just create a living space. We will meet our customerâs needs by creating custom works of spatial art that fit your personality and satisfy your heart.
When seen from outside, the Glass House high in the mountains of Western Tokyo is beautiful, but might not seem like anything special. But with the exception of the roof, external walls, and ground floor, every interior wall, floor, and ceiling are made of glass. This strange design gave physical form to our customerâs family rules and the building was thoroughly designed to satisfy that desire without neglecting the fundamentals.
Enbi: âAs you can see from the fact that I was talking with the butler like normal, I had already been staying at the mansion. In other words, I wasnât lost or stranded; I was out exploring.â
Hayabusa: âThere are also a few explanations of the mansionâs layout, but that honestly doesnât matter.â
Enbi: âYeah, it wasnât a case that requires knowing the layout to solve.â
Hayabusa: âAnd the wifeâs remodeling will be more important later.â
Enbi: âUm, also note that the storm came after the tunnel collapse. In other words, it didnât collapse due to the storm.â
6-6:30 PM
Hayabusaâs Notes:
- I was introduced to the mansionâs family and guests in the living room.
- Hoshimi Shuuren: 56. Male. Owner of the Glass House and a fortune teller that specializes in well-off customers.
- Hoshimi Akua: 36. Female. Shuurenâs wife. Technically a housewife, but the housework is left to the butler and maid.
- Hoshimi Dounyuu: 27. Male. Son of the Hoshimi family and another fortune teller.
- Hoshimi Kanpa: 20. Female. Daughter of the Hoshimi family and another fortune teller. Must have bad legs because she is confined to a wheelchair.
- Kariba Toga: 40. Male. The Glass Houseâs butler. Also the cook.
- Matsushima Ren: 22. Female. The Glass Houseâs maid.
- Yatsui Toshi: 72. Male. Honorary President who has left active management of the Yatsui General Trading Company.
- Matsushima Ryou: 17. Female. High school girl. Set to be the next head of Matsushima Construction, a major general contractor.
- Hatsutomo Naru: 19. Female. College girl. Illegitimate child of the president and representative director of the Hatsutomo Shinkin Bank, a major financial institution.
- Toyokawa Ryuu: 25. Male. Secretary of the president of Toyokawa Automobiles, an international car manufacturer.
Enbi: âThereâs so much there itâll make you dizzy, but youâll be fine if you remember these three things:
â1. Thereâs a family of fortune tellers.
â2. People connected to major corporations are butting heads with them.
â3. The people can be divided into those from inside the mansion and those from outside.â
Hayabusa: âWell, there are also some obvious oddities. Like the age of the wife versus the age of the kids, whether someone would really come out and call themselves an illegitimate child, and why a member of the main family would be a secretary.â
6:40 PM
Hayabusaâs Notes:
- During the introductions, I learned Enbiâs family name is Hishigami.
Enbiâs Memos:
- A stir ran through the room when Uchimaku Hayabusa said he was a police detective. Hoshimi Dounyuu was the most obviously nervous.
Enbi: âThis was pretty awful too. You kept calling me a brat, but you didnât even know my name.â
Hayabusa: âIâll admit it was a shock. The Hishigami Group is a giant corporation with ads running everywhere on TV. They have so many affiliated companies the list just goes on and on. Although I could see why such a big name would be gathered with the others.â
âHishigami Group Business Concept Commercial (120-second single-sponsored ad that airs nationwide Mondayâs at nine)â
Many small water caltrops join together into a single large god.1
That is the Hishigami Group which is an indispensable part of your life.
Our Groupâs history dates back to the end of the Edo era. Our founder was the first to grasp the changes brought by the fall of the shogunate and the Meiji Restoration and began searching for a standard to be used in the coming age of interpretation.
The conglomerate was broken up after the two World Wars we survived and was reborn as a group of corporations.
We currently include 58 companies in 9 divisions and have more than 200,000 employees in all. The Hishigami Group is always opening new frontiers. Our novel and bold advances and our reliable and detailed care have established us in an excellent position internationally.
Enbi: âKeh.â
Hayabusa: âOh, câmon.â
Enbi: âWhat? Nothing good can come from a monstrous company that calls itself a god!â
Hayabusa: âAnd I guess Iâve got to deal with that eventually.â
Enbi: âDonât bother! In fact, I get the feeling youâd end up as a collector of the Hishigami Women like me and my sister or end up charging down the path of an ultra-high powered harem! I donât even want to think about a summoner detective who can call in Yume, Kuji, or Ama with his cellphone!â
Hayabusa: âWell, that can wait.â
Enbi: âLetâs get back on topic with Hoshimi Dounyuuâs suspicious behavior. He was obsessed with hunting, so he had a ton of crossbows in his room. They ranged from a giant one too big to pull the bowstring back since it didnât use pulleys and a pistol-style one that would fit in a camera bag. He was nervous because he thought the detective might get after him for shooting empty cans in the mountain. He was of course innocent and was worried over nothing. You could say he had an imagined crime, confusingly enough.â
Hayabusa: âSo you had been walking along the mountain road to investigate that, right?â
Enbi: âI was looking for evidence of a crossbow actually being used. With a planned murder, the culprit would have practiced beforehand.â
Hayabusa: âThose really are some dangerous toys, though. And to be honest, I hadnât thought this would turn into some big case. With the walls, floors, and ceilings transparent, you couldnât hide anything and you couldnât secretly plan out a murder even if you had a weaponâŠor so I thought.â
6:45 PM
Hayabusaâs Notes:
- Yatsui Toshi and Toyokawa Ryuu seemed mistaken about something and snapped at me.
- There seems to be some kind of argument between the fortune teller family and the people connected to major corporations.
- The butler Kariba Toga and the maid Matsushima Ren know nothing about the fortune telling and canât follow the conversation.
- Toyokawa Ryuu keeps one hand in his pocket.
Enbiâs Memos:
- A threatening letter had arrived for Hoshimi Shuuren. The corporation side thinks Shuuren called the detective to protect himself and theyâre demanding he admit to it. (Such a tense atmosphere.)
Hayabusa: âThatâs the first Iâve heard of a threatening letter.â
Enbi: âWell, of course he wouldnât say anything. Heâs a fortune teller who specializes in politicians and major corporations. It would hurt his image if he couldnât even predict an assassin rushing at him with a knife.â
Hayabusa: âThat questionable fortune telling is a problem too.â
âSpecial Tabloid Article on the Lawsuit Rulingâ
Over the holiday, a black luxury car secretly drove deep into the mountains of Western Tokyo. The car looked horribly out of place deep within the thick woods, but it was carrying Mr. A, a self-proclaimed âexpertâ who is well-known in the financial world.
When people think of fortune telling, they usually think of magazines and the morning talk shows, but what if there was a special service for VIPs?
This happened on the day before the infamous mistaken speculation conflict known as the Black Minutes and the miserable result of that program sale goes without saying.
What if fortune telling had been involved in that decision?
It would seem modern international incidents come from outside the Restaurants. Of course, theyâre a problem no matter where they come from.
Enbi: âBasically, they created believers here and there in the political and financial worlds and controlled their clientsâ actions with the results of their fortune telling. That let them manipulate stock prices all they wanted, so Madoka would probably faint if she heard about it.â
Hayabusa: âWhatâs the legality of that? Wouldnât that be insider trading or spreading rumors?â
Enbi: âThe important point is they were only giving fortunes, not stock information. The countryâs rules say we canât interfere with peopleâs religious or ideological beliefs.â
Hayabusa: âAnd then the corporation group stormed in, telling them to give it a rest. Thatâs hardly surprising since they were all working hard and then someone showed up and completely changed the GDP and international balance of payments just by muttering some mumbo jumbo over a crystal ball. Weâre talking about a world that can go beyond billions and reach trillions!â
Enbi: âBy the way, Enbi-chan had no interest in the Group created by the Hishigami Men. I had just slipped in because I was interested in the threatening letter.â
6:45 PM
Hayabusaâs Notes:
- Yatsui Toshi threw an ash tray in anger, but it missed its target and flew toward Enbi.
- I caught it in one hand.
Enbiâs Memos:
- Stop that! Iâm gonna fall in love! (But this is a date to remember! Memo memo.)
Hayabusa: ââŠHold on.â
Enbi: âWhat?â
Hayabusa: âDidnât you fall for me a little easily there!?â
Enbi: âSh-shut up! Donât underestimate a lonely girl whose scarred heart is starving for some love! Grr, grr!!â
Notes
1. â Hishigami literally means Walter Caltrop God.
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