Another Note - The Los Angeles BB Murder Case

Page 2: Ryuzaki Pt. 5

How was she supposed to respond? In direct contrast to her wishes, she felt her expression softening, but with no attempt to probe her inner struggle, Ryuzaki continued.

"You're Nikkei(1), aren't you?"

"Nikkei...? My parents are both from Japan. My passport's American now, but I lived in Japan until after high school...

"So you must know this manga. Min Ayahana-sensei's legendary creation. I read every issue as it was serialized. Shiine is so adorable! I liked the anime just as much as the manga. Love and courage and hope—Holy Up!"(2)

"Ryuzaki, are you going to go on like this for a while? If so, I can wait in the other room..."

"Why would you do that when I'm talking to you?"

"Er, um... I mean, I liked Akazukin Chacha too. I watched the anime. I also experienced the love, courage, hope and Holy Up."

She longed to inform him exactly how little interest she had in his hobbies, but it was doubtful whether this private detective would be able to understand opinions directed at him from anywhere near common sense. As questionable as Ryuzaki himself.

Or was that overstating things?

"Good. We shall discuss the pleasures offered by the anime in detail on some other occasion, but for the moment, look here."

"Hunh..." Misora said, obediently looking at the volumes of Akazukin Chacha on the shelf.

"Notice anything?"

"Not really..."

It was just a bunch of comics. At most they could tell that Believe Bridesmaid was fluent in Japanese, and liked manga... but there were lots of people like that in America. Reading the original Japanese instead of a translated version was not terribly unusual, either. With the advent of Internet shopping, it had become extremely easy to obtain them.

Ryuzaki's dark-rimmed eyes were staring fixedly at her. Uncomfortable, Misora avoided his gaze, checking each volume individually. But even after she'd finished checking them out, she'd found no curious facts or anything like a clue.

"I don't see anything... something about one of these comics?"

"No."

"Hunh?" There was more than a hint of anger in her voice. She did not like being made fun of.

"No? What do you mean?"

"Not one of these," Ryuzaki said. "Something that should be here, but isn't. Misora, you're the one who figured this out—any messages from the killer are indicated by the absence of what should be here. You're the one who figured out that this must refer to the body of Believe Bridesmaid. I didn't think I would need to explain this to you—look closely, Misora. They aren't all here. Volumes four and nine are missing."

"Eh?"

"Akazukin Chacha ran for thirteen volumes. Not eleven."

Misora looked down at the books again, and the numbers went from one, two, and three to five, six, seven, and eight to ten. If Ryuzaki was right, and there were thirteen volumes in all, then two volumes were missing—volumes four and nine.

"Hmm... right. But... Ryuzaki, so what? You mean the killer took those two volumes with him? It's certainly a possibility, but it seems equally likely they were missing in the first place. Maybe he planned to pick them up soon. Not everyone reads manga in order, you know. I mean, he seems to have stopped halfway through the Dickwood series, up here..."

"Impossible," Ryuzaki said, firmly "No one on earth would ever skip two volumes in the middle of Akazukin Chacha. I am absolutely sure this fact would pass muster in court."

Had this man ever been in a court?

"Or at least, if the members of the jury knew much about Japanese comics."

"What a biased jury."

"The killer has obviously taken them with him," Ryuzaki said, blatantly ignoring her.

Misora wasn't about to let this pass. Her feet were firmly planted on more realistic ground.

"But you have no proof of that at all, Ryuzaki. It's equally possible he just loaned them to a friend."

"Akazukin Chacha?! You wouldn't even loan it to your parents! You'd tell them to buy their own! The only possible explanation is that the killer took them away!" Ryuzaki insisted, quite forcefully.

He didn't stop there.

"Furthermore, no one on earth would ever want to read only volumes four and nine—I'd bet my jam on it!"

"If you're referring to the jam you were eating earlier, a jar of that only goes for around five bucks."

Min Ayahana-sensei would be disappointed.

"So it follows, Misora, that when the killer removed those two volumes from the room he had some other, completely unrelated reason for doing so."

Since it is true that those two volumes are missing, ignoring logic and possibility for the moment and following along with this hypothetical... "it's still strange, isn't it? I mean, Ryuzaki, this bookshelf..." Was packed full. So tightly that removing a book from it had been rather difficult. If he had really removed two volumes of manga, then there should be that much of a gap... or wait...

"Ryuzaki. Do you know how many pages there are in volumes four and nine of Akazukin Chacha?"

"I do. 192 pages and 184 pages."

She had not actually expected him to know the answer.. .but 192 plus 184 was 376 pages. Misora glanced along the shelf, looking over the fifty-seven books for a volume the same thickness as 376 pages of manga. It did not take long. There was only one book that thick on this shelf—Insufficient Relaxation by Permit Winter.

When she took it off the shelf it did, indeed, turn out to be exactly 376 pages.

Hopefully Misora flipped through the pages, but she didn't see anything particularly interesting.

"What is it, Misora?"

"Oh... I was wondering if the killer had put a hook on the shelf to replace the two he took off and if that hook was the real message."

(1) | Japanese emigrants and their descent

(2) | The expression "Love and courage and hope—Holy Up!" is used by the main character of the anime Akazukin Chacha when she transform herself in Magical Princess Holy Up.