Holmes of Kyoto: Volume 5 (eBook)

Mai Mochizuki (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021
1 Seiten
J-Novel Heart (Verlag)
978-1-7183-7656-4 (ISBN)

Infos

It's been a year since Aoi started working at Kura, and now spring break is full of excitement: a hot springs trip with Kiyotaka and Akihito, a book club party, and more! But at the same time, she is struggling to decide whether to tell Kiyotaka how she feels about him. One day, an editor shows up at Kura under the pretense of doing an interview for a magazine. Then, in the middle of the night, the master forger Ensho steals a Shino tea bowl from right under Kiyotaka's nose. The next morning a written challenge from Ensho arrives-the mysteries continue in Volume 5 of Holmes in Kyoto!

Textauszug

Chapter 2: A Book Club Party

1

At the end of March, when we’d just barely returned from Kinosaki, the card arrived at Teramachi-Sanjo’s antique store Kura.

“Mail for you,” said the familiar postman as he handed me a stack of letters. I bowed, took the mail, and turned around to look at Holmes, who was sitting behind the counter.

“There seems to be a lot of mail today, Holmes,” I said.

“Thanks for getting that,” he replied. “I expect most of it to be direct mail.” He put down the local newspaper he was reading and smiled.

“Oh, you’re right.” Brochures from other art and antiques businesses, restaurant coupons, beauty salon ads... I checked them one by one as I put them on the counter, and stopped upon seeing a unique card. “What’s this...?”

Dear Kiyotaka Yagashira, the Holmes of Kyoto,

As previously mentioned, you are cordially invited to the 221st Assembly, to be held on April 1st at 3 p.m. The location is the place where he once died. That is your hint. However, you may arrive on any vehicle of your choice.

If you truly cannot figure it out, please contact me. However, at that point, you shall renounce the name of Holmes.

From S.H.

In a corner of the card was a symbol—the side profile of Sherlock Holmes with a pipe in his mouth.

“Um...” I stared at the card, dumbfounded.

Holmes reached out to take it. After reading it, he chuckled and said, “Ah, the usual.”

“Who’s S.H.? D-Do they have something to do with Sherlock Holmes?”

“Yes, I suppose you could say so. This person’s name is Hiroshi Sugiura.”

“H-Hiroshi Sugiura? Wouldn’t his initials be H.S., then?”

“Yes, but he uses S.H. because he wants to have the same initials as Sherlock Holmes.”

“O-Oh.”

“By the way, my initials are K.Y., but I’d much rather go by Y.K.” K.Y. is a common abbreviation for kuuki yomenai—someone who can’t take a hint.

“I don’t blame you,” I said. But in Holmes’s case, you could say he’s kuuki yomisugiru—someone who notices too many hints. “So what’s this mysterious card about?” The line about vehicles struck me as odd.

“It’s an invitation to a party held by the West Japan Sherlock Holmes Club, or the WJSHC for short. Hiroshi ‘S.H.’ Sugiura is the organizer this time.” Holmes smiled.

“The West Japan Sherlock Holmes Club...?”

“There’s a gathering called the Japan Sherlock Holmes Club for lovers and researchers of Sherlock Holmes—in other words, Sherlockians. The WJSHC is a small-scale offshoot of that.”

“Do you belong to that club, Holmes?” I didn’t even know such a thing existed.

“Yes, although I don’t attend their meetings. I’m thinking of going this time, though, since it’s a commemorative one.” Holmes took out an atlas, flipped through the pages, and nodded. “All right.”

“Um, do you know what the location is?”

“It’s likely in Murasakino Ueno-cho.”

“H-Huh? How do you know that?” I looked at the text on the card.

“Do you know of the place where Sherlock Holmes once apparently died?”

“Um...” I looked up at the ceiling and recalled a drawing of Holmes and Professor Moriarty arguing. “I-It was a waterfall, right? He fell in with Professor Moriarty, or something like that.”

“Correct, it was Reichenbach Falls. The falls are located in Switzerland, at the coordinates 46 North, 8 East. The line, ‘However, you may arrive on any vehicle of your choice’ indicates that the hint is referencing a vehicle, in which case the city bus route 46 comes to mind. Starting from the north, the eighth stop on the route is Murasakino Ueno-cho.”

“O-Oh.”

“Hiroshi Sugiura, the organizer, likes these kinds of riddles and uses them whenever he can,” Holmes said, returning the atlas to the bookshelf.

“I see.” This party sounds kind of interesting. I smiled.

Holmes turned around and asked, “Would you like to come with me, Aoi?”

“Huh? Can I?”

“Of course.”

“Th-Then yes, I’d like to. Is it really okay, though? I don’t know much about Sherlock Holmes.”

“Don’t worry, the members are always saying that everyone is welcome. Membership levels have been dropping over the years, you see. They’re always open to visitors who are new to the fandom.”

“Okay then, I’ll go.”

And so, I was to attend the WJSHC’s commemorative party.

2

On April 1st, Holmes and I headed for Murasakino Ueno-cho by car. We were driving north on Horikawa Street. To our left, I saw a stone torii gate with a pentagram in the middle.

“Oh, that’s Seimei Shrine!” I exclaimed, staring out the window. The pentagram was a symbol of Abe no Seimei, a famous diviner.

“Do you like Seimei Shrine?” Holmes asked.

I backed away from the window and said, “I’m just curious about it because it’s so famous. It’s smaller than I expected, though.”

“It is, and in the past, it had a more inconspicuous atmosphere. More people started visiting it during the divination fad, so the shrine got polished up. Nowadays it’s full of young girls.”

“That’s the power of trends, huh?” I looked ahead at the street.

“We don’t have time to stop by Seimei Shrine today, but we can visit another time, if you’d like.”

Holmes is so nice, offering since he knows I’m interested. He’s busy with university and the store, though, so I’d feel bad making him take me there.

“It’s okay, I’ll go with Kaori,” I said.

“Oh...” he said quietly, leaving it at that.

I stared absentmindedly at the road while listening to the music playing in the car. “Horikawa is a big street, huh?”

“Yes, although it’s only big by Kyoto standards.”

“You’re right. Big streets are rare in Kyoto. Is Oike Street the biggest one?”

“No, I think Gojo Street is wider.”

“I see.” I looked at Holmes. “Is the gathering going to be at a meeting hall?” I didn’t know much about Murasakino. Are there any meeting places there?

“No.” He shook his head. “Usually they rent a hotel or an event hall, but one of the members has a large estate in Murasakino, so they’re using that this time. Her name is Taeko Mamiya, and she’s a widow in her sixties. We call her ‘Madam’—”

“The Holmes Club has a member in her sixties?” I interrupted. I thought for sure it’d be people around Holmes’s age—in other words, students.

“Yes, the members span a wide range of ages.” He smiled cheerfully.

“I-I see.”

“That said, apparently Madam became a Sherlock Holmes fan because of her housekeeper, a woman in her forties named Chie Nishizawa. Chie herself has a modern mindset and prefers to be called the ‘Mamiya butler’ rather than a maid. She was the one who joined the Holmes Club first. Madam’s legs are weak, so she can’t go outside much. Chie recommended Holmes books and movies to pass the time, and Madam became an avid fan. Today’s commemorative meeting will be held at Madam’s house.”

“Is it big enough for a gathering?”

“I’ve never gone there, so I don’t know. According to Sugiura, it’s quite stately.”

“I see.” Come to think of it, ever since I started working at Kura, I’ve been visiting a lot of fancy houses. There was the Yagashira estate in Higashiyama, the Takamiya estate in Okazaki, the Yanagihara estate in Arashiyama, and the Saito estate in Takagamine. They might not surprise me anymore, I thought as I looked out the window.

But when I saw the Mamiya estate in Murasakino, I was surprised. It was a Victorian-style house that reminded me of the manor houses in foreign movies. Surrounding it was a true English garden, with a white gazebo in the middle. Spring flowers welcomed guests while also being a pretty sight for passersby.

By now, I’ve seen many types of houses: the Yagashira stone mansion, the Takamiya estate that resembled an old castle, Yanagihara’s traditional Japanese residence, and Saito’s hybrid Japanese-Western house. Mamiya’s has yet another different aesthetic. If a little girl were to walk past here, I’m sure she’d think she was in a fairy tale.

“I-It’s beautiful.” Even I’m spellbound, and I’m not a little girl.

“I hear that the people in the neighborhood call this the ‘Rose Manor.’ They don’t seem to be blooming this early in the year, though. Oh, there are cherry blossoms too. How lovely,” Holmes said as he got out of the car, impressed by the beautiful cherry blossoms behind the gazebo. We admired the manor from afar.

“Holmes,” came a man’s voice from behind us. I turned around and saw a man wearing a suit. He looked to be in his mid-thirties, and he had a friendly smile on his face.

“Good to see you again, Sugiura,” Holmes replied.

“It’s been what, two years? You finally turned up.” The man gave Holmes a...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 27.5.2021
• Reihe/Serie: Holmes of Kyoto
• Reihe/Serie: Holmes of Kyoto
• Übersetzer: Minna Lin
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Krimi / Thriller / Horror ► Krimi / Thriller
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-7656-1 / 1718376561
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-7656-4 / 9781718376564