"Yes, here we are. This is my house."
"I see… it"s huge."

Yuzuki"s house, or rather the width of its outer wall made Chizuru leak a reserved voice of wonder. Overreacting would expend energy so he held back, but in all truth, he was relatively taken aback.
Varnished walls you might find in the central districts of Kyoto. Such furnishings reached what looked to be three meters in height. They extended quite a ways, giving one an idea of just how vast the property inside must be. The tightly-shut gate of wood was made in cla.s.sical j.a.panese style, but it was likely furnished with st.u.r.dy mechanical apparatus.

"My grandparents were fine art dealers just like my parents, and quite rich in their own right. But it"s simply too vast, and with just me and my brother living here, that just makes it a pain to clean. So we hired a housekeeper, and we"re living here just the three of us."
"I do recall you saying that. But still, this is amazing. Our school"s a famous private school, so there are quite a few celeb parents aroung, but it"s the first I"ve ever seen a house so vast."
"Even when I"m not the amazing one, you"re making me blush," Yuzuki"s naturally rosy cheeks turned even redder, "But your house must be something too, right? Your family"s rich enough to send you to IOU, after all."

Chizuru made a dubious expression.

"Not at all. Yumoto Academy"s special cla.s.s is exempt of paying tuition, and I have a scholarship at the cram school as well. My "guardian" is half-way to being a NEET."
"Eh~, that sounds more amazing to me! When it really comes down to it, I"m just going to school on my parent"s money. Respect. Huh? But isn"t your guardian…"
"A novelist. Writes those so-called light novels. Though in these past few months, they haven"t put out a single book."
"Are you talking about your mother? I heard from Ageha-senpai that your father worked with the police…"

Chizuru"s expression turned even more vague, "Well, how should I put it… my real parents and my "guardian" are separate," is all he would say, and as if to urge Yuzuki on, his pointed at the gate.
Noticing Chizuru wanted to avoid this topic, Yuzuki spoke,

"Ah, right you are! We don"t have much time to spare!"

And hurriedly jumped at the intercom b.u.t.ton.
After the chime sounded out, "Yes?" came the voice of a woman.

"It"s Yuzuki. I"m home."
"Welcome home. I"ll open it up."

Was that voice from the housekeeper, thought Chizuru as the gate went and opened on its own. It operated on electricity after all.
Inside the gate was a scene you might find in a sightseeing guidebook of Kyoto. On the right side of the entrance was a large oriental mansion. On the left side, a vast garden expanded out. With a pond and brook, there was even a small bridge built to span it. On the mansion side, small stones were spread out in a dry landscape garden, but across the brook was an area of green lawn. It was dotted with various forms of vegetation.
And right now, pruning one of those plants was a man of small build.

"That"s Sazanami-san the gardener. We have him come every Thursday."

Noticing Yuzuki call his name, Sazanami looked towards the two of them and gave a curt bow. The hair that escaped the towel wrapped around his forehead was blond, and his sharp eyes naturally gave off an impression as if he was glaring.

"He"s a bit quiet and he looks scary, but he"s not a bad person."

Yuzuki sensed the air, and provided dome support. And there, he pointed to the back of the garden.

"Oh, look over there."

Where he pointed was a separated building. Looking as if made of solid plaster, it was apparently the storage in question. It was connected to the main building by a single pa.s.sage. While that pa.s.sage had a roof over it, it didn"t have any walls. The floor was also connected to a veranda of the main house, and there was an open s.p.a.ce under the floorboards.
I see, even if they don"t let you into the main house, as long as you can get in the yard, you can get close to the storage… Chizuru stored that tidbit in his head.
Chizuru entered the parlor behind Yuzuki. From the house"s depths came a woman possibly in her forties. With her hair tied into one strand and an ap.r.o.n over her body, nothing would feel off if she proclaimed herself Yuzuki"s mother, but this person was quite likely the housekeeper.

"Welcome back, Yuzuki-san… and you brought a friend with you?"
"I"m home. Yeah, a friend, or rather a senior at school."
"Oh, is that how it is? Then I"ll prepare some iced tea."
"I"ll leave it to you. Thank you, Wakamatsu-san."

The housekeeper named Wakamatsu smiled in reply before going off into one of the doors.
It was a j.a.panese-styled home, with sliding screens lining the right side wall from the entrance, but the left was nothing but practical-looking western wood doors. It was a bit mismatched to call it a successful cultural fusion.
Yuzuki pointed at the door Wakamatsu entered.

"Then for now, let"s go to the living room."

Under his urgings, Chizuru was led towards a room of western-styled flooring. That room was an overly working-cla.s.s living room, and over at the open kitchen, they could see Wakamatsu busy at work.

"Ah, have a seat."

Chizuru sat across from Yuzuki. The table was western as expected.
Removing his blazer and sitting back in his chair, "This room is relatively western styled," Chizuru gave his honest impression.
Yuzuki gave a faint smile, "It was my mother"s idea to add it on around ten years ago."
After Wakamatsu put out tea, she said she had to take in the laundry, and excused herself from the room.
As Yuzuki saw her off, he opened his mouth to say "Um…" but he was cut off part way. Pa.s.sing Wakamatsu by, a young man entered the room. "Oh, Yuzuki! You"re back!" he called out.
Tall, with a robust body, extending out from his running vest were arms where muscles flourished. A tanned face with shining white teeth. Who could it be, or Chizuru had his doubts when Yuzuki let out quite an impactful statement.

"Yeah, I"m home nii-chan!"

Nii-chan!? Chizuru almost spit out his tea, but he narrowly endured it. He had never imagined Yuzuki"s brother to be this gallant paragon of sportsmanship. Like Yuzuki, he had imagined a man with at least some feminine features.

"Oh, and that young man is?"
"Yeah, he"s the great detective Kirishima Chizuru-senpai!"
"I see. Then you took up my little brother"s request? That"s great news. I"m Yuzuki"s big brother, Tsukioka Kansuke. We"re in your care, Chizuru-kun."
"Ah, thanks…"

Kansuke"s voice was grand, and it travelled well, somewhat giving the sense of a P.E. teacher. A type Chizuru was relatively bad at dealing with.

Even so…

"Yuzuki, you told your brother about me?"
"Yes. Oh, was I not supposed to? In that case, I"m sorry."
"No, you"re fine."

An innocent highschooler like Yuzuki was one thing, but to a working member of society, a high school student investigating criminal activity was nothing to laugh at… or so he thought to himself. But looking at the Kansuke in question, he saw eyes of expectation showering down upon him, and some jovial nods… It seems this big brother had an optimistic nature that even exceeded Yuzuki"s.

And Kansuke suddenly hit his hands together.

"Ah, right, right. Kondou-san"s here right now…"

He said. Kondou would be the conservator Yuzuki spoke of around noon.

"Kondou-san? Huh, didn"t he just come over a week ago?"
"Yeah, he did, but you see last week he found out the vase had been switched out, right? So he was quite flurried, and there are still some pieces he hadn"t properly performed maintenance on yet. So he said he"d come over on his own time. That"s how it is, so Chizuru-kun can look at the storage a little later… for now, wouldn"t it be better you gave him info on the case?"
"Yeah, you"re right. Then what are you going to do, nii-chan?"
"At five on the dot… so just a little later… someone from the insurance company is supposed to come, so I"ll deal with them. Right, right, Ushijima-san promised she"d come over at six, so if I"m not done talking to the insurance company person at that time, could I leave her to you, Yuzuki?"
"Yeah, that"s fine. Umm, Ushijima-san"s coming to return that vase from before, right?"
"That"s right. Then it"s all yours. Thanks."

With those words, Kansuke went off.

"Ushijima-san? You said something about a vase."
"Ah, I haven"t told you yet. She"s curator of the Yumoto Modern Art Museum. She, or rather the museum borrowed one of our vases… and that"s a bit relevant to our current case. Should I get into the details?"
"Oh, before that… could I use your restroom?"

By Yuzuki"s instruction, Chizuru headed for the bathroom in a straight line from the entranceway. As he walked, he counted the people who"d come out so far in his head. Tsukioka Yuzuki, his brother Kansuke, the housekeeper Wakamatsu, The gardener Sazanami. As for those he had yet to meet, the conservator Kondou, and the curator Ushijima. There was also an investigator from the insurance company coming over. If he added himself to the mix, that would mean eight people would be gathered at the house.
Now then, strictly how many were suspects? He had had to quickly hear the story from Yuzuki and pin the culprit down…
On his return from the bathroom, in his walk down the corridor, he saw three individuals stuck in conversation around the entrance. One was Tsukioka Kansuke who"d he"d met not a moment ago. The other two were a man and woman he"d never seen before. While both the man and woman wore gla.s.ses and a suit, the displeased-looking man with his hair tightly slicked down gave off a completely different expression from the confused woman with her hair in a fluffy short bob-cut.
Kondou was supposedly at work in the storage right now, so by process of elimination they would have to be the insurance investigator, and madam Ushijima.

"What!? The promise was for six? I"m sorry! I was sure it was five!"

Covering her mouth, a confused Ushijima lowered her head alongside Kansuke towards the other one.

"Good grief."

The insurance inspector"s brow narrowed in displeasure as he pushed up the bridge of his silver-rimmed gla.s.ses.

"Mistaking an appointed time by a whole hour is unbecoming of any businessperson."
"I"m sorry…"
"Now, now," Kansuke forced his way in. "Just leave it at that, Kuragano-san. Um, then since you"re here and all, Ushijima-san, could you look around the reference room or something? We don"t have anything as valuable as in the storehouse, but there are quite a few pieces of my father"s collection. Once I"m done talking with Kuragano-san, I"ll come and get you."
"I"m sorry for all this, Tsukioka-san."

Ushijima seemed dispirited. "Now come in," Kansuke urged the two of them to step into the house.
That flow up to now was observed by Chizuru as he pa.s.sed down the hall. To him, both the new visitors lent a glance.
When he pa.s.sed Ushijima by, their eyes met for a moment, and they exchanged a nod. But Kuragano ignored him. And following Kansuke"s lead, he entered one of the doors. From the glimpse of a sofa set he got of that s.p.a.ce beside the living room, it was probably a receptions room. For the time being, it seemed Kansuke would deal with him there. Meanwhile, the duralumin case in Ushijima"s hands likely contained "that vase from before".

After taking a light glance at all those happenings, Chizuru returned to the living room.

"I"ve kept you waiting, Yuzuki."
"Ah, Chizuru-senpai. Nii-chan was answering the intercom just now, so we must have some visitors."
"You sure do. A person called Kuragano from the insurance company, and Ushijima-san."
"You can tell when you"ve never met them before?"
"Well yeah, they were calling each other by name."
"Ah, I see… um, then to get right to it, should I tell you what happened?"
"If you would."

It was a few minutes pa.s.sed five, so in order to make it in time for the cram school, he would have to solve the mystery in just under twenty minutes. But even that being the case, the one who had to rush wasn"t Chizuru, but Yuzuki.
"Now then," Yuzuki started out. "Last week, in the middle of his maintenance of the art pieces, Kondou-san noticed one of the vases in the storage had been swapped out for a fake… That"s about as far as we"d gotten, right?"
"Yeah."
"In his handling of it a month before, he vouched that the vase was definitely real. So in the month between his last appraisal and when the trickery was uncovered, it would have to have been swapped out. My parents are currently out overseas, and in their absence, my brother holds the only key to the storage in existence. Our parents have heavily urged him to always keep it on his person. So under normal circ.u.mstance, the only ones able to swap the vase out… I don"t really want to say this sort of thing, but… it would either have to be my brother with the key, or Kondou-san during his maintenance. Am I correct?"
"You"re not mistaken."
"But I can"t bring myself to think one of those two are the culprit. To my brother, the vase belongs to our house, so he wouldn"t have a reason to steal it. Kondou-san"s a person who"s looked after the house"s artwork for close to thirty years, and I can"t think he"d do anything that terrible. And more than anything, if he didn"t say it, no one could have noticed that the vase was switched out, so it would be downright bizarre if he was the one who took off wit it."

Yuzuki seemed quite pressed for words. And from there, he sternly raised his head.

"But thinking back, in that s.p.a.ce of a month, there was a chance for someone besides the two. Just one chance to swap out the case. And the number of people who could have done it… there are three."

Like that, Yuzuki began talking about the incident.