Hooo boy, that was a week! I still need to gather my thoughts, so I’ll simply type them out
So first of all, Noboru returns in the middle of the night. Is this a normal thing? We don’t know, I guess… He and Moe get shot at in the parking lot, by somebody with a hunting rifle. Hmm, what does this say about our speculations? Does it make Noboru less suspect? Or is this unrelated to the other events?
For the shooter, I agree with Saikawa that it should be someone we already know (first because the person opened the gate, and second because otherwise this episode would not make much sense, I guess).
Also, Moe falls into a hole in the woods where she discovers a human skull. She suspects it is Suzuki Akira, and I tend to agree with her. (Or maybe, if he actually switched roles with Soutarou, then it’s Soutarou’s skull??) The main question is, how did he get into the hole? Was it an accident? Was he put there by somebody else? And when? How does this relate to the transmission of the manuscript? Huh…
The last question that remains: Who could possibly be the shooter? I’ve lost a bit track of the people, so I’ll just go through them in order:
Katayama Kazuki: We meet him only in the lounge, so he would have had enough time to return.
The professor: Of course, everything is possible for him. But I don’t think he would act himself. He would rather pull the strings in the background.
Yukawa: He appears shortly after Saikawa, wearing his pyjamas and a bathrobe. That sounds like the timing would be a bit difficult, if he was to be the shooter.
Suzuki Noboru: He got shot, so no.
Katayama Ryouko: We only meet her in the lounge, so I guess she would also have had enough time. Also she tries to hide the fact that there was a gun on premise. Why does she act so strangely?
Suzuki Kimie: Unlikely that she shot her own son (although, who knows? Maybe this was a plot to make Noboru appear to be a victim rather than an offender?). She also appears shortly after Yukawa, so maybe this would also be difficult due to timing.
Bottom line: Thrilling new events, and it’s getting ever more complicated
Katayama Shiho: Do we meet her at all in this chapter? I don’t think so. Hmmm… Maybe she did the shooting and her mother tried to protect her by trying to keep the gun a secret?
Wow, yes, very fast-paced chapter with a lot of bewildering developments. Including the tobacco drama with Moe. She smoked three cigarettes in one night! Slippery slope… And Saikawa just smoked the last one in his pack. How many packs did he bring with him? We should really start counting by cartons rather than packs!
As for the mystery at hand (haha), everyone in the Katayama family seems very suspicious. There’s obviously some very bad blood with the Tennoji’s, and I feel like there is some history with Suzuki Akira that Ryoko would rather not be discovered. And Shiho is definitely a variable at this point. Stay tuned…
Indeed this was a quick read (I must’ve broken my personal pages-per-hour record, but a lot of them had a low char count), with lots of stuff happening! And as usual Saikawa & Moe don’t seem to have much notion of the words “danger” or “self-preservation”, and act like this is all 日常茶飯事.
This chapter was nerve-wracking to read! Moe casually lighting up a cigarette when the shooter is possibly nearby? She‘s more concerned about the light of the lighter than the cigarette smoke? Generally smoking while in a forest… Her and Saikawa making jokes about the skull, laughing and talking when the shooter is possibly still nearby? It all seemed really surreal…
I don’t have any clue whose skull it is. Just that maybe there wasn’t any body in the car (maybe the police didn’t really doublecheck whether there were traces of human remains) and the skull is Sotaro‘s?
The chapter also destroyed a lot of my theories… Saikawa wakes up from the gunshots. That means the killer is still in the woods at that point. Yukawa comes outside a few moments later, just as Saikawa manages to get Noboru back to the parking lot. Is the shooter still chasing Moe at that point? Yukawa runs back to the house, and everyone seems to be there… (except for Shiho). Ryoko then calls the ambulance, and Kazuki was there as well, awoken by Yukawa, so it seems impossible for them. They would have had to come back to the house while Yukawa was still inside the house, possibly still asleep, (how quickly can you climb up the mountain?) or while Yukawa was outside at the parking lot (timing seems awfully difficult. How do you manage to not get seen by anyone?)
But Ryoko and Kazuki are acting so strange.
My bet might actually be on the professor this time… he seems pretty sturdy, and I think he would know where to hide a rifle in the building. (But does he even care enough? He seemed so uninterested in everything… maybe he wanted to shoot Noboru because the murders (possibly committed by Noboru) disturbed him in his defence castle thing he has going for himself?)
Just like others at this point I feel like this chapter destroyed a lot of my theories. I was pretty convinced it was Noboru. But then again….he was shot in the leg, so I feel like it’s maybe conceivable that the shooter was a co-conspirator and the evenings events were designed to shift suspicions away from Noboru I’m not sure that makes sense though
It was a lovely day today so I went out for a long walk and listened to the audiobook for this chapter and the last chapter (the rest of the time I’ve been reading while listening to the audiobook). I think I still managed to follow most of it pretty well but some things like 博士’s philosophising and the layout of the underground room I think I only got the gist and missed some details so I should maybe reread those sections before continuing. But then again, I want to know what happens next!