[Note about Masato Matsuura: A Japanese politician who mainly served as the mayor of Hōfu City in Yamaguchi Prefecture.]
The detective story which began with the two high school students, Kobato-kun and Osanai-san intending to become pure and modest petit bourgeois (published under the Sougen Suiri Bunko label) is finally nearing its end. Starting with Case of the Spring-Exclusive Strawberry Tart in 2004 where the two protagonists try to make their high school debut, then Case of the Summer-Exclusive Tropical Parfait (2006) which depicts the turmoil during summer break of their second year, and Case of the Autumn-Exclusive Kuri Kinton (2009) which tracks the two characters’ steps and a serial arson case over the course of a year from the autumn of their second year in high school, the tetralogy named after season-exclusive desserts has reached its finale with a story set in the winter of their third year.
For all the fans who have been waiting for the 15 years since the release of the previous work, I applaud your patience. While you may have managed to take a breath with the short story collection The Paris Macaron Mystery (2020), it must have been frustrating. This is a newly released work that is well worth reading, filled with funny moments and serious moments alike. The recount of how the two of them met (if it can be called that) was written well. Please enjoy it to the fullest.
Also, a word to those who found Honobu Yonezawa from his more recent works, Black Prison Castle (2021, Kadokawa) and Combustible Substances (2023, Bungeishunjū). As a mystery, this is a truly well-made gem. The denouement at the endgame is amazingly impressive. Not only is it witty at first glance, but it also allows the characters to expose the intense emotions they’ve probably kept in their hearts for a long time. There is no way you can pass up on the chance to read such a powerful book. But one word of warning. It is a good idea to look through the first book of the series, Spring-Exclusive. Some elements of this story will be hidden from you if you go into it without any prior knowledge. Missing out on those flavors is such a waste! And that explains my advice.
Now, this book, Case of the Winter-Exclusive Chocolate Bonbons, gets off to a shocking start.
On a snowy evening before Christmas, Kobato-kun and Osanai-san walks on a narrow pavement of an embankment road while going numb with cold. It is an extremely peaceful moment, but a speeding car runs over Kobato-kun and flees the scene. Kobato-kun was immediately rushed to a hospital by ambulance, but he falls unconscious for almost five hours, and suffers heavy injuries, with a broken right thigh and a fractured rib. He is told by the doctor that he would be hospitalized for up to two months, and that it could take him six months to be able to walk using a crutch. And also that it would be difficult for him to take his university entrance examinations in the coming month.
In Autumn-Exclusive, Kobato-kun had already started studying for entrance examinations in April. After going to the library and answering a series of sample questions, he mentioned that “there would still be nine months left, a long period of time that could even seem like an eternity, though it would pass by eventually. […] There was no reason for the three years in high school to last forever. I understood that, but what if time suddenly decides to go in a loop? \ That could happen, so let’s continue with studying when that time comes.” At that time, he wrapped it up by making fun of that notion, but never thought that a “loop” would materialize in such a manner.
To Kobato-kun, it is his first time experiencing everything surrounding hospital life, from meals and excretion, to bed baths and methods of dealing with pain. Of course, he has no choice but to accept these things. With the doctor and nurse’s efforts, he is continually subjected to things he wouldn’t know if he doesn’t experience it himself. As I read the layers of accurately realistic details, though I have no experience of being hospitalized, I felt anxious for Kobato-kun and felt as though I was standing there with him.
Speaking of Kobato-kun, he is even forbidden from rolling over in bed. – Ah, that’s right. There is a mystery that begins with the series’ detective lying on a hospital bed and getting sick of staring at the ceiling. It is Josephine Tey’s masterpiece that served as a milestone in mystery writing, Daughter of Time1 (1951, Hayakawa Mystery Bunko). The detective is a police officer called Alan Grant, who was forced to stay in hospital after falling down a manhole. Some circumstances lead him to harbor some doubts about King Richard III’s bad reputation, and he has spirited discussions trying to overturn a historical fact with only historical information and documents. The story was fun from start to finish, and with the concept of turning a detective into a bed detective, Takagi Akimitsu followed with The Mystery of Genghis Khan (1958, Koubunsha Bunko), and Colin Dexter with The Wench Is Dead (1989, Hayakawa Mystery Bunko).
Honobu Yonezawa debuted with the masterpiece Hyouka (2001, Kadokawa Bunko), the first entry in the Classics Club series, in which the characters unravels the truth behind a historical figure based on primary historical material. There is no doubt that he possesses more than enough respect towards this kind of historical mysteries and writing skill to execute it. However, Winter-Exclusive is not such a mystery. Why do I say that? I believe it has to do with the lack of experience of the bed detective. Putting aside the Takagi novel which features backstage chatter from start to finish, the protagonists in the Tey and Dexter novels are professional police officers, who are unable to perform their duties without moving their bodies. However, when a historical mystery falls into their lap, they get into the mood to tackle documents for recreational purposes. While this situation is different from what they are usually accustomed to, Inspector Grant uses his “policeman eyes that have been beat into him” (Daughter of Time’s translator afterword), while Inspector Morse uses his otherworldly powers of intuition and play roles (making deductions) that only they can. In other words, it can be said that these two works are based on the detective showing their true ability with material that they have coincidentally obtained.
So, what about Kobato-kun’s situation? When a friend like no other, Kengo Doujima, comes to visit, he mentions something that causes Kobato-kun to recall another hit-and-run accident that occurred on the same road three years ago. The person hit was his classmate, Hisaka Shoutarou, and according to Kengo, this Hisaka-kun might have committed suicide. Unable to ask a friend preparing for entrance examinations to confirm the accuracy of that rumor, Kobato-kun, faced with an extremely large inner conflict, starts unraveling his memories of three years ago, while alone on his bed. It cannot be said to be for the sake of staving off boredom, but whether it is due to his disposition towards solving mysteries or due to his sense of guilt, he starts recalling the strange case, the investigation, and its outcome.
Did I get my point across well? Though not done in a typical fashion, this book also tells the story of a person being inexperienced at playing a bed detective. Of course, the important question is what kind of fruit it bears. Regarding that, the lengthy recollection that is split up into multiple cuts is filled with a sense of fun unique to mysteries, and this series. To be specific, let us look back.
First, it seems like nothing more than a nondescript hit-and-run accident at the beginning, but it gradually gets clearer, and that process is rich in elegance. Kobato-kun, who comes forward as the detective, is a middle school student. He listens to witnesses in eateries, and has to worry about getting reprimanded when he goes out late at night. He cannot even make a phone call to automobile maintenance shops to ask questions. He may have some handicaps, but he can observe the tire skid marks at the accident scene and draw a logical conclusion. In fact, when it comes to the deductions he makes like Sherlock Holmes would, I am made to realize that seeing the detective exert their five senses and mental faculties is what makes mystery stories fun. Also, I cannot help but feel excited as the related parties are repeatedly questioned, and the identities and movement of people on the pavement steadily come to light.
This can also be said to be the extraordinary mystery telling style that supports the middle section of the book. It has this incomprehensible property of making you want to lean forward if you like mysteries, but the big picture is not suddenly explained away. By seeing the investigation progress on, you can understand the peak that should be climbed, and you will be enchanted by the precipitous scenery. Furthermore, the steps of walking on the accident scene in person, considering the route and searching for clues to ascend the peak are steadily traced. Even if Kobato-kun calls it a bizarre route, the realism of the situation is taken care of properly, or pleasantly (in other words, the gaps are filled in). Yonezawa eloquently describes the interesting aspects of such detective work that sometimes requires concrete actions.
Moreover, this recollection part is also the story of how Kobato-kun and Osanai-san met. Kobato-kun, who has been praised to possess more wisdom than anyone else, gets caught up in ambition and tries to search for the culprit of the hit-and-run accident, when he encounters Osanai-san by chance. From the first moment, I laughed at how their personalities were in full swing, but when it comes to how they swiftly understood and confirmed each others’ objectives, before dryly coming up with the phrase “symbiotic relationship”, I’m not so sure. Also, this is the first time Osanai-san says the series name “petit bourgeois”. Her flustered state during that moment arouses an ineffable amusement, like a paradox. If you think about the aim of Kobato-kun’s plan at the time which brought about such a term, the two characters’ slogan (at their high school debut) of wanting to become petit bourgeois has been ironic from the very beginning.
To put it in a way that cannot be misconstrued, this part is filled with the charm of this series’ comical detective storytelling. The writing that describes the actions of Kobato-kun and Osanai-san is brilliant as usual, and you cannot help but grin at various points in the story. On top of that, the two of them just met. They are not used to each others’ words and actions, so there are moments where they feel each other out to see how they will react. The relationship between the two has not yet solidified, so they are shocked by the other’s stance on a topic… such reactions feel very fresh. Perhaps this is the taste only episode zero could achieve.
However, I would also like to add that there are subtle glimpses of misunderstandings that foreshadow what will happen to them afterwards. Let me give an example. In Chapter 5, when Osanai-san mentioned that she was disparaged due to her small size that makes her look like an elementary school student, Kobato-kun couldn’t understand and responded by saying, “That just sounds irrational.” I believe it is correct to think that this is incomprehensible and illogical, but at that time, Kobato-kun lacked the empathy to imagine that these people do exist, and how emotionally painful it can feel to have such hate directed at you. It may be a little harsh, but I would like to remember the sadness of the line, “Osanai-san replied mirthfully, as if she was laughing.” for their future.
– Now, let us leave it at that for the recollection section, and move on to discuss the developments of the endgame. However, I am unable to write about this without touching on the truth of what happened. To be precise, I expect that the contents of this commentary from here on out will spectacularly reference the truth. Please do not proceed before you have finished reading the story.
It is in Chapter 11 where the gun for revealing the truth rings out in full force.
Surprisingly, it is not for the truth behind the mystery of the summer three years ago, but for Kobato-kun’s life in hospital. For those who did not think that that was what needed investigation, you could say that this was a bolt out of the blue. On the contrary, the dialogue (or chain of reasoning) between Kobato-kun and Osanai-san uncovers a situation that has been secretly operating behind the scenes of the daily life we have gotten so used to, a crime that has not had its existence made clear. It makes me want to gaze at the sky and ask, “What in the world have I been seeing?”
From the form of this mystery novel, this commentary writer has thought of a great predecessor. It is none other than Tsumao Awasaka, whom Yonezawa respected and expressed his admiration for in his book Yonezawa-ya Bookstore2 (2021, Bungeishunjū). Though I will not point at any of them in particular, there are many masterpieces among the early short stories of the A Aiichiro series3 that are characterized by the way they bring the existence of magical crimes (or state of affairs) into the light of day out of what seems like nothing, through the power of deductions. The best example I can think of is the first piece Awasaka wrote and published in a commercial magazine other than Phantom Castle. Those interested might want an example to compare for individual exploration. For that, the first work in the series, Spring-Exclusive, comes to mind.
While Kobato and Osanai-san are busy with their detective work, dealing with a number of strange incidents around them, preparations for a crime are underway in the background. Using a chain of reasoning that is like trying to cross a tightrope, Kobato-kun reveals its identity. Readers who did not expect such a thing to happen in the shadows of the protagonists’ delightful everyday life were met with intense surprise. You should understand. This is the conclusion in common with this book. So, does Yonezawa do the exact same thing as the first book? No, I do not think so.
In Spring-Exclusive, Kobato-kun is, for better or worse, a person with an objective perspective. The story is set in the high school and city he usually walks around in, and even if you don’t actively pay attention to it, you can sense how ordinary it is there. As such, even the slightest anomaly or discomfort can be detected and used as a clue for deduction if one has a sensitive antenna.
What about in this book? Even if we leave aside the fact that Kobato-kun is not in peak condition due to his injuries, he is not in his home ground. It is all he can do to digest his new schedule, which he only learned of when he got hospitalized. It is natural for him to follow what the hospital staff say because recovery is important. If you think about it, the daily routine in hospital is not Kobato-kun’s daily routine, and he has to learn and get used to this new everyday life. It is extremely difficult for a person trying to make sense of unknown rules in an unfamiliar environment to question the words of doctors and nurses that seem reasonable. Basically, this time, even Kobato-kun could not free himself from that blind spot as a hospitalized patient, and to go further, those who read the book and put themselves in Kobato-kun’s shoes also received a share of the blind spot and were surprised to find that the world was turned upside down.
Fortunately, when Kobato-kun finally meets with Osanai-san, he manages to confirm their deductions through a lively exchange. It is not just Kobato-kun’s disposition to solve mysteries, but also his and Osanai-san’s ability to work together, both in terms of brainpower and resourcefulness, that allows them to get through the tense confrontation with the culprit… yes, that is their element. Kobato struggled with the invisible mystery of daily life in the hospital, but in the end he regained his true nature as a detective, and the two of them made a brilliant performance that can only be described as typical of them. This, in other words, is a new step for a bed detective. The characters in question will not think so, but there you have it.
Before drawing the curtains on this commentary, I would like to add one important point with regards to thet deductions.
There is one part in the recollection section of chapter 7 where Kobato-kun mentions that the hit-and-run might not have been an accident, and could have been intentional, and that the target was not Hisaka-kun, but Osanai-san. In response to that, Osanai-san says, “Me going up to that embankment road at that time was just a coincidence I couldn’t predict.” It is a valid rebuttal, so Kobato-kun immediately withdraws his theory. This subject which was brought up to kill time is a little scary and striking, but as a matter of fact, the rebuttal can be overturned in the current hit-and-run case. That is because Kobato-kun is intentionally run over by the culprit when he was walking on that pavement by chance.
Osanai-san then reiterates her point, “If we go by what you’re saying, after the culprit ran over Hisaka-kun, they charged for me, their main target. That’s wrong, Kobato-kun. It doesn’t stand to reason.” You can say that the current case is different in that respect. That seemingly logical counterargument is overturned due to the murderous intent that suddenly envelops the culprit the moment she realizes the person walking on the embankment road is Kobato-kun. Perhaps here we can listen to the echoes of Agatha Christie’s story featuring Miss Marple, The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side (1926, Christie Bunko). In what ways does Eiko resemble the unforgettable murderer who, seized with an instantaneous and burning desire to kill, decisively used the weapon on hand to inflict death on her victims, and in what ways does she not? I entrust the reader to think about this on their own.
The subtleties of the human heart and human relationships can sometimes take a person to unfathomable places from the stronghold of reasoning. In other cases, only when we become aware of the human heart can we understand the meaning behind the form of truth derived by logic. I believe this is a subject Yonezawa has been thinking about since his debut work. You can see it reflected here and there in this book, and of course, the aforementioned contradiction (or what seems to be one) was probably embedded in the story as part of that. Just because it is a mystery novel dedicated to logic does not mean that it only talks about logic.
Finally, I have a few things to say about Kobato-kun and Osanai-san in the final chapter.
The depiction of the two characters quietly reflecting on their three years of high school as they listen to the bells ringing on the night of New Year’s Eve is too beautiful for words. Even as he recalls fond memories, Kobato-kun is ready for the end. He’ll be all alone now, after all. I could feel my heart sink at his loneliness, but Osanai-san apparently has different thoughts about that.
Thinking back, near the end of Autumn-Exclusive, Osanai-san said this – “I don’t think you’re the best, Kobato-kun. In the future, I’ll surely have the chance to meet someone wiser, yet kinder. I believe that day will come. \ But while I’m still in this town, while I’m still in Funa High, before that prince on a white horse appears before me… I think you’re the next best option. That’s why…”
Before this, Kobato-kun was a seasonal product, for the season of high school. However, through the experiences in this book, Osanai-san seems to have changed that opinion, and wants to be with him a bit longer, even after the season changes. Anyway, this is my opinion as a humble commentator. There is no doubt that Osanai-san’s voice when she calls Kobato-kun her “second-best” is the sweetest thing in the world.
(19 March, 2024)
References:
Hasunuma Shoutarou, Fourth Mystery Novel – Second Draft, published in Blue Crow Castle, Issue 6 (1980, Kyoto University Mystery Novel Research Society)
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- Hyouka’s subtitle, The Niece of Time, is a twist on this.
- A collection of book reviews, recommendations and essays written by Honobu Yonezawa in the 20 years of his writing career. Somehow I had no idea this existed.
- A mystery series that revolves around an academic photographer whose subjects include clouds, fish, insects, and fossils, who often stumbles upon murders wherever he goes, but always manages to identify the murderer by observation and guesswork, without any investigative action.