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"It is what it is."

"Sherlock"

The start of the academic year in Japan is in April, which is also when new students are likely to be ambushed here and there on campus by... all kinds of clubs and circles hoping to entice you into becoming their newest member. I still remember that first Friday afternoon in Kyoto University: I had just arrived as an international student in Kyoto and had already made up my mind of joining the Kyoto University Mystery Club as their activities pertained to my academic studies too. As the all-preparing student I was, I had already checked their website of course, and learned they'd have introduction meetings for people considering to become a member, where they'd explain the club activities and give a glimpse of what they do. So that first Friday, I went back to my room after finishing my business at campus in the morning and returned in the afternoon for the Mystery Club's introduction meeting. I hadn't expected that the campus would be crawling with countless of clubs trying to lure you to them. The moment people sensed you were new on campus, they'd try handing you their flyers and invite you to come along to the numerous introduction parties (where the existing members pay for your food and drinks!) scheduled for held that night. The next few weekends were the same, with all clubs hoping to get a new dose of fresh blood at the academic year to make sure the club would live on.

One of the main activities of the Mystery Club is writing short whodunnit stories for other members to read during meetings. These stories consist of a "Problem" and "Answer" part, and people usually get about thirty minutes to read the story and figure out who the murderer is. If you think you got it, you can go check with the writer by telling who the murderer is and more importantly, what the clues are, or if you don't get it, the answer is handed it at the end of the session, and then the members discuss what was good or not about the tale. In the introduction meetings at the start of the academic year, prospective members are usually handed gems from the previous years. I myself vividly remember the one I got back then, and it was really good, exactly the type of mystery story I like in terms of how the clewing worked. These stories are part of the DNA of the club, and have helped shaped writers like Ayatsuji Yukito, Abiko Takemaru, Norizuki Rintarou, Maya Yutaka, Van Madoy and more during their time at the club. I think there have been around 500 whodunnit sessions since the club started, and each of them (title/writer) have been written on the wall of the club room. I'm actually somewhere on that wall too...

With the current health situation around the world however, it's obviously not advised to find new members by surrounding them in a crowd and taking them to restaurants etc. But still, as a club you still want to make sure you have enough new members this year to at least offset the number of graduating students. So this year, the Kyoto University Mystery Club tried something new: they have published a whodunnit story temporarily online for everyone to read, to give you an idea of the activities of the club. It's been years since I last read one of these stories, so I jumped on the occassion to get back to good old puzzle solving. For those interested, you can find the links via the Twitter account of the Kyoto University Mystery Club, and the story'll be available until the first week of May 2020.

Ansatsu Genei Nanaban Shoubu ("The Seven-Game Match of the "Mirage" Assassins") was written by Kamiya Takayuki (I'm not at all sure about the reading of that name by the way) and originally unveiled at the May 17th 2019 meeting of the Mystery Club. We are introduced to Shino, a young woman travelling with the young man Yuunosuke. It turns out that Shino is in fact an assassin who once belonged to the Mirage Assassins, an organization consisting of... assassins. We learn that the Mirage Assassins are now after the traitor "Phantom", but with a twist: if Phantom is able to defeat all seven assassins this time, the Mirage Assassins will give up. Crimson, Enforcer, Fear, Inferno, Depths, Darkest and Silence all have different specialities, which make them very difficult enemies to handle. Shino and Yuunosuke find themselves ambushed, and after getting seperated, Shino ends up chased into an abandoned lab facing a cliff together with Hitomi, a lost ruins explorer caught up in the battle. The building is one giant trap, with the assassins waiting for Shino, but after Shino manages to either shake off or defeat a number of them, Shino, Hitomi and a Fear who has given up on the mission come across the dead body of Darkest in one of the hallways of the building. But with the lab facing a cliff and all the other the Mirage Assassins stuck on the other side of the cliff or gone, who could've killed Darkest?

Interesting and original story setting, an assassin being killed during a confrontation between all kinds of assassins! I have to admit I had no idea how to tackle this story, and most of it flew over my head. Usually, you have some idea about what is probably a clue and what isn't, and what segments probably warrant a second reading, but I had nothing but very vague suspicions. I thought the diagram of the lab was a bit confusing though and the circumstances of the room of the crime scene a bit unclear: usually you can go and ask the writer themselves questions about parts you think are written unclearly, though this time not, obviously. But ultimately, it's just part of the mystery of course. Like always, these stories revolve around the process of identifying the murderer, which you usually do by crossing off suspects. Character A was here when the murder was committed, so that's one of the list, etc. The process as seen in this story is pretty good, forcing you to first figure out when Darkest was killed and then trying to find out which of the names on the list have an alibi/was physically possible to murder Darkest in that room. The biggest leap expected from the reader was fun: the kind of writing you expect from people in this particular Mystery Club (I'm not talking about quality, but the type of idea often seen in the stories written in this club). Perhaps the culprit could've been obscured a bit more (I think a lot of people may guess who it is, even without the proper reasoning), but it's definitely a story that makes good use of its premise. Anyway, it would've been interesting to have done this story real-time and hear everyone's reactions to it.

Oh, and in case you're wondering about the names: I don't know the author personally, but it's obvious they got their inspiration from Detective Conan. The Phantom of Baker Street, The Crimson Love Letter,  Zero the Enforcer, Full Score of Fear, Sunflowers of Inferno, Strategy Above the Depths, The Darkest Nightmare and Quarter of Silence. Requiem would've been an awesome assassin name too by the way, Lost Ship not so.

Anyway, if you're in Kyoto (you don't need to be enrolled in Kyoto University) and thinking about joining, or if you're simply interested to see for yourself what kind of stories are written in the Kyoto University Mystery Club, be sure to check the Twitter account of the Kyoto University Mystery Club for the links to this story. Usually, these stories are meant only for members of the club, but there have been five "Whodunit Best" anthologies published by the Mystery Club for sale at the university festival, with a selection of the best stories written by the members (I discussed Houjou Kie's story included in Whodunit Best Vol. 5 earlier this year).

Original Japanese title(s): 神谷貴至『暗殺幻影七番勝負』