I always try to read at least one mystery book set in the city of Fukuoka (Hakata) every year. Last year's attempt wasn't quite what I had expected from it, but this year's entry is very, very recognizable as being set in Fukuoka.
Coming up with mysteries that seem mundane enough that anyone could encounter them in normal, everyday life, but yet interesting enough to actually drive a tale of fiction is quite difficult and often, such mysteries feel a bit underwhelming because the problem is just too mundane, or the solution is just not convincing enough. Tenohira Astral is a short story collection that does not really manage to avoid these familiar traps, and perhaps it's not really trying to anyway, because perhaps more than the first book, Tenohira Astral is perhaps best read as a YA novel, with a mystery plot running beneath the surface. Because the focus lies far more on the development of Izumi as a character now and about what she wants to do after high school. Each story is more about her encounters with her friends and how they talk about what they really want to do, and each mystery she encounters ultimately also ties in to her struggle about her post-school life, showing her that everyone makes their own choice.
The first story, Kanojotachi no Yukue ("The Way They Go") is perhaps the best story in the volume. Izumi picks up a student ID her classmate Yune drops, but notices it belongs to a male student in the year above them. Later that Izumi and Asana spot Yune seemingly all dressed up for a date in the city and they decide to tail her. They make sure Yune doesn't notice them in the subway, and eventually see her arriving in the city, but when Yune's boyfriend arrives, they're surprised to see it's not the person on the student ID Izumi picked up. They realize that if Yune was dating the boy from the ID, they'd leave their school together, but why was Yune carrying the ID of someone else? The answer to that question is very simple, but oh-so-real and convincing, and it works in the context of a naturalistic mystery of everyday life. It also ties up great to the overall theme of Izumi wondering about her future life.
Kanitsukai no Revenge Match ("Revenge Match of the Crab Master") on the other hand focus too much on this overall theme, and barely manages to present a mystery plot. The story has Izumi and some classmates visiting the open campus of Q University and her classmate Sudou is even competing in the robot competition on the campus, hoping to do better than his efforts last year. Tobiki also swings by, but he leaves an enigmatic message when he spots Sudou's robot crab and goes back to his work. The story revolves more around a really bad word pun than a real mystery, and it's barely better than the third story, Natsuyasumi Akemae ("Before the End of The Summer Holday"), where Izumi swings by school during the holiday but notices a classmate doing a test, even though it's long after the examination period. Izumi wonders about what exam it could be, but here the answer is too straighforward and not remotely attractive as a puzzle to the reader. It's strongly connected with the overall theme of Izumi deciding on what to do after school, but unlike the first story in the book, it's just not interesting at all as a mystery.
Tenohira Astral starts off with an interesting premise: Izumi and the other students who are on afterschool cleaning duty this week notice a trail of blood in the corridor. They follow it, but strangely enough it doesn't go the school nurse, but just the bathroom. They trace it back, but none of the students in the nearby classrooms seems to admit to having bled, though Izumi notices multiple people in her class with bandaids. Ultimately, the story is more about guessing the reason why someone would get hurt, and while it's kinda okay in the YA-context of this book, it's not really a satisfying mystery that manages to make best of the premise.
The final story is a bit more interesting. Kiiroi Eki he ("To the Yellow Station") starts off on the Kaizuka Line. Before she gets on the train, she sees a mother talking with her young son who's about to take the train all by himself. The mother reminds her son to get off at "the yellow station" because his grandparents will be there waiting for him. The boy is probably too young to remember the station name, which is why his mother said it's the yellow station, but Izumi does wonder what the yellow station means, because the stations on the Kaizuka line don't have assigned colors and it's not like any of the stations on the line is particularly yellow in design. The boy however drifts off in the train, and when they arrive at the terminal Kaizuka, the boy realizes he's at the wrong station. Izumi wants to bring him to the stationmaster, but the boy refuses as he's a big boy and this is his first time taking the train alone. Based on the price of the ticket of the boy, Izumi deduces that "the yellow station" is one of three stations, but which of them is the yellow one? An interesting attempt is made to tie this mystery to a larger storyline developing throughout the five stories in the book, though it's hard to really call this a fair mystery. It's dependent on whether the reader is aware, or at least capable of thinking of a certain fact: if you happen to know about it, this mystery is a lot easier to solve, but the set-up to the reveal in this book itself is probably not strong enough even if it does tie to the overall storyline. It's easily the best mystery story after the opening story, but that's not saying much.
Overall, I think it's fairly clear I didn't like Tenohira Astral that much as a mystery novel on its own, though I do think it's entertaining enough as a YA-novel, especially as I absolutely love the familar setting of Fukuoka in this book: personally any book that's set between Kashiihama and Hakozaki, Fukuoka will win bonus with me. The way in which the mysteries tie to Izumi's coming-of-age story isn't always perfect, but when it does work, it's surprisingly convincing and satisfying, giving a lot of synergy to the themes. And like the first novel, the chatter between the high school girls is fun to follow. I'd describe this as 65% YA novel, 35% mystery, and personally, I'd have preferred the reverse, but I really don't mind reading these kind of books once in a while.
