The lonely Hikigaya Hachiman wants to become the king of mystery novels

Chapter 29 Hikigaya Hachiman’s thoughts well up

On the first day of Hikigaya Hachiman's spring break, the April issue of this year's "All Readings" serialized the first part of his new work "Malice".A few days before this, Hikigaya Hachiman announced the news on his official Twitter, which triggered many mystery fans to rush to tell each other. The effect was much better than the magazine's own publicity.

Speaking of this account, Hikigaya Hachiman opened the work-specific Twitter account "Mystery Writer Hachiman" at the enthusiastic request of Imamura Naho. He has a Twitter account himself.After it was opened, Bungeishunqiu Publishing House quickly issued an official certification for it, and even added the words "Bungeishunqiu Contracted Writer" a little ostentatiously, as if to tell other publishing houses that the biggest cash cow in the Japanese mystery world is our people. .

As for the content on Twitter, it is very conventional and official.But Hikigaya Hachiman specifically mentioned: This is a standard mystery novel.It means that readers should not read the serialized "Malice" with the same mood as "Confession".Old readers, especially old mystery fans, know very well that the serialization process of a standard mystery novel in which a case occurs, the investigation is conducted, and the mystery is finally revealed will most likely be boring.

This also triggered a heated discussion on Twitter.

"Ms. Hachiman is going to write a traditional mystery novel. I'm really looking forward to it."

This is a common reaction from ordinary readers.

"Upstairs, 'traditional reasoning' refers to the original reasoning. Mr. Hachiman is talking about standard mystery novels. It is definitely the social style, but it has returned to the original form of solving crimes."

The old reasoning fan couldn't sit still and started typing to correct these misconceptions. Otherwise, if this statement spread widely, people might really misunderstand that Mr. Hachiman is going to write a book.

"However, can Mr. Hachiman's previous "Confession" really be considered a mystery novel? I feel like only Chapter 1 has some mystery elements in it."

Some people have also raised questions about the classification of "Confession".

"Don't worry about these details. The types of mystery novels in Japan are already extremely broad. Back then, the Mystery Writers Association Award was awarded to a romance novel." (The actual basis here is the 1999 Japan Mystery Writers Association Award for a long novel. The department awarded "The Secret" by Keigo Higashino. Although this book is beautiful, it has no reasoning elements and purely tells a story of family, love, and ethics.)

"No matter whether the content serialized in the magazine is boring or not, you still have to buy it as a book when "Malevolence" is published. It is impossible to publish all the contents in the magazine."

This comment is very pragmatic, and there are many people who agree with it.

As most netizens think, the first serial of "Malevolence" "The Notes of Osamu Nonoguchi" is indeed not that exciting to read. It can only be called an introduction, the main characters, the murders that occurred, and related All the clues are stated in this chapter. Even the formal investigation part has not been started yet, and the number of words is already much higher than that of Chapter 1 of "Confession".

"Using so much space has only made such a small progress. It seems that as Mr. Hachiman said, the novels in this serialization are very standard and detailed. I think that before the next serialization comes, we can first give some information about Mr. Hachiman. Do some analysis of what we show.”

A well-known mystery novel critic said on his homepage.

"All Readings" is not an impetuous magazine like "Weekly Shōnen Jump" that counts popularity in every issue and cuts it in half if it fails to pass.Its readers are also accustomed to various serials. After reading Chapter 1 of "Malevolence", the online discussion naturally focused on the analysis of the cases that occurred in the book.

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"It is difficult to analyze. Although a lot of content has been written, there is very little that can be used for analysis. Moreover, one of the characteristics of socialist reasoning is to simulate the process of police handling cases. The clues are not all placed in front of you at the beginning, but gradually follow As the investigation process progresses, new ones will gradually appear. New clues will definitely appear in the following chapters."

"Besides, according to the direction of the wind at the end of Chapter 1, hasn't Detective Kaga already identified Osamu Nonoguchi as a suspect? There are at least [-] words left in the book. Could it be that the rest of the content is all about Osamu Nonoguchi? Is there any evidence of guilt?”

"I think there must be a reversal later, such as the emergence of new characters, such as other cases involved in this case, etc. But in any case, the murderer is unlikely to be caught soon."

This is a conversation that took place in the classroom of the Chiba University Mystery Literature Club. A group of college students who love mystery literature finally waited for the publication of "Malice" written by Mr. Hachiman, and naturally read it and exchanged opinions immediately.Although it is true that there is not much content in the first serialization, they are full of expectations for the follow-up of "Malevolence", which comes from their trust in Mr. Hachiman.

A few people also noticed that the name of this chapter is "Notes of Osamu Nonoguchi", indicating that the contents of this chapter should not be fully believed, which attracted some attention, but everyone decided to read the second serial issue before making a judgment. .

As for Hikigaya Hachiman at this time, he fully enjoyed a few days of spring break, and then cheered up and decided to write (move) (transport) the next book. For this reason, he wanted to discuss it with Naho Imamura and Enko Machida. one time.Unexpectedly, after receiving Hachiman's invitation, the two editors lamented that they were very busy at work and could not make another appointment on Saturday.

Hachiman then remembered that these adults didn't have spring break.

The time came to the last Saturday in March, and Hikigaya Hachiman finally made an appointment with the two of them as he wished. The location was still the Amanaka Nori Cafe that had been engraved in his DNA.Hachiman directly applied for a card at this cafe. The boss was very impressed with him. It was not that he came many times, but that every time this young man who looked like a middle school student came, he would be surrounded by one or two people who were older than him. Lots of women.

Hikigaya Hachiman and two women who were much older than him walked into the cafe one after another, and went straight to the most common seat. The two of them were still sitting around Hikigaya Hachiman, one on the left and the other on the right.

"I feel uncomfortable when I don't write for a while, so even though "Malevolence" has just begun to be serialized, I should also think about the creation of the next novel."

"Teacher Hachiman, you are really overflowing with thoughts. Before that, please allow me to recite to you my thoughts after reading "Malice" that I didn't have the chance to say before."

As Naho Imamura spoke, she took out a dozen manuscript papers filled with words from her bag, as if she really planned to read aloud.

"Please don't show such pretentious things in front of Teacher Hachiman. Senior sister, you can read it to me sometime. I will bear this pain for Teacher Hachiman."

Machida Enzi pushed back what Imamura took out from his bag.

Hikigaya Hachiman suddenly felt that the relationship between the two people was not as bad as it seemed.

Chapter 30 "The Clock Museum Incident" by Hikigaya Hachiman

Hikigaya Hachiman invited two editors to come this time, mainly because he wanted to get more information from them about the development of today's mystery literature. Naho Imamura is an absolute expert in mystery literature. As a mystery literature editor, she has This reserve is far better than that of the time traveler Hikigaya Hachiman.

As for Machida Enko, although this is not her major, as an excellent editor, her reading volume and publishing-related knowledge are also valuable experience, which may be used by Hachiman.Of course, there is another reason. If he only made an appointment with Imamura but not Machida, Machida would cause trouble if he found out...

"Actually, I have a very bold idea in my mind. This idea involves the core conspiracy of the story, so I won't go into details. I want to know one thing now, how is the development of Japan's new mystery novels?"

Speaking of new characters, it emerged because in the 70s, readers of emerging mystery novels were tired of the socialist reasoning influenced by Matsumoto Seicho that had dominated the Japanese mystery literary world for decades.Some publishing houses and magazines took the opportunity to shout out the slogan of "revival of original characters" and put it into action, cultivating and discovering a group of outstanding original mystery writers.

However, although the original works of these writers achieved good response for a while, they were unable to leave a deep impression on readers. Until the god of reasoning Shimada Shoji came out, and his "Astrology Killing Magic" changed everyone's understanding of original reasoning. So much so that for a long time, the reasoning community was unable to accurately define this novel.

In short, using the book "Astrological Killing Magic" as a guide, a brand new type of mystery novel with a stranger and more bizarre atmosphere and a more gorgeous and magnificent technique was born. This is the new type of mystery novel.In this world line, the development of mystery literature has only reached this step, and the rest is beyond the scope of Hikigaya Hachiman's cognition. He only knows that there must be a new genre in this world, but he knows nothing about its development. Know.

"New Benge, let me think about it... After the wave of Benge in the last century, there were indeed many works, but there were not many excellent publications, and there were not many representative writers. The development of New Benge today, only What is left is a group of writers who are using the narrative trick method over and over again, but they have produced many works that are highly topical and have excellent commercial feedback, but the word-of-mouth is just that.”

Naho Imamura quickly recalled the development of the new character and answered Hikigaya Hachiman's question.

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"Are there no representative writers? It seems that the disappearance of the new representative figures in the 90s and [-]s still had a big impact."

Hikigaya Hachiman thought.

"I have read a few of these narrative trick works she mentioned. They are indeed very entertaining, but they lose the sense of storytelling. It seems that as long as the whole book can deceive the readers, it will be considered a victory, and the story does not matter at all. , I think this is also contrary to the original intention of this book."

Machida Enko also expressed her opinion. She doesn't like these works that have painstakingly compiled hundreds of thousands of words just to play a narrative trick. This is really a penny gain.

"Well, I understand. You two are indeed well-read. I have benefited a lot and strengthened my confidence."

Hikigaya Hachiman praised him sincerely, and the two editors beside him smiled sheepishly.

"My new work is tentatively planned to be an original work, to be precise, a new original work. There are detectives, a death squad, a clock tower castle, a mysterious ancient family, a secret room, a serial murder case, and an impossibility Crime, such a work.”

"Just listening to the description makes me want to read it quickly..."

Machida Enko said blankly.

"So what you wrote, Mr. Hachiman, is actually a gorgeous new character reasoning similar to "Astrology Killing Magic", rather than a new character that relies on narrative techniques to win, right?"

Naho Imamura was more professional and got the idea straight away.

"Yes, Editor Imamura, I think that excellent case reasoning can better reflect the basic skills of a mystery novelist. The content of this book will be longer than my first two works, perhaps more than 20 words. And I should There will be no serialization, the serialization cycle is too long, and my creative process may be more difficult, and it may take a long time to even outline it.”

"Aren't you going to serialize it... Although I would say it's a pity, the publisher will definitely respect your decision."

Editor Imamura said a little disappointed.

"This is the case with the new basic reasoning. If it is serialized, it will be difficult to achieve the best reading experience. Please convey my thoughts to, thank you for your understanding."

"Teacher Hachiman, does your new work have a name?"

Machida Enko asked curiously.

"Of course, it's called "The Clock Museum Incident."

"The Clock Museum Incident" was written in its previous life by Yukito Ayatsuji, a genius whose main occupation was playing mahjong (at the level of a celebrity battle champion) and writing novels on the side. It is recognized as the best among his "Pavilion" series of works.It won the Japan Mystery Writers Association Award and ranked high in the "Weekly Bunshun Top [-] Mystery Novels" selection. It is a work that has been recognized by important awards in the mystery world and has been praised by mystery fans.

Hikigaya Hachiman chose this work because he intended to fill the regret of the lack of important representative works of the new world line school.According to Editor Imamura’s description and his own observations, the new original genre of this world is still an important reasoning genre, but the lack of high-quality works is an undeniable fact.If the work "The Clock Museum Incident" is presented in this timeline, it is not impossible to inspire a new movement.

The more he thought about this, the more excited Hikigaya Hachiman became, wishing he could go home and pick up a pen and start writing now.

"Teacher Hachiman, according to the publisher's survey, it is found that the purchasing group of your "Confessions" is getting younger and younger. It may not be long before it becomes popular among high schools and even junior high schools."

Naho Imamura changed the subject.

"This is normal. After all, it tells the story of junior high school students. It is normal for it to cause some reactions among the student community."

Hikigaya Hachiman said with a smile.He was not surprised. After all, he had met a high school girl and a junior high school girl at the banquet at the end of last year. They were both fans of "Confession". At that time, there were only three chapters serialized.

"The sales in the second month were also good, with a total of 18 copies sold, and the second printing of 60 copies has been distributed to bookstores across the country."

Hikigaya Hachiman knew about this. The royalties from the second printing had already arrived in his account. They amounted to more than 7000 million yen, and he paid 3000 million yen in taxes alone.His deposits have also officially begun to be measured in units of hundreds of millions, but the third printing should be at the end of the year.

Chapter 31 Hikigaya Hachiman’s leisurely mood

"Wow, Mr. Hachiman, your current savings should be an amount that I can't even imagine, sister."

"The more you earn, the more taxes you pay. After two printings, more than 5000 million yen have been paid in taxes. It makes me uncomfortable when I mention this."

Hikigaya said while rubbing his temples with his hands.

"If it doesn't work out, Mr. Hachiman, you can learn from that great writer and just live abroad."

Naho Imamura suggested jokingly.A certain top writer in Japan today lives abroad all year round. Naturally, he says to the outside world that he needs to find writing inspiration and create better things.But according to readers' speculation, he may be trying to avoid taxes, but of course there is no real evidence.

"Forget it, it's fine if I stay in Japan. I definitely won't be able to get used to life abroad. Besides, if I leave, won't I not be able to see you all?"

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What Hikigaya Hachiman means is that if he leaves Japan and lives abroad, he won't be able to get some advice from the two editors Imamura and Machida like he does today. Many things are difficult to explain over the phone and through emails. They can only be explained offline. Only by meeting can we communicate better.But the two women next to him blushed together. Hikigaya Hachiman thought that the two of them had a tacit understanding many times.

"This boy really exudes charm without even realizing it. How can charm be such an inconvenient thing..."

Naho Imamura thought helplessly, if this talented boy with excellent temperament in front of him grows up for a few more years, he wonders what kind of monster he will become.

"Hey, senior, what do you mean by that look? You don't have any ulterior thoughts about Mr. Hachiman, do you? My finger is always on the one-touch alarm button."

Machida Enzi was a little shy herself, so she decided to talk about it first.

"Haha, I don't know which school girl it was. When I met Mr. Hachiman one time before, she made such sexually harassing remarks as 'You will fall in love with him if you are ten years younger'."

"I say, you two, if you say these things in such a public place, it is easy for others to misunderstand you."

Hikigaya Hachiman had to remind them that since he was now 15 years old, he was still in a relatively comprehensive and strict stage covered by the minor protection law. Even if they really had any ideas, they would have to wait until he turned 16 at least. .

Several people finally returned to normal discussions.

"So, Mr. Hachiman, will it take you a long time to write this novel?"

"That's right, it might take a year, maybe even longer. My first two books were published a little too quickly, with a difference of only half a year. I'll let my readers wait a little longer for the third one. .”

Hikigaya said with a smile, but he did not intend to fade away from the public eye during this more than a year's hiatus.

"However, during the long process of creating "The Clock Museum Incident", I will still serialize some short stories on "All Readings". There is no technical content in writing short stories, just to relax."

"Oh? A short story? Will it also be a mystery story?"

Machida Enko asked curiously.

"Yes, but unlike ordinary reasoning, these short stories I will serialize are somewhat experimental in nature. The content discussed is how many possibilities there are for dismemberment, a common form in mystery novels. Get up."

Hikigaya Hachiman said.The two people on the left and right don't seem to understand, but they are definitely very interested.

In fact, Hikigaya Hachiman is talking about "The Causes of Disintegration" written by his previous life Nishizawa Yasuhiko. The book consists of nine independent stories. The first eight cases are independent of each other, and the ninth story connects the first eight stories. Because Nishizawa Yasuhiko's layout ability is really poor, the ninth story is actually very poor. Due to the large number of characters, the description is very confusing, and the readers even need to search the previous stories by themselves. Hikigaya Hachiman has not yet I'm thinking about whether to serialize Chapter 9.

As an excellent collection of short mysteries, this book uses a relatively humorous and nonsensical way to thoroughly deconstruct the cruel technique of "dismemberment" in murder cases, and analyzes the purpose that the murderer wants to achieve through this technique.Since it is Nishizawa Yasuhiko's debut work, the writing style and plot of this book are extremely unrestrained, and the motivations are straight out of the head. However, it makes people feel very interesting when reading it, and it is very suitable for serialization.

"I will write one or two stories and send them to you later, but you have to be mentally prepared. It will be very different from my previous style."

"I believe that no matter how Hachiman-sensei writes it, it will be wonderful."

Naho Imamura's eyes shone and she clenched her hands into fists and said.Unsurprisingly, she got another look from Machida Enko. She didn't know whether she looked down on this senior sister's flattery, or simply because the other party stole her words.

The three of them chatted for a long time before they dispersed. When leaving, the two editors argued that they should send Hachiman home. Finally, they gave up after learning that Hachiman would take a taxi back directly. They watched Hachiman send him off with envy for the rich in his eyes. Got into a taxi.

The spring break ended soon. After school started, Hikigaya Hachiman became a glorious junior high school student. With his excellent results at the end of last semester, he was assigned to Class A, which shoulders the two important tasks of the school's admission rate and admission quality.He took a general look at the members of Class A and found that without him, there were only two classmates left in the second grade of junior high school.It seems that the previous class did not have a learning atmosphere.

When we arrived in the new class, the seats were arranged based on the rankings in the previous final exam, starting from the first row by the window. Last semester, Hikigaya Hachiman took the sixth grade exam and was assigned the second to last seat by the window. This made He was very satisfied.

"I can be considered a bit of a protagonist."

Although Hikigaya Hachiman doesn't watch Two-dimensional very much, he still has a certain understanding of these memes.

As for the subsequent election of male and female class presidents, Hikigaya and other students in the class didn't care much. As a class consisting entirely of the top thirty students in the class, the atmosphere in the class was nothing but serious study. Their mutual understanding is basically just a superficial taste.

Hikigaya Hachiman was very satisfied, students should study.Even so, only a little more than one-third of the students in this class were admitted to Sobu National High School, and the competition could not be more cruel than this.

"I have to work hard in order to have my name appear in the admission column of Sobu High School next March."

Hikigaya Hachiman also made a vow.At this time, exactly one year had passed since he came to this world.

Chapter 32 Yukinoshita Yukino is riding a horse

On the first weekend of April, Yukinoshita Yukino came to a horse riding club on the outskirts of the city where she was studying abroad as usual. Like Japan, the United States is also a country with a very strong horse culture, and there are countless various horse riding clubs.Even so, the club where Yukino belongs is one of the highest-end ones, but Yukino has never had any idea about the cost here. After all, the membership card was given to her by her father.

Horse riding is a rare hobby that Yukinoshita Yukino can maintain. Although she also played other sports such as tennis and golf for a period of time and received guidance from professional coaches, she gave up quickly.Only horse riding can keep her passion for a long time. Perhaps the few races her father took her to watch at Fuzhong Racecourse as a child left a deep impression on her, and she fell in love with horse riding after that.

"You came early today, Yukinoshita."

A staff member of the club saw Yukino who had changed into riding clothes and said hello.

"Well, I'm sorry to trouble you today."