Strange Houses

Uketsu receives an email from a woman named Yuzuki Miyae, who claims to know the exact house that Uketsu wrote about. Uketsu suspects that the woman must have firsthand experience of the house’s floor plan since he didn’t include any identifying details that would allow readers to locate the house. Uketsu writes back to Miyae and learns that she is an office worker from Saitama Prefecture. Miyae wants to share what she knows about the house but is only willing to talk with him face-to-face. Uketsu is initially reluctant to meet her because he is unsure what her relationship to the couple who lived in the house might be. However, he concludes that he cannot solve the mystery without hearing what she has to say.

Uketsu and Miyae meet at a café. Miyae is a woman in her mid-twenties and appears perfectly ordinary to Uketsu. When they start talking, Miyae shares her suspicion that her husband, Kyoichi Miyae, was murdered in the house. Three Septembers earlier, Kyoichi went to visit a friend’s house but never returned. His remains were only discovered a few months earlier in Saitama Prefecture, albeit with his left hand missing.