The Object Ball Into the Corner Pocket: The Case Diary of Chinami Chiba

By Takafumi Takada

After failing the college entrance exams, P-kun is set to live a carefree life until the next opportunity in the following year. When he is with Chinami Chiba, his cousin and a high school student, P-kun runs into his companion in folly, Aiba Shinnosuke. According to Shinnosuke, who grew up in a police family, Ichigotani, a narcotics officer he knows, has been marking a methamphetamine dealer named Kuroyama.

It is believed that Kuroyama appears at a café called “Carrot” at a specific time on a specific day. While inside the shop, he seems to get information from an accomplice lurking somewhere, and then moves to the site of the methamphetamine deal. The officers do not know how Kuroyama executes his entire drug-dealing business. In order to expose Kuroyama making drug deals, Chinami-kun suggests that they stake out the café at the designated time, and P-kun and Shinnosuke follow suit. Will they be able to uncover the secrets of Kuroyama’s dealings?

This is considered to be an ideal fusion of mystery fiction and puzzle solving. The first case in the “Chinami-kun” series by popular novelist Takafumi Takada, which depicts the activities of the high school boy detective genius, Chinami Chiba, is launched grandiosely!

This work was first published in 2001 by Kodansha and translated in 2021 for The BBB: Breakthrough Bandwagon Books.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9781716057816

Book preview

The Object Ball Into the Corner Pocket: The Case Diary of Chinami Chiba

Originally written in Japanese by Takafumi Takada

Translated by Ryusui Seiryoin

Cover design by Tanya

This work was first published in Japan in 2001.

Japanese edition copyright © 2001 Takafumi Takada/ Kodansha

English edition copyright © 2021 Takafumi Takada / The BBB: Breakthrough Bandwagon Books

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 9781716057816

-1-

It is really difficult for anyone to name his or her child, I thought.

I have failed this year’s university entrance examination, and will try it again next year. Since I have idled my time away, someone might scold me, saying, Study hard, and do not worry about trivial things. However, because I have plenty of free time now, I end up pondering such things. I believe that naming a child has got to be quite an undertaking. Some parents would care about the number of strokes in kanji characters. Another would worry about the meaning of yin and yang, or fortune-telling. Some might say he dislikes the appearance of the name or say it is the same as the name of the neighbor’s dog.

This naming issue gets more troublesome, especially if the newborn child is a girl. There is little to no chance that boys will change their last names in their lives, therefore they do not have to take the lifetime transitions into account. However, girls have no such luxury of not having to worry about the issue.

For example, girls with first names such as Kelly and Shannon may have to think twice about marrying males with last names that are identical to their females’ first names (Kelly and Shannon in this case), to end up having full names, Kelly Kelly and Shannon Shannon, respectively.

I want the parents to give their kids the right names, to prevent the kids from going through hardships. I think it is such an agonizing task, but this is where I would like the parents to step up for their children whom they love.

I dare to speak in such a roundabout way. It is because my real name is so embarrassing for me that I do not want to say it to you here. Since I am a man, my name would never be changed unless I become somebody else’s adopted son-in law. I want to blame my parents for this kind of naming fiasco.

    ***

Let me set aside such a matter, and move on to the main subject before I forget to do so.

I have a male cousin named Chinami Chiba, who lives in Tokorozawa City, Saitama Prefecture, and is in the second year of a boys’ high school. His name may also be categorized as strange-sounding. Still, since Chinami-kun is a legitimate Japanese male as I am, the probability of his name remaining to be Chinami Chiba until the day he dies is likely to be high.

Then, this Chinami-kun always gets excellent school grades, unlike me. He studies seriously every day to enter a prestigious national university. On the other hand, I failed the entrance examination of a minor private university and should be preparing for the second chance next year. I cannot do anything but feel the gap between his and my abilities.

I often used to be told one thing. I don’t believe you don’t have any talent. So, if you make a little more efforts, then I believe your grades will improve.

It is one of the inconsistent and nonsensical remarks by a teacher, who is not good at observing other human beings. I mean, Being able to make efforts is one of someone’s talents. It appears that I don’t seem to be gifted with the knack for making efforts.

I get off the subject again. I am just trying to tell you that Chinami-kun always gets excellent grades anyway. He also has the good looks to boot. So, it sounds a bit strange that I, his relative, am stating this. He looks like a popular idol singer to the level that his belonging to the same family line on my father’s side becomes so hard to believe. He is slender and slim. His gesture of flicking his slick bangs backward fascinates even me.

Then, Chinami-kun’s hobby is to play the flute and the acoustic guitar. He belongs to the art club. Usually, I do not like such a cultural snob. The day-to-day, regular version of me would badmouth him, while cackling Nyek, nyek, nyek. But, Chinami-kun’s stylish combination of slim, slick, and flick convinces me of his elegant nature. Yeah, really.

I think the differences between us are created by each home environment. I should not refer to them deeply here. Simply put, a younger sister of my father’s, Chinami-kun’s mother, married Mr. Kametaro Chiba, a distinguished large landowner in Saitama Prefecture. He has two golf courses in his yard and owns a dozen mountains, in which you can take as many pears, chestnuts, bamboo shoots all you want.

That Chinami-kun starts joining the cramming school that I also attend, to take the lectures. I am surprised because he appears to be trying to get ahead of the entrance examination rat race despite his still being in the second year of high school. It seems that our cramming school has a famous teacher of English grammar. I am ashamed of having not known the fact. You know, I have hardly attended a class within barely a month after I entered the cramming school. Just do not let my parents know, okay?

    ***

On that day.

Long spring holidays, known as Golden Week in Japan, have started around a holiday in April, with the clean and mild weather. I took a practice exam, and Chinami-kun had special classes in modern literature and biology II. Since both of us came to Yoyogi on the same day, we decided to have lunch together for the first time since a while ago.

Chinami-kun was looking youthful, while wearing a gingham-checkered, buttoned-down shirt and white cotton trousers. I met him in front of the No.1 building, and then showed him to a café named Arakan, which I frequented.

Even though one month had not passed since my failing university entrance examinations yet, I had already been using the café frequently. What a decadent life I am spending. While thinking about that sort of thing, I opened the door with the sound of a ringing copper bell and entered the place. Almost all the