✪ 2023 Ayukawa Tetsuya Award - Excellence Award Winner
✪ An homage to and reinvention of Agatha Christie’s AND THEN THERE WERE NONE

The story begins with our protagonist, Tahito Komatsu, who first gained recognition after winning a literary prize in university. He then dedicated the next ten years to pursuing a writing career—sadly, to no avail.

One day, Komatsu reunites with three former university acquaintances—or rather, his accomplices. A decade ago, the four of them committed a crime together, stealing 20 million yen and burying the money deep in the mountains. Now, they are ready to retrieve it. On their way to unearth their loot, tragedy strikes—a landslide catches their car, killing all four men.

Yet fate has a twisted second chance in store. Each man is visited by a Grim Reaper who sent him back in time by one week, but would all die again exactly seven days later. However, if any one of them killed another, the murderer would inherit the victim’s remaining time.

The four men swear to honor a pact: no more crimes—just a final week to settle their affairs. For Komatsu, all he wants is to write. He decides to turn their extraordinary experience into a novel, believing it will be a masterpiece, his final legacy.

But the next day, one of the four is murdered. Was it an outsider, a tragic coincidence? Or has one of them already broken the pact, willing to kill for just a little more borrowed time?

As Komatsu races to uncover the truth—and to finish his manuscript—he stumbles upon a chilling revelation. When the landslide claimed their car and the four men’s lives… there was a fifth soul inside the vehicle.