【Nanatsuya Shinobu’s jewel box】Spoilers for the storyline! The mystery of the red stone and the synthetic diamond related to the Kitakami family

出典 : Amazon.co.jp

The new work “Nanatsuya Shinobu’s Jewel Box” by Tomoko Ninomiya, the author of the hit manga “Nodame Cantabile”, is a story about a pawnshop and jewels, as the title suggests.
The main character is the owner of a mysterious power to see the “chi” of jewels, and as the title suggests, it is a story about the main character solving the mystery of the jewels brought to the pawnshop, right? But that’s not all there is to Tomoko Ninomiya’s world, that’s the best part of it!

Of course, there’s the story of the jewels brought to the pawnshop, but there are also plenty of mystery elements on a larger scale, such as the mystery of the “missing famous family” and the “artificial diamonds that are completely indistinguishable from the real thing”.
Moreover, people and mysteries that had no connection to each other in the beginning are connected to other mysteries, and as the dots turn into lines, you may get goosebumps!
In this installment, we’re going to spoil the main part of the film!

Shinobu and Kenjo are engaged to be married a year apart

Shinobu’s fiancé, Kenjo Kenjo, is the official heir of the famous Kitakami family. However, when he was 5 years old, his grandmother, Akiko, pawned him off to the pawnshop “Kurataya”.
Naturally, it was impossible for a human to pawn something.
However, the owner of Kurataya (Shinobu’s grandfather) at that time wanted to keep the name “Kurata” in the family tree of the Kitakami family, which is known as a famous family, so he accepted Kenjo with the promise that if Kenjo was pawned off, he would make him marry Kurata’s granddaughter.

As a result, three years later, no one came to accept Kenjo, and Kenjo grew up in the Kurata family and became the fiancée of Shinobu, who was born when Kenjo was eleven years old.
Kenjo had always hoped that she would never give birth to a baby girl, but the moment she held Shinobu in her arms, she felt relieved for some reason.

Since then, they have grown up as fiancées who are accepted by their neighbors, but Shinobu grew up in her father’s house (the Ozawa family) until her mother divorced and she returned to the Kurata family.
They are more like a brother and sister than a man and a woman.
However, Shinobu is now a high school student and seems to be concerned about Kenjo, so their future relationship will be interesting to watch.

The Red Stone, the key to the mystery of the Kitakami family’s separation

Kenjo was 5 years old when he was pawned off at Kurataya.
On the day after the pawned house, Kenjo and his grandfather Shinobu, the owner of Kurataya, visit the Kitakami family home and find the house destroyed by fire.

She remembered that on the day Kenjo was pawned off, she went out with her grandmother and had a visitor on her way home, and after spending some time with her grandmother in her room, she went to check whether the visitor had returned home and when she returned, she changed her expression of blood and brought him to Kurataya.
However, we don’t know why my grandmother hurriedly took Kenjo out of the house, or who the visitor was at that time.

After graduating from university, Kenjo worked at the long-established luxury jewelry shop “Dugari”, where he mainly worked for wealthy customers as an outside salesman.
Kenjo became involved in the jewelry business for one purpose: to help the family get away from home.
That was to find out the truth about the Kitakami family, which was broken up and burned down.

The clue to this goal can be found in a notebook left by Shinobu’s grandfather, which contains the details of his research on the Kitakami family.
Among other things, he wrote: “The disappearance of the family is related to someone who holds the Kitakami family’s heirloom stone. The person who holds the stone is a wealthy domestic citizen. These are the last words from Akiko-sama on the phone. Kenjo considered the anonymous letter written “I’m not sure if this is the biggest clue.
Then, in order to find the “red stone with bird inclusion” which was believed to be the “heirloom of the Kitakami family” shown to him by his grandmother, Akiko, when he was a child, Kenjo worked at a high-end jewelry store where he had access to celebrities.

The main character, Shinobu Shiina, can see the stone chi

Kurataya is a long-established pawnshop that has been operating in Ginza since the Edo period. From an early age, Shinobu aspired to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps and become the owner of Kurataya.
Shinobu has had an uncanny ability to “see the spirit of stone” since he was a child.

To begin with, customers who come to Kuradaya are people who, for whatever reason, “need money. (Although some of them are there for the purpose of decluttering.)
Shinobu’s ability to judge the authenticity of jewels and the ease with which they can be stolen is very useful in sorting out the jewelry brought to Kurataya, since there are criminals as well as people in need who want to make quick money from stolen goods.

However, Kenjo, who only believes in “official appraisal results,” is often opposed to Shinobu’s vague and baseless “jewelry chi.

One day, Kenjo was asked by a wealthy woman, Mrs. Akimoto, to appraise a diamond.
After confirming the characteristics of natural diamonds with his eyes and a microscope, Kenjo confirmed that they were real, but Shinobu, however, assured him that they were artificial diamonds because they didn’t have the breath of the earth in them.
Kenjo was irritated by Shinobu’s baseless words, but just to be sure, he used a machine in the lab to officially test the diamond, which proved that it was an artificial one.

On another day, Shinobu took one look at a sapphire ring in the shop and instantly noticed that it was giving off some “bad vibes,” but Kenjo and his uncle, Tamotsu, decided to buy it, ignoring Shinobu’s words.
However, soon after that, they find out through a fax from the police that the sapphire they just bought was stolen! The police seize it as evidence.

After all these things, Kenjo realizes that he has no choice but to admit Shinobu’s mysterious power.
But at the same time, Kenjo was worried that his power might be misused, so he told Shinobu not to use it outside.

What is the relationship between Kenjo and Takaomi?

One day, when Shinobu visited Kenjo’s room, she met a strange man there.
Shinobu suspects that the man is Toratetsu, the man that Kenjo had mentioned to her in a whispered conversation on the phone a while ago.

Kenjo and Takaomi had been friends since they met in London.
When Takatomi heard Kenjo’s story about the breakup of the Kitakami family, he felt that he had to protect Kenjo for some reason.
(When Shinobu heard that, she was delusional about Takaomi and Kenjo.
Since then, Takaomi has been helping Kenjo gather information while cooperating and advising him in his investigation.

Kenjo had not revealed Shinobu’s existence to Takaomi because he did not want Shinobu to be involved in the investigation.
Takatomi knew that, and although he teased Kenjo for keeping Shinobu a secret, he did not blame him.
However, Takaomi believed in Shinobu’s ability to see the “stone spirit” and thought that it would be useful for their investigation, so he revealed to Shinobu that he and Kenjo were investigating the Kitakami family.

Model Nowa and her brother Shobu

Kenjo’s jewelry store, Dugarry, has hired a charismatic model, No-Wa, as a campaign model for its Japanese branch.
Kenjo can’t help but be curious about Nowa, who has never been able to open up to anyone, but then one day Shobu Aoyama shows up, claiming to be Nowa’s older brother.
One day, Shobu Aoyama, who claimed to be Nowa’s brother, appeared on the scene, but Takatomi was distrustful of Nowa’s brother.

Information on the Kitakami family is starting to come together little by little

Although Kenjo had been unable to find any clues, he met a person who used to be acquainted with his family, and information about the Kitagami family in the past has been increasing little by little.

Kenjo got a photo of his uncle’s friend, Mr. Sakagami, who had gone missing six months before the pawn sale, and found out that there was a woman named Haruko who was close to his uncle.
At the same time, he found out that there was a woman named “Haruko” who was a good friend of his uncle’s. From the photo, he found out that Mrs. Akimoto knew his uncle!
When asked about the situation, Mrs. Akimoto said she was aware of Kenjo’s situation but had no intention of getting involved in the “Kitakami family” problem.

Mrs. Akimoto’s mother was close to Akiko, Kenjo’s grandmother. That it was Mrs. Akimoto’s mother who sent the anonymous letter to the Kurata family. The contents of the letter described what Akiko had told her in her last phone call. Mrs. Akimoto said that her mother had told her these things before she died.
However, Mrs. Akimoto’s mother told Mrs. Akimoto, “As Akiko-sama told me, you shouldn’t get involved in this matter. They are the kind of people who would burn down your house. He told her that he was not going to get involved in this matter.

Nevertheless, he spoke out about it because he felt sorry for Kenjo, who was left behind. I feel sorry for Kenjo, who was left behind, and Akiko must have felt the same way. Akimoto’s mother and Akisada’s grandmother had been in the same boat with him.

Because of the close relationship between her mother and Kenjo’s grandmother, Mrs. Akimoto had spent a lot of time with the Kitakami family when she was young, and she had been following the Kitakami family’s case behind the scenes.
When Mrs. Akimoto says that introducing Kenjo to other wealthy people is part of that, Kenjo asks her to tell him anything she knows about the past.
Mrs. Akimoto says that the woman sitting in front of her in the picture is Haruko, and that she is a researcher who makes artificial diamonds. Mrs. Akimoto tells him that the artificial diamonds she had Kenjo evaluate were given to her by Haruko.

Kenjo had met Haruko at his uncle’s house when he was a child, and he remembered that Haruko had a tiger’s eye magnetic compass and said she was pregnant and that her child’s name would be Toratetsu.

The relationship between the mysterious population diamonds and the Shobu Aoyama

One day, Shinobu feels uncomfortable about the mele-dia brought by Yamada, a customer who asked for a custom-made stone at Takaomi’s shop.
As soon as Shinobu opens the case, a lot of “bad air” rises from the melee diamond, and Shinobu asks Yamada why he brought a strange stone.
Then Yamada’s face changes color and he says, “That’s rude! Then he gets angry and leaves the shop. Later, Takaomi found out that Yamada’s contact information was already empty, so she guessed that Yamada’s purpose was to contact Kenjo.

After a while, Kenjo attended the opening party of the restaurant that Shobu Aoyama had worked on, and noticed that Shinobu and Takaomi were there and were in a hurry.
Then Shobu and a companion (a dummy girlfriend) arrive, but when Shinobu sees the woman’s diamond necklace, she says, “That diamond…is it a composite? I’m going to say it.

After the party, Shobu asks her companion, “Why did you wear that necklace? But the woman said, “All my high jewelry is this. And this is a real diamond, there is nothing to prove that it is not”.
Shobu explained to the woman that she would report (Shinobu) to her superiors and that Shinobu was the daughter of a pawnbroker who could see “the chi of gems” and said she would look into Shinobu herself.

When Shinobu later explained to Takatomi about the diamond necklace the woman was wearing, Shinobu said that the diamond was “like a mindless clone (if it were human), it’s horrifying. It’s scary,” he says, and tells her that he had the same feeling when he saw the melee diamond that Yamada had brought in.
Wasn’t Yamada’s aim once to manifest? Takatomi was convinced that Shobu’s suspicions and the fact that he was aiming at Kenjo were connected through the diamond.

Meanwhile, Shobu called somewhere from a public phone and explained to the caller that Shinobu had spotted the diamonds twice and that he was “not in a mood to ask about Toratetsu for a while.” ……

Enter Toratetsu

Shinobu hears about the recent spate of “push-buying” that targets the elderly and, in cooperation with the shopping district, begins to hand out leaflets to the neighbors to warn them about it.
Just then, Shinobu discovers a man looking at jewels on the doorstep of an old lady and mistakenly assumes it is a forced purchase.
Shinobu is assigned to patrol with the man named Kawamura, who is helping to alert the public to the fact. They succeed in catching him.

Shinobu heard that Kawamura’s first name was Toratoru and remembered the name “Toratoru” that Kenjo had mentioned to him on the phone.
When Shinobu mentions Kenjo’s name to Toratoru, she finds out that Toratoru is an acquaintance of Kenjo and Takaomi, and she goes to Takaomi’s shop.
Shinobu was curious about the relationship between Kenjo and Toratetsu, but Toratetsu explained to him that he had met Kenjo when he was an orphan in an orphanage, and thanks to Kenjo, he attended a jewelry school and became a buyer.

Haruko, Shobu and Artificial Dia

Meanwhile, Kenjo begins to wonder about Nowa’s persistent hatred and avoidance of her brother, and begins to think about the relationship between Shobu and the artificial diamond, and between the artificial diamond and Haruko.
He then asks Shinobu again what happened to the diamond that Shinobu pointed out to him.
Then Shinobu started to investigate whether the same diamond was available in the market, but came up with nothing.

On the other hand, Toratoru buys and eats fried food at Manmartei, a bento shop where Tanaka, a regular customer of Kurataya, works.
After Toratoru leaves, Shobu appears in front of Tanaka.
Shobu tells Tanaka that she wants him to take a look at the place where she’s building her research center, but Tanaka says, “She might come here. I’m sure you’ll find out when you come to Kurataya”.
Hearing this, Shobu says to Tanaka, “I don’t have much time, Haruko-san,” and leaves!

Takatomi told Kenjo that he should ask Nowa about Shobu, but Kenjo insisted that Nowa had nothing to do with Shobu.
One day, the diamond was brought to Kurataya. A customer brought the diamond to Kuradaya and said he bought it in New York twenty years ago.
Kenjo took the diamond to Naito’s lab and examined it, and found out that it was a natural diamond.
Kenjo couldn’t believe that Shinobu had made a mistake, but Naito said, “There’s no point in spending a lot of money to make an artificial diamond of not so high grade.

But Takatomi said, “If this diamond is really a man-made diamond and has been sold as a natural diamond for twenty years, …… it wouldn’t be surprising if a number of people disappeared at once.
And Kenjo, Takaomi and Toratetsu were shocked that the story was too big …….

Is there really a connection between the Kitakami family’s separation and the artificial diamonds? Is Manmarutei’s Tanaka, Toratetsu’s mother, Haruko herself?
What is the relationship between irises and artificial diamonds? What does iris mean to Nowa?
Will Kenjo find out where the red stone, a family heirloom, is located, and will he be able to find out the reason for his family’s separation?

Mystery begets mystery in The Jewel Box of Shinobu Nanatsuya, but with the full story not yet revealed, it’s hard to predict what’s going to happen next!
However, little by little, past events and relationships and their true nature are being revealed.
Keep an eye out for more developments, and be sure to watch for them!