As a child, television and manga simply did not exist for me. Not because my parents had forbidden them, but because our household had no such culture at all. What filled the living room were encyclopedias and technical magazines my father had finished reading. So I read books. I frequented the library. I listened to people talk.
The turning point was a story my uncle told. Deep in the mountains, a bear had taken his hunting rifle from him. In that moment of absolute desperation, a stranger pulled a small device from inside his coat. There was no sound of discharge. The bear dropped quietly. It was a portable tranquilizer gun. When I looked into it afterward, the inventor’s name was already well known in the field.
I was seventeen years old. From that point on, I had a single goal: to meet that inventor in person and draw out the source of his extraordinary ideas.
I read books about Edison. I traced Tesla’s schematics. I traveled the world, sparing neither time nor money, to see actual inventions with my own eyes. I joined a publishing house, built a reputation as an editor, and after ten years, I finally sat down across from that person.
The interview was everything I had hoped for. Every piece of knowledge I had accumulated proved useful. Only one question remained. The question I had spent ten years wanting to ask.
“Master, where exactly does that way of thinking come from?”
He narrowed his eyes.
“You know that famous detective manga, don’t you? I read it as a child. There is a scene where a tranquilizer dart is fired from a wristwatch. Surely you know the one. It is quite famous.”
I set my pen down quietly.
I had never read it. [1]
[1] The manga the inventor refers to is “Detective Conan(名探偵コナン)” (which began serialization in Japan in 1994 and is published overseas under the title “Case Closed”). The protagonist of this series shoots sedative darts from a modified wristwatch—a distinctive detail instantly recognizable to nearly all Japanese readers. The narrator, having grown up in a household without either manga or television, had no means of obtaining such information.
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【1分小説】最後の質問
子どもの頃、テレビや漫画は存在しないものだった。親が禁じていたからではなく、我が家にはそういった文化ごとなかった。居間に積まれているのは百科事典と、父が読み終えた技術系の雑誌だけだった。だから私は本を読んだ。図書館に通い、人の話を聞いた。
転機は叔父の話だった。山中で熊に猟銃を奪われ、絶体絶命の場面で、見知らぬ男が懐から小型の装置を取り出した。発射音もなく、熊は静かに倒れた。携帯型の麻酔銃だった。後から調べると、その発明家の名前はすでに業界では知られていた。
私が十七歳のときの話だ。それから目標は一つになった。その発明家に直接会い、天才的な発想の源を聞き出すこと。
エジソンの書籍を読んだ。テスラの設計図を追った。実物の発明品を見るために、時間と金を惜しまず世界中を回った。出版社に入り、編集者として実績を積み、十年かけて、ようやくその人物の前に座った。
インタビューは会心の出来だった。積み上げてきた知識が全部活きた。残すは最後の一問だけだった。私が十年の歳月をかけて、どうしても聞きたかったあの質問だ。
「先生の、あの発想はいったいどこから来るんでしょうか」
彼は目を細めた。
「有名な探偵漫画があるじゃないですか。子どもの頃にそれを読んで。腕時計から麻酔銃を飛ばす場面があって。知らないんですか、あの有名なやつ」
私は静かにペンを置いた。
読んだことが、なかった。