Takagi Taka's debut story and an early landmark of Japanese hardboiled fiction. Set in a city still marked by postwar ruins, its dry narration follows the scent of an incident while registering urban desolation and solitude.

In a city of postwar ruins, a man pursues the shadow of an incident and lost time.

Ashioto is a short detective story by Tomiko Fukao. It placed second in the 1955 Hoseki short detective fiction contest and belongs to the postwar magazine culture that introduced new mystery writers. The title suggests a story shaped around sound, unease, and approaching danger.

The sound of footsteps gradually brings an unseen presence and the anxiety of a case closer.

"Arrival at N Station on the Shinetsu Line, 9:30" is a short detective story by Kaoru Sakai. With a railway station and time built into its title, it appears to construct its mystery from train travel, arrival times, and the circumstances surrounding a provincial station.

In this postwar detective-fiction prize story, a station name and a time become the entrance to a mystery.

Magatta Heya is a short detective story by Biro Zama that emerged from the short-story competitions associated with the magazine Hoseki. Under a title that suggests a closed and distorted room, it can be placed among postwar detective stories that turn everyday interiors into unsettling spaces of mystery.

The unease of a distorted room becomes an entrance into a postwar detective mystery.

"Shiroi Dress" is a short detective story by Tatsuya Origuchi that received an honorable mention in the 1954 Hoseki short detective story contest. No later book or paperback publication could be confirmed; within the available record, the title's image of a white dress suggests a story shaped around visual clues, personal secrets, and traces of an incident.

A short detective story in which the image of a white dress brings memories of an incident and hidden personal truths into view.

A short detective story by Shozo Hirai. Best known for supernatural literature and translation, Hirai here wrote an original story for the Hoseki Award, built around a search for money.

The search for money draws out human circumstances and suspicion.

Sono Yoru no Yuriko is a short detective story by Akira Hainuma, written under the name Hainuma Akira. It was selected as an honorable mention in the 1954 Hoseki short detective fiction contest, whose results were published in the April 1955 issue. The title points to a night-time incident centered on a figure named Yuriko.

On that night, events surrounding Yuriko reveal the unease hidden beneath ordinary life.