The Summit of the Gods

When a photographer named Fukamachi comes across what is believed to be George Mallory's lost camera on the treacherous slopes of Everest, he finds himself inexorably drawn into a far deeper mystery. His relentless investigation leads him to Bikha Sanp, a shadowy figure known as the "Venomous Snake," whom Fukamachi becomes convinced is none other than the legendary and long-vanished mountaineer Jouji Habu. As he pieces together fragmented clues and obscure records, Fukamachi uncovers the intertwined histories of Habu and his perennial rival, Tsuneo Hase—two men driven by an unyielding obsession to conquer the world's highest peaks and etch their names into history as the first to achieve the impossible. Yet this is not merely a story of physical endurance or summit bids. With every revelation, Fukamachi peels back the layers of these men's fierce psychological battles, their self-imposed limitations, and the crushing weight of each other's perceived triumphs. Their rivalry becomes a mirror, forcing the photographer to confront his own fragile identity and latent desires as he is stripped bare of his detachment. Bound to the mountain's unforgiving face, Fukamachi discovers that the true summit lies not in altitude, but in the darkest recesses of the human spirit, where ambition and self-destruction are inextricably linked in this raw and haunting drama.