Don't forget to read the first part, or the previous post if you haven't!
Last time, we encountered a meeting between the girls, doing typical girl stuff, like being ominous and trying to speak with spirits. But before that, someone called our buddies to help us, very helpful! Also, as promised, this post will be longer than the previous ones and will feature some of my favorite parts of this episode too! Let's begin, with some context added beforehand.
"Mr. Kokkuri is going to kill us." Her voice was horribly cold.
Horikawa gazes at Keiko Yamano as if she were looking at the corpse of a cicada lying on the side of the road.
"Hey, how long are we going to keep talking about this? Let's get on with it."
Kamiyama. What kind of nerve does she have to try to resume playing Mr. Kokkuri under these circumstances? Even the principal was too angry to speak.
"Mr. Kokkuri is very angry. If we don't perform the {blood ritual} soon, someone else will die."
"Wait a minute!" That's a remark I can't let slide.
B L O O D R I T U A L ?
"We made a deal with Mr. Kokkuri. If it granted our {wish}, we would give it our blood."
"Wish...?" I was curious about the nature of the girls' wish, but Horikawa continued without replying.
"In the beginning, everyone was doing it for fun, ...but then some of the girls got scared and didn't want to do it."
"That's why Mr. Kokkuri's enraged, it says there's not enough blood."
"The scared girls I'm talking about are---"
"Correct. You've already guessed it. Misses Narumi Hasebe and Kaori Itou." Horikawa's mouth was upturned as she replied.
This completely connects the case to Mr. Kokkuri...
"Ridiculous. Blood ritual? Mr. Kokkuri's wrath? Are you seriously talking about this?"
"If so, I suggest you seek counseling." Ms. Hitomi reprimanded the girls with a strong tone of anger and disdain.
Meanwhile, my brother remains silent and compares Mari Horikawa and Yuka Kamiyama with interest.
"Enough. I'm going to expose Mr. Kokkuri's true identity. I'll prove right here and now that there is no such thing as Mr. Kokkuri."
"Is that alright, Mr. Principal?"
"Eh? Well, I mean..."
"I'm a doctor. May I?" Ms. Hitomi forcefully twisted the principal around.
"Listen. Mr. Kokkuri is a self-suggested automatic muscle movement that has nothing to do with the supernatural or the spiritual."
"Of course, it could never kill someone." Ms. Hitomi assured me, but I was still in an unsettled state of mind about it.
Whether or not Mr. Kokkuri killed them, two girls have already died as a result of its involvement.
No, three if you include Misa Sakita, who died two years ago...
"Now then, let's begin. Try to do it as you always do."
Ms. Hitomi had Kamiyama and Horikawa help her start a round of Mr. Kokkuri. Is everything really alright?
"Mr. Kokkuri, Mr. Kokkuri, please come forth..."
"Mr. Kokkuri, Mr. Kokkuri, please come forth..."
Soon after, the ten-yen coin began to move. Mr. Kokkuri is here.
Our gazes also became focused on the ten-yen coin where the three index fingers gathered.
As Mr. Kogure stared at the situation with a gloomy expression on his face, my brother whispered something to him.
Then Mr. Kogure's expression gradually stiffened with fear. What did he say exactly?
My brother treats Mr. Kogure as if he was the perfect {plaything}.
"Well, what are we going to ask of Mr. Kokkuri?" Ms. Hitomi looks around like she's gauging the situation.
"You're Miss Keiko Yamano, right?"
"Y-yeah...?"
"Mr. Kokkuri, Mr. Kokkuri, is Miss Keiko Yamano a woman?" Ms. Hitomi asked a question that made her look like she just gave up.
Naturally, the ten-yen coin selected the "yes" written on the Ouija board.
"Mr. Kokkuri, Mr. Kokkuri, please tell us Miss Keiko Yamano's age."
The ten-yen coin selected the 1 and the 8. It likely means to tell that she's 18 years old.
When we looked at her for confirmation, Keiko Yamano nodded. This was correct, too.
"Mr. Kokkuri, Mr. Kokkuri. What time is it now?"
The ten-yen coin chose 5, 3, and 2. The clock read exactly 5:32. It was right again.
I wonder if we can really uncover Mr. Kokkuri's true identity with such simple questions.
I trust Ms. Hitomi, but I'm beginning to worry just a little.
"Mr. Kokkuri, Mr. Kokkuri, please tell me the age of Detective Kogure over there."
The ten-yen coin stopped moving immediately.
"Mr. Kokkuri, Mr. Kokkuri, please tell me the age of Detective Kogure."
After the second question, the ten-yen coin finally began to move awkwardly.
Mr. Kokkuri's answer was 3 and 6. 36 years old--- Mr. Kogure's expression changed to anger.
"Mr. Kokkuri, Mr. Kokkuri, please leave..." Mr. Kokkuri left and the experiment was over.
"Mr. Kogure, how old are you?"
"I am 27 years old, ma'am!" Mr. Kogure replied angrily. That's right, despite his appearance, he's only 27.
Ms. Hitomi nodded in satisfaction and continued. "Now then, why did Mr. Kokkuri guess Miss Yamano's age correctly?"
"And why did Mr. Kokkuri get Detective Kogure's age wrong?"
"The reason is simple. Because Mr. Kokkuri can only answer what he knows."
"Mr. Kokkuri, in other words, has the will of those playing Mr. Kokkuri, and he cannot answer what that person doesn't know. That's why it got Detective Kogure's age wrong."
"The number 36 is the answer one of you two came up with based on your impressions of how Detective Kogure looks."
Neither Kamiyama nor Horikawa refuted the perceptive theory posed to them.
They are neither angry nor frustrated, just silent.
Ms. Hitomi then concluded, "Mr. Kokkuri doesn't have the power to kill people."
Her tone was quiet but seriously intense. Rather than faith in science, I sensed an intense hatred of the unscientific.
I naturally expected my brother to intervene, but he looked more serious than ever, silently staring at Ms. Hitomi's back.
After verifying Mr. Kokkuri, my brother and Ms. Hitomi returned to their respective workplaces to finish up the work they had left behind.
I owe them a big debt once again.
They both told me not to worry about it, but that won't be the case. Someday, I'll repay them properly.
Meanwhile, it was decided that Kamiyama, Horikawa, and Yamano would be assigned a security detail. The escorts were to be provided not by the Investigation Department, but by detectives from the local police station, as arranged by Mr. Kogure.
The three girls are key players in this case. However, it isn't possible to interrogate these girls on that basis alone.
Even if I wanted to file a warrant, I would need to get permission from the Chief first. "One of these girls used Mr. Kokkuri to make Narumi Hasebe and Kaori Itou commit suicide!"
...If I say something like that, the Chief would be glad to give me a long vacation.
However, he was confident that if a third incident were to occur, the victims would either be Kamiyama, Horikawa, or Yamano.
At the same time, these women could be considered prime suspects.
We couldn't just sit on our hands and wait. To prevent the next incident from happening, we had to keep an eye on the girls, by acting as their escorts.
At the very least, this should make it easier for the culprit to stay put.
Each of the three girls will be assigned a police escort, but we have neither the resources nor the tough nerves necessary to completely leave this job to other officers.
After consulting with Mr. Kogure, we decided to stake out one of the girls' houses.
The question is whose house to stake out, but we settled on---
>Kamiyama's house.
>Horikawa's house.
>Yamano's house.
Horikawa is the definition of suspicious, let's go after her.
>Horikawa's house.
Six hours had passed since we began to stake out Mari Horikawa's house. Stakeouts require a lot more patience than one might think.
If it is a stakeout based on suspicion based on circumstantial evidence alone, even more so.
"Sir, do you think Horikawa will make a move?" Mr. Kogure repeats this question every hour.
"...I don't know."
Her motive is unclear. And there is no evidence against her. However, Horikawa cannot be ignored.
"Hm? Sir, someone's there." A figure moving in the darkness stopped in front of the Horikawa house.
"It looks like he's looking up at a room on the second floor. Could he be the culprit...?"
"Let's go!"
"Freeze! This is the police!"
"W-what the hell, you're the detectives from yesterday, right? Don't scare me like that."
"You're Nozawa-kun..."
Surprisingly, it was Shouta Nozawa who showed up at Horikawa's house. Impossible, for him to be the culprit... No, I can't deny the possibility completely.
"What're you doing here at this hour, Nozawa-kun?" I asked in a friendly manner, but it was clearly an interrogatory question.
"...I'm doing nothing."
"But you were staring at the second floor the whole time. Is that Ms. Horikawa's room?"
"Don't know." Nozawa brusquely replied.
"Oy kid! Is that the tone of voice you use when talking to your superiors!?"
It's counterproductive to give a rebellious boy overbearing warnings. I understand this because I've experienced it myself. I chided Mr. Kogure and changed the subject.
"I heard you and Misa Sakita were childhood friends, weren't you?"
"T-the hell, man? Talking about Misa all of the sudden..."
"Can you tell us about her?" I believe there is an important connection between Misa Sakita and this case. It wouldn't hurt to hear about who she was.
Under my earnest gaze, Shouta Nozawa gradually began to talk about Misa Sakita.
"Misa and I have known each other since we were kids, we've always gone to the same schools. From kindergarten to middle school."
"She was very shy, so she wasn't good at making friends. She always stuck to me."
"After entering high school, Misa made a new friend. She seemed very happy to talk about it. Whenever she met me, she would talk about her friend all the time."
"That friend was Kamiyama."
"Kamiyama..." Misa Sakita and Yuka Kamiyama were friends?
"Then I naturally started seeing Misa less and less. I thought it was good that Misa had a female friend, so I didn't worry much."
"But... after a while, Misa's behavior started to get weird..."
"At first, I thought she was just not feeling well. But Misa gradually began to look more and more worried. To the point that she didn't even notice me when we passed each other in the hallway..."
"And then...and then, on that day, Misa died in an accident."
His voice was filled with sadness and pain. He himself may have felt some responsibility for Misa Sakita's death.
"Some people called Misa's death a suicide, but she wasn't the kind of person who would do that."
"Misa was... killed!"
When I first met Shouta Nozawa, I remember he told me to, "Catch the culprit."
Was that meant to be a request to find the person who sent Misa Sakita to her death?
Narumi Hasebe and Kaori Itou, both of whom committed suicide, were classmates of Misa Sakita.
We don't know what happened two years ago, but if they were involved in Misa Sakita's death, Shouta Nozawa is a prime suspect.
His motive would be {revenge}. [This is the color shown when you already get a Keyword, for this reason, I also skipped taking a screenshot.] But I don't think he would be blabbering on like this if he were the murderer. There are other people to suspect.
I inquired of Shouta Nozawa about---
>Mari Horikawa
>Yuka Kamiyama
>Keiko Yamano
He's not gonna tell us anything about Horikawa, and while learning more about Kamiyama would be interesting, we don't even know a single thing about Yamano. Considering she's likely the person who tried to burn the Ouija board, let's see if we can get something good out of him.
>Keiko Yamano
"By the way, Nozawa-kun, what do you think of Keiko Yamano?"
"What do you mean...?"
"I saw her at the school today. She was acting a little strange."
"Hmm..." He seemed to have little interest in the subject, but he still shared with me what he knew about Keiko Yamano.
"Yamano is quite a celebrity among third-year students. She was a member of the {track team} in her first year and has been a famous athlete since middle school."
"In fact, in her freshman year, she won the prefectural tournament and was even featured in the newspapers. The school had high hopes for her, but she suddenly dropped out of the club before her sophomore year."
"What! Such a waste... With all that potential, why...?"
"Well, nobody knows why she stopped running track and field. Ah... no, Kamiyama might know."
"Yuka Kamiyama?" I reacted to the appearance of an unexpected name.
"Yeah. Those two seem to hang out a lot."
Keiko Yamano's sudden resignation. Interesting as a story, but seems to have no connection to the case.
"...Another thing, Nozawa-kun. Why did you come to Horikawa's house?" I returned to the first question. But his reply was...
"...No real reason." It was the same answer. He had no intention of revealing why he went to Horikawa's house.
"Bye, Detective. Make sure to catch the culprit."
And Shouta Nozawa vanished into the darkness once again...
After that, the stakeout continued until morning. During the stakeout, Mr. Kogure and I took turns taking naps, but a white haze hung over my head.
We sleepily contacted the detectives staking out Kamiyama and Yamano's house...
No abnormalities in either. Thank goodness. For now, we were able to prevent the situation from getting any worse.
My cell phone rang as if to disturb my peace of mind.
"Hello?"
"It's me, Sasaki."
"Ah, good morning, Chief."
"We have no time for salutations. Come to Hanamine High right away."
"Is there a problem?"
"...Yeah. Another student died."
Let's end here. Despite our best efforts, we were unable to stop another murder, will our realist point of view shatter, or will we get a revelation that proves the worth of this thought process? No matter what, things seem to be escalating, we're definitely nearing the end. Probably only 3-4 posts before the ending of this route.
Anyway, see you next time!
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