Don't forget to read the first part, or the previous part if you haven't!
After the next part, still in 4 days, the space in-between posts will increase to 8 days. This should allow me to update both blogs without any dip in quality, but I promise you this, all posts from now on will be long enough to make this worth the wait.
But, anyway, let's begin, shall we?
[We'll start with a change at the very beginning of the episode]
That would be---
>Naturally, the first incident.
>The latest case, of course.
Let's see if we get anything new about the second case.
>The latest case, of course.
"Mr. Kogure, please tell me about the incident that occurred this morning."
"Yes, sir. In that case, let me give you a brief explanation."
According to Mr. Kogure, the second victim was Kaori Itou, a third-year student from classroom 4.
She was found by a teacher who stopped by the library earlier this morning.
Since it was too early for the students to be at school and she was dressed in plain clothes, it's widely believed that she snuck into the school last night or early in the morning and took her own life.
"Mr. Kogure. Do you know the cause of death?"
"Yes, sir. Based on our current assessment at the scene, we believe that a laceration to the abdomen was the direct cause of death."
"A laceration to the abdomen...?"
"Yes, sir... A kitchen knife was clutched in Kaori Ito's hand. Forensics had a hard time pulling it away..."
Mr. Kogure's face turned pale as he looked at me, perhaps remembering the situation at that time. It seems that he's a delicate person, despite his appearance.
But, that's much better than being apathetic. When you no longer feel anything when you see a dead body, you're done.
Due to our job, it's impossible not to get used to it, but we still must remember to mourn the dead.
"Mr. Kogure. Could you also tell me about the first suicide?"
"Yessir, understood."
According to Mr. Kogure's explanation, the first victim was {Narumi Hasebe}, a 3rd-grade student. After school last Thursday, she jumped off the roof of the school building and took her own life.
It seems that Mr. Kogure was present at the scene of the crime, so I trust him when he says there was no room for suspicion of homicide.
It's just that... It was later revealed during the autopsy that the amount of blood left in Narumi Hasebe's body was abnormally small...
This was the summary of the serial suicides that Mr. Kogure had told me about. After hearing the whole story, I decided to report back to Chief Sasaki.
[The text's the same as the other route's from here on, so let's move to the next choice]
[How will we stop her from burning the Ouija board now?]
I decide to---
⬢ >shout for her to stop.
>sneak up behind her.
>try to take a closer look.
Maybe we'll find out who she is if we sneak up on her?
>sneak up behind her.
"Mr. Kogure, let's approach her while she's not paying attention."
"Understood. Then, sir, please leave it to me. As I am skilled in the martial arts, I can sneak up on her without being noticed."
Come to think of it, I remember that when he introduced himself, he also mentioned how many dan he had each in Judo, Kendo, and Karate. Let's try leaving this to him then.
"Alright. Please do so, Mr. Kogure."
"...Roger!" Mr. Kogure is elated to be able to show off his special skills.
In the meantime, the fire in the girl's hand got a little bigger. It seems that she's trying to burn something.
There's no time. If we do this at our leisure, whatever she's holding will turn to ashes.
And the thought that it might be related to the case made me more and more impatient.
However, Mr. Kogure moved quickly. He was not slow and leisurely, but swift and nimble, closing the distance between himself and her without being noticed.
Incredible. This is a special ability perfect for a detective. I wonder if Mr. Kogure's Sergeant rank is due to this talent.
Mr. Kogure rapidly closed the distance and stood five meters behind the girl.
"Kyaaaah! Molester!"
A high-pitched scream broke the quiet tension. I looked up to see a female student peeking out of the window of the school building.
"Wh-!? A molester!? Where!? I won't let him get away!"
Mr. Kogure... that molester is probably meant to be you.
Imagine seeing a large man, who wasn't part of the school staff, sneaking up behind a female student.
No person could avoid crying out "molester"... and I feel sorry for Mr. Kogure for agreeing with that.
"Mr. Kogure, I think that was just a misunderstanding. But more importantly, look. She dropped this."
A crumpled-up piece of paper had fallen there. It seemed that she was trying to burn it. Whoever dropped it had taken advantage of the molester commotion and disappeared.
Nevertheless, Mr. Kogure's fear is also more useful than I thought. If we hadn't come to the back of the school building at his suggestion, we wouldn't have discovered this.
[After this, the text joins together with the past run's. Another jump!]
[Here's the choice between vomiting before or after eating, also, since the next difference's so close, I decided to keep everything in between]
I resolved myself and answered with---
>B-before eating, please!"
⬢ >"Naturally, after eating!"
This will definitely go well.
>"Naturally, after eating!"
"Naturally, after eating!" I answered with pride. As the old saying goes, "You can't fight a war on an empty stomach."
"Well then, I'll have a chicken curry. Large."
"I'll have one too. Make it normal-sized. Ah, and add a raw egg as topping."
"I-I'll be fine with just juice." And so, Mr. Kogure sipped his tomato juice while the rest of us stuffed our cheeks with our chicken curry.
"...Now then." Ms. Hitomi cut in, wiping her thin, tiny lips, hardly seeming to have consumed such a large bowl of chicken curry.
I was only halfway through my meal, but Ms. Hitomi went about her business without a care in the world.
"I would like it if you kept everything I said off the record. I haven't reached a conclusion just yet."
"But I felt like I should let you guys know. Got it?"
I nodded my head with chicken curry still in my mouth.
"I couldn't help but notice the remaining blood volume in yesterday's autopsy results, so I did a little more digging and looked into the results. That's when..."
Mr. Kogure froze as he held the straw in his mouth. The tomato juice must have reminded him of blood.
"Sure enough, it doesn't make any sense. Kaori Itou's death was definitely caused by exsanguination through abdominal incisions, but the amount of blood left in her body was too small."
"During the autopsy, it bothered me that no matter where I cut, almost no blood..."
"E-excuse me!"
Mr. Kogure basically leaped out of his chair and moved his huge body towards the restroom.
You're lucky you only drank tomato juice. I ate chicken curry. And topped it with a raw egg.
"...? What's wrong with him?" The only one with a problem here is you, Ms. Hitomi. I acted as the straight man in my mind.
After that, I had to fight against the chicken curry trying to return to where it came from, even though it was supposed to have settled in my stomach.
[Junya sees double for a second]
Ms. Hitomi's descriptions, laced with complicated jargon, fell in one ear and came out the other. I vowed never to have dinner with Ms. Hitomi again.
"...Hey, are you listening, Junya-kun?"
"O-of course." Obviously not.
When Mr. Kogure returned from the toilet and took his seat, Ms. Hitomi finally explained the situation to us in simple terms that we could understand.
"I mean, you can't lose that much blood without some kind of external agent."
Incidentally, the blood left at the scene was in a puddle with a radius of around 20 cm.
Ms. Hitomi said that given the condition of Kaori Itou's body, a much larger amount of blood should have been left at the scene.
"B-but, Dr. Shikibu, there wasn't that much blood left at the scene."
"So it seems. As a medical examiner, I have no doubt that her death was a suicide. But in that case, where did her blood disappear to?"
"Y-you don't mean to tell us that a third party took the blood after Kaori Ito's suicide!?"
"Bullseye. You know your stuff. What's your name again?"
"I am Souichirou Kogure! I am 27 years old!" Mr. Kogure happily replied to her compliment. Nobody asked for his age though.
"Now, how is Detective Kazami going to solve this problem?" I was at a loss for an answer.
Let's assume that there is someone who removed Kaori Itou's blood. However, if that is the case, as Ms. Hitomi says, we run into a serious problem.
After all, Kaori Itou committed suicide. In order to take her blood, they would have had to know in advance of her death.
Is such a thing really possible?
"I see you've noticed the discrepancy. That's all I can do. I'll leave the rest to the future Great Detective to deduce."
Ms. Hitomi appears to enjoy watching me struggle.
"The person who took Kaori Itou's blood knew she was going to die. Or perhaps that person drove Kaori Itou to suicide in some way?"
"Then, they would be the culprit in this case..." I mumbled to myself without telling anyone in order to clear my confused head.
"And even if someone did remove her blood, for what purpose would they do it?"
Mr. Kogure was right. Why do they need blood? What in the world is the point of doing that?
Connection between Incident and Blood
Was there a third party when Kaori Itou committed suicide?
>Such a thing is impossible.
>The possibility cannot be denied.
Let's go in the opposite direction.
>Such a thing is impossible.
If a third party doesn't exist, where did the blood go?
>We don't know yet.
>There was a third party after all?
We're going the 'spiritual' route, so no third party.
>We don't know yet.
At this stage, nothing can be truly determined. We have too little information and the case is too confusing.
It would be foolhardy to force an answer. We should be cautious here. Maybe I should show Ms. Hitomi a piece of evidence in my possession?
What evidence would be appropriate to show her?
>The piece of paper found in the library. (Conclusion)
>The Ouija board. (Conclusion)
We already saw the one option, so we can only choose the other.
>The Ouija board.
I took out the Ouija board that ended up in my chest pocket.
It has a reddish-black stain on it. Unless my hunch is off, this is probably blood. If I show it to Ms. Hitomi, she might be able to tell me what it is.
It's impossible for me to say if we'll gain any clues to an unexpected connection between this case and the blood.
"Um, could you take a look at this?" I hand over the Ouija board to Ms. Hitomi.
Seeing the reddish-black stain, she understood my intention, brought her fine, shapely nose close to it, and answered shortly. "...This is blood."
I wondered if it was possible to tell just by smelling it, but she was a professional rich in experience. I decided to trust her.
"Where did you get this?"
"Hanamine Private High School, where Kaori Itou committed suicide."
Ms. Hitomi looks at me with squinted eyes. "Hmm. How's this connected to the case?"
"That's, it's still..."
"You're not going to tell me that Mr. Kokkuri's curse is the cause of all this, are you?" Ms. Hitomi seems to know the meaning behind the Ouija board.
"Do you believe Mr. Kokkuri was able to take the blood of the girls who committed suicide?"
"T-that's impossible... right, sir?" Asked Mr. Kogure with a half-twitching smile.
Apparently, he can't stand blood or any kind of ghost story. Come to think of it, the day before yesterday, he refused to go into an otherwise empty school hallway.
Ms. Hitomi, annoyed at my refusal to clearly deny Mr. Kokkuri, began to lecture me in a strong tone.
"Alright. Let me teach you Mr. Kokkuri's true identity."
"Mr. Kokkuri's true identity...?" We both asked at roughly the same time.
"First, a ten-yen coin is placed on a piece of paper listed with hiragana and numbers, and two or three people place their fingers on the coin together to summon Mr. Kokkuri."
"Mr. Kokkuri, Mr. Kokkuri, please come forth. Mr. Kokkuri, Mr. Kokkuri, please come forth..."
"Then Mr. Kokkuri manifests and answers your questions. Some people say Mr. Kokkuri is a fox spirit or a low-level spirit, but that is simply absurd."
"Mr. Kokkuri happens due to a physiological phenomenon called 'automatic muscle movement' or 'unconscious muscular motion'."
"...?" I tilt my head as I hear some words for the first time.
"When a person who believes in Mr. Kokkuri plays it, they're already under the {self-suggestion} that Mr. Kokkuri is real."
"And once they ask a question, their unconscious, affected by self-suggestion, derives an answer..."
This phenomenon, also known as 'automatic writing', can be explained as an instinctual human mechanism."
"It's not a fox or a spirit that moves the ten-yen coin, but the "power of your own convictions"."
"But, Dr. Shikibu, you talk about the power of belief, but when I played Mr. Kokkuri for the first time, I didn't believe it at all, so how did it work?"
"I get what you're saying. But once you joined into the excitement, overturning your preconceived notions and distrust, you began to believe in Mr. Kokkuri."
"In fact, you believed Mr. Kokkuri in the end, didn't you?"
"Y-yes, ma'am..."
"For example, if someone intentionally moves a ten-yen coin or makes a noise that suggests psychic phenomena, the possibility of self-suggestion increases."
"In the company of someone who already believes in Mr. Kokkuri, there's a good chance they'll unintentionally and unconsciously provide a stimulus."
"By repeating Mr. Kokkuri, the self-suggestion deepens, and it becomes easier to fall into a hypnotic state. In other words, the power of your beliefs becomes increasingly stronger."
"The words "self-suggestion" and "hypnosis" might conjure up dubious images, but they are being studied in the medical field as well."
"There have been cases where anxiety sufferers have chanted 'I will feel better' over and over in their minds, resulting in a decrease in their anxiety and improvement of their symptoms."
"If used correctly, the power of beliefs can even cure the human body from the inside out. Just like the saying, "Illness begins with the mind", you see."
"But it can be dangerous if used in the wrong way. If an amateur tries it lightly, it can induce conditions such as mass apoplexy or mental derangement." [Look up 'how to create a tulpa' to see this in real life]
"As a matter of fact, during the Mr. Kokkuri craze about 20 years ago, there were several accidents in schools across the country that even made the newspapers."
"And I've heard that autosuggestion, like Mr. Kokkuri's, is sometimes misused in cult rituals."
"The power of human beliefs is stronger than you can imagine... That's why they should never be abused."
"Mr. Kokkuri's true nature is the power of human beliefs... The causal relationship between this series of suicides and Mr. Kokkuri hasn't been made clear yet."
"But if we assume that there is a connection between the two, what kind of relation can we establish?"
The Case and Mr. Kokkuri
Is there any causal relationship between the serial suicides and Mr. Kokkuri?
>I don't think so.
>There seems to be one.
Although I think going the realist route in this segment, let's continue with the 'spiritual' choices.
>There seems to be one.
Is Mr. Kokkuri really just self-suggestion?
>Yes.
>It may not be only that.
Probably not.
>It may not be only that.
Does Mr. Kokkuri have powers that science cannot explain?
>I have a feeling it does.
>No, that can't be.
Not very confident, are we?
>I have a feeling it does.
A power unexplainable by science... That is...?
>Mr. Kokkuri's curse. (Conclusion)
>This is no good. Let's rethink this.
IT'S A CURSE, AAAHH!
>Mr. Kokkuri's curse. (Conclusion)
Although Ms. Hitomi denied it outright, that doesn't necessarily mean that Mr. Kokkuri cannot induce an unknown force other than self-suggestion.
When it comes to Mr. Kokkuri and an unknown power, the next thing that comes to mind is the word {curse}.
But to admit this would mean the collapse of the common sense that we've been defending.
I don't think I'm being foolish, but I don't want to deny a possibility based on preconceptions and common sense alone for a question yet unanswered.
But there is also no need to take such a risk and emphasize the possibility of a curse at this stage of the investigation.
In any case, there's too little information. More info will be necessary to solve this problem.
"...I'm not 100% sure I'm telling the truth. Moreover, to find out the truth, you need information from multiple perspectives to be more precise."
"In that sense, you should probably take this kind of ghost story to Mr. Kirisaki. I'm sure he would be delighted to cooperate with you."
"Kirisaki-kun" is the name of my brother-in-law. Suimei Kirisaki. He's a lecturer of folkloric studies at a university in Tokyo, and has a strong interest in folklore and ghost stories.
Come to think of it, I was lectured about Mr. Kokkuri a long time ago. That's right. I should go ask my brother for his opinion.
[After this, it continues the same as last time, so let's jump to the place where the routes diverge]
Future Direction of the Investigation
To begin with, is this case really a suicide?
>At this stage, the likelihood is high.
>It may not be suicide.
Was it suicide, or a curse?
>It may not be suicide.
Then, were the girls murdered? If so, who killed them?
>Someone who had a grudge against them.
>Mr. Kokkuri.
The man-ritual-spirit-thing himself.
>Mr. Kokkuri.
But that would be an affirmation of the paranormal and an abandonment of conventional wisdom...
>Even so, I'm not concerned with that. (Conclusion)
>I should think this over.
I literally do not care, says Junya.
>Even so, I'm not concerned with that. (Conclusion)
Now, let's stop here. I thought this post was much shorter than it should have been, but I think it's fine for a half-episode, I hope you guys agree too. But, next part will contain the beginning of the spiritual route, and although it may be similar to the other route, it will be translated in its entirety.
Anyway, see you then!
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