Chapter 41

For a moment, I couldn't understand why the culprit was claiming to be Kishi. I pieced it together while the other side kept sitting in the chair.

Surely the other side thought that if she brought up Kishi, "the detective will take it easy on me out of pity for his revenge and ask gentle questions."

Too bad.

I'm not afraid anymore. I won't waver; I'll carry out my will as the one who solves riddles to the very end.

"Senior Kishi, then...... shall we go over the whole incident again?"

"Y-yes."

Just as the culprit wished, I kept addressing the other side as Senior Kishi. I'd better stay in character as him until the rebuttal phase, after all.

Keeping in mind that I wouldn't falter no matter what happened, I began to speak about the case.

"The night before last, at six o'clock. Kanbara-senpai summoned a certain person behind the storeroom. That was the beginning of everything. The culprit, sensing she might be harmed, had taken a kitchen knife from the home-economics room in advance."

"T-that's scary."

"Yeah. Then the summoned culprit received an unbelievable shock from something Kanbara-senpai said, and in her panic stabbed wildly with the knife. Probably quite impulsive."

"W-why?"

"Ah...... the culprit prepared no alibi, nothing. No conspicuous tricks either. Yet the only ability she excels at is not being found out as the culprit...... if she had bothered to think up tricks it would have gotten complicated."

"S-so that's it...... but what is this 'ability to not be found'?"

Lowering her brows, the culprit asked, still as Senior Kishi, about the single most important point of the case.

"It's a power of misdirection. For some reason the culprit, with precise judgment, placed an occult book, a fox mask, and a bow and arrow at the victim's side. Then she must have thought the case was settled."

"Is that so......? Ah, from what I saw from the sky, there were also a ball and the cat she killed placed beside the corpse. But with this we still can't identify the culprit, right?"

"No, we can."

"Eh?"

"The ball speaks. Ball-Eco the Seer. I think only someone who knew Kanbara-senpai was the seer could have placed that ball there. Kanbara-senpai could be linked to the seer only inside the Werewolf game held the day before last."

"Then the culprit is among the people who played Werewolf......?"

I shook my head.

Isn't there one more person who could have placed the ball? Someone other than the culprit right there.

"Wrong. If the one who placed the ball was the dying Kanbara-senpai herself...... wouldn't the person thought to be the culprit change?"

"Wha—!? Kanbara? Kanbara? No way, Kanbara placed the ball?"

"Yes. Even if the culprit prepared the ball, Kanbara-senpai must have wanted to leave a message on it. Gravel that looked like Kanbara-senpai had attached it was found on the ball."

"B-but. Even if Kanbara placed the ball, it only means she tried to accuse one of the Werewolf players, doesn't it? We don't know who, though......"

The culprit's face clouded. While still claiming to be Kishi, she was flustered by her own emotions. At this rate she would end up exposing herself.

"No, we can tell. One more thing. Kanbara-senpai also attached gravel— to the kitchen knife."

"The kitchen knife......? I can't imagine a message being on the knife itself......"

"Right. Probably what the knife points to— stabs— is the message."

"Stabs and points......?"

"Yes. I believe the one who killed the white cat Lop was Kanbara-senpai herself!"

"Huh!?"

The culprit probably knew the situation, yet hearing it from someone else made it sound horrifying. To take the life of a beloved cat at the moment of death— unthinkable.

Yet if it were Kanbara-senpai...... she might. She who treated life lightly and couldn't feel others' pain might well have done it.

"It's only natural to be shocked. Probably even the culprit didn't expect it. The next day, at the crime scene, she must have seen the corpse of a cat she hadn't killed lying with the body."

"......but what does the cat matter......?"

"It's an important dying message. Though I think the cat itself has no meaning."

"Eh, what do you mean?"

"Kanbara-senpai must have used the idea of death itself as the dying message."

"Um, uh......"

The culprit must be realizing it soon. The true nature of the dying message.

I grew even bolder and raised my voice.

"And the single letter carved on the cat's back— the letter for 'death.' That's the big hint."

"Ha...... ha!?"

The culprit's true colors began to show.

I cornered her with my reasoning.

"Kanbara-senpai was the seer, and there's something that links her to the character for 'one.'"

That's right. Kanbara-senpai had said it— before starting the Werewolf game the day before last. A statement that is now crucial.

"But there are four of us. If one is gone it won't be fun. Okay then...... let's make ...... the first victim, shall we?"

I had been deceived until now.

Hidden within that statement was the key.

While savoring that fact, I spoke the culprit's name before me.

"The first victim, the first death— you. The one who murdered Kanbara-senpai— is you! Kitsunesaki Yayoi!"

The female teacher faltered for a moment. Bewildered, as if she couldn't grasp what I was accusing her of, she then returned to normal.

As the persona of Senior Kishi.

"W-what are you saying? Stop this awful joke about Professor Kitsunesaki being the culprit! That person is precious to me! What could an outsider like you possibly understand!?"

She still intends to keep up the act.

I thought once I said her name, Kitsunesaki would drop the mask, but she still clings to her fantasy.

Unexpected. But fine. No matter whose imitation she tries, it won't overturn my reasoning.

"My investigation made it clear. Do you have a proper rebuttal?"

"O-of course! It's just a dying message. Nothing to fear......"

"No, Kitsunesaki was afraid. The proof is that Kanbara-senpai tried to write something on the ground and the culprit erased it."

"That only means the culprit should have stabbed Kanbara to death faster, right? Just a dying message."

"No, the culprit must have wanted to torment Kanbara-senpai and dragged it out. Either the knife was taken and the culprit couldn't act rashly, or something like that."

"B-but......"

No buts.

"Kitsunesaki was definitely afraid. Kanbara-senpai must have told her, 'I'll leave evidence that you were here.'"

"Ugh......!"

She must have feared being found out. She feared being named as the cause of someone's death.

I'm the same. The reason I hid Miiko wasn't to protect her. I was just afraid of being blamed.

Because I carried that same guilt, I understood her feelings. So I put my soul into my words and let them fly.

"Kitsunesaki must have panicked because Kanbara-senpai said she would use the werewolf topic they knew nothing about to accuse her! That's why! That's why Kitsunesaki rushed to scatter werewolf-related tools at the scene to muddy the dying message!"

Even after that, the rebuttal continued.

"Even if that's true, even if it is......! Then why didn't she dispose of the cat? I saw it— Professor Kitsunesaki was the second one to find the body, right? If she were the culprit, she'd have been surprised by evidence that wasn't supposed to be there and tried to destroy it, right!? So why didn't she, huh!? Give me a reason, will you!?"

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