Chapter 43

"All I did was add the fact that you went on a date to the block of time when Senior Kishi had no alibi—the empty slot created when Senior Kanbara was lured out by a fake meeting."

Kitsunesaki still tries to argue back, clinging to the act of insisting she is Kishi.

"If that's the case, then I'd have talked... to someone else. But back then no one knew about the bullying, right? Did I ever tell anyone that I'd been left out back then?"

"No, you never did."

"Right!? Right, right!?"

"And Kitsunesaki knew you wouldn't tell. She understood the structure of the bullying! Senior Kishi had surely lost her mother and didn't want to worry the father who was raising her alone! That's why she decided never to speak about the bullying!"

"Ghhhaaaaah!? That's... all talk... anyway, anyway, you've got no proof for that either, right? You can't prove I didn't go on that date, can you!?"

I don't have proof either.

Everything is my fantasy spun from a single piece of evidence.

But from here on is the real thing. If the opponent wants evidence, let's get ready to slam it down.

"No, I don't. So—shall we think about the second incident?"

"A second incident!?"

"The day after Senior Kanbara was killed, Senior Murayama was attacked. One idea is that the same culprit did it, because it ties to Senior Kishi's bullying. But everything fits if we assume it was Kitsunesaki's handiwork."

"Fit...? You're pinning even that on Professor Kitsunesaki!? Professor Kitsunesaki..."

"At first I thought it was for revenge... but that changed midway. Like I just said, if Professor Kitsunesaki felt no love for Senior Kishi, revenge becomes hard to accept. In truth there must have been some other reason that left her no choice but to kill..."

"What!? What could that be!? A reason to kill—there's nothing besides revenge!"

Now I will finally present the evidence.

This is both the reason Senior Kanbara was killed and the reason Senior Murayama was attacked.

"There is one! Here it is!"

Kitsunesaki's eyes widen at the takeout slip I pull out, and she clutches her head. She must have realized by now.

"That's...!?"

"You thought nobody else would understand? You panicked? You worried this would turn suspicion toward Vice-Principal Kanou? This takeout slip was in Senior Kanbara's pocket—something you didn't have. Do you know what it means?"

A takeout slip alone would mean nothing to anyone. It's the piece of evidence that will turn this whole case on its head.

So let's flip it. That will reverse everything.

"Uuuuuuh!"

Tears begin to stream down Kitsunesaki's face as she resists this desperate situation.

"Crying won't help. This slip—this slip is a counseling form written as Senior Kishi's desperate cry for help, addressed to you!"

"Ugyaaaaaaaaah!"

The counseling-form system. I'd learned about it from Detective Chikage.

A counseling form can serve as proof a student was bullied. Yet if there's scribbling or casual notes on the back, its credibility plummets in an instant.

It becomes proof that the teacher didn't believe a single word Senior Kishi said. It turns her into a liar, driving her into a corner.

"These two incidents are now connected. When you killed Senior Kanbara you must have been told—probably something like, considering Senior Murayama's attack: 'If this is made public, what do you think will happen to you? Just so you know, Murayama has the original, too.'"

"Ugh...!"

Even after attacking Senior Murayama, in the end it was still within Kanbara's lie.

The genuine article was with Senior Urakawa. Kitsunesaki had been completely fooled; to keep her own mistakes from circulating, to keep hidden that she'd abandoned a student to die, she murdered Senior Kanbara.

And then she tried to kill Senior Murayama.

I explain that situation.

"In Senior Murayama's case, you summoned her near the school carrying a rope. You planned to hang Senior Murayama..."

"Th-that's..."

"But I thought: wait. Why did you need to kill with a rope? Couldn't you have done it with something simpler like a handkerchief or a towel? Rope means a special trip to the home-center; it isn't easy to get hold of."

Even when I voice a single doubt, no reaction comes back. Probably she can no longer keep up the act of being Senior Kishi.

I press on with the explanation, unconcerned.

"So I wondered. What situation would make rope the best choice for Kitsunesaki? Then it became clear: the fact that Kitsunesaki had not yet been questioned. In other words, you—Kitsunesaki—were thinking: 'Right now I'm not under suspicion. In this situation I don't want to do anything that might incriminate me.'"

On top of that, Kitsunesaki believed that if she could just snatch the counseling form from Senior Murayama it would all be over.

"So you thought you'd end it. Right now, the person under suspicion—Senior Murayama—would commit suicide. That would be the cleanest. Senior Urakawa doesn't carry a cell phone, so you could only contact her by landline; Vice-Principal Kanou is rather free-spirited and thinks only of herself. Even if you tried to lure her somewhere to break her alibi, chances were high she wouldn't come, or would run away. Only a dead person has an alibi that can't possibly be prepared."

That's why you chose to fake a suicide. And with that the reason for deliberately choosing rope becomes clear.

"Senior Murayama is a little on the heavy side. If you tried to hang her with only a towel or handkerchief the string would probably break first. That's why you had to use rope. That's why you chose it..."

"Do you have any more evidence...?"

Kitsunesaki suddenly demands evidence. She's arrived at just the right moment.

"Don't rush me. I was just about to say. By choosing rope you left a tremendous piece of evidence. The werewolf staged-murder that happened at Jinrou Academy. The final proof that ties it all together is the rope used to hang the werewolf—so to speak."

"Hang with rope...?"

"Ah... You knew, didn't you? That the police were around you. Probably from the moment the incident happened. And on top of that, you waited for another chance and thought you had to kill Senior Murayama...! Which means...!"

"Wh-which means what!?"

I stand up and fire the bullet of truth straight at Kitsunesaki.

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