Chapter Eleven: Demo Playtest, Day Three, Investigation Time ④

Sunday, November 24^th, 2024, 8:00 A.M.

Kamo stepped into the hallway of Megalodon Manor.

Just like last time, Investigation Time started at 8:00 A.M. Only... this time, they only had four hours. If he didn't find truth before noon today, Kurata could take everyone's life with the push of a button.

But Kamo had made some progress in his reasoning.

He had already found out the truth behind the case created by Fuwa, so all he needed to do was solve the incident created by the Executioner... It was a race against time.

Kamo knocked on the door to Fuwa's room as soon as he stepped out.

Then he shouted again, but still there was no answer. By then, all five people other than Fuwa had gathered in front of the door.

Kenzan looked frustrated, probably because Kamo had strangled him in VR earlier.

Kamo had finished his crime in the VR space... at 1:10 A.M.

Kurata announced the beginning of Real World Crime Time at 2:30, and it had ended at 5:30. After that, the group had gone through the steps of logging out and back in like they had on the first day, and then had to wait until now.

When they'd logged in again, Kurata swore “After you all logged out, I didn't do anything that would affect the fairness of the game like changing the conditions of the building or removing or destroying any evidence of the crime.” Considering he'd confirmed the stage for the 24^th was still Dollhouse Hall... it should have been safe to take him literally that time.

On the last day's Investigation Time, everyone was free to investigate Megalodon Manor and Dollhouse Hall as they pleased. Everyone had immediately gathered in the real world to confirm if Fuwa was safe, of course.

“Break it down.”

Kamo said to Yuki, but then he was surprised, as Yuki looked exceptionally bad that morning. It wasn't just fatigue... he had fallen into despair.

“Are... Are you okay?”

When he asked that, Yuki instead looked at him worriedly and said “I should ask you that, you look like you didn't sleep all night.”

It was true that Kamo hadn't gone to bed last night, but Yuki was in a state that couldn't be explained by lack of sleep.

Five years ago, before he'd gone to Kakuriyo Island, Yuki had approached Kamo, who'd been working as a magazine contributor, to talk. At the time, Yuki had been hell-bent on avenging his childhood friend... and was worried that Kamo would see through his plans.

Why? Why do you have the same mix of determination and fear in your eyes now as back then?

However, their highest priority now was to make sure that Fuwa was safe.

Kamo didn't inquire further, and joined forces with Yuki to break down the door to his room. Compared to last time when they'd smashed through the door to Munakata's room, this time was far easier.

Everyone quickly realized the reason. It was because the door to Fuwa's room hadn't been locked and the swing bar wasn't engaged. Only the autolock had been keeping them out.

To everyone's surprise... Fuwa wasn't in the room, and there were no signs of a struggle either.

The VR headset and glove controllers sat on the table, and the notebook contained some notes that appeared to be related to Fuwa's thoughts on the cases. But the handwriting was messy and hard to read.

The group entered and investigated the room. Kamo picked up the VR headset and looked into the lenses, and immediately that familiar line of text was displayed before his eyes.

This VR headset is registered to Mr. Fuwa. You are not the registered owner and may not use it.

At that moment, Michi emerged from the bathroom with a dissonant smile and announced “Fuwa disappeared from a locked room... No, well... only the autolock was locked, so he should have been able to just walk out.”

Azuma frowned and said “But Mr. Fuwa said that he would never leave this room, no matter what. I don't think he'd go back on that no matter what sort of trick Kurata tried... How on earth did Kurata lure Mr. Fuwa out of his room?”

That was the biggest mystery here.

Last night, Fuwa made up his mind to die in his room, alongside the Executioner. Considering his character, he should have been serious.

Yuki walked into the hallway, saying as he did “Maybe the Executioner somehow got into the room and snuck up on Mr. Fuwa, then knocked him out and carried him away.”

It wasn't a very convincing argument.

Kamo crossed his arms and spoke. “Fuwa is nearly 190 cm tall, and judging by his size, he should weigh quite a bit. Who here would be capable of moving him?”

“That makes sense. It would definitely be hard for one person to move him. I'd say Mr. Fuwa probably weighs around 90 kilograms... I'm afraid even you, Mr. Kamo, who are also quite tall, wouldn't be able to move him very far.”

After that, Kamo checked with everyone to see if anyone had heard any particularly loud noises between last night and that morning. Perhaps because the soundproofing was so strong, nobody had heard anything.

Then the group went to check Munakata's room.

The room looked no different from last night. Nether the body nor the murder weapon appeared to have been moved. Of course, Fuwa wasn't their, either.

Then, they went to the empty room directly across from Munakata's room.

This was the first time they had investigated that room. Because no RHAPSODY had been placed there, the interior look particularly spacious, but other than that, it was no different from any other guest room. Naturally, it was also empty.

Finally, they found Fuwa in the game room next to the empty room.

The game room was unlocked and opened with a turn of the doorknob. In front of the shelves on the north side of the room, there lay Fuwa's body.

It was clear at a glance that he was already dead.

Fuwa's head and right shoulder leaned against the shelf, and a knife with a white handle was stuck in his chest. The place he'd been stabbed was over his heart... It looked like the knife had pierced his heart.

Even the heavy polyurethane fabric of the VR operation suit couldn't fully absorb the amount of blood that had flowed out, and a pool had formed on the carpet beneath him.

Scattered around the body were some game discs that looked like they'd originally been placed on the shelf. Fuwa had collapsed on top of them. Extrapolating, it looked like he'd been stabbed in the chest from the front, then the killer had pushed him towards the shelves.

Nobody let out any gasps of surprise, because nearly everyone had expected things to end this way. Only... everyone developed an expression of sadness.

Michi squatted down to take his pulse, then whispered “...He's colder than Munakata's body was yesterday. He must have died hours ago.”

The Real World Crime Time had begun at 2:30 A.M. If Kurata's words could be believed, Fuwa was killed after that. However, no one could guarantee that he wasn't lying.

So, they decided to estimate the time of death again.

Fuwa's body was cold even under his clothes. In addition, livor mortis was obvious, rigor mortis hadn't yet spread to the joints of his lower limbs, and there was no stiffness in his fingers or toes.

Generally, “four to five hours after death, covered parts of the body become cold” and “Two to three hours after death, stiffness begins to manifest in the jaw, and spreads from the joints of the upper limbs to the joints of the lower limbs, covering the whole body over the course of six to eight hours.”

Judging from Fuwa's temperature loss and degree of stiffness... his time of death should have been three to five hours ago.

Kamo did some quick mental math.

“Right now it's 8:15, so the presumed time of death would be between 3:15 and 5:15 A.M.”

Real World Crime Time was from 2:30 to 5:30 A.M., so it was basically confirmed that the Executioner had killed him during Real World Crime Time.

Then, they began a more detailed examination of the body.

Perhaps because they had the same cause of death, Fuwa and Munakata's corpses had many similarities.

For example, Fuwa was also still wearing his VR operation suit, and it was clear that he hadn't had a chance to take it off.

Kamo examined the smartwatch Fuwa was wearing on his left wrist.

This time too, the watch had come loose, so like Munakata's, it should have automatically unlocked itself after sensing the disappearance of its wearer's vital signs. Of course, Fuwa's left wrist had no traces of being jabbed by a poisoned needle.

Meanwhile, Kenzan examined the knife stuck in the corpse's chest. Based on the rubberized white handle, it could be seen that it was the same type of knife as the murder weapon in Munakata's case.

Kenzan's face twisted in anger as he said “...Just how many knives is the Executioner hiding?”

The knife wasn't itself the murder weapon that killed Munakata, because they'd just checked and confirmed that knife was still in Munakata's room. ...It was possible the Executioner had prepared one for each of them.

Strangely enough, there were no traces of defensive wounds on the corpse's arms.

...Fuwa had clearly and combatively said earlier “Even if it kills us both, I will personally restrain the Executioner”. So then why hadn't he resisted at all and just let himself be stabbed to death?

Of course, the possibility that the Executioner took advantage of some situation couldn't be ruled out. It was also possible that the Executioner had used some method to render Fuwa unconscious, then brought him here and stabbed him to death.

Kamo looked over the game room again.

There were only folding chairs, folding tables, and wall-mounted shelves. All the furniture was folded up and leaning against the foot of the southern wall. Besides there, the other three walls were fitted with shelves.

The eastern wall had shelves for home consoles from every generation of video games and a large wall-mounted TV. The northern and western shelves were filled with games from around the world, centered on MegalodonSoft titles.

Some of the display items on the northern shelf were scattered on the floor, and at a cursory glance there were Japanese, Chinese, and English versions of many different games. They should have fallen when Fuwa hit the shelf sideways.

Yuki was also looking around the room, and he looked puzzled.

“It's a bit strange to not see any comfortable chairs in what's clearly a game room, right? There are only folding chairs in this room; it doesn't look like it's designed to actually play games in.”

Indeed, the room barely had any furniture other than the wall-mounted shelves, giving it a strangely empty feel. Kamo nodded.

“Including the lounge, this whole place seems equipped with the bare minimum of furniture... It's also possible that after deciding to imprison us in this building, Kurata had everything he wasn't planning on using removed.”

The group then scrutinized the interior of the game room, but found no clues that would help them identify the Executioner.

By then... it was almost 9:00 A.M.

As the time limit approached, Kenzan couldn't hide his annoyance and said “Why don't we take a look at the VR space? It's useless to only investigate the real world, there was an incident in VR, too... Remember? I was killed in my own room.”

His proposal made sense, so the group decided to return to the VR space.

Of course... the one who'd killed KENZAN was Kamo.

Investigating that incident was almost pointless for Kamo, but investigating the VR space was also an important step to uncovering the identity of the Executioner.

Because.. what the Executioner had done wasn't just killing Munakata and Fuwa in the real world. They'd also placed the puppets on the round table in the VR space, and touched the light switch to leave the traces of the third pair of gloves.

Kamo had already made his plan.

...Even if the investigation in the real world isn't enough to identify the Executioner, combined with the three fingerprints in the VR space and other clues, it will surely be enough to reveal their true colors.

***

After returning to the VR space, everyone met up in front of KENZAN's room.

But only four people came, and KENZAN didn't show up.

The same rules from the YUKI case yesterday applied. When an avatar was murdered in their own room, to emphasize the scene's state as a locked room, the ghost of that avatar couldn't be released until a third party identified the body.

As before, Kamo and Yuki worked together to break down the locked door to the room.

KENZAN's room was extremely messy, with colorful figures all over the bed and floor, and KENZAN himself was collapsed on the side of the bed. His tongue hung out of his mouth, and there were obvious marks on his neck.

MICHI looked down at KENZAN and muttered softly “Strangled, just like me.”

Since more than one murder had already taken place in the real world, they had grown slightly numb to virtual murders. This time, they knew that Kenzan was still safe and sound in the real world, so their response was even more underwhelming.

Nonetheless, they were still faced with horrible corpses that were visually extremely realistic, and looking at such as scene and still being able to keep a level head... Kamo couldn't help but feel this sort of numbness was dangerous.

YUKI reached out to test KENZAN's pulse.

The death of Kenzan Ryohei's character has been confirmed by a third party... Ghost KENZAN has been released.

After the subtitle appeared, KENZAN manifested at the save point in the room.

He stood up and said “Finally, I can log in...”

KENZAN, like MICHI and YUKI, had an angelic halo around his head.

KENZAN, who had become a ghost, had his face contort at the sight of his own corpse with drool dripping from the corners of his mouth and traces of incontinence on his pants. However, he remembered that the time limit was drawing close and immediately shrugged and said “First off... let me describe what happened when I died.”

MICHI also smiled like usual and asked “It wasn't long after the start of VR Crime Time when the lights went out. Is that when you were killed?”

“That's right, I was ambushed.”

Of course, the one who'd turned off the lights was Kamo. He'd used the Murderer's authority to temporarily cut power to the entirety of Dollhouse Hall.

MICHI looked at her smartwatch and continued “The light from this watch is too weak to maneuver by, so I honestly had to just stay in my room. The blackout lasted for about 20 minutes, right?”

AZUMA shudder slightly as if she were recalling the scene. “During the blackout, I heard a loud noise like the sound of a struggle... At the time, I thought I was going to get hurt, and I was scared to death. So that noise was coming from KENZAN's room?”

KENZAN nodded.

“Most likely. I stayed in bed after the power went out last night... I don't know how long it was before somebody suddenly swooped in and strangled me. Before I could react, I was forcibly logged out.”

YUKI said in confusion “The culprit suddenly appeared in the room during the power outage? That isn't possible no matter how you look at it, right?”

KENZAN's face suddenly fell, and he pointed to the damaged door to his room as he said “I just honestly described what happened at the time... As you can see, the door was locked, and I also set the swing bar so that outsiders couldn't get in easily. Despite that... I honestly have no idea what happened.”

As he said, the swing bar was damaged when they broke the door, and the latch showed that the thumbturn lock had been engaged.

Looking at KENZAN and the others' puzzlement, Kamo secretly laughed to himself.

For the demo, Kamo had gone to great lengths to devise a crime trick that the Detectives would have never thought of. However, in every way... Fuwa's plan was much more creative than his.

The truth of KENZAN's case was as follows:

First, Kamo extinguished all the lights in Dollhouse Hall, making the darkness his ally. The Detectives couldn't see anything, but he could freely move about with the Murderer's Mask's night vision.

Kamo then used the giant remote to lift the roof off of the dollhouse.

The buttons of the remote control felt much stiffer due to his avatar's small size, but by firmly stepping on them, they could be operated. Just like that, the piano wire hanging from the ceiling of Puppet Hall slowly wound back up.

After just ten seconds, the ceiling of Dollhouse Hall had been removed.

After seeing the ceiling and roof portion of the building reach a certain height, Kamo circled around the building's outside until he reached KENZAN's room.

Kamo had learned a long time ago – the exterior walls of Dollhouse Hall were an uneven red brick design.

Maybe I can climb up the outer wall like a rock climber?

Kamo's assumption wasn't wrong. Luckily, he was decent at sports, and it didn't take much effort for him to climb the nearly three meter high outer wall.

After climbing the outer wall, Kamo waited for his opportunity and leapt onto KENZAN's bed.

KENZAN was attacked in the dark and strangled before he could resist. Kamo had to act more like an assassin in an action movie than a mystery novel culprit, but under the circumstances there wasn't anything he could do about that.

KENZAN looked at his corpse and held his head as he elaborated “Moments before I was attacked, I heard a slight scuffling sound. But the door to the room wasn't opened... Then I stopped paying attention for a moment, and I was suddenly strangled.”

MICHI reached out and picked up one of the puppets that had fallen to the floor. It was wearing a cheongsam. She asked thoughtfully “Do we think it means something that this room is so messy?”

Kamo had messed up the room so nobody would realize he'd specifically needed to remove the puppets on the tiered, interlocking shelves.

He needed to use those shelves to climb back out of the room. But the puppets on the shelves not only could have gotten in the way of his climbing, but also might have accidentally been stepped on.

...But the colors of the puppets in this room are really bright.

KENZAN's room was full of Chinese puppets from all eras, ranging from Three Kingdoms era figures to puppets with shaved heads and braids, and even a number of jiangshi.

Since he could only see through the night vision filter last night, Kamo hadn't seen all the decorations on the puppets, and he hadn't realized before now that they were all Chinese-style.

Meanwhile, YUKI kept on staring at the shelves on the wall, his gaze climbing from the floor to the ceiling.

Whether it was coincidence or not, his eyes followed the exact trajectory of Kamo's path out of the room.

...No, even Yuki couldn't have seen the truth that quickly. Luckily, I didn't leave any bloodstains on the shelves.

When he'd committed KENZAN's murder, the thing Kamo had been most worried about was the wound on his right hand.

His avatar had been cut by the blade of a utility knife. When he rock climbed the outer wall, there were good odds the wound on his right hand would be reopened. It wouldn't be a problem if he got blood on the outer wall, but he wanted to avoiding leaving any blood in KENZAN's room if at all possible.

For that reason, he'd worn his Investigator's Glove inside his Crime Glove... Fortunately, the wound hadn't reopened that much, and what little bleeding there was was absorbed by the white Investigator's Glove.

After climbing back outside the building using the shelves in KENZAN's room, Kamo once again stepped on the giant remote's buttons and dropped the roof back onto Dollhouse Hall... finally, he lifted the blackout, and the crime was completed.

The whole process had only taken about 20 minutes. Although he'd been forced to steal Fuwa's trick, he'd pulled it off quite well.

Only, it seemed that everyone knew who'd killed KENZAN. Because when Kamo looked back, he realized that everyone was staring at him with looks of “How the hell did you do it!?”

“...Why are all of you looking at me like you think I killed someone?”

AZUMA replied with difficulty “Because once the Murderer fails to act during a VR Crime Time, he'll be judged as Game Over, right? Now the virtual KENZAN was killed, but Mr. Kamo is still safe... so that proves that you committed a crime in VR.”

AZUMA seemed to have trouble deciding what tone to use while saying this, whether she wanted to sympathize with his position or indict him without mercy.

Kamo sighed.

...There's no point pretending to investigate the KENZAN case when everybody already suspects me.

“I have a proposal. Why don't we split up into two groups, one to stay here and investigate KENZAN's murder and the other going off to investigate somewhere else?”

As soon as he spoke, MICHI gave him a skeptical look.

“Split into two groups? You mean groups of three and two?”

“Well, if I go off on my own, I'll be suspected of destroying evidence, won't I? So it's best this way.”

“Come on, we were just about to start investigating the KENZAN case. Who but you would want to immediately abandon it to run off somewhere else, Kamo?”

She had a point, but YUKI spoke up.

“Then I'll go investigate somewhere else.”

MICHI listened to him with a blank stare while AZUMA quickly cut in. “Yesterday, Mr. Yuki said something strange... about not being interested in solving this incident. At the time, I thought you were just mocking Mr. Munakata.”

YUKI grinned and replied “I wasn't lying... Oh, and I'm not some armchair detective, either.”

It seemed he also knew about AZUMA's older brother. At that moment, AZUMA's anger boiled over.

“Everyone is fighting for their lives, and you're really going to just give up on deductions?”

As a detective who'd inherited her older brother's legacy, she couldn't forgive Yuki's actions.

YUKI looked at the floor and said “At least... I won't get in anyone's way.”

“Saying that is too despicable! You're a detective, don't you have the determination to pursue the truth?”

AZUMA was so angry she was crying, and YUKI still just shook his head.

At that moment, MICHI seemed to remember something and shouted.

“Ah! When it comes to detectives who have no interest in whether or not they can actually solve the case, and only investigate for fun like that... I can only think of one.”

This completely off-topic statement caused AZUMA to shut her mouth in confusion. YUKI glared at MICHI with a rare look of disdain.

“...What are you talking about?”

“Why don't you just use your real name? Writing is just a pastime, isn't it? Ryuuzen Yuki.”

Being called by his real name, the color drained from YUKI's face. Seeing his reaction, MICHI seemed pleased as she continued. “You really are the Ryuuzen Yuki who solved the Kakuriyo Island Incident! Ah, I should have realized it as soon as I saw your name was YUKI. I said I'd never heard of you before, but I take that back now... Speaking of Ryuuzen, your family founded the Ryuuzen Group, the large business conglomerate. Everyone's paying a lot of attention to you, calling you a rare Modern Day Hobbyist Detective.”

YUKI scowled in the face of the return of MICHI's nosy demeanor.

“What an interesting hobby... I've certainly never involved myself in any incident with such a half-assed attitude.”

His voice was quiet, but the emotion behind it struck everyone around him silent. YUKI turned to the door and walked out, saying behind him “We don't have time for this... Let's go, Mr. Kamo.”

***

Kamo and Yuki's relationship couldn't be called close.

However, according to what Rena had told him... Kamo knew that Yuki hated it when people said what he did was “just for fun” or “a hobby”. It was because he didn't want to hear that kind of talk that he hated the idea of living a stable life, and he'd left his family as soon as he got accepted to college. He must have wanted to decide his own path in life.

In fact, Kamo knew very well how seriously he took his job as a writer, and he thought he understood the determination he'd held to go to Kakuriyo Island for revenge, and his mental readiness to solve the incident.

As he walked down the corridor, Kamo told YUKI “I'm sorry, it's my fault. If I hadn't said we should split up, you wouldn't have had to hear that sort of talk.

“Ah, do you even care, Mr. Kamo?”

Seeing YUKI look so full of worries, Kamo couldn't help but smile.

“I care quite a bit.”

“I don't know how many times I've heard things like that since I was a kid, so I've gotten used to it... although it still really hurts when I hear it from the editor-in-chief. But it's also my fault for being unable to write anything that makes people think otherwise.”

Even though he'd said all that, it turned out he did care what MICHI had said.

Kamo couldn't stand to see him like that and changed the subject.

“Anyway... let's start our investigation from the common space closest to here.”

Kamo walked to the foyer.

He glanced back down the corridor and heard the three who'd stayed in KENZAN's room loudly discussing the case.

Kamo turned the knob on the corridor-side door and entered the foyer.

The entrance door was locked, and at a cursory glance, there were no traces related to the incident.

This was where Kamo had left the dollhouse during VR Crime Time.

Could I have made a careless mistake like Fuwa and left some traces here? – It would be a lie to say Kamo never thought things like that.

Fortunately, he was worried about nothing.

YUKI stood in the corridor looking into the foyer and said softly “But what a surprise.”

“What?”

“I didn't expect you to decide to check out the foyer first, Mr. Kamo. This is just the place where you found that Crime Glove, right? It isn't important.”

Even though YUKI looked casual, his points were as sharp as ever. Kamo sighed.

“Don't be so judgy. Let's go to the main hall.”

YUKI grinned.

“The key to solving this case is really the fingerprints on the light switch, isn't it? And... eh?”

The moment he walked into the main hall, YUKI stopped in surprise. Soon, Kamo understood why.

The round table in the center of the main hall only had the puppets representing the MICHI and YUKI cases. There weren't any additions.

YUKI looked at the round table and said with regret “Even if the cases in the real world have nothing to do with the VR space... I thought for sure there'd be a puppet hinting at KENZAN's death here, and I kinda hoped the Executioner would leave new evidence as a result.”

“Maybe the Executioner got scared after they accidentally left those three fingerprints when they put the puppets here last night.”

YUKI listened and nodded.

“That sounds right. Instead of making the same mistake, they might have just decided not to move the puppets.”

The puppet calling card was supposed to support Kurata's position by emphasizing the idea that someone who knew the causes of death of the victims in both MICHI's and YUKI's cases, in other words, the Executioner, was also acting in the VR space.

Kamo had fallen into that trap and concluded that the person who'd killed YUKI must have been the Executioner because the real Executioner had left those puppets.

However, Kamo was the only one who'd created an incident during the last VR Crime Time.

In that case, it was meaningless to imply that “KENZAN's case was the work of the Executioner”, because the fact that nobody had been killed for failing to achieve their goal was proof that the one and only crime was the work of the Murderer. Therefore, instead of taking the risk of leaving more evidence, the Executioner should have preferred not to leave a calling card at all.

Kamo and Yuki didn't find any more clues, so they moved to the southern side of the main hall.

To the left of the door, dozens of puppets cluttered the shelves on the wall.

These puppets didn't seem to have any theme, with traditional fantasy, Japanese, and cyberpunk figures all intermingled.

Kamo rubbed his chin and said “It seems like every puppet in the main hall is kept on these shelves.”

Perhaps because the main hall had a large number of doors and windows, the north, east, and west walls didn't have any shelves, and were much neater and more open than anywhere in the guest rooms.

YUKI picked up a puppet of a green-clad elf and looked sad. Because the puppet's face looked a lot like MUNAKATA.

He put the puppet back and said “By the way, on the first day's VR Investigation Time... Mr. Munakata also examined the puppets on this shelf.”

Hearing his words, Kamo also remembered the first day.

“Hmm, I remember that, too. At the time, I was focused on going to investigate the kitchen, so I left the main hall pretty quickly... By the way, do you still remember the state of the shelves at the time?”

“Well... My memory isn't as good as yours, Mr. Kamo. But I have a feeling that the king puppet that was later placed on the round table came from this shelf. It stuck out in my memory because it looked a bit like me.”

“That was the puppet used to represent the death of your avatar, YUKI, the one with the cup, right?” Kamo said as he looked at the round table.

He didn't remember the king puppet, but he did remember seeing the tuxedo wearing puppet that looked like MICHI on this shelf.

Kamo nodded and said “We should be safe to assume that the Executioner took both puppets from these shelves and put them on the round table.”

“And... I got the feeling that Mr. Munakata was feeling tense, or that the way he was moving was a bit brusque. Did you get that feeling?”

“He said he didn't like to do things himself.”

“I don't know if that was the reason, but whatever the case, his movements when he was checking the shelves were very impatient... He didn't care at all about where he touched the puppets or if he scattered their accessories all over the place.”

Kamo also remembered that he'd seen MUNAKATA fiddling with something on the shelf in front of YUKI, moments before he'd left the hall.

Then, although MUNAKATA had picked up the fallen puppets, he'd left without picking up their accessories. YUKI had been forced to pick them up himself and casually put them back on the shelf.

Kamo smiled bitterly and said “Well... all we can say is that no incidents had taken place in Puppet Hall yet back then, so he didn't have any obligation to preserve the scene.”

Saying that, Kamo turned to the model house on the other side of the door.

The dollhouse inside Dollhouse Hall... it was 1/12^th the size of the model in the original Puppet Hall, or a one-hundred-forty-four-to-one scale model. He examined the model in front of him with awareness of that fact and couldn't help but feel emotional.

Meanwhile, YUKI kept scrutinizing the light switch.

“Those three fingerprints are really important, aren't they...”

“Because they're the only trace the Executioner's left all game.”

Kurata, as the Gamemaster, was in control of everything Kamo and the others did, both in VR and the real world.

The Executioner, who committed crimes planned by Kurata, could have been said to have a massive advantage over Kamo and Fuwa, and it was honestly a miracle that Kurata hadn't noticed the presence of the black pencil stain.

The three fingerprints remained clearly on the switch, not blurred or overlapped in the slightest. Though minor, the fingerprints were one of the important clues they had to identify the Executioner.

Kamo looked down at his smartwatch.

It was almost 10:00 A.M.... The time limit for “Delicious Death for Detectives” was approaching. Subtracting the time it would take him to explain his reasoning, it was clear that he only had one chance to call for an Answer Time.

Kamo took a deep breath and said “...I've solved the case.”

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