Chapter Six: Demo Playtest, Day Two, Investigation Time ②

Saturday, November 23^rd, 2024, 9:30 A.M.

“Well, let's try to find out how the door was sealed first.”

After they finished investigating the inside of the storeroom, FUWA made the suggestion. KENZAN couldn't wait to act after hearing that.

“We'd better recover the shelf and the rubber boat first.”

He reached down to lift the boxes of natural water that had fallen along with the shelf. The cracked glass bottles were still slowly leaking water.”

“...I'll move this water by the wall first.” KENZAN said and moved the two plastic crates.

One box contained six one-liter bottles full of natural water, which should have added up to a total weight of 12 kilograms. Only two of the bottles had broken; the rest were still full of water.

Kamo and YUKI then worked together to lift the shelf.

MUNAKATA stood and watched them lazily, not once taking his eyes off Kamo.

Unexpectedly, he hadn't revealed Kamo's identity yet.

Since he'd already realized it, Kamo would have preferred if he just said so already, but it seemed he was waiting for Kamo to make a mistake.

Incidentally, the shelf Kamo had prepared was two and a half meters tall, 80 cm wide, and 40 cm long, and was styled like an ordinary cabinet with the back panel removed. It was made of high grade materials.

On closer examination, with the exception of the bottom shelf, there was a dust coating of uniform thickness on the top and on each layer. It seemed the impact when it fell to the floor hadn't been enough to shake the dust off. In fact, there had originally been dust on the bottom shelf too, but because Kamo had placed the water bottles there and then they'd broken, the leaked water had flowed everywhere and left messy traces.

...If MUNAKATA suspects me of destroying evidence, I'll be in trouble.

Kamo held up the shelves while being careful not to touch the dust. Although they hadn't discussed it, YUKI obviously knew to do the same.

It wasn't long before the shelf had been returned to its original position.

“I see, the shelf was about half a meter from the storeroom door and stood parallel to the door's panel, huh?” MUNAKATA said as he stood at a distance.

Just opposite him, KENZAN was actively walking around.

“Was all that water put on it to add weight? Because empty shelves are pretty easy to push over.”

As he said, the empty shelf was very unstable and would fall over with the slightest push.

The industrious KENZAN brought two more crates of natural water from the kitchen, and Kamo and YUKI helped arrange them on the bottom shelf.

Because he'd been doing physical labor for a while now, Kamo could feel the sweat smothering him in the VR suit.

“This should be about right... How's progress on the other side going?”

MUNAKATA, who in the end hadn't done a thing, turned his head and asked the other three.

The rubber dinghy had completely deflated, and FUWA was putting tape over the hole. He looked a bit like a gorilla, with large hands that made him look clumsy, but he was actually rather dexterous.

FUWA patted the rubber boat and stood up.

“That should last long enough for the simulation. Ms. Azuma, how are things on your end?”

MICHI and AZUMA, who had split up from the group and gone deeper into the storeroom, walked back.

“I've looked all over, and it seems like this is the only air pump that could inflate it.”

Looking at the large pump in MICHI's hands, FUWA muttered “So it's a foot pedal type, not an electric one, huh.”

“Yeah, I used a pump like this to inflate the inner tube I used when I was a kid. Whoever killed me must have used this to inflate that rubber dinghy.”

The air pump wasn't the common cylinder, but the shape of a pair of bellows. Despite that, it was a proper pump that could expel a large amount of air when stepped on.

FUWA rubbed his chin in thought.

“If it's a foot operated pump, you can't use it through the door or from a distance.”

They spent thirty minutes reinflating the rubber boat.

The boat Kamo had asked the production staff to add was two meters long, one meter wide, and 45 cm tall, so even with several people taking turns, it took a while to inflate. By the time they were finished, everyone had worked up a sweat.

The inflated rubber boat fit snugly into the gap between the shelf and the storeroom door.

FUWA knocked on the wall and shouted through the door into the kitchen.

“Hey! Try turning the doorknob like you did earlier!”

YUKI and KENZAN had already returned to the kitchen earlier and were on standby.

They tried to push the door open, but the edge of the rubber dinghy pressed against the doorknob. The door only made it a small crack open before being stopped dead.

“Ram the door!”

There was a dull thud from the other side of the iron door.

On the second impact, the shelf tipped backwards and hit the concrete floor with a loud thud. At the same time, the door flew open and YUKI and KENZAN crashed into the storeroom and fell onto the rubber boat.

The rubber dinghy once again wheezed with leakage, and the water bottles weighing down the bottom of the shelves also began to leak.

FUWA looked at the sequence of events and nodded. “...The process of opening the storeroom door was perfectly recreated.”

A new hole had been punched in the rubber boat, so the group concluded that the bottom of the shelf had hit the hull of the boat on its way to the floor.

AZUMA confirmed that and sighed.

“Another locked room murder... Well, let's start the investigation close by.”

She dragged the rubber boat deeper into the storeroom, and then brought some kitchen paper from the kitchen and wiped down its surface.

KENZAN looked confused. “What are you doing?” he asked.

“If the killer moved anything, I think it'd be the dinghy.”

“That makes sense... If that boat wasn't there, the storeroom door would be able to open forty or fifty centimeters before hitting the shelf. Ignoring the thickness of the door and the height of the doorknob, a skinny person could slip through that gap.”

“Let's look inside the rubber boat first.”

There weren't any knives in the storeroom, so they used a sword taken from one of the puppets. Even though it was just a model sword, it was made of metal and extraordinarily sharp. ...It seemed the props had been properly sharpened.

AZUMA used the sword to cut open the rubber boat as she continued “Mixing bleach-based detergent and ammonia-based detergent makes chlorine gas, doesn't it? If the culprit injected a liquid or powder into the rubber boat, they could have inflated it automatically using a vaporization reaction.”

Seeing her scrutinize the inside of the rubber boat, Kamo almost let slip a smile.

As the one who'd killed MICHI, Kamo knew better than anyone that there wasn't a speck of powder or a drop of liquid inside that dinghy.

Soon, KENZAN muttered listlessly “There... isn't anything inside.”

“However, that isn't proof that the culprit didn't use a chemical reaction. For instance, if the boat had been filled with dry ice, the sublimated carbon dioxide could have caused the boat to expand, and it wouldn't leave any traces.”

Suddenly, the voice chat was filled with the sound of Kurata's vicious laughter.

“How disappointing, that a great detective can only reason at the level of a child. You appear to have run out of things to investigate, so why don't I clarify a few things?|

FUWA mockingly replied “Oh? And what no-doubt-useful information do you have for us?”

“First of all, regarding the rules for ghosts. Currently, the only ones who've become ghosts are Michi and Yuki. If a ghost dies in the VR space a second time...”

MICHI smiled nervously.

“Is dying twice considered Game Over? Then I guess I'd better start avoiding salt.”

“No, you'll just develop a second halo. In this game, the number of halos you have marks the number of times you've died.”

MICHI didn't respond right away, so Kurata continued. “Second: regarding the locks on each room... Whether it's in the real world or in VR, the autolocks on each guest room door can only be unlocked by the smartwatches you all wear on your wrists. There aren't any spare keys, so please be aware of that.”

MICHI once again grumbled “The classic setup for a locked room murder. Anything else?”

“This next part is very important. For the sake of simplicity, in 'Delicious Death for Detectives', it's set so that your avatars can only ingest liquids.”

Kamo had noticed he hadn't seen any solid food in the VR world. It turned out that was due to the settings.

“Also, in VR space, the contents of a container must match the description of it as an item. For example, it would be impossible to put vodka in one of those natural water bottles.”

It was impossible for any virtual item to have a smell or taste, so it was impossible to confirm a bottle's contents that way. Thus, this rule was necessary for the sake of fairness.

After a brief pause, Kurata spoke again.

“As for what liquids you may have ingested... this building does not contain any poisons or sleeping drugs, at least, not enough to actually cause unconsciousness or death.”

YUKI instantly frowned.

“That isn't possible. My character was poisoned and Ms. Michi was incapacitated by drugs.” 

“That's right. Not only did I purposely force you all to regularly drink water... but I also arranged for poison to be given to one person, Murderer or Executioner.”

Hearing Kurata's words, Kamo was shocked. Because that was very bad for his plan.

As expected, YUKI was already thinking.

 “So... only one person received the poison?”

“Yes. Let's call them 'X' for the time being.”

MICHI asked a pointed question.

“There are neurotoxins and blood toxins, which did you give this 'X'?”

“That, I can't say. But I can tell you what the container and the poison look like. I only prepared one vial, about the size of an avatar's finger. It contains a colorless liquid.”

MICHI scrunched her neck, suddenly pale with fear.

“You probably gave the Murderer or the Executioner a bunch of other overpowered tools for murder, didn't you?”

“I didn't. I was actually very restrained with the tools I gave for them to commit their crimes in the VR space; both roles each started with a Murderer's Mask with night vision and a pair of black gloves for use in crimes. X also started with the vial of poison and a black rope.”

KENZAN sniffed and looked confused.

“That's it? The only things to actually use for murders are the poison vial and the black rope.”

“Hehehehe, if you solve the case, only to discover that the answers were all pointlessly complex mechanical tricks that just used miles and miles of fishing line... none of you would find that satisfying, right? Aside from the props I just mentioned, all killers have to use items that are visible to everyone.”

KENZAN was silent and unhappy.

Kurata continued “One last thing you should know... The amount of poison I gave X is over 8,640 times the lethal dose for one of your avatars.”

The smile was audible in the voice. Kamo, hearing this information for the first time, couldn't help but ask in confusion “That's quite a lot. And why did you have a number prepared?”

“You're the detectives, finding out if there's any special meaning in it is your jobs. Please don't disappoint me with boring reasoning again.”

After Kurata's additional explanations, Kamo and the others spent 20 more minutes analyzing the info they had. Just as they were about to disband and investigate elsewhere...

“Kamo, can you investigate with me?” MUNAKATA called out to him.

Everyone present looked shocked.

FUWA smiled ironically and said “How rare... I thought you were one of those 'I work alone' types.”

“Not really, I work with Retsu all the time.”

MICHI, the self-proclaimed Jack-of-all-trades, folded her arms in puzzlement.

“I've never heard of the Drifting Detective having a partner... Then, is that the name of the husky that travels with you?”

MUNAKATA ignored her and wandered into the kitchen, signaling for KAMO to follow. Kamo did so, then said in a defeated voice “...You're awfully bold.”

MUNAKATA stopped near the dollhouse in the main hall and looked back at Kamo.

 “On the contrary, I'm being quite cautious. I didn't want to talk to anyone until I was certain they were safe. At least this way I'm certain you aren't the Executioner.”

“What do you want from me?”

A demonic smile appeared on MUNAKATA's usually handsome face.

“I'm lazy. Let's just say 'whatever I tell you to'.”

“I refuse.” Kamo said instantly.

MUNAKATA looked taken aback.

“Are you really in a position to say something like that?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing. You set a trap, you got some info, so hurry up and share it with the class already. Not only will it increase the efficiency of the investigation, it'll also increase your team's odds of survival.”

“...My 'team'?”

MUNAKATA growled, the corner of his eye twitching. Then, he breathed hard and said “I'm only looking out for myself, I don't care whether anyone else lives or dies. Besides, why should I share the info I have, huh? I can crack this case all on my own without any problems.”

The unexpected words struck Kamo speechless.

Just then, YUKI and AZUMA walked into the hall. They'd probably overheard MUNAKATA, as AZUMA was staring at him judgmentally.

MUNAKATA looked at her and frankly asked “What? Do you have a problem with that?”

AZUMA, who could usually speak her mind no matter who she was talking to, shut her mouth as though she were afraid of MUNAKATA's neutral expression.

However, to their surprise, it was YUKI who spoke up. “Mr. Munakata, why do you assume we want your information? I don't care about solving the mystery in this game... or whatever it is you've uncovered.”

MUNAKATA was taken aback again and looked at YUKI as though he were an alien. After a while, he silently left for the southern section.

YUKI was unimpressed and continued. He was carrying a bottle of natural water in one hand. “I just took this bottle for archival purposes, don't mind it. That said, what's that over there?”

YUKI pointed to the trash can underneath the base of the dollhouse. A ball of paper had been thrown in there.

After he asked, he picked it up and unfolded it...

ArteMis Hero

Ares hinted Pen

It was the exact same note Kamo had seen during VR Crime Time. Last night, he'd left it on the table and hadn't crumpled it up or thrown it away.

...Someone threw it in the trash after my slot of VR Crime Time ended? Was it the Executioner?

As Kamo stood thinking, YUKI looked at the note and sighed.

“What's with this writing? It's garbled up and the grammar is all weird.”

The Ryuuzen clan took foreign language education seriously, and Rena and Yuki were both proficient English speakers.

“...You must have written this, right Mr. Kamo?”

“What? I thought you wrote it, Yuki.”

“It wasn't me!”

The two were busy bickering when AZUMA glanced at the note and suddenly screamed.

Kamo rushed over to see her dark blue dress hanging from the corner of the low table, nearly ripping. Confused, she muttered “Wha... What's a nail doing there?”

Just as she said, there was a black iron nail nailed in the corner of the table against the wall, with the head of the nail protruding about a centimeter out.

AZUMA smoothed out the hem of her dress and asked “Was this nail there yesterday?”

“I don't know. That corner's against the wall, it's rather inconspicuous, and the nail's the same color as the table, so it's possible I just didn't notice it.” Kamo looked up and continued speaking to YUKI.

“...By the way, there's something I wanted to ask you.”

“What is it?”

“You left that black stain on the light switch, right?”

Kamo pointed to the light switch next to the dollhouse. There was a black stain there with three clear fingerprints left on it.

YUKI looked unsure for a moment, but it quickly dawned on him.

“Ah, I must have. I was drawing in my room last night, and I was sharpening a pencil when I heard that noise, and I ran straight out into the corridor, then the main hall. That's probably pencil lead dust that got on my hand while I was sharpening the pencil and got on the switch when I turned on the lights.”

The mystery of the black stain was solved. Now the problem was the three fingerprints on it.

“The switch has a width of four centimeters, and the fingerprints on it are in a vertical line... and now we can be sure that they were left after Yuki touched the switch.”

YUKI gazed at the three fingerprints lined up and motioned to place his hand on the switch.

“They should have placed their right hand on the switch like this. Other than the fingertips, there aren't any obvious marks, so it's hard to tell whose fingerprints they are.”

AZUMA shuddered and asked “Could they have been left by the Murderer or the Executioner?”

Kamo nodded.

“It's likely. But it's hard to determine who left them because there aren't any discernible features here... hmm? If you look closer, it looks like there are other marks on the tips of the index and middle fingers.”

The marks left in the black stain were distinct from the fingerprints, with countless tiny dots imprinted on it.

“It's probably from this.”

After saying that, YUKI pulled the black glove he'd picked up in the foyer from his left pocket.

The fingerprints left on the stain were unsmudged and didn't overlap, so it was easy to compare. The non-slip material on the palm was identical to the markings.

AZUMA couldn't hide her excitement and gasped “There's no doubt... This trace was left when someone touched it while wearing the Crime Glove.”

“But don't you think this glove is too worn? It's still covered in wood shavings and these weird black fibers.”

As he said, the glove's non-slip layer was almost peeled off, and the fingertips were all worn. With the glove in that state, it was impossible to leave such pristine fingertips on the switch.

At that, AZUMA grumbled before speaking again.

“In any case... These fingerprints probably belong to the Executioner, right?”

“Right. They appeared after Yuki came to check the hall at 12:50. At the same time, the puppets that symbolize the murders in the VR world were placed on the round table after 12:50.”

“The person who placed those puppets knew the cause of death of both victims... That's basically a confession that they're the Executioner. In that case, it means the Executioner entered the main hall after 12:50, turned on the lights, and placed the puppets.”

AZUMA examined the Crime Glove as she continued “The palm portion of the gloves has a non-slip layer, so it isn't possible to force a left-handed glove onto the right hand to leave fingerprints.”

“Yes, it's beyond question that the fingerprints on the switch were left by the right hand glove.”

“The one we picked up in the foyer was also a right-handed glove...”

Kamo took the glove and nodded.

“There are two possibilities. First, the Executioner pressed the switch before this glove was worn out. Second, the person who pressed the switch wasn't the owner of this glove.”

Of course, Kamo's right glove had been cut by the utility knife's blade well before midnight, so the second option wasn't actually possible.

As he looked around, he realized that YUKI was already sitting at the round table with his chin propped in his hand. AZUMA couldn't help but smile painfully when she saw that he wasn't planning on helping with the investigation.

“...Is your cousin always like this?”

“If you mean 'hard to predict', then yes, he is.”

AZUMA sighed and said “Is Mr. Yuki an armchair detective? My brother was one too, so I feel kind of close to him.”

As far as Kamo knew, Yuki had never managed to solve a case just from hearing about it second-hand, that was just a false assumption on AZUMA's part... but explaining that would have been a hassle, so he let it slide.

He was more concerned about AZUMA's older brother.

He remembered that when she'd introduced herself, she said that her older brother, Azuma Kousuke, had died five years ago.

“You seem like you were close with your brother.”

Kamo said that, and immediately AZUMA's face turned wistful, tinged with a hint of a shadow.

“Yes. My brother was much smarter than me and could solve any case in a flash. He was also very kind, and supported me when I had to bring up my son by myself... But, unfortunately, he was killed while investigating a case.”

Her eyes narrowed with sadness as she continued. “Later, I solved that case for him and found out that the culprit had killed him to keep him quiet... Ever since then, we inherited his career and resolved that we would fight crime as detectives.”

“'We'?”

“I'm not alone. If I were, I don't think I could stand the pain of having lost my brother. Honestly, even being a detective is something I'm... terrified of. Having to press on and confront the truth, even if people hate me for it, I just can't do it. But my sister... that is, my sister-in-law, she told me: “I'll be your Watson. No matter what happens, we'll face it together.”

“Is that so...”

When MICHI had talked before about 'sisters who both got caught up in murders every time they traveled together', she was referring to AZUMA and her sister-in-law.

AZUMA had tears in her eyes as she said “I've been able to keep being a detective because of my sister... but I'm glad I'm here alone now. That woman was just about the last person on Earth without a smartphone, and she'd definitely never use a smartwatch, so she wasn't taken hostage.”

AZUMA smiled a little for the first time in a while. Then she said “By the way, I'd also like to investigate with you, Mr. Kamo, would that be okay? I was just about to look at YUKI's room.”

Kamo and AZUMA opened the door to the southern corridor and talked as they walked.

“If we find somebody who absolutely couldn't have touched the switch after 12:50, we can be sure that person isn't the Executioner, right?”

“It's a pity, but... I don't think anybody has an alibi for after then.”

AZUMA thought about it for about ten seconds, then slumped her shoulders.

Guess she came to the same conclusion.

“Yeah. Even the victim, Mr. Yuki, could move freely before his character died at 3:00 A.M.”

“The alibi of the second victim, Michi, doesn't hold up either. Even though she was forcibly logged off after her character's death, she was allowed to return as a ghost before 3:00 A.M.”

“Becoming a ghost means you can move freely... so you could enter the main hall and place those puppets.”

The one who said that was MUNAKATA, who was examining the door of YUKI's room alone.

He gave Kamo a look that said “What took you so long?”, but ignored AZUMA who had accompanied him.

The door to the guest room was made of wood, in a common hotel style. An electronic card reader was installed above the long handle. These were set up uniformly on all guest room doors... this room appeared to have a five millimeter gap above it.

Probably unable to stand MUNAKATA's silence, AZUMA spoke up.

“On second thought, it might be more efficient to try to work backwards for this incident.”

“Work backwards?” Kamo said back.

She nodded and explained “This VR space exists for the sole purpose of holding 'Delicious Death for Detectives', so if there's a nail on the dollhouse's table or a gap in the door... Everything should be in service of the trick.”

That was an interesting idea.

When reading novels about solving mysteries, readers usually thought deeply about the author's intentions, and some had even been known to leap from the intention to the solution in one breath.

And the Puppet Hall they were in now was indeed a space set up specifically for a game of deduction.

By their nature, events that occurred in a virtual world would lack a sense of reality. But from another perspective, they would have more in common with a puzzling mystery novel. That being the case, a work-backwards deduction starting at the locked room and the details of the scene could be very effective.

Despite feeling that her thoughts made sense, Kamo shook his head.

“It's too bad... that gap in the door doesn't seem to be any sort of hint to the case.”

“But as long as there's any gap, you can do tricks with needles and thread and stuff – oh.” AZUMA's voice instantly lost its vigor.

“We've hypothesized that the time of the poisoning was probably between 12:30 and 3:00 A.M., right? During that time, Yuki left his room in VR space twice.”

“The first time was at 12:30 when he returned to the real world, he said he was only gone for five minutes before he returned to the VR space.” MUNAKATA interjected.

AZUMA quickly nodded. “The second time was... around 12:50, when he heard a loud noise and investigated the corridors and main hall, right? He said that time it was around ten minutes before he went back to his room.”

Kamo pointed to the bathroom, a part of which was framed with glass.

“The bathrooms in Puppet Hall emphasize design over practicality. You can see in all that glass, sitting on the bed or the save point, you can see the toilet and the bathtub.”

“There's nowhere an outsider could hide...”

AZUMA muttered and crouched under the bed.

Under the bed were storage drawers, however, the height of a single layer of drawers barely had enough space to hold a puppet, and couldn't hide a person.

“Not under the bed. There's nowhere in this room that a person could hide.”

“Then that means that during the five or ten minute window when YUKI left his VR room, the culprit had to accomplish everything they did and escape.”

Hearing Kamo's words, AZUMA held her temples and fell deep into thought.

“What they had to do was open the locked door to enter the room, poison the water, leave, and lock the door and set the swing bar from the outside. Hmm... even if you used a needle and thread to do a physical trick, it'd be hard to pull off in such a short period of time.”

“I agree. And there's too much risk.”

“Yes, there's no way the culprit could have predicted how long it would take Mr. Yuki to return from the real world... or how long he'd spend investigating the corridors and the main hall. I don't think the culprit would do such a random plan.”

MUNAKATA glanced at them and said meaningfully “The truth is always surprisingly simple. As a matter of fact, there's an easy way to make a game character completely disappear from the room. Just log off.”

Hearing his words, Kamo smiled ruefully.

“Normal logouts can only be done at save points, right? But the murderer shouldn't have been able to use the save point in this room.”

“You sure about that?”

Saying that, MUNAKATA sat on the armchair at the save point. But the next moment, a voice rang out.

This is YUKI's exclusive save point. Your VR headset ID has not been verified. This save point cannot be used.

“Both the RHAPSODYs in the real world and the save points here rely on our headsets IDs to be used. And the VR headsets have iris scan authentication, so I guess only Yuki can use this save point.”

MUNAKATA, on the other hand, reluctantly replied “What about forced logout?”

“It's true that if the murderer were to commit suicide inside the locked room, it would trigger a forced logout. But... that would leave their avatar's corpse at the scene, and there would also be the problem of the Murderer becoming a ghost.”

The only character who'd become a ghost so far, other than the victim YUKI, was MICHI.

And seeing as how Kamo had killed MICHI in the storeroom, he was pretty sure she hadn't committed suicide in YUKI's room. Also, a character who died a second time developed a two-tiered halo, so they could discount the possibility that MICHI had died again in YUKI's room, because there was only one halo above her head.

Munakata clicked his tongue, then walked over to the save point, pointed at a space at the top of the wall, and asked “...Is that thing an air conditioner? I have one in my room, too.”

The top of the wall above it was fitted with barbed wire. MUNAKATA stretched out his arm, but couldn't reach it.

“I want to check out that barbed wire.”

Kamo stretched out his hand. He was 15 cm taller than MUNAKATA and could easily reach the bottom of the wire. He shook it vigorously, but the wire remained fixed to the wall.

AZUMA exclaimed “Mr. Kamo, you're so tall! Just how tall are you?”

“175 cm.”

The one who answered her was not Kamo, but MUNAKATA.

Being told his own height in no uncertain terms, Kamo couldn't help but silently look at the other person. He couldn't have just eyeballed it. That number was too accurate.

MUNAKATA smiled, pointed at AZUMA, and said “You're 154 cm.”

“How do you know that?”

Seeing that AZUMA couldn't contain her surprise, MUNAKATA brought up the game menu.

“You can see all the players' stats here.”

Even though it irritated Kamo, MUNAKATA did have a point... The game participants' profiles (back near the start of Chapter Three) had heights recorded on them. Kamo's column showed 5.87, AZUMA's 5.05, and MUNAKATA's 5.48.

Kamo already knew, but pretended he'd just realized the meaning of those numbers and said “I see... they're our heights expressed in feet. I remember one foot is 30.48 cm...”

AZUMA, who seemed proud of her mental math skills, took over with shining eyes. “Converting that, Mr. Kamo would be about 175 cm, I'm about 154 cm, and Mr. Munakata is 164 cm.”

MUNAKATA crossed his arms again and said “Forget the heights. Can you see inside that barbed wire mesh?”

Kamo moved a chair over and stood on it, bringing his line of sight to the height of the barbed wire. Inside, there was a ventilation hole with a diameter of about 20 cm.

“...I'm not that familiar with these sorts of things, but I think it's a ventilation hole, for bringing in hot and cold air and airflow.”

At that moment, AZUMA, who'd stretched her neck to see, threw out a question.

“Is that barbed wire about five millimeters in diameter?”

“About that. The mesh is pretty fine and the barbed wire is firmly affixed to the wall, so it'd probably be difficult to pass anything through it.”

MUNAKATA sighed and sat on the bed.

“Isn't it strange that there's air conditioners in VR? It's not like it'll affect us if the room temperature goes up or down.”

“That's not true, the VR operation suit has a function to replicate the feelings of heat and cold. So if the temperature inside the VR space isn't kept comfortable, the players will feel it.”

Kamo jumped off the chair and turned his head to speak, but someone else beat him to it.

“The feelings of heat and cold... makes sense, I'll have to check that out.”

The corner of MUNAKATA's mouth hooked upwards, revealing an expression of supreme confidence.

Kamo felt a layer of cold sweat rise on his hands in the glove controllers.

...What did he find out? How much does he know?

Kamo prayed the others in the room couldn't see how panicked he was as he followed AZUMA in continuing to investigate YUKI's room.

The puppets in this room were half cyberpunk and half modern Japanese style.

Kamo picked up a puppet with half its face turned into a robot one and said “That said, my room is full of elves and dwarves. Could it be that each guest room has its own theme?”

The puppets in this room were also heavier than they looked. AZUMA picked up a puppet that looked like a high school girl and smiled in thought.

“Mr. Kamo is staying in the traditional fantasy room, huh... I have a lot of puppets dressed as samurai and ninjas from the Sengoku Period, so it's probably the jidai geki room. What about you, Mr. Munakata?”

MUNAKATA lied on the bed and replied “I saw puppets of Edward Teach and Anne Bonny.”

Kamo wasn't too familiar with pirates, but he knew that Edward Teach was the real name of Blackbeard and that Bonny was a famous female pirate. That purposefully indirect explanation was just like MUNAKATA.

It took them longer than expected because their “cursory” examination of the puppets piled them up into a small mountain. Nonetheless, the inspection of YUKI's room was completed within twenty minutes.

AZUMA knelt on the floor and said listlessly “...We haven't found anything useful yet.”

MUNAKATA sat up on the bed and said in a voice dripping with contempt “Spending all this time and having nothing to show for it... You all are even more useless than I thought.”

MUNAKATA had spent the entire investigation lying on the bed. For someone who took such open pride in his laziness, that level of sloth was almost admirable.

AZUMA seemed angry and taunted him “Oh? Do you force your assistants to do all the work for you in all your cases?”

“You glared at me just like that the first time we met on the boat, didn't you? I knew we wouldn't get along from the beginning.”

“I glared at you like that because you ignored me when I came over to greet you.”

“Ahhhh, I hate being nagged like this! God, I miss Retsu, he never complains, unlike people... he'd never betray me.”

There was an obvious sadness in MUNAKATA's tone, but AZUMA didn't seem to notice as she continued nonchalantly. “It must be because of your awful personality that you can only be friends with huskies. At least you seem to value your dog.”

MUNAKATA smiled self-deprecatingly.

“I just picked him up when he was a puppy, and I've been keeping him around because I know I can drop him off any time I want.”

Seeing the unprecedented amount of pain in MUNAKATA's face, Kamo almost reflexively asked “If I'm wrong about this, then I apologize in advance. Could it be... that Retsu was the one taken hostage?”

“If I'd known this would have happened I'd have thrown that dog out the day I got him! Then I'd never have been exploited by Kurata... and I'd never have put him in danger.”

Kurata must have known all about how little he trusted people to take his partner Retsu hostage. That was why the dog, who meant more to Munakata than his own family, had been chosen.

Seeing him like that, AZUMA's face softened.

“I'm sorry... that... I shouldn't have spoken to you like that.”

The silence stretched on.

Unconsciously, AZUMA's expression changed to one of tenderness mixed with intense unease as she gazed off at nothing. Perhaps the mention of hostages reminded her of her own child whose life was in danger.

Kamo was certainly thinking of Rena and Yukina.

Kamo was the Murderer. He could end the game right now by just solving YUKI's murder. Right now, he was in a more favorable position than any of the Detectives, but he wasn't making any headway to actually solving the case. Not only that, but he still had to constantly worry about having his own plan exposed.

...Can I really protect the two of them like this?

At that moment, voices came from the corridor.

The trio opened the door to find FUWA and KENZAN standing outside.

“You finished up over here too, huh?”

FUWA's smile looked tired.

MUNAKATA nudged for Kamo to follow, then turned towards the door to the main hall. Kamo had expected AZUMA to follow, but she instead thought for a moment then said “I'm going to go back to my room and organize my thoughts. I'll meet up with you all later.”

With that said, AZUMA walked alone to the northern section, and Kamo watched FUWA and KENZAN enter YUKI's room before returning to the main hall alongside the silent MUNAKATA.

“So... did you find anything?” YUKI asked. He was using the remote control to raise and lower the roof of the dollhouse, obviously bored out of his mind.

MUNAKATA completely ignored him.

“Come on Kamo, let's investigate the kitchen next.”

He said that and immediately walked into the kitchen. Kamo stayed in the hall to report to YUKI.

“Unfortunately, our group didn't find anything.”

YUKI nodded as he put the remote back in place.

“Really? ...Mr. Kamo, you will be able to solve this incident.”

Kamo thought he was making fun of him, but there was nothing mocking in YUKI's tone. It sounded more like he was declaring an obvious fact, leaving Kamo dumbfounded.

As Kamo entered the kitchen, MUNAKATA was inspecting the refrigerator with a mocking sneer on his lips.

Kamo walked over to the freezer, and his body in the VR operating suit felt a strong chill.

The freezer was empty, and there were only a few bottles of natural water in the fridge. Other than that... the tray of the ice machine was piled full of square ice cubes.

MUNAKATA picked up one of the ice cubes and his body heat caused it to gradually melt.

“Well, it looks like that works just like in reality.”

So saying, he threw the ice cube into the sink. The cube hit the dish sponge and came to a stop.

That was when Kamo realized that there wasn't any dish soap anywhere in the kitchen. In that case, there probably wasn't any body wash or shampoo in the bathrooms either.

...That's strange. I don't remember asking the developers to remove all the cleaning supplies.

As Kamo frowned in thought, MUNAKATA walked over to a shelf of seasonings and spices.

The shelf held about thirty different seasonings, including sugar, salt, black pepper, miso, powdered turmeric root, nutmeg, and so on. Each stored in a palm-sized glass jar or other container.

MUNAKATA just stood and watched as Kamo picked up and inspected each jar one by one. All of the seasonings were mostly used up, with the salt and miso having the least left.

Kamo had checked this shelf at the start of last night's investigation. None of the jars' levels had lowered since then.

...It looked like the owner of Puppet Hall was just a chronic procrastinator.

The fact that there was so little seasoning left but no one had replenished it, and the dishes and empty bottles filling the sink both reinforced that character.

“What's in there?”

MUNAKATA pointed to the cabinet door at the bottom of the shelf. Kamo opened the door and found several large bottles of seasoning inside.

The bottles were all for liquid seasonings like soy sauce and vinegar, with the soy sauce bottle being the largest, but there was only a tiny bit at the bottom of the bottle left.

“I see.”

MUNAKATA muttered and then left the seasonings.

Kamo picked up the soy sauce bottle. Looking at its size, it should have been a 400 milliliter bottle. The label on it read “Reduced Salt Soy Sauce”.

...Seeing such a health-conscious item in a death game just made him angrier.

Then Kamo reached for the bottle of vinegar–

“We're done here.”

Kamo was taken aback by MUNAKATA's sudden announcement.

He barely suppressed his inner turmoil to look back, but MUNAKATA didn't even meet his eyes. At that moment, he was looking at the refrigerator with a smile pregnant with meaning.

“Done? ...Don't you want to investigate the storeroom again?”

Kamo asked that rhetorically, but MUNAKATA didn't explain himself.

“No need, I've already got everything right in here.”

He knew this moment was coming, but Kamo was still dying of stress.

He knew perfectly well that MUNAKATA had investigated enough to find the truth. But...

“It's still too early, isn't it?” Kamo said as he looked at MUNAKATA with a steady gaze.

The other man seemed briefly surprised, but quickly lowered his voice and retorted “That's not your decision to make, now is it?”

“I don't know what conclusion you've drawn, but you should take some time make sure it's right before turning it in. Otherwise–”

Kamo's plea fell on deaf ears. MUNAKATA interrupted him and loudly announced “Kurata! I know the truth behind the case!”

Kamo realized it was too late. He could only be silent. At some point, MICHI had poked her head out of the storeroom. She looked like she was judging how serious MUNAKATA actually was.

A low chuckle filled their ears as Kurata joined the voice chat.

“Thank God, I was getting tired of waiting. Then let's start Answer Time now.”

“I can give my answer here and now.”

MUNAKATA declared confidently, but was immediately overruled. “Here? What a joke.”

“If you want to gather everyone, I can move to the main hall.”

“That won't work either.”

“...What do you mean?”

“The essence of Answer Time lies in exposing the culprit's lies, catching them in your web of reasoning, and watching them sweat. Although your avatars can mimic their players' facial expressions... it's just not the same, you know? If you want to see an epic battle between accuser and accussee, obviously the real world is the place to accuse-be.”

No one objected, so Kurata continued “For now, we'll be moving the game stage to Megalodon Manor. Please return to your rooms and save, then gather in the real world lounge. You can take off your VR headsets this time, but please don't forget to wear your glove controllers.”

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