Chapter Twelve: Demo Playtest, Day Three, Answer Time ③
Sunday, November 24th, 2024, 10:00 A.M.
“This round's contestant is Kamo Touma. Which case will you are you going to start from?”
The five people, including Kamo, were all gathered in the lounge in the real world, sitting around the white wooden round table.
Kamo had already figured out the truth behind all the events in the VR space.
...The MICHI case and the KENZAN case I created myself I get credit for automatically; I don't need to solve them. For safety's sake, it's better to start with the incident that Kurata has already admitted I've seen the truth of.
“Let's start with the YUKI case.” Kamo replied as he looked at the 3D monitor.
Kurata immediately demanded “Give the full name of the person you accuse.”
“I'm going to expose Fuwa Shinichiro as a Murderer.”
Kamo then repeated the reasoning he'd told Kurata late last night.
He'd deduced from the Crime Glove dropped in the foyer that Fuwa wasn't in his room the morning of the 23rd, but had just entered the foyer immediately before he joined them in the main hall.
The locked room trick utilized Puppet Hall and Dollhouse Hall, two buildings of vastly different sizes... After logging back in on the 23rd, Kamo and the others' avatars were all shrunk down to 1/12th their original sizes to fit into Dollhouse Hall.
Fuwa shrank his avatar down before the others, and used his reduced size to sneak past YUKI into his room and poison the water.
Just to be safe, Kamo skipped the part where FUWA was suffering from altitude sickness.
The drop in air pressure in Puppet Hall was directly related to the trick Kamo used in the MICHI case, and at that point it was better to avoid saying anything that could possibly be interpreted as surrender.
Kamo continued to explain. “Fuwa had just returned to the foyer when he heard the rest of us already gathered in the main hall. Learning that we were just about to go search his room, he knew he wouldn't be able to return without being seen. So, in a rush, Fuwa ran straight into the hall to join us. It was in that moment that he accidentally dropped his glove in the foyer... That is the truth of YUKI's case.”
The four others around the table were hearing this for the first time, but Kurata wasn't.
As soon as Kamo finished his explanation, Kurata boredly recited “The Fuwa you just accused is dead, so we'll skip the defense this time... Congratulations, Mr. Kamo, you have discovered the whole truth of YUKI's murder.”
Everything so far had gone as Kamo expected. The real problems started now.
Sure enough, Kurata spoke provocatively. “So, which case are you going to try to solve next?”
“...Munakata's murder.”
“Oh, so you're finally going up against the Executioner? Then please state the full name of the person you're accusing.”
“That's a bit difficult right now.”
“Difficult?”
“Yes. Just figuring out the trick behind Munakata's murder isn't enough to prove the identity of the Executioner. The mystery of the Executioner's identity... can only be solved together with the mystery of Fuwa's murder.”
Hearing this, Michi interjected with a mixture of derision and indignation. “Man, you really know how to stall a scene. Are you one of those annoying detectives who won't state the culprit's name until the very end?”
The remaining three were looking at Kamo with similar expressions. Under the weight of their silent demand to immediately expose the culprit, Kamo sighed and said “It isn't anything like that. It's just that Munakata's murder could have been committed the way it was by anyone... and any one of us could have been killed by the same trick.”
Hearing that, Azuma's eyes widened.
“Such a convenient trick actually exists?”
“Well, the trick itself is rather, er, tricky. Even if it's solved, it won't help expose the culprit.”
Kamo paused and looked at his fingers, crossed on the table, before continuing “As you all know... in 'Delicious Death for Detectives', the Executioner can't decide who their next target is.”
There were several targets for the Executioner: Contestants who gave wrong answers, Murderers whose tricks were exposed, and those accused who failed to defend themselves.
However, there was no way for either the Gamemaster or the Executioner to predict beforehand which players would make accusations when, what they'd say, or who would succeed or fail at presenting counterarguments.
Azuma nodded in thought.
“I see. If it's impossible to know in advance who will fulfill the conditions for being targeted by the Executioner and when, then it's a waste of time to plan tricks that can only be applied to players that might never become targets.”
At that moment, Kurata interjected “The preliminaries are over. Tell us, how did the Executioner kill Munakata, who was found dead in his locked room?”
Kamo took out his glove controller and activated the 3D monitor on the round table, bringing up the map of Puppet Hall.
“This map is of Puppet Hall, but it can also be used to reference Dollhouse Hall. Then...” He spread out the paper he'd brought from his room on the round table. “This is a map of Megalodon Manor. Comparing the maps of the VR space and real world building, do you all notice anything?”
Azuma and Yuki both gasped almost simultaneously. It seemed they both understood what Kamo was trying to say.
Kenzan spoke less certainly. “Well, if you ask me what I notice... it would be that the configurations of the furniture in the guest rooms in both worlds are almost the same, right? Also, there are round tables in the center of both Megalodon Manor's lounge and Puppet Hall's main hall, which seems a bit strange.”
Though it wasn't the correct answer, the points Kenzan had noticed were all accurate.
Kamo made a sketch of the route he took from his room in Megalodon Manor to the lounge, then continued “Taking my room as an example, the positional relationship between my room in Megalodon Manor and the lodge and my room in Puppet Hall and the main hall is exactly the same. The route and distance between the two points are both identical. Turn left and walk to the end of the hallway, the line of motion is exactly the same.”
Kenzan stared wide-eyed as he compared the two maps, then asked softly “...Could it be that all our guest rooms are the same?”
“Exactly.”
Kamo also demonstrated using the examples of “Munakata's room to the lounge” and “Munakata's room to the main hall” to demonstrate the positional relationships and lines of movement in the real world and VR were virtually identical.
“There's no way that's a coincidence.”
After the slightly pale Yuki said that, Azuma nodded.
“Even if Megalodon Manor was originally like this... Kurata was the one who designed the shape and layout of Puppet Hall, right? He must have deliberately laid out the rooms like this in order to facilitate some trick.”
Michi pouted her lips and said “That really took me by surprise. But will knowing this help us figure out Munakata's murder?”
Kamo stood up and said “This is the key to the locked room trick. The detailed explanation is easier to explain from inside Munakata's room.
***
“Another key to solving the case is this.”
Upon arriving in Munakata's room, Kamo pointed to something that had fallen on the floor about a meter from the body. Kenzan picked it up with a handkerchief and took a closer look.
“The hexagonal nut?”
Two centimeters in diameter and about four millimeters thick... The blood on it had already dried and turned black.
Kamo recalled the scene when they'd found the body and continued “When we first came in, this hexagonal nut had fallen on a part of the carpet where there were no bloodstains, right?”
“That was why we were asking whether someone moved it there from somewhere else.”
Kamo knelt down next to Munakata's body, signaling the others to take a closer look at the VR operation suit on the body.
“As you can see, the backs of the operation suits have a polyurethane layer about three centimeters thick, which is highly absorbent. You can see where the suit has absorbed a large amount of blood that's since dried. The blood that flowed out of the wound went in two directions; one was from when Munakata collapsed, when the blood flowed to the right side of his body, which was where he fell.”
Azuma, who'd been touching the polyurethane, showed a surprised expression and said “And the other direction goes from the wound to his waist! That means... Mr. Munakata was in a standing or sitting position when he was stabbed?”
“Exactly. Also, note another detail... The blood flowing towards the waist covers the port used to connect to the RHAPSODY.”
Kamo pointed to the metal recess in the operation suit, its port stained with black blood. Azuma instantly grimaced.
“Did the Executioner...”
Azuma wasn't able to continue, so Yuki took over.
“The port on the VR operation suit is two centimeters wide, and the diameter of the hex nut is about two centimeters... they're the same size. Also, the way it's connected is that the protrusion on the RHAPSODY is plugged into the groove on the VR operation suit, and held in place by magnetism.”
Prodded on by the gazes of the others, Kenzan took the hexagonal nut and approached Munakata's VR operation suit.
The hexagonal nut was silently sucked into the groove and fit tightly inside. This was because the iron nut was attracted by the suit's internal magnet.
Michi's face finally dawned with revelation and she said in a trembling voice “The mystery is solved, now isn't it? The reason why the hex nut was stained with blood... and all that.”
Kamo stood up and nodded.
“That's right. The reason the nut is stained with blood is because it was originally embedded in the port of the VR operation suit. The blood that flowed from the wound to the waist seeped into the port and got on the hexagonal nut as well.”
Kamo then looked to the place where the hex nut had been originally found.
“When Munakata was stabbed and fell, the impact knocked the nut out of the groove. Because of that, we found the nut on the carpet, away from the bloodstains.”
Kenzan seemed to have a problem with his explanation. He frowned and said “But wouldn't the port be unable to connect to the RHAPSODY with a foreign object embedded inside...?”
Kamo let out a laugh.
“Of course, that's exactly what Kurata and the Executioner wanted.”
“Huh?”
Seeing Kenzan's dumbfounded face, Kamo continued “The RHAPSODY was designed as a device that restrains the player's movements and ensures safe operation. In contrast... The VR operation suit has a built-in precision motion capture function that reflects the player's movements into the game.”
Azuma looked confused. “But that doesn't mean it's possible to manipulate a virtual avatar that's detached from the RHAPSODY.”
“But it is possible.”
The person who'd objected was Yuki. Azuma's eyes went wide.
“Huh?”
“Before he was killed by the poisoned needle, Mr. Roppongi's avatar was frozen in place with his right hand raised to his temple, right? However, after Mr. Roppongi's death, when we returned to the VR space, his character... was in the same pose we'd put him in when trying to resuscitate him in the real world.”
Kamo added “That's right. The reason the avatar's position changed was because Fuwa accidentally pressed Roppongi's VR lens reset button while we were resuscitating him.”
The moment the lens was lowered... the headset scanned the iris of Roppongi, even as he was dying, and completed the bioauthentication process.
“The headset determined that the user had returned to VR space, and so, unfroze the character there. But at that moment, Roppongi wasn't inside a RHAPSODY. Despite that, his character still entered the same pose as the real person...”
Yuki nodded several times during the explanation, then said “That proves that the virtual characters can be controlled using only the VR operation suits.”
Nobody spoke for a while.
The silence wasn't because anyone there was stupid, but because they were all mulling over what Kamo had said.
“...So when did the Executioner put the hex nut in Munakata's back?” Michi asked.
“During the first Answer Time at noon yesterday. All of us were focused on the real world at the time, and the Executioner quickly slipped the nut into the port on Munakata's back while he was busy explaining his reasoning.”
Michi frowned.
“When you say it like that it sounds simple, but there's no way a guy like Munakata would be defenseless enough to show someone his back.”
“No, there was a chance.”
“When?”
“When the 3D monitor on the round table in the lounge turned on for the first time, everyone ran over to watch, right? At that time, everyone except me... all stepped on each other's feet.”
Thinking back to that farcical moment, Kamo gave a complicated smile. Michi looked bitter as she murmured “I guess something like that happened.”
“With so many people all huddled together, even if someone had put something on Munakata's back, it would have probably gone totally unnoticed.”
Hearing that, Yuki's face shifted subtly.
“That's not right, is it? The introduction of the 3D monitor was before Mr. Munakata had even started his deduction, well before he was announced to have failed, so how could the Executioner have started making preparations?”
“It's not that strange. The likelihood of a contestant giving a flawless answer is low, so from the Executioner's point of view, it makes more sense to act under the assumption that they'll fail. As long as they aren't actually killed before the beginning of Real World Crime Time, everything is fine.”
“I see.”
Yuki accepted the explanation, so Kamo continued to the next stage of his theory.
“Then I'll continue assuming the premise that the Executioner embedded the hex nut in Munakata's connector during the first Answer Time. Yesterday, at around 1:30 P.M., Real World Crime Time began. Before announcing the start, Kurata ordered us all to gather in the VR space, do you remember?”
Kenzan gave a grin laced with disgust.
“I remember Kurata also said it was to 'make sure Mr. Munakata had made it back to his room safely'... In reality, that was just an excuse to cover up his real purpose, right?”
Without a word, Kamo walked over to the RHAPSODY. The device appeared to be frozen and unresponsive.
He turned his back to the RHAPSODY and continued “After Munakata returned to his room in the real world, he was ready to follow Kurata's instructions and return to the main hall in VR. He sat in the RHAPSODY... but because it was blocked by the hexagonal nut, the VR operation suit failed to connect to the RHAPSODY, and he went into the VR space without it.”
Immediately, Azuma spoke. “Mr. Munakata slipped out of the device without realizing it.”
“Yes. When he was in the VR space, the headset obscured Munakata's vision, and he had no reason to suspect he'd actually left the RHAPSODY. He obliviously did the actions of moving through the VR space, not knowing that his body was also walking around Megalodon Manor.”
Kamo left the RHAPSODY and walked towards the door of the room as he continued speaking. “The layout and furniture of the guest rooms in Puppet Hall and Dollhouse Hall replicate what's found in Megalodon Manor, so Munakata opened the door of his room in VR and the real world at the same time, and walked out into the hallway outside. Just like this...”
The door to the room had been broken, so Kamo had to stop where it had been and mime unlocking the thumbturn lock and removing the swing bar before turning the doorknob.
Azuma stared at him and muttered sadly “Mr. Munakata didn't realize his real world self had left the room... and just walked outside into the Executioner's trap?”
Kamo nodded and stepped out of the room, heading in the direction of the lounge. The remaining four followed like children lured by the Pied Piper, walking on weak legs.
“As I've already said, the lines of motion from a guest room to the lounge in Megalodon Manor and the equivalent guest room to the main hall in Dollhouse Hall are the same. So when Munakata's avatar arrived at the main hall in VR, his real body arrived at the lounge in the real world at the same time.”
So saying, Kamo opened the door to the lounge and took a seat at the round table. A moment later, Michi sat down as well. She gave an irritated smile, probably remembering when she'd stubbed her toe on the stool on the first day.
“Ah, no wonder the stools around the round table are fixed to the floor. If they weren't, inconsistencies between the placement of the stools in the VR and real worlds would develop pretty quickly, which would be bad.”
However, not everything was possible while outside of the RHAPSODY.
“The room doors and furniture layouts in Dollhouse Hall and Megalodon Manor are mostly consistent, but there are differences. For example, if Munakata had walked to the northern end of the main hall in Dollhouse Hall while detached from the device, things would have fallen apart. Because there's a door leading to the northern corridor there in the VR world, but in reality it's just a wall.”
Hearing Kamo's words, Azuma narrowed her eyes.
“So Kurata ordered us to move from our rooms to the main hall in the VR space, then straight back? That way he could avoid Mr. Munakata making any unexpected actions and reduce the odds that he'd realized he'd disengaged from the device.”
Kenzan spoke up, sounding tired as he said “...Then how do you think the Executioner killed Mr. Munakata?”
Kamo gazed at the 3D monitor and said “Of course, by stabbing him in the back in the lounge.”
“But everyone's avatars were together in VR space at the time, so everyone was operating their characters, weren't they? How could they have had time to go to the lounge in the real world... Ah! Could it be!?”
Kenzan's voice almost ascended to a scream as he realized a viable solution. Kamo nodded hard.
“That's right, the Executioner also disengaged from their RHAPSODY, allowing their avatar and their real self to travel to the main hall in VR and the lounge in reality at the same time.”
Everyone around the round table was dumbfounded and showed identical stunned expressions.
Regardless of whose room it was, the path from “the room to the lounge” and “the room to the main hall” were identical. It was because of that special relationship between the two buildings that the trick was possible.
Kamo continued “At the time, everyone's avatars were concentrated in the VR space. However, only Munakata and the Executioner, who were detached from their devices, were in the lounge in the real world. Of course, in order to kill Munakata, the Executioner had brought a knife with them.”
Upon entering the lounge, the Executioner must have been especially careful with their surroundings in order to avoid any accidental contact with Munakata. If he'd felt a touch with his real body, he might have noticed it.
Kamo made the slow motion of pressing a button to lift VR lenses. Then he stood up, walked around behind Yuki, and acted out aiming the tip of an imaginary blade at his back.
“Seeing their opportunity, the Executioner quietly raised their own VR lenses, and, after confirming Munakata's position with their real eyes, walked up to him... took out their knife, and stabbed him in the back. However, the stab itself was extremely shallow.”
Because Munakata was wearing his VR headset, the Executioner in the real world may as well have been invisible to him. No matter how obvious they were, it was impossible to see them. Munakata was defenseless.
Kamo thought back to that moment in the VR space and said “At the time, almost everyone was sitting at the round table in the hall, either holding their heads in their hands or lying face down on the table. Although Fuwa and I were the exceptions, we also held still and stood motionless by the walls. At that time, even if someone had secretly lifted their VR lenses and put their character into a frozen state... there was probably no way for any of us to have noticed.”
Yuki, who was pretending to have been stabbed in the back, looked a bit confused, but then brightened up and said “The back of the VR operation suits have a polyurethane layer about three centimeters thick, is that the part the Executioner stabbed the knife into?”
Kamo looked at Yuki's back and nodded slightly.
“The Executioner's knives are very light, they were probably prepared specifically so that the victims wouldn't realize they were lodged in their backs.”
Despite that, Munakata may have felt something strange at his back. Kamo remembered that when he got up, he'd turned his neck and frowned.
...Perhaps by then, the tip of the knife was already in his back.
Since there was also blood trailing straight down from the wound, and a lot of it, it wasn't impossible that a small amount of bleeding had occurred right there in the lounge, only to be absorbed by the polyurethane.
Despite feeling some pain in his back, there was no way Munakata could have imagined back then that he'd already been stabbed.
Kamo stood up and gestured for everyone to follow him before returning to Munakata's room.
“After the meeting in the main hall, Munakata's avatar returned to his room in the VR space. Of course, that meant his real self also returned from the lounge in the real world.”
Kamo motioned to unlock the door with his smartwatch and entered Munakata's room.
Whether it was in the real world or the VR one, the door to the room was unlocked with the smartwatch. Or in other words, the same action opened the door in both worlds.
Kamo walked into the room and once again mimed locking the door and setting the swing bar. Then he went deeper into the room, turned his back to the RHAPSODY, and continued the explanation.
“After returning to his room in the VR space, Munakata locked the door from the inside, making his room in the real world a perfect locked room. Afterwards, he walked to the armchair at the save point and sat down, ready to return to the real world.”
Azuma muttered with a grimace “Then... that was...”
“Yes, that was the moment that killed Munakata. The avatar sat on the armchair in VR, which was equivalent of the real person sitting on the RHAPSODY.” Kamo said as he leaned back and sat on the curved black pillar in the center of the machine.
That one action was enough to convey his whole theory. The blood drained from all the onlookers' faces.
Kamo turned to them and spoke on.
“Munakata should have sat with his back to the curved part of the black pillar and a knife lodged in his back. His movements pressed the handle of the knife to the pillar, which pushed the tip of the knife through the polyurethane layer and deep into his body.”
The handle of the knife was rubberized, so it wouldn't have slipped when it touched the black pillar, reducing the victim's odds of survival to zero. And the slim blade didn't need much force to penetrate a human body.
Kamo's face hardened as he continued “Munakata must have panicked and raised his VR lenses when he thought he was being attacked by the Executioner. Then he staggered forward a few final steps before collapsing to the ground.”
Kamo made the motion of lifting lenses as he spoke, then stood up from the black pillar and looked at Munakata's body, which had fallen only a few steps away.
After about ten seconds of silence, Michi groaned and said “The tip of the knife must have bled when it pierced the body... but all the blood was absorbed by the polyurethane material you mentioned. That's why there are no visible bloodstains left inside the RHAPSODY, right?”
Kamo didn't answer, but looked up at the security camera on the ceiling.
“How about it... is my theory as to the locked room correct?”
Kurata answered him instantly.
“I can't tell you that because you have yet to identify the person you're accusing, and I have to wait until after the accused has given their defense before I can give my verdict.”
“Then may I give my reasoning as to the identity of the Executioner?”
“Certainly.”
After getting his answer, Kamo once again walked back to the lounge. That was the third time they'd all gathered there in a single Answer Time.
Kamo took a seat at the round table and put on a glove controller.
“The next piece of crucial evidence is the three fingerprints left in the VR space. As we proved during Fuwa's Answer Time, those fingerprints don't belong to the Murderer Fuwa, or 'the other Murderer'.”
Saying that, Kamo pulled up that light switch on the 3D monitor. The three fingerprints left in black graphite were still clear, not blurred or overlapping at all.
Kamo looked at them and continued calmly. “According to the testimonies of Yuki and Munakata, the lights in the main hall of Puppet Hall were already extinguished by 12:50 A.M. on the 23rd. After that, the Executioner touched the lightswitch for some reason, however, the next morning, the lights in the main hall were still off... that creates a logical inconsistent, as there's only one set of prints on the switch.”
“One... but that's impossible.” said Kenzan.
Kamo pointed to the image on the 3D monitor and said “But look, the fingerprints on the switch are neither smudged nor overlapping. If the switch were pressed once to turn on the lights and again to turn them off, it'd be impossible to have left prints as clear as these.”
At that time, Michi smiled breezily and said “Maybe the person pressed it twice in a row?”
“If they touch a light switch accidentally, a normal person's reaction would be to retract their hand and then press it again only after they realized they'd turned on the lights, right? In that case, the fingerprints of the second press shouldn't be perfectly in line with the first.”
“Hmm, I guess that makes sense.”
“There's only one way to explain this... The Executioner pressed the southern switch once, and the northern switch once.”
Hearing that, Azuma spoke up with a puzzled face. “But people usually use the switch closest to their room, right? Why use both sides?”
“It's understandable if you consider it in the wider context of the Executioner's actions. First of all, Kurata said he also gave the Executioner a Murderer's Mask with night vision. So why would the Executioner, who can move freely in total darkness, turn on the hall lights at all?”
After asking that, Kamo pulled up the shelves on the south side of the main hall and its dozens of puppets on the 3D monitor.
He looked at the screen and smiled.
“During the first day's VR Investigation Time, Munakata rummaged through the contents of this shelf, right?”
Michi nodded. “I saw that too. Puppets and props went flying everywhere.”
“Well then, the placement of the puppets on the shelf must have been altered as well. Do you guys think you could find a specific puppet on those shelves if you had to look at them through night vision goggles?”
Kamo, who had used the night vision while killing KENZAN, could give an answer with certainty.
When he'd used the mask's night vision, he couldn't see the details on the puppets in KENZAN's room. So the Executioner must have had the same problem.
Yuki agreed with him.
“Indeed, it would be hard to see all the details on the puppets, then. Because with night vision goggles on, your vision goes monochromatic, and a lot of the fine details get lost, so it's not the same as trying to maneuver by light.”
Kamo nodded and continued.
“The Executioner turned on the lights, probably to find the puppets modeled after MICHI and YUKI. They made it to the shelves on the south side before realizing they had been rummaged through.”
Kurata should have known that in advance and warned the Executioner. It seemed the two of them didn't work that well together.
Kamo continued to push his reasoning along.
“In their desperation, the Executioner had to turn off the night vision function and hit the light switch on the south side. That was when the three prints were left. Then the Executioner found the puppets they needed, placed them on the round table, and pressed the northern switch to turn the lights out again. That means the Executioner is someone whose guest room is located in the northern section... that is, either Azuma or Kenzan.”
Both of the suspects froze, and Michi, probably because she was excluded from the suspects, cheerily declared “If it was someone with a room in the south section, then after they left the puppets out they would have pressed the south switch again on the way back to their room, right?”
Kamo and Fuwa's rooms were also in the northern section, but the previous Answer Time had already confirmed that Fuwa and “the other Murderer” were separate from the Executioner.
Since his avatar had a cut on its hand, Kamo was almost universally recognized as “the other Murderer”. Therefore, no one argued that Kamo was also a possible candidate to be the Executioner.
Kamo elaborated further.
“In order to further narrow down the Executioner's true identity, we need to solve Fuwa's murder. Some of you may have already realized that Fuwa was also killed by the Executioner while disengaged from his RHAPSODY.”
Yuki listened and spoke with a tense face. “I see. If we start from that premise, most of the mysteries about Mr. Fuwa's death can be explained.”
“Yes. As long as Fuwa is put in a state of disengagement, he could have willingly walked out of his room while in VR. In addition, while wearing his VR headset, Fuwa wouldn't have seen the Executioner approaching him in the real world. I'm afraid he didn't realize the danger approaching until the knife was already in his chest.”
Considering it from that perspective, the lack of defensive marks on Fuwa's arms made sense.
Kamo added “That time as well, the Executioner planted a hexagonal nut on Fuwa during Answer Time. The most suspicious point would be when we moved to Munakata's room in the middle of the deduction. Because at that time, there was another moment of hectic crowding at the door.”
“I remember, it was when Fuwa said the knife in the body had been pulled out.” Michi added.
Kamo nodded as he continued “...Unlike when Munakata was killed, this time, the step of everyone gathering in the main hall in VR was omitted. That's why Fuwa should have stayed in the real world after returning to his room in Megalodon Manor. It's because only he got approval to remain in the real world during the next VR Crime Time.”
During that time, Kamo had told Kurata about his reasoning and then circled the VR space in order to commit KENZAN's murder.
“Later... at 2:30 A.M., Real World Crime Time started. Fuwa's presumed time of death is between 3:15 and 5:15, so it can be assumed he entered the VR space around that time.”
Kenzan didn't seem convinced, saying coldly “After you enter the VR space, your body in the real world becomes defenseless. Surely Mr. Fuwa wouldn't have done something so reckless.”
“I don't know how Kurata fast talked him into doing it. It's possible that he said to Fuwa 'I'll tell you the true identity of the Executioner if you meet me in the VR space.' Whatever happened, Fuwa would have been much more likely to put on his VR headset in a locked room than willingly leave the room in the real world.”
Kamo said that out loud, but inside he still harbored doubts.
...During the last Real World Crime Time, is it possible that it wasn't just me, but that Fuwa had also already figured out the technique to kill someone by detaching them from their device?
Of course, Kamo could have just been overthinking things.
However, Fuwa had said that he'd “let his death be what unlocks the door to the truth for you all”. Perhaps it was true that when he'd entered the VR space for the last time... he'd known perfectly well that he was walking into a trap, and by sacrificing his life, he'd deliberately left behind clues to the Executioner's M.O.
Fuwa was dead, and his thoughts had gone with him into the darkness. Still, Kamo couldn't stop himself from wondering.
He sighed softly and spoke on.
“It can be surmised that Kurata asked Fuwa to go to the exterior of Dollhouse Hall. That's because Fuwa, in his disengaged state, went to the game room, which is the equivalent to his avatar walking into the foyer.”
Comparing the maps, the line of travel from Fuwa's room in the real world to the game room was indeed identical to that from his room in the VR space to the foyer.
“Fuwa walked through the foyer of Dollhouse Hall towards the outside of the building as instructed. His movements were reflected in the real world as him walking to the northern side of the game room. And there... he was attacked by the Executioner.”
All of them bowed their heads with sullen faces. Kamo looked at them and opened his mouth again.
“That time, the Executioner hadn't needed to enter the VR space to attack Fuwa, so they should have taken off their headset before going to the game room. Fuwa wasn't able to see what was going on in the real world and was stabbed in the chest without having a chance to defend himself before being pushed into the wall on the north side of the room.”
Azuma murmured something, confused. “Why was he pushed back after he'd already been killed?”
“There was a good reason for that. Killing someone who is disengaged from their RHAPSODY has disadvantages as well as advantages... because the victim's real movements are synchronized to their avatar in the game.”
Hearing that, Azuma stared at him in surprise.
“You mean, if you killed someone in the real world, the avatar of the victim would fall to the ground in the exact same way in VR?”
“Exactly. It would seriously undermine the pretense that the murder in the real world isn't related anything that happened in VR.”
Michi crossed her arms and mused aloud “I see. Munakata was actually in the RHAPSODY in the real world when he was killed... so his avatar in VR matched it and froze on the save point.”
“There was nothing unusual about his avatar being frozen on the save point, so that problem didn't actually come up during Munakata's murder. But you couldn't say the same about Fuwa's case, now could you? The Executioner had to find a way to remove the avatar before it caused them trouble.”
Michi compared the two maps and grinned.
“So the executioner literally removed the avatar, right? That is, removed him from Dollhouse Hall.”
“That's right. Because the north end of the game room in the real world corresponds to the front door in the VR space. Pushing Fuwa's body against the north wall is the equivalent of shoving his body out the door in VR. That should be the easiest way to get him out of Dollhouse Hall.”
Disposing of a virtual corpse was surprisingly troublesome. For one, a corpse won't always pass an iris bioauthentication scan. If a dead player's VR lenses got lifted, causing their avatar to freeze, then nobody, not even the Executioner, could ever move them again. And the slightest mistake in where they were frozen could let the other players realize the trick of killing someone while they were separated from their RHAPSODY.
Kamo raised his head once again and addressed a request to nowhere. “Kurata, can you display an image of what's outside Dollhouse Hall's front entrance?”
After a moment of silence, a sudden blackness appeared on the round table.
After adjusting the brightness, the image gradually became clearer... Not far outside the entrance door, they saw the avatar FUWA, looking like he was leaning against an invisible shelf. His pose was identical to the Fuwa lying dead in the game room in the real world.
The four people around the table all had different reactions. Some held their breath, others went pale... Even though the image confirmed his deductions so far correct, Kamo himself didn't feel happy.
He spoke calmly.
“After killing Fuwa, the Executioner removed the hexagonal nut they'd placed, and also took off the VR headset and glove controllers Fuwa was wearing. Of course, that was to hide that he had gone into the VR space.”
Fuwa's smartwatch had unlocked at the moment of his death, so the Executioner could take it and use it for themself.
“The Executioner then used Fuwa's watch to open the autolock on his room and return his VR headset and controllers.”
Kamo paused and scanned the other people around the room.
At least two of them had already realized the identity of the Executioner. One was Yuki, and the other was one of the people he'd identified as a suspect... They both stared at the same person in confusion and fear.
After completing his explanation, Kamo opened his mouth again.
“In addition to what I've already said, the Executioner did two more things in VR. First, they unlocked and opened the front door of Dollhouse Hall before Fuwa was called to the VR space.”
Confused, Michi asked “Why'd they do that?”
“Didn't Kurata say so? The moment you leave Megalodon Manor, no matter what action your physical body takes in the real world, your avatar's body will be stopped dead by any wall or door. If the front door was closed when Fuwa was pushed, his avatar would have gotten stuck on the door and, therefore, inside Dollhouse Hall.”
“...And the other thing?”
Michi's expression was slowly becoming menacing. Perhaps she was also beginning to realize the identity of the Executioner.
“After killing Fuwa, in order to eliminate the evidence left in the VR space, the Executioner closed and re-locked the door. Incidentally... when Yuki and I went to check this morning, the door was locked properly. In other words, the Executioner had a chance to go to the VR space's foyer after the start of Real World Crime Time and before we went to check.”
Kenzan laughed out loud.
“So in other words... I have a perfect alibi, huh?”
“That's right. Kenzan's avatar was killed before the start of Real World Crime Time and he was forcibly logged out. His ghost wasn't released back into the world of VR until this morning. After that, we split into two groups, and Kenzan didn't have a chance to leave his until after I'd checked the foyer. So of course, he couldn't have been the one to close and lock the front door.”
At that point, Kamo paused to stare at Azuma before saying it.
“So the Executioner... is you, right?”
Azuma shuddered and opened her mouth, looking confused. But the next moment, she gave up and lowered her eyes in anguish.
At that moment, a low, questioning voice came from the speakers. “Did you make KENZAN the second victim... because you knew things would turn out like this?”
Kurata's tone was unprecedentedly panicked, and his voice was growing hoarse.
Kamo, still looking at Azuma, replied coldly “I have no idea what you're talking about.”
Kurata viciously continued “You already realized last night that the murders in the real world were done using the VR space... and had also narrowed down the suspects to a certain range... hadn't you?”
A hasty answer could be ruled as surrender, so Kamo didn't say anything.
However, Kurata was basically right.
Before the beginning of Fuwa's Answer Time yesterday, Kamo had already started vaguely suspecting the possibility of killing someone by disconnecting their device. But then, no matter what angle he approached from, he couldn't prove whether the Executioner was Azuma or Kenzan, and he'd grown deeply agitated.
...If things stay like this, the time limit will run out.
When he learned that VR Crime Time was before Real World Crime Time, he decided to take a gamble. So Kamo had forcibly given Kenzan an alibi in VR space by killing the virtual KENZAN.
In fact, the plan would have worked if he'd killed KENZAN or AZUMA. He chose KENZAN simply because Fuwa's trick of lifting the roof to enter the locked room would be hard to use on a room that wasn't directly against the outer wall of Dollhouse Hall.
Kurata swore and continued “You killed KENZAN, creating a period of time when he couldn't enter the VR space... and then watched to see how that act would affect the plan to kill Fuwa, and to see how my and the Executioner's actions would change... right?”
Kamo smirked. “I guess whoever killed KENZAN might have been thinking something like that.”
After Fuwa came up with the big picture idea of the two buildings, he prepared several individual crime plans that all took advantage of it. That was why Kamo guessed that the Executioner might have similarly come up with several crime plans based on the common idea of disconnecting the RHAPSODY.
He continued “I guess the murderer in the KENZAN case must have taken a gamble. And Kurata and the Executioner trapped within it must have been sweating... 'Do we keep using the VR space to kill people, or change plans and just do it solely in the real world?'”
Kurata said through gritted teeth “Are you trying to say we chose wrong?”
“If you had killed Fuwa with a trick that only involved the real world, the situation could have changed drastically. Because it's unlikely anyone could ever prove whether the plan was changed due to Kenzan's forced VR exclusive alibi, or if that was the plan from the beginning.”
If that had happened, Kamo would have never been able to pin down which of them was the Executioner.
“That said, it's not like whoever killed KENZAN had no chance in that case. After all, those three fingerprints were important clues to narrowing down the suspects, but I'm pretty sure you and the Executioner didn't realize that.”
Hearing Kamo's words, Azuma opened her mouth for the first time in a while.
“You're trying to say that... Kurata and the Executioner ignored the fingerprints, thinking that 'even if Kenzan has an alibi in the VR space, there are still other suspects, so it won't be a problem', right?”
“Exactly.”
Azuma closed her eyes and said in a voice almost unable to be heard “I should present a counterargument next, right? ...But I can't. Mr. Kamo's reasoning leaves no room for error.”
“Don't say anything unnecessary!” Kurata yelled, annoyed.
However, as though she couldn't hear him, Azuma continued with tears in her eyes.
“It's time to accept it... and let this all end. Mr. Kamo, the person you're accusing of being the Executioner is me... Azuma Yuzuha, right?”
Kamo shook his head.
“No.”
“The
person I'm going to expose... is Kurata Chikage.”
What!? Chikage!? Buh-wha-HUH!?!? (<--You, probably)
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