Sonoko and Ayako came together with worried faces and talked.
"Cassian was right. Bandages and an axe! Is something really going to happen?"
"Hmm... It might be inconvenient, but Ran and Ayako, you should stay in the same room. And Sonoko, Conan, and I will share a room."
Ran asked with a question.
"Huh? Why arrange the rooms like that?"
"I think it would be safer to all be together, but circumstances don't allow it. And Ran, you're strong, so I think you can protect one person. And Sonoko, Conan, and I sharing a room is because it might be a bit awkward for men and women to share a room, so including Conan would make it less burdensome."
"I see."
Then Sonoko blushed and muttered quietly.
"We don't necessarily have to include Conan..."
"Huh? What did you say?"
"Nothing... it's nothing."
"And from now on, never go out alone."
"Got it."
Since almost everyone else was male and Chikako had a boyfriend, they all agreed to my plan without objection and helped move the luggage. Even so, the room only had two beds, so I gave the beds to Conan and Sonoko and decided to use a sleeping bag and sleep on the floor later.
"Sorry for the inconvenience."
"No, in this situation, it can't be helped."
There was something they didn't know: my sleeping bag was a high-tech, top-of-the-line sleeping bag made in the MCU with advanced science. Temperature control, moisture regulation, and even cushioning—honestly, it was more comfortable than the beds in the room.
We tidied the rooms and went down to prepare dinner, and I did almost all the cooking.
"Wow~ It's so delicious!!"
"Really, it's so tasty?"
"It's even better than eating at a high-end restaurant?"
People began eating the food, admiring my cooking skills. Ran looked at me and asked.
"Amazing! When did you practice cooking like this?"
"I practiced a little whenever I had time."
Sonoko also said something.
"No wonder, as soon as lunchtime comes, the girls flock to Cassian. It was because of this."
"Speaking of which, I don't see Chikako?"
To that question, Ayako answered.
"She said she lost her appetite because of what happened during the day, so she won't eat."
"I see."
She was probably already killed by the culprit. Anyway, after enjoying dinner like that, everyone drank tea and rested, and Ryoichi, who was in charge of the stage, got up and put on a raincoat.
"I'll finish repairing the roof and come back."
"Please do."
"Let's clean up after the meal too."
"Right."
Everyone gathered and started cleaning up after the meal when Ryoichi suddenly shouted from the second-floor balcony.
"Who are you!!??"
"Huh? What's wrong?"
"There's someone by the first-floor window!!"
"What? By the window?"
Then suddenly, two people quickly passed by the window—one was the bandaged man, and the other was Chikako.
"Gasp! That guy!?"
"Isn't that Chikako next to him?"
"Chikako!!!"
Everyone hurriedly opened the window and looked in the direction the bandaged man went.
"Damn! It's dark and raining, so I can't see where he went."
"What if something happens to Chikako?"
Everyone was scared, and it was dark and raining, so they couldn't think of going out. Then, Conan and I took emergency flashlights, jumped over the window, and chased the culprit.
"Cassian! Conan!"
"Alright, let's chase them too!! Women, lock the doors and wait inside the house!!"
Like that, we quickly moved in the direction the culprit went. Then, we found Chikako's dismembered corpse.
"Uwaaa!!!"
"Gasp, Chikako!!"
After finding Chikako's murdered corpse like that, we left the body as is to avoid evidence contamination and returned to the villa to explain the situation to the women.
"What? Chikako!!!???"
"Yes... she was murdered. In the forest, with her entire body dismembered..."
"How could that be..."
"We covered the body with a jacket and left it for now, in case evidence gets contaminated."
Hearing that, Ayako slumped down and cried.
"It's my fault. Cassian warned us in advance, but I was stubborn..."
I approached Ayako, patted her shoulder, and comforted her.
"It's not your fault, sis. What is meant to happen will happen. Rather, let's call the police quickly."
At my words, Sonoko called the police.
"Police station? There's a murder case here..."
This was different from the original. Since the culprit had already killed the target and Ran hadn't seen the culprit's secret, there was no need to cut the phone lines and bridge.
"They said they can't come now because it's raining heavily and it's deep in the forest."
Then Masaru, who played the lead in the film club, shouted.
"From now on, until the police arrive, let's lock the windows and doors and hold out. Then that bandaged man won't be able to do anything."
At Masaru's words, everyone started going around the villa, locking the windows and doors. I also locked the windows and pretended to check Chikako's room. Conan also started moving around, gathering evidence, and the interesting thing was that everyone answered his questions sincerely.
'Is it the conqueror's haki of the god of death?'
Anyway, I went to Ayako, who had last seen Chikako alive, and listened along as she was asked questions. Everyone carefully checked that the windows and doors were locked and gathered back in the living room.
"That's strange..."
When I spoke, pretending to hold my chin and ponder, Ran asked me.
"Cassian, what's wrong?"
"It's just that since earlier, I haven't seen that freckled female ghost. She probably achieved peace."
"What? Is that true?"
"Yes... it seems her grudge was resolved. This is my thought, but she must have had a grudge against Chikako."
At those words, Ryoichi trembled and shed tears.
"Ryoichi, why are you like that?"
"No, suddenly talking about ghosts in this situation is scary."
"Right, let's stop that talk now."
Then Ran and Sonoko took my side.
"Cassian has even caught murder culprits using onmyoji before. He's different from other frauds."
"That's right. He's already famous among the wealthy. And before coming here, he foresaw and warned us to be careful of bandages and an axe."
Ran suddenly said with a bright face.
"That's it! Cassian! Can't you use onmyoji to find things like the culprit's location?"
"It's impossible. I need something connected to the culprit, but there's nothing... Ah! If there's Chikako's blood, who was killed by the culprit, it might be possible."
Ran sighed and said.
"Then it'll be tough... It's a bit to go out now..."
"When the police come, I can bring a little of what's scattered around the scene. And since I've worked on various cases, I have some connections with the police, so it should be possible."
"I see. Then we just have to hold out here until the police come?"
"Yes. And there's one problem we need to address."
"What is it?"
"Why did Chikako voluntarily go outside, knowing that the bandaged man was roaming around?"
"Wasn't she kidnapped and dragged outside?"
"No, I checked Chikako's room just in case, and there were no signs of intrusion, and according to Ayako, who last saw her alive, Chikako checked a letter slipped into her door crack and turned pale. Also, when I checked Chikako's murdered corpse, I confirmed she was wearing shoes. If she was forcibly dragged out, she should have been barefoot or wearing slippers."
"Then..."
"Right, someone who knew Chikako threatened or called her out, and she went outside on her own and was murdered."
"What!!!"
At those words, everyone was shocked. Only Conan wasn't surprised and nodded in agreement.
"Then that means there's someone among us who called Chikako outside."
"That's right."
"So there's an accomplice of the bandaged man among us??"
"I don't know about that far."
Masaru angrily said.
"This is insane... with a murderer roaming outside, we can't even trust each other. Who is it!?"
"Don't worry. When the police come or it gets light, more evidence will emerge. And if I use onmyoji, catching them is just a matter of time."
Like that, we gathered and watched each other, and as time passed and it went past 10 PM, people started getting sleepy. Then Masaru said.
"Let's lock the doors properly in the rooms and sleep for now. This won't do."
"Right, let's do that."
We each went into our rooms, locked the doors, and prepared to sleep. But Ran and Ayako came to our room in their pajamas.
"Um... can we sleep together?"
"Me too... I'm scared..."
Eventually, we decided to sleep all together. Since there were two single beds, if two people slept close together on each bed, we could somehow sleep. Plus, they were small women, so it wouldn't be too uncomfortable.
"Sure. It might be a bit inconvenient, but for safety."
Sonoko and Ayako, and Conan and Ran decided to sleep on the same bed. Looking at Conan's expression, he was very embarrassed.
"Conan, embarrassed to sleep with your sister? Want to sleep with me instead?"
"Ah, no! It's fine."
Conan shook his head vigorously and refused fiercely. He was saying to not interfere since he would make good use of being a child.
'This guy!'
Anyway, like that, we settled in and fell asleep.
Past midnight, the sound of a window opening was heard. I slightly opened my sleeping bag to check the room, and the bandaged man was trying to strike me with an axe, so I quickly blocked with the wooden sword I had placed nearby.
Thwack!
The posture wasn't good, but it didn't matter. My physical strength isn't at a level that humans in this world can handle. I quickly got up and struck down the axe man's arm.
Crack!
"Agh!"
The man's arm broke from my strike, and he dropped the axe. At the man's scream, the others sleeping in the same room woke up in surprise.
"Huh? Gasp!!"
"Kyaaah!!"
The man held his broken arm and tried to quickly escape over the window, but I swiftly swung the wooden sword and struck his ankle.
Crack!
"Groah!"
Again, the sound of bone breaking, and the man fell to the floor, writhing in pain. I immediately grabbed him and pinned him down to subdue him.
"Stay still!"
"Grr..."
At the commotion, people from other rooms also hurriedly came and knocked on the door.
Bang bang bang!
"What's going on?"
At that sound, Sonoko opened the locked door.
"We heard a scream? Gasp! The bandaged man!?"
"Cassian caught the man."
This was actually planned. Simply put, I kept pressuring him with 'If you leave me alone, you'll be caught.' And I gave the culprit a chance too. Since you'll be caught anyway and you've achieved revenge, just surrender.
'The deduction and showing onmyoji to pressure him seems to have worked well.'
Interestingly, Conan was also awake and watching the whole time. Ran said in amazement.
"Wow~ amazing. So it's true that you learned swordsmanship passed down in your family."
"Only now you believe it?"
Anyway, now that everyone was gathered, I removed the bandaged man's mask.
"Gasp!! Ryoichi!!!"
The culprit's identity was that fat Ryoichi.
"But how is the body shape different..."
"He was pretending to be fat. To easily hide things in his stomach."
"Did you know?"
"Yes, since I practice martial arts, I know a bit about the human body, so I knew Ryoichi was a bit unnatural. But there wasn't enough evidence. So I set a trap."
Then Sonoko asked with a question.
"During mealtime, Ryoichi was clearly on the second floor, so what about the man by the first-floor window who took Chikako? Is there another accomplice?"
"No, Ryoichi used a wire-connected doll dressed in the bandaged man's clothes on the second floor and used only the head of the already murdered Chikako to create the illusion that the bandaged man was kidnapping Chikako. The evidence is the wire marks on the railing where Ryoichi was on the upper floor. Since he's been in charge of movie stage equipment since university, this would have been easy."
"That's... so Ryoichi had Chikako's murdered head hidden in his clothes the whole time to create his alibi?"
"That's right."
"Oh my..."
He was definitely crazy. Hiding a dead person's head in his clothes and being around others like it's nothing isn't something an ordinary mentality can do. Especially the head of someone he murdered.
I looked at the subdued Ryoichi and said.
"I hoped you would surrender, but you tried to hide your identity by committing another murder."
"Ugh! Damn! This was all to avenge Atsuko's grudge! That bright Atsoko committed suicide all because of Chikako. In university, Atsuko always showed me the novels she wrote and talked about wanting to become a novelist after graduation."
"Ryoichi..."
"I couldn't believe that Atsuko, who was nurturing her dreams like that, suddenly hung herself and committed suicide in the club room, but when I saw Chikako's 'Blue Kingdom', I understood. That screenplay was exactly the same as Atsuko's 'Sky-Blue Kingdom' she showed me in university!!"
Hiroki, Chikako's boyfriend, asked.
"So you mean Chikako plagiarized it?"
"Yes! Because of that, Chikako won the newcomer screenplay award, and Atsuko committed suicide."
"But Atsuko's reason for suicide might not be that?"
"If you don't know, shut up!! The day Chikako received the award, Atsuko called me! She said she can't trust anyone anymore. Then the next day, she was found dead in the club room."
"That's..."
"So I prepared for a long time for revenge. To judge the one who trampled Atsuko's dreams!!"
Hearing that, I said.
"Certainly, Atsuko has achieved peace. But you, afraid of being labeled a murderer, tried to kill another innocent person. That's like trampling on someone else's future, just like Chikako did. If you thought you were a righteous avenger, you should have surrendered when you had the chance. Not create more victims."
"Khh..."
Hearing my words, Ryoichi closed his eyes silently and only shed tears.
The next day, the rain stopped, and police came to the villa. We handed over the tied-up Ryoichi and gave statements about the case. This also took a long time, and it was really annoying. I missed Kogoro, who would handle this for me.
We finished giving statements and got on the bus to return home. Conan, perhaps because of his child's body, got tired quickly and fell asleep on the bus. When the bus arrived at Beika Town, I had no choice but to carry Conan on my back and escort him to Ran's house, the detective agency.
'This is insane. I should have raised it by one more year. Driver's license...'
"Cassian, this case was cool too. If you weren't there, what would have happened..."
'Oh~ this is!'
"No, of course I'd help. It's not just anyone."
Ran blushed and said.
"That... the prophecy about us getting married... is it still unchanged?"
"Yes, if nothing unusual happens, it should be like that."
"I still don't know well, but if that's true..."
Suddenly, Conan, who was being carried by me, woke up and said loudly. It seemed intentional.
"Ah~ I'm hungry!"
'This guy! The mood was good!'
"Ah, it's already time... You must be hungry. Cassian, want to eat before going?"
"Sure."