Chapter 87

He—no, Senior Kiriyama must have been deeply shocked. Everything until now had pointed toward Misora. He never imagined the direction would suddenly pivot and land on him.

Naturally, he denied it.

"W-wait a second. What are you suddenly saying... that I made everyone believe Misora committed the murder, and even controlled her with hypnotism?"

I counter-argued.

"No... that's not it."

"Then it's fine if I'm not the culprit, right?"

What I wanted to say was "No... that's wrong." But the other me inside held the words back.

The thought whirled inside my head.

Someone dear to me couldn't possibly do something as vile as murder. My reasoning must be wrong. Why corner a gentle senior and expose a crime they never committed?

Yet another heart within me flickered.

There is proof of his crime. While listening to Detective Chikage's reasoning, each guess turned into hard evidence.

Seeking the truth is my role. How can I, knowing the truth, stay silent?

"No... it's nothing."

That was my limit. I could only produce words of denial—no, I couldn't even do that. The story of such a coward ends here.

I'm surely the same as the detectives.

We release convenient truths to the world, yet hide any crime committed by a friend—or by ourselves—deep in the shadows.

Like this, I could never kill a detective, even if I died trying.

Senior Kiriyama started to leave the stage, saying, "Well then." Everyone watched him go in stunned silence.

Only one person was different.

She shouted at me loudly and angrily.

"What! What! You've got a problem with my reasoning, right! Spit it out already!"

Because Detective Chikage pressed me with such ferocity, I resisted with words.

"I don't! I don't have any problem... the truth... the truth..."

"What is the truth! What's the worst truth, huhhhhhh! Follow through with yourself! Whether it's the incident at Choudou Manor or the one at school! You solved the mystery with justice in your heart, didn't you!"

"What's justice!? If it's really justice, why do I have to suffer like this...! I don't want to believe the person most important to me is the culprit! I can't believe it!"

I thought that would silence Detective Chikage. Yes—I was naïve. My thinking was far too weak.

Maybe even the detectives I despise wouldn't have let their guard down this much. They'd be colder, wielding their own justice against the culprit—even if that culprit were someone close.

"That's it? Hyoga-kun?"

"Eh?"

She faced me again.

"Sure, you can be betrayed by someone precious. Sometimes nothing can be done. But for me, it's important. No matter how evil. No matter how hated. She's my precious friend! I want to know who killed her!"

"And what will you do when you know...? Take revenge?"

"Just so that person never kills again. Just to tell them their thinking was wrong, so no one else suffers what Reira-chan did!"

"...Amazing. I could never do that..."

"Then you're fine with your precious person coming to harm?"

The flow changed. Her words slowly crushed the malice and regret polluting my heart.

"Eh..."

"What if Senior Kiriyama, regretting his crime, commits suicide? What if someone who wept over Reira's death drags him into a new revenge murder...?"

"Ah...!"

I pictured Senior Kiriyama's future. Someone within this circle—someone who had cried over Reira's death—would stab Senior Kiriyama with a knife. Him, covered in blood. Hanging himself in his room. Floating lifeless in the air.

If I truly believed he was kind—if I knew he wore that kind mask—then that mask might never come off, and he would regret his crime.

I had to stop.

Hesitating isn't like me.

Now isn't the time to regret. Now is the time to clench my fist and shout about the evidence that hasn't vanished yet.

"Senior Kiriyama! No—Kiriyama! Wait! I'll explain your crime from the beginning!"

He turned around at the very edge of the stage exit. No doubt he was bothered that I'd dropped the honorific.

The moment he came back, he spoke the earlier line again with different intonation.

"Like I said before, I think it's impossible to make it look like Misora's crime or to manipulate her words. Is there even a way to do that?"

I used the exact same words.

"No... that's not it."

"Then, as I thought—"

Before he could finish, I launched a verbal counterattack.

"I only said Misora's actions weren't controlled by you. You tried to deliver justice with your own hands when Misora had murderous intent and was about to use the trick Detective Chikage explained!"

"Huh? I don't get what you're saying, Hyoga-kun... Why would I have to do something like that? If I wanted the dead victim dead, I could've just left things alone. Then she'd have died in Misora's trap, right?"

Saying that, he shot Misora a sharp glare. Even Misora, worked up as she was, recoiled at how terrifying it was.

I'm "mou mantai." I'll follow my reasoning to the end.

I told him why he couldn't leave her trap alone.

"One: he had some grudge and wanted to kill with his own hands. Two: her trap lacked certainty... there was a chance it might not kill."

Detective Chikage, shocked by my reasoning, cut in with a rebuttal. She'd believed the crime was guaranteed to succeed.

"Wait, wait a minute! With the arrow trap and the electric trap, there's no way she wouldn't die!"

"Detective Chikage, haven't you verified the evidence we just found?"

"Eh?"

The "just found" item was the modified tingle pen. Calling it a contraption guaranteed to kill Reira-san as she tried to flee the catwalk is far too crude.

"Even if she was groggy, what if she tried to climb down the ladder and accidentally kicked off whatever was attached with her shoe...? What if she touched that part while descending...? Unless the device had been set in large numbers, which wasn't the case—Misora only prepared one..."

"So the plan to kill her was full of holes?"

"Exactly."

Detective Chikage groaned "Ah" with a face like she'd bitten a bitter bug. No choice—Misora confessed based on that evidence, so as a detective she'd had no need to verify it.

She'd assumed the electric device would definitely work and that Reira-san could absolutely be killed if she tried to escape.

Once one doubt was erased, Kiriyama spoke to me.

"So she didn't set the device... That's what you mean... but how does that lead to me or someone else killing her? No matter how you look at it, it'll seem like Misora did it. Why are you the only one who can tell the culprit is different? Come on, Hyoga-kun."

What I must present now is evidence. If I hit him with proof that Misora's crime never succeeded, that will be enough.

I won't hold back any longer.