Sonoko and Ayako came over with worried faces and said.
"Jin was right.
Bandages and an axe! Is something really going to happen?"
"Hmm... It's uncomfortable, but Ran and Ayako-nim should share a room.
And Sonoko, Conan, and I will use the same room."
Ran asked, puzzled.
"Huh~? Why did you arrange the rooms like that?"
"Having everyone together would be safest, but since we can't do that.
And Ran, you're strong, so I think you can protect one person.
And as for Sonoko, Conan, and me sharing a room, it would be awkward for a man and woman to share a room alone, so if we add Conan it'll be less burdensome."
"I see."
At that moment, Sonoko blushed and muttered quietly.
"We don't really need to include Conan..."
"Huh? What did you say?"
"N-No... Nothing."
"And from now on, absolutely don't go around alone."
"Got it."
Everyone else was mostly male, and Chikako had a boyfriend, so they all agreed with my plan without complaint and helped move the luggage.
Even so, there were only two beds in the room, so I gave the beds to Conan and Sonoko, and I decided to use a sleeping bag and sleep on the floor later.
"Sorry about this."
"No, in a situation like this, it can't be helped."
What they don't know is that my sleeping bag was a top-grade one made with MCU's advanced technology.
It had temperature control, humidity control, and even cushioning.
Honestly, it was more comfortable than the beds in the room.
We organized the room and went down to prepare dinner, and I cooked almost everything.
"Wow~ It's so delicious!!"
"Yeah, it's really tasty?"
"It's better than eating at a high-end restaurant?"
People were amazed by my cooking skills and started eating.
Ran looked at me and asked.
"Amazing! When did you practice cooking like this?"
"Whenever I had free time, I practiced little by little."
Sonoko chimed in too.
"No wonder, every lunchtime the girls swarm to Jin.
This was why."
"By the way, I don't see Chikako-san?"
At that question, Ayako answered.
"She said she lost her appetite because of what happened earlier today, so she won't eat."
"I see."
She must already be dead by now.
Anyway, we had a delicious dinner and everyone was drinking tea and resting, when Ryouichi, who was in charge of stage setup, stood up and put on a raincoat.
"I'll go finish fixing the roof."
"Thanks, Ryouichi.
Be careful."
"Yeah."
"Let's clean up after dinner too."
"Sure."
We all gathered to clean up after the meal when Ryouichi suddenly shouted from the second-floor balcony.
"Who are you!!??"
"Huh? What's wrong?"
"There's someone next to the window on the first floor!!"
"What? By the window?"
At that moment, two people quickly passed by the window.
One was the bandaged intruder, and one was Chikako.
"Hic! That guy is!?"
"Wait, 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 they went."
"What if something happens to Chikako?"
Everyone was scared, but also because it was dark and raining, no one thought to go out.
At that moment, Conan and I grabbed emergency flashlights and climbed out the window to chase the culprit.
"Jin! Conan!"
"Alright, let's go after them!! Women, lock the doors and wait inside!!"
And so we quickly moved in the direction the culprit went.
Then we found Chikako's dismembered body.
"Uwaaaaa!!!"
"Hic, Chikako!!"
After discovering Chikako's murdered body like that, we were worried about tampering with evidence, so we just left the body there, covered it with a jacket, and returned to the villa to explain the situation to the women.
"What did you say, Chikako is!!!???"
"Yeah... She was murdered.
Her whole body dismembered in the forest..."
"That's impossible..."
"The body, we just left it covered with a jacket for now in case evidence gets damaged."
Hearing that, Ayako sat down and cried.
"It's my fault.
Jin warned me beforehand, but I was stubborn..."
I went over to Ayako, patted her shoulder, and comforted her.
"It's not your fault.
What was going to happen was bound to happen.
Rather, call the police quickly."
At my words, Sonoko called the police.
"Hello, police? There's been a murder here..."
This was different from the original.
The culprit had already achieved his goal and Ran didn't see the culprit's secret, so there was no need to cut the phone lines or the bridge.
"They said it's raining hard and it's deep in the forest, so they can't come right now."
Then Masaru, who had played the lead in the film club, shouted.
"From now on until the police arrive, let's lock all the windows and doors and hold out.
Then that bandaged intruder won't be able to do anything."
At Masaru's words, everyone started going around the villa locking windows and doors.
I also locked windows while pretending to check Chikako's room.
Conan also went around gathering evidence, and the interesting thing was that everyone answered a kid's questions sincerely.
'Is this the Death God's Conqueror's Haki?'
Anyway, Chikako, the last person who saw her alive, went to ask Ayako too, so I listened in from the side.
Everyone carefully made sure the windows and doors were locked and gathered in the living room again.
"This is strange..."
I said, pretending to think with my hand on my chin, and Ran asked me.
"Jin, what's wrong?"
"Well, since earlier, I haven't been able to see that freckled female ghost.
I think she might have been laid to rest."
"What? Is that true?"
"Yeah... It seems her grudge has been resolved.
This is just my thought, but she seemed to have a grudge against Chikako-san."
At those words, Ryouichi trembled and shed tears.
"Ryouichi, why are you like that?"
"No, it's just, talking about ghosts in a situation like this is scary."
"Yeah, stop with that kind of talk now."
At that moment, Ran and Sonoko defended me.
"Jin has even caught murderers using onmyoji techniques.
He's different from other frauds."
"That's right.
He's already famous among rich people.
And before coming here, he predicted to be careful of bandages and an axe."
Ran suddenly said with a bright face.
"Right! Jin! Can't you find out where the culprit is with your techniques?"
"It's impossible.
I need something connected to the culprit, but I don't have anything... Ah! If I had Chikako-san's blood, who was killed by the culprit, it might be possible."
Ran sighed and said.
"Then it'll be hard... Going out now is a bit..."
"When the police come, we can bring a little from the scene.
And I've worked with the police on several cases, so I'm somewhat acquainted, so it should be possible."
"I see.
Then we just have to hold out here until the police come?"
"Yeah.
And there's one problem we need to address."
"What is it?"
"Why did Chikako-san go outside on her own when she knew the bandaged intruder was roaming around?"
"Wasn't she kidnapped and dragged out?"
"No, just in case, I checked Chikako-san's room and there were no signs of forced entry, and Ayako-nim, who saw her alive last, said Chikako-san checked a letter stuck in her door gap, turned pale.
On top of that, when I checked Chikako-san's body, she was wearing shoes.
If she had been dragged out by force, she would've been barefoot or at least wearing slippers."
"Then..."
"Right, someone she knew either threatened her or called her out, and she went outside on her own and was killed."
"What!!!"
Everyone was shocked by those words.
Only Conan wasn't surprised and nodded in agreement.
"So you're saying someone among us called Chikako outside."
"That's right."
"You're saying there's an accomplice of the bandaged intruder among us??"
"I don't know that far."
Masaru said angrily.
"This is crazy... There's a murderer outside, and we can't even trust each other.
Who the hell is it!?"
"Don't worry.
When the police come or when morning breaks, more evidence will come out.
And if I even use onmyoji techniques, catching them is just a matter of time."
We stayed gathered like that, watching each other, and as time passed it was past 10 PM, and people started to get sleepy.
Then Masaru said.
"Lock the doors properly and let's sleep for now.
We can't keep going like this."
"Yeah, 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 pajamas.
"Um... Can we sleep together?"
"Me too... I'm scared..."
In the end, we decided to all sleep together.
There were two single beds, so two people per bed would work somehow.
Besides, they were small women, so it wouldn't be too uncomfortable.
"Then let's do that.
It'll be a bit cramped, but for safety."
Sonoko and Ayako, and Conan and Ran decided to share beds.
Looking at Conan's expression, he was really embarrassed.
"Conan, are you embarrassed to sleep with your sister? Want to sleep with me instead?"
"N-No! I'm fine."
Conan shook his head vigorously, rejecting it intensely.
He was saying he was going to make good use of being young, so don't interfere.
'This brat!'
Anyway, we settled in and fell asleep.
Past 12 AM, suddenly I heard the sound of a window opening.
I slightly opened my sleeping bag to check the room, and the bandaged intruder was trying to strike me with an axe, so I quickly grabbed the wooden sword next to me and blocked it.
Pak!
My posture wasn't good, but it didn't matter.
My strength wasn't something humans in this world could handle.
I quickly got up and struck the axe intruder's arm.
Crack!
"Aaagh!"
The intruder's arm broke from my strike and he dropped the axe.
At the intruder's scream, the others sleeping in the same room woke up startled.
"Huh? Hic!!"
"Kyaaaaaah!!"
The intruder grabbed his broken arm and hurriedly tried to climb out the window to escape, but I quickly swung the wooden sword and hit his ankle.
Crack!
"Kraaagh!"
Again, the sound of bone breaking, and the intruder collapsed to the floor, writhing in pain.
I immediately pinned the intruder to the floor and restrained him.
"Don't move!"
"Keuuk..."
At the commotion, the people in other rooms hurriedly came and knocked on the door.
Bang bang bang!
"What's going on?"
Hearing that, Sonoko unlocked the door and opened it.
"Did you hear a scream? Hic! The bandaged intruder!?"
"Jin caught the intruder."
This was actually what I aimed for.
Simply put, 'If you leave me alone, you'll get caught,' I was constantly pressuring him.
And I also gave the culprit a chance.
Since he was going to get caught anyway and had already achieved his revenge, just turn yourself in.
'The pressure from doing detective work and showing onmyoji techniques seems to have worked well.'
The interesting thing was that Conan was also awake and watching the whole time.
Ran said, amazed.
"Wow~ Amazing.
It was true that you learned swordsmanship passed down in your family."
"Only believe it now?"
Anyway, with people gathered, we removed the intruder's bandage mask.
"Hic!! Ryouichi!!!"
The culprit's identity was that chubby Ryouichi.
"No, how could it be, when his body type is different..."
"He was pretending to be fat.
He hid stuff inside his belly to make it easy."
"Did you know?"
"Yes, I'm someone who trains in martial arts, so I know a bit about the human body, and I knew Ryouichi-san was a bit unnatural.
But there wasn't enough evidence.
So I set a trap."
At that moment, Sonoko asked, puzzled.
"During dinner, Ryouichi-san was definitely on the second floor, but how did the intruder we saw from the first floor window, who grabbed Chikako-san, do it? Is there another accomplice?"
"No, Ryouichi-san used a wire connected from the second floor to a doll dressed in the bandaged intruder's clothes, and used Chikako-san's already murdered head to stage it like the bandaged intruder was kidnapping Chikako-san.
The evidence is the wire marks on the railing at that location on the second floor where Ryouichi-san was.
Since he's been in charge of movie stage setups since college, this would've been easy for him."
"Then... So Ryouichi kept his alibi by having Chikako's murdered head hidden in his clothes all along?"
"That's right."
"Oh my god..."
It was certainly crazy.
Hiding a dead person's head in your clothes and acting normal with other people wasn't something a normal mentality could do.
And with the head of someone you murdered.
I looked at the restrained Ryouichi and said.
"I actually hoped you would turn yourself in.
I knew you were the culprit, but I gave you time."
"Ugh! Damn it! This was all to resolve Atsuko's grudge! Atsuko, who was always so bright, committed suicide because of Chikako.
When I was in college, Atsuko always showed me the novels she wrote, saying she wanted to be a novelist after graduation."
"Ryouichi..."
"She was growing her dream like that, but suddenly she hanged herself in the club room, I couldn't believe it, but when I saw 'Blue Kingdom' written by Chikako, I knew.
That script was exactly the same as 'Sky Blue Kingdom' that Atsuko showed me when she was a college student!!"
Hiroki, Chikako's boyfriend, asked.
"So you're saying Chikako plagiarized it?"
"Yeah! Because of that, Chikako won a newcomer screenplay award, and Atsuko committed suicide."
"But Atsuko might have committed suicide for a different reason?"
"If you don't know, shut up!! On the day Chikako received the award, Atsuko called me! She said she couldn't trust anyone anymore.
And the next day, she was found as a corpse in the club room."
"Then..."
"So I prepared for a long time to get revenge.
To judge the one who trampled Atsuko's dream!!"
Hearing that, I said.
"Certainly, Atsuko-san has been laid to rest.
But you were afraid of remaining a murderer, so you tried to kill another innocent person.
That's trampling on someone else's future just like Chikako-san did.
If you thought you were a righteous avenger, you should have turned yourself in when you had the chance.
Not creating another victim."
"Keuhuk..."
Hearing my words, Ryouichi just closed his eyes and shed tears without saying anything.
The next day, the rain stopped and the police came to the villa, we handed over the tied-up Ryouichi, and we gave statements about the incident.
This time too, it took a long time, and it was really annoying.
I missed Kogoro, who would handle this kind of thing for me.
We finished giving our statements and took the bus back home again.
Conan was a kid's body, so he 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 take him to Ran's house, the detective agency.
'This is driving me crazy.
I should've come in just 1 year older.
Driver's license...'
"Jin, you were amazing in this case too.
What would have happened without you..."
'Oh~ This is it!'
"No, I should help, of course.
We're not strangers."
Ran blushed and said.
"Um... About the fortune that we'll get married... It's still the same, right?"
"Yeah, unless something special happens, it'll be like that."
"I don't really know yet, but if that's true..."
Suddenly, Conan, who was on my back, woke up and shouted loudly.
He did it on purpose.
"Ah~ I'm hungry!"
'This brat! The mood was good!'
"Ah, it's already this late... You must be hungry.
Jin, do you want to eat too?"
"Sure."