The Pirated Onmyoji of the Detective World

Page 162

“Yes, Sonoko, you don’t need to take it to heart at all,” Doi Takaki said with a smile, but it was more like he was explaining the situation to someone than comforting her.

"Because at that time, you were also blindfolded, and it was a random sampling. Three cards were randomly selected and marked. It's like a dart game. As for what prize you get, there's no reason to blame the person who threw the dart."

Seeing Sonoko's expression gradually calming down, Doi Takuki continued, "It's the same principle. You were just Mr. Hamano's assistant today, so you have no reason to blame yourself, right?"

“Yes…” Sonoko stared blankly at the Takuya Doi in front of her, feeling a strange sense of emotion.

She never expected that this person, whom she had always somewhat disliked, would actually explain so much for her.

Meanwhile, Conan, who had been observing everyone on the scene, felt something suddenly flash through his mind when he heard Doi Takuki's description of the magic trick performed by Mr. Hamano.

He couldn't help but fall into deep thought, vaguely feeling that he had grasped something key, but he couldn't fully express it.

"What...is it?"

Conan couldn't help but frown as he looked at Sonoko, who had recovered quite a bit of her energy.

Magic show...

Draw cards...

Help...

"Wait!" Conan suddenly thought of something.

However, just as Conan jumped off the chair and ran to Sonoko's side to check something...

Aragaki Yu spoke up again: "No, I think all of this might not be the same principle as what Mr. Doi Tou said."

Conan's outstretched hand, which was about to grab Sonoko's arm, froze in mid-air. Like everyone else present, he looked at Aragaki Yu with surprise.

The people present were completely baffled by Aragaki Yu's words; they simply couldn't understand why Aragaki Yu would say something that contradicted Doi Takaki.

Even though what Doito said was very reasonable, it had completely calmed Sonoko down.

Seeing that everyone's attention was focused on him again, Aragaki Yu didn't seem reserved: "What I mean is, describing Mr. Hamano's magic as a dart game isn't quite right. Rather than a magic show that's decided by luck, it's more like a carefully planned scam."

Under the squinting gaze of Doi Takaki, Aragaki Yu uttered a conclusion that shocked everyone: "Because, whoever is assigned to do what, it was actually determined from the very beginning."

"This...how is this possible?"

At this point, Yu Aragaki paused briefly to allow everyone to calm down after their surprise.

Only after everyone had recovered from their shock did he slowly explain, "Actually, during Mr. Hamano's magic performance, the backs of the papers with names written on them had already been marked beforehand. And when Ms. Sonoko was blindfolded, the pen she was supposed to use to draw the marks according to Mr. Hamano's instructions couldn't actually write, so it was impossible to leave any marks on the back of the papers."

Sonoko: "???"

Upon hearing Yuu Aragaki's words, Sonoko's expression turned puzzled.

Because she simply couldn't believe that the marks on those pieces of paper weren't left by her.

"Damn it." Although she couldn't fully understand what Yuu Aragaki meant, Sonoko realized that she had been tricked by Mr. Hamano's magic trick and couldn't help but feel a surge of anger.

She was trying so hard to be a good assistant to Mr. Hamano's magicians.

In the end, it turned out that the clown was actually myself!

That man deserves to die! How could he bear to deceive a weak woman like himself?

"Oh, wait, he seems to be dead? Then it's alright."

Suddenly remembering the garden lying in the snow outside, I no longer felt any guilt.

……

"That's right, there is indeed an assistant in Mr. Hamano's magic show, but unfortunately, Sonoko is not Mr. Hamano's real assistant. She is just a lucky audience member who was randomly invited to the stage to enjoy the magic show up close."

Upon hearing this, a glint of light flashed in Conan's eyes: "That's right, that's it! This is the part that made me feel something was off!"

“But the one who wrote everyone’s names on the piece of paper and handed the pen to Sonoko was… Tanaka-san,” Kuroda Naoko suddenly jumped up from her chair, realizing something halfway through her sentence, and looked at Tanaka Kikue incredulously, “That means…”

Yuu Aragaki looked at Kikuko Tanaka, his eyes becoming subtle: "That's right, I think Ms. Tanaka is probably the real assistant to Mr. Hamano who arranged the magic show! Of course, in order to avoid being discovered by everyone, they also specially arranged for Ms. Tanaka to be chosen to boil water."

"..."

That being said...

At that moment, everyone in the living room looked at Kikuchi Tanaka, their eyes filled with an unavoidable scrutiny.

Meanwhile, Tanaka Kiku, who had been silent all along, noticed the suspicious looks on everyone's faces and his expression turned ugly in an instant.

Chapter 201: Solving the Case (1)

Seeing the suspicious looks from everyone, Kikue Tanaka felt nervous, but she still tried to remain calm: "Yes, but I was only asked by Mr. Hamano to hand him a pen that couldn't write when the time was right. I don't know anything else."

"You really don't know?" Aragaki Yu stared into Tanaka Miku's eyes. "You know, when Mr. Hamano was performing magic, he confidently predicted that the person responsible for the entertainment would be Mr. Doi. This means that in this magic trick, he originally planned that the person responsible for the entertainment would be Mr. Doi, but it was turned into himself."

"And the only one who could do all this is probably Ms. Tanaka, who is Mr. Hamano's magic show assistant!"

Tanaka Kikue guiltily avoided Aragaki Yu's piercing gaze, but said aloud, "This... this might be something Hamano-san accidentally made a mistake while preparing this magic show!"

Although Kiku Tanaka knew her explanation was weak, she understood that everything Yu Aragaki said was just his speculation.

He had no evidence to prove that he had orchestrated all of this.

"Of course, Ms. Tanaka, you can say that all of this is just my wild guess, and naturally I have no evidence to prove my speculation." Yuya Aragaki did not dwell on this point too much, because the only person who could prove it was no longer able to speak at this moment.

Hearing Aragaki Yu frankly admit this, Tanaka Kikuhisa secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Conan's once bright eyes inevitably dimmed considerably, because he knew that what Aragaki Yu said was true.

While Ms. Tanaka's behavior is indeed very suspicious, it doesn't prove anything.

"Damn it, there's no evidence at all!" Just as Conan was feeling annoyed, he suddenly remembered the task of boiling water that Tanaka Kiku had specially assigned him during the magic show.

In between...

Is there any connection?

In an instant, Conan felt as if he had grasped something crucial.

Without much hesitation, Conan took advantage of everyone's attention being focused on Aragaki Yu and Tanaka Kiku Kei to sneak out of the living room.

"..."

Yuu Aragaki watched Conan run towards the bathroom until his figure completely disappeared from the living room, then continued, "Let's not talk about Mr. Hamano's magic trick for now. I remember Ms. Tanaka was chosen to be in charge of boiling water, right?"

Just as Tanaka Kiku had breathed a sigh of relief, he tensed up again after hearing Aragaki Yu's words.

What did this guy see?!

She suppressed her unease and tried hard to control her expression, nodding nonchalantly to Aragaki Yu: "That's right, is there a problem?"

"While Mr. Hamano was in his room because he was assigned to be in charge of the entertainment, Ms. Tanaka, you were in the bathroom alone, boiling water. From the eaves of the woodshed next to the bathroom, you could easily climb up to the second floor. That way, you could successfully avoid the people who were still in the living room and enter the second floor through the window."

"!!!"

Tanaka Kiku was startled, because everything Aragaki Yu said was as accurate as if he had seen it with his own eyes.

Her face was unusually pale, and she used her dissatisfaction to mask her inner panic: "Ha, from what you're saying, it's as if you suspect me of being the murderer! But you just said that I was boiling water at that time, and it took me eight minutes to boil water with that firewood. How could I have had time to..."

Before Tanaka Kiku could finish speaking, Aragaki Yu interrupted her calmly, "What if the hot water had already been boiled in advance?"

When Tanaka Kikuho heard Aragaki Yu's words, she was stunned. Under the increasingly suspicious gazes of the crowd, she stammered for a long time but could not say anything.

"Putting aside the fact that being able to remember so clearly how long it took to boil the water is itself highly suspicious, what's even stranger is that when Mr. Suga asked you if he wanted to take you to where the firewood was stored, Ms. Tanaka, you said that you had already checked that when you arrived at this place. You know, how could someone who didn't even know that they were in charge of boiling the water have paid special attention to where the firewood would be stored?"

"This..." Tanaka Kiku was about to say something.

But Aragaki Yu didn't give her that chance: "I know what you want to ask. You want to ask how, if you were the murderer, you could have moved Mr. Hamano's body to such a distant open space without leaving footprints in the snow? Just like Mr. Doi Tou said, this is something that a wingless human could not do, right?"

Kikue Tanaka's face turned pale instantly. It had only been a short time since she discovered Toshiya Hamano's body. Could it be that this boy already knew her method of committing the crime?

This……

How is this possible?

"What, Aragaki? Do you already know how the murderer did all this?" Before Tanaka Kiku could even ponder it, Sonoko had already asked the question for her.

The others sitting around the dining table in the living room also stared at Aragaki Yu with curiosity, hoping to get an explanation from him.

"They used crossbows and ropes, didn't they!" Upon hearing what Aragaki Yu said, Tanaka Kikukei froze completely.

She pursed her lips, staring incredulously at the calm-faced Yuu Aragaki, utterly unable to comprehend how he knew all of this.

This guy was still in this little house back then!

“Originally, we wouldn’t have been able to discover these things because of the darkness of night!” A smile suddenly appeared on Yuu Aragaki’s lips. “However, we have to thank Mr. Tou Doi for all of this.”

"Huh!?" Everyone looked at Doi Takaki in surprise, but even he himself looked bewildered.

They had no idea what they had done.

"Wait a minute, could it be those..." Looking at Aragaki Yu's ambiguous smile, Doi Takuki suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

"That's right, we have to thank Mr. Doi for taking those photos of the scene around the corpses! Ms. Tanaka, you wouldn't have thought of that, would you? Those crossbow bolts on the tree trunks, which shouldn't have attracted anyone's attention in the dark, were completely recorded by the phone. If you look closely at the photos taken by Mr. Doi, you can still see them very clearly."

"!!!"

Chapter 202: Solving the Case (2)

After Doi Takaki took out his phone, the group indeed found the trace of the arrow shaft on an inconspicuous tree trunk in one of the photos he took of the scene.

"I think if we look carefully around the body, we should be able to find other tree trunks that were also hit by crossbow bolts. Although I don't know the specifics of how it works, I think that by somehow tying ropes to the railings outside Mr. Hamano's room and the shafts of the crossbow bolts, and then shooting the bolts from Mr. Hamano's balcony at those tree trunks, we could create a simple rappelling device that would transport Mr. Hamano's body directly to where it is now in mid-air, thus accomplishing this crime that seems impossible without wings."