The Dirty World of Adults

Fujino sighed. Even after spending so long in this world, he still couldn't make heads or tails of its absurd timeline.

Fujino walked slowly down the stairs to the storage room beneath the teahouse.

The corridor outside the storage room was packed.

Ryūen the monk, Mizuo Shuntarō, and Saijō Taiga stood at the front, while Sonoko, Kazuha, Momiji, and Ai stood farther back.

The dancer Chika Suzuki and the beautiful songstress beside her were comforting the teahouse owner, who had discovered the body and was still in shock.

Well, not everywhere was like Beika, where people had nerves of steel.

Deaths clearly weren't as frequent in Kyoto as they were in Tokyo. Naturally, people here couldn't see someone die violently before their eyes and calmly stand around watching the spectacle.

"Fu... Fujino."

Momiji turned and noticed Fujino. It wasn't her first time seeing a corpse, but she still looked unsettled. "That heavyset gentleman who went downstairs just now is dead."

Sonoko had seen more of this sort of thing and was somewhat numb to it. She picked up the story. "When we got here, he was lying on the storage-room floor with blood all over his neck."

Ai Haibara glanced at the teahouse owner beside her and added, "It looks like someone cut his carotid artery with a blade. The owner found him."

"Got it. Ai, take the other girls away from here. It'd be best to wait in the room we were in."

"Okay. I'll leave this to you."

Fujino patted the shoulder of Momiji's white blouse to comfort her, then stepped forward and looked into the storage room.

The boxes on the shelves around the storage room had been thrown into disarray. Sakura Masazō, the antique art dealer from earlier, lay on the wooden floor in the center.