Everyone's a Great Actor

The roller coaster boarding area.

The amusement park guards and staff had arrived and cordoned off the area.

Shu Yunwen, Tsukamoto Kazumi, Hitomi, and the others who had ridden the roller coaster were stopped and told they could not leave for the time being.

Shu Yunwen and Tsukamoto Kazumi each had a bottle of water. They kept taking sips and spitting them out. Then Tsukamoto Kazumi pulled out two pieces of gum and handed one to Shu Yunwen. "H-how could something like this happen? It's s-so terrifying."

"Heh... It's all that Kudo Shinichi's fault..." Shu Yunwen promptly pinned the blame on him.

Tsukamoto Kazumi asked in surprise, "W-what does Kudo-kun have to do with this?"

Shu Yunwen replied casually, "Haven't you been reading the papers lately? If you had, you'd have noticed that wherever that guy shows up, there's always a case!"

"..." Tsukamoto Kazumi fell silent.

What kind of logic was that?

Shu Yunwen fell silent too. Instead, he examined the sphere in his hand, which only he could see. With a thought, the soul of the man named Kishida inside it was enveloped by the "Judgment" spell and transformed into streams of pure energy. They entered Shu Yunwen through his nostrils, and he absorbed them.

Tsukamoto Kazumi noticed Shu Yunwen's odd pose and asked, "Yunwen, a-are you all right?"

"I-I'm fine." Shu Yunwen shook his head. "I was just thinking about something."

Then Shu Yunwen slowly began to refine the energy inside his body.

Kishida must not have been a good person in life. The energy Shu Yunwen had drawn from his soul was twice what he had gotten from Yamazaki Akiji's soul last night. This soul had been quite the catch.

A little while later, officers from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's First Investigative Division finally arrived.

Inspector Megure led the team. He had just ordered them to examine the scene when Shu Yunwen went over to greet him. "Inspector Megure, good to see you!"

"Y-you? Shu-kun?" Inspector Megure asked in surprise. "Were you caught up in this incident too?"

"Yeah..." Shu Yunwen hesitated, then smiled and scratched his head. "Looks like I'm not very lucky."

After saying that, Shu Yunwen told Kazumi to stay where she was, then hurried over to the culprit—the woman named Hitomi—and smiled. "Excuse me, miss. Could I speak with you in private?"

Hitomi was still wiping away her tears. "Huh? Sir, I don't think we know each other..."

Shu Yunwen smiled. "I want to talk to you about the victim. I noticed something strange while we were on the roller coaster..."

Hitomi visibly stiffened, then agreed. "O-okay, sir."

"Hitomi..." The woman beside her, Reiko, wiped at her tears.

Hitomi bowed slightly. "Reiko, I'll be right back."

Hitomi followed Shu Yunwen off to the side. He got straight to the point and lowered his voice. "Miss Hitomi, why did you kill Mr. Kishida? Was it just because of your relationship?"

"N-no, I didn't..." Hitomi was startled. Looking extremely nervous, she hurriedly shook her head and denied it.

Shu Yunwen smiled. "Hitomi, if I'm talking to you about this, it's because I have solid evidence..."

"No! I-I didn't want to kill him, but I couldn't lose him! I gave him almost everything I had. Then, after we broke up, he even used those... indecent photos of me to extort money. Even now, I have to embezzle money from the company where I work just to give him what he wants..." Hitomi burst into tears.

He'd threatened her with photos and made her steal money for him? It was safe to say the dead man had been a complete scumbag!

Shu Yunwen glanced around. Hitomi's crying had drawn plenty of attention, and even Inspector Megure was looking their way. Tsukamoto Kazumi was walking over too, apparently wanting to ask what had happened.

Shu Yunwen shook his head and spoke again. "Hitomi, it looks like we can't keep talking. But if everything you've told me is true, I'll help you cover it up."

"Yunwen, is something going on here?" Tsukamoto Kazumi had come up behind them and asked.

Shu Yunwen smiled and turned around. "No, of course not. I was just comforting Hitomi. She seems to be taking this especially hard."

"Is that so?" Tsukamoto Kazumi looked curious, glancing between Hitomi and Shu Yunwen.

After rejoining Ran, Genta, and the others, Shu Yunwen glanced at Hitomi, who was still crying, and gripped the camera in his pocket more tightly.

When you thought about it, Hitomi, the murderer, was really just a poor woman. Kishida was a scumbag anyway. He was dead, and that was that. He was nothing but a scumbag; there was no need for poor Hitomi to go down with him...

If Kudo Shinichi, who was determined to uncover the truth, had been here, he would definitely have exposed everything. But Shu Yunwen wasn't the sort of person who was obsessed with pursuing the truth. Helping the culprit get away with it didn't seem like such a big deal.

Inspector Megure and the others continued gathering evidence. After a while, Inspector Megure came over to Shu Yunwen and asked, "Yunwen, you were seated right in front of the victim, correct? Did you notice anything? Anything about the culprit..."

"Well..." Shu Yunwen scratched his head and smiled awkwardly. "Sorry, Inspector Megure, why are you asking me?"

Inspector Megure said, "Because you're a pretty capable detective yourself, aren't you, Yunwen? And you were sitting right in front of the victim. Of course, in my opinion, this may have been an accident."

"An accident?" Shu Yunwen was taken aback, then smiled. "That's right. Maybe it really was an acci—"

Before he could finish, a police officer standing beside Aiko suddenly called out, "I-Inspector Megure! We found a bloodstained knife in this woman's handbag! It could be the murder weapon!"

The words rang in Shu Yunwen's ears like a thunderclap. He suddenly realized something and looked at Hitomi, who seemed uneasy. This time, though, he saw hatred—and... murderous intent—in her eyes!

Hitomi wanted to frame that woman, Aiko, and send her to her death!

In an instant, Shu Yunwen understood. He cursed under his breath—

Damn it! He'd almost let this woman fool him!

If she'd only killed Kishida because she'd been threatened and had no choice but to fight back, then she could have killed him and left it at that. Why plant a bloody knife in Aiko's handbag and frame her?

The story about being blackmailed with photos was probably just a smokescreen! Her real plan was to kill Kishida and frame Aiko for the crime!

Shu Yunwen was still mulling it over when Hitomi suddenly spoke. "Huh? Aiko, I thought you and Mr. Kishida were on good terms..."

Hitomi looked completely surprised. If Shu Yunwen hadn't already known she was the culprit, he really would have been fooled!

Damn, another great actor!

But now that he'd heard Hitomi make those blatantly incriminating remarks, Shu Yunwen no longer had any intention of helping her cover up her crime.

If a woman like her wasn't locked away for life, Shu Yunwen himself might end up becoming one of her targets for revenge.

As he thought about it, Shu Yunwen's expression turned cold.

Help her cover it up? Forget it!

A woman like her didn't deserve any sympathy!