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"Mm. Two of you, take this young woman back for questioning right away..."
Inspector Megure seemed convinced he had found the culprit and was about to order the officers to take her away when Shu Yunwen suddenly spoke up. "Inspector Megure, this Miss Aiko probably isn't the killer. Do you think a woman could use a fruit knife to cut off a man's head inside that tunnel? And you must have found the victim's head, right? That kind of cut couldn't have been made with a fruit knife."
"Huh?" Inspector Megure turned to look at Shu Yunwen, who wore a serious expression. "Yunwen, what are you..."
Hitomi also looked at Shu Yunwen, the hatred in her eyes flickering briefly. "Aiko's strength seems to be quite—"
"Hitomi," Shu Yunwen interrupted her. "You're the killer. I don't think anything you say is worth believing."
"W-what?" Inspector Megure exclaimed. "This woman is the killer? But she was sitting in the first row, while the victim was in the third. You and your companion were between them..."
Listening to Inspector Megure ramble, Shu Yunwen rolled his eyes.
Was this guy really going to play the role of the person who questioned the correct deduction?
Shu Yunwen raised a hand to silence him, then said, "Inspector Megure, if you want to know the truth, don't interrupt me. Let me finish!"
After a pause, he turned to Tsukamoto Kazumi. "Kazumi, could you help me with something?"
"Of course." Tsukamoto Kazumi looked surprised, too. "Are you going to demonstrate your deduction, Yunwen? I didn't know you were good at solving mysteries. But are you sure you won't make a mistake? If you end up causing trouble for the officers..."
"You won't, Kazumi. Please trust me," Shu Yunwen said with a smile.
After Shu Yunwen said that, Tsukamoto Kazumi asked no more questions and nodded.
Nearby, Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi all looked astonished and impressed.
Genta: "That's so cool! Brother Yunwen's going to demonstrate his deduction?"
Mitsuhiko: "Brother Yunwen's classmates with Kudo Shinichi. Could he be a great detective, too?"
Ayumi: "I'm not sure Brother Yunwen seems very reliable. If he messes up, the inspector will definitely scold him, right?"
Mitsuhiko: "Genta, is Brother Yunwen good at solving mysteries?"
Genta: "I don't really know. I've never seen him solve a case."
Ayumi: "So he's not very reliable after all..."
Shu Yunwen rolled his eyes, ignoring the kids. Smiling at Tsukamoto Kazumi, he said, "Kazumi, please sit here. Oh, and before you sit down, put your backpack behind you."
"O-okay." Tsukamoto Kazumi nodded.
"Inspector Megure, could you sit in the third row, where the victim was? And, Officer, please find a length of rope. Tie a loop at one end and a hook at the other." As Shu Yunwen gave his instructions, Hitomi's face grew paler and paler.
Once everything was ready, Shu Yunwen continued. "Kazumi, with the backpack behind you, you should be able to slide easily beneath the safety bar if you lower yourself. Then, in the pitch-black tunnel, you could hook your feet over the safety bar and swing over the intervening seats. You'd put the loop made from the rope around Inspector Megure's neck, then hook the other end onto the track. If the roller coaster was moving at high speed, Inspector Megure's head would have been separated from his body..."
"...As for evidence, Inspector Megure, the police must have found something inside the tunnel, right?" Shu Yunwen asked.
Inspector Megure turned to the forensic officer beside him, who immediately replied, "Inspector, we found some scattered pearls and a rope with an iron hook attached inside the tunnel..."
Shu Yunwen spoke up. "The necklace must have been made into a loop and placed around Mr. Kishida's neck, right? If you tied the necklace to the rope after entering the tunnel, it would have become the cutting weapon I just described."
By then, almost everyone understood what had happened.
Ran stared at Hitomi in disbelief. She had thought the crying woman was kind and good-hearted.
Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi were all excitedly looking at Shu Yunwen, shouting things like, "That's amazing!"
Reiko turned to Hitomi, still unable to believe it. "Hitomi, w-where's the necklace you were wearing? I saw it when we were on the roller coaster just now..."
"I-I lost my necklace." Hitomi instinctively covered her neck. "Maybe it fell off when I was on the roller coaster. Officer, are you going to decide I did it just because my necklace is missing? Or maybe that man, who's so pleased with himself for telling this story, did it! He knows so much about what happened. He could very well be the one who did it!"
"...That's right. In the tunnel, you took my necklace, put the hook on it, and killed Kishida..."
As she spoke, Hitomi's expression grew more and more twisted.
"H-Hitomi..." Her friend Reiko recoiled, looking at her as if she were a stranger.
With two officers beside her, Aiko stared at Hitomi through her tears, equally unable to recognize her.
Inspector Megure turned to Shu Yunwen. "Yunwen..."
If Hitomi kept insisting on this story, they really wouldn't have enough evidence to prove she had done it. Without sufficient evidence to convict her, even if they brought the case to court, the judge wouldn't find her guilty. And because Hitomi was trying to turn the accusation around, Shu Yunwen might have to go to the police station and give a statement, too.
"Damn it! You obviously did all this, so why won't you admit it?" Genta shouted.
Mitsuhiko spoke up, too. "Brother Yunwen already explained the truth, and you still won't confess! That's awful!"
"And you're trying to pin it on him! How can anyone be so wicked?" Ayumi chimed in.
Shu Yunwen looked at Hitomi coldly.
This woman seemed to have completely revealed her true nature. She disgusted him and made him angry.
"You brought the hook with you, so there should be something of yours on it..." Shu Yunwen said slowly.
"Oh? You mean my fingerprints? Then go ahead and check!" Hitomi shouted. "If you really find my fingerprints, you can take me away! So none of this counts as evidence! It's not enough to prove I did it! Isn't that right, Officer?"
Inspector Megure frowned and quietly said to Shu Yunwen, "Shu-san, she's so confident that there probably aren't any fingerprints of hers on the hook or rope."
Shu Yunwen rolled his eyes at Inspector Megure. "Inspector Megure, she's got you wrapped around her finger, too? When did I say there'd be fingerprints on them? Since she brought the hook and rope, she must have kept them in something. If they came into contact with anything, something could have stuck to them. Fibers, scratches, skin flakes, for instance... If they matched, could you explain how that happened?"
Hitomi froze, stunned.
A female officer stepped forward. "Hello, ma'am. We need to check your personal belongings..."
"G-get away from me!" Hitomi clutched her bag protectively.
Inspector Megure waved for the others to help. Shu Yunwen then took out his camcorder and delivered the final blow. "You can deny it all you want, Hitomi, but it won't do you any good. My camcorder happened to record what happened in the tunnel. It was dark, but my camera has a night-vision function. It clearly captured you putting the necklace with the hook around Mr. Kishida's head. Would you like to see it?"
"R-really?" Before Hitomi could say anything, Inspector Megure exclaimed excitedly, "Yunwen, please hand me the camcorder. This is crucial evidence."
If the crime had been caught on film, then no matter how many mouths Hitomi had, she wouldn't be able to escape punishment!
Once the woman's mask had come off, her true face disgusted not only Shu Yunwen and the others, but the officers as well.
Holding the camcorder, Shu Yunwen smiled. "I don't mind handing it over, but... do you know how to operate it, Inspector? It's the latest model on the market, and it works differently from other cameras. If you accidentally erase the tape..."
"..." Inspector Megure was at a loss for words. "Then please cue up the footage and show it to me, Yunwen."
"Sure." Shu Yunwen nodded and began adjusting the controls, then played the footage.
Not far away, an officer had finally taken the bag from Hitomi. Handcuffs were on her wrists as they led her toward Inspector Megure.
Just as she was getting closer, Hitomi suddenly broke free of the two officers holding her and snatched the iron hook from the forensic officer in front of her. Her face twisted with rage as she charged at Shu Yunwen, swinging the hook down toward his face. "Die!"
"Watch out!" Inspector Megure couldn't counter in time, so he threw his heavy body in front of Shu Yunwen, ready to take the blow himself.
Shu Yunwen's gaze was cold as he murmured a sorcerous curse. The beginner-level curses didn't offer any effective way to counterattack, but a simple illusion spell was more than enough to dodge an iron hook.
Ran cried out and ran over, but she had only taken a couple of steps when a loud THUD rang out. A footprint appeared on Hitomi's face, and she toppled to the side. Two officers immediately tackled her and pinned her down.
Tsukamoto Kazumi lowered her leg, brought her feet together, and stood beside Shu Yunwen with a sweet smile. "Yunwen, are you all right?"
"Me? Heh..." The corner of Shu Yunwen's mouth twitched. "I'm fine, of course. She's the one who's hurt, isn't she?"
Shu Yunwen pointed to Hitomi, whose face was smeared with dirt, a clear shoeprint on her cheek, and blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.
Wait, he thought he remembered something. Hadn't Tsukamoto Kazumi appeared in the anime? Wasn't she the captain of the karate club?
What the hell? Was this for real?
Tsukamoto Kazumi had always seemed so gentle around him. Now it seemed there was a violent heart hidden beneath her gentle exterior...
Ran gave an awkward laugh and stopped.
Tsukamoto Kazumi was so strong that even Ran felt pressured. Hitomi had been kicked that hard. She... she probably wouldn't die, right?
"You're all useless! You can't even keep an eye on one person!" Inspector Megure began loudly berating his incompetent subordinates. All the officers beneath his shadow grimaced and bowed their heads as they took the scolding.
After receiving some basic treatment, Hitomi glared at Shu Yunwen with hatred. "...You clearly told me you'd help cover up the fact that I killed Kishida!"
Inspector Megure froze, then turned to Shu Yunwen with a serious expression. "Yunwen, is what she said true?"
Helping a criminal cover up a crime was unforgivable in the eyes of the police.
Shu Yunwen rolled his eyes inwardly and smiled. "Inspector Megure, how could that be? As soon as I watched the footage, I knew she was the killer. I only talked with her earlier to test out how she had committed the crime. Why would I help someone like her cover up what she did? She's a murderer! Exposing the truth and catching murderers—that's what I do."
Standing beside Shu Yunwen, Tsukamoto Kazumi defended him. "Inspector Megure, there's no way Yunwen would do something like that."
Ran spoke up, too. "Inspector Megure, Shu-san wouldn't do anything like that. Didn't he help the police solve a murder case just yesterday? If he were that kind of person, he wouldn't have helped the police yesterday."
Inspector Megure froze, then scratched his head with an embarrassed smile. "Yunwen, I'm sorry for suspecting you just now..."
Besides, Hitomi was so despicable in Inspector Megure's eyes that she wasn't worth believing.
"It's all right, Inspector Megure," Shu Yunwen said with a slight smile, looking coldly at Hitomi.
Kishida, whom Shu Yunwen had already absorbed, might have been a bastard, but Hitomi, now that her true nature was exposed, was no good either. She might have been even worse.
"But he really did promise to help cover up my crime..." Hitomi kept insisting, but no one believed her.
Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi began whispering again.
"She's been caught, and she's still trying to frame Brother Yunwen," Genta grumbled.
"Is it because Brother Yunwen helped the police catch her? She's such a bad person—even worse than the monsters in Masked Hero!" Ayumi clenched her fists.
"Yeah, she's a really, really bad person." Mitsuhiko rested his right hand against his chin, striking a detective-like pose. "But if Brother Yunwen's telling the truth, he knew that bad lady was the killer because of the footage, and only then did he figure out how she committed the crime. So he didn't actually find the killer by reasoning!"
"Oh, right!" Genta nodded. "So Brother Yunwen isn't that amazing after all!"
"Ah! I thought Brother Yunwen was a great detective, just as good as the high school detective Kudo Shinichi..." Ayumi looked disappointed. "I guess he's just an ordinary grown-up after all?"
Listening to the kids' muttering, Shu Yunwen felt another vein pop out on his forehead.
Ran chuckled. "Actually, Shu-san is pretty amazing..."
As the group was talking, someone shouted from outside the crowd, "Excuse me! Make way! Let me through! Thanks..."
Then a very smug-looking guy pushed his way through the crowd. "I heard there was a case here? Well, I can help! No case is too difficult for me, Kudo Shinichi!"
That's right, the guy who had pushed his way in was Kudo Shinichi.
Ran spotted "Washing Machine" and happily went to greet him. "Shinichi, you're here? Where did you go just now?"
"Huh? Ran! Hang on a second." Kudo Shinichi waved her off, then looked toward Inspector Megure. "Officer, I heard there was a murder here. Is that right? Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Ha ha! Student Kudo! Thanks for coming all this way. But the case has already been solved, and the killer has been caught." The case was solved, so Inspector Megure was in a pretty good mood. He greeted Kudo Shinichi warmly.
I-it's already been solved? Kudo Shinichi looked surprised, and a little disappointed.
Inspector Megure immediately took offense, giving him a sideways glance. "Oh? Student Kudo, you seem disappointed!"
"H-how could I be?" Kudo Shinichi quickly straightened up.
Ran came over and apologized. "Inspector Megure, Shinichi absolutely didn't mean it that way. Shinichi, it was Shu-san who solved the case!"
Shu Yunwen and Tsukamoto Kazumi came over, too. "Hello, Student Kudo."
"Hello, Student Shu. Hello, Senior Tsukamoto," Kudo Shinichi greeted them, feeling very unhappy.
So this Shu Yunwen was the one who had solved the case?
Hmph! What a show-off!
Well, actually, what Kudo Shinichi really felt was that someone had stolen the spotlight from him.
Of course, as the great high school detective Kudo Shinichi, he would never admit to something like that!
Mm... Never!
Before you continue