The Persona Has Been Fully Exposed

After investigating from multiple angles, Okiya Subaru was now more inclined to believe that there was no particularly direct connection between Jiang Xia and Uzo.

—Earlier, Okiya Subaru had asked Koda Masao and learned that the reason he had hired Jiang Xia was because, while visiting Beika Department Store, he had seen a detective variety show playing in a shop he passed by. Jiang Xia happened to be on it.

So Okiya Subaru went to that mall.

Then he discovered that it had probably just been a coincidence.

Koda Masao had not said what he was doing at the mall that day, but based on his objective, Okiya Subaru studied the mall directory for a while and tried asking around at the outdoor goods store on the fifth floor. Unexpectedly, he got a result—Koda Masao had bought a shovel there.

Koda Masao looked very much like the villain from Kamen Rider, "Mole Alien," and he had happened to be buying something for digging. The clerk therefore remembered him clearly.

Now that he knew Koda Masao's destination and examined the mall's layout again, he could see that Koda Masao seeing Jiang Xia's variety show had very likely been pure coincidence—the outdoor goods store was situated right between several elevator entrances, and there were many routes from the parking lot to it. Moreover, Jiang Xia had only been a guest on that episode, with very little screen time. Walking speed, getting distracted by nearby merchandise, all sorts of accidents... any of these could have caused him to miss that brief appearance.

In short, Okiya Subaru could not imagine how anyone could have made Koda Masao pass that particular shop so precisely at that particular time, see Jiang Xia on the variety show, and then come up with the idea of "finding a