"You're awake, Mr. Tokitsu." Tangze was still the first to smile. "You slept very well. That's good."
"You're still growing, after all..." Apparently amused by his sarcastic remark, Natsuki Koshi burst out laughing. "Understandable, understandable. Being able to sleep is a good thing."
"I..." Jun'ya Tokitsu, who did not quite understand what they were talking about, lifted his head blankly. Only when he saw the clock did his expression turn to surprise.
Clearly, this "victim," who had vomited what must have been half a ton of flower petals, had no idea what had happened after entering his room.
There was not the slightest trace of a smile on Saguru Hakuba's face.
Setting aside the fact that his confidence often made him seem rather arrogant, Saguru Hakuba actually had a distinctly British sense of humor. Yet looking at Jun'ya Tokitsu now, he had no desire whatsoever to keep smiling.
A detective with a score of ninety-six... Did that mean he had made at least a dozen or so "judgments" whose answers were likely wrong?
Honestly, if the falsely accused suspects in those cases had faced the same kind of life-destroying consequences as Natsuki Koshi's friend, then his actual record outstripped that of some of the less deranged serial killers.
Just as Saguru Hakuba was about to say something, he suddenly noticed Rena Mizunashi approaching from the end of the corridor with a camera crew.
Whatever the original arrangements for the variety show had been, filming really ought to resume by now.
He quickly looked down, noticed that the microphone still clipped to his collar had lit up red, and immediately straightened. The stern tone that had been about to leave his mouth shifted into a gentler one. "Mr. Tokitsu, I'm terribly sorry, but while you were asleep, we already solved the