A Gentle Child

Lin Xinyi's words delivered the final verdict, exposing Ishikawa's crime.

The looks in everyone's eyes changed.

Perhaps some had previously regarded this as a spectacle, a deduction show beloved by the public.

But now, after hearing Lin Xinyi reconstruct the crime in such detail, everyone could finally empathize with the victim's suffering and see the murderer's brutality.

"I... I..."

Layer upon layer of cold sweat seeped from Ishikawa's forehead.

He knew his situation had become utterly hopeless, yet he had no way left to defend himself.

Because Lin Xinyi had reconstructed the truth perfectly with evidence:

He had indeed killed Uchida. Deliberately.

When Uchida instinctively struggled, scratched Ishikawa's arm, and caused him pain—

It was as if some invisible switch had been flipped, completely awakening his bestial nature.

Ishikawa shoved Uchida to the ground, viciously stomped on the back of his neck, and vented the burning agitation inside him through near-mad cruelty.

And during that brutal abuse, he suddenly discovered that he felt pleasure.

The feeling of trampling one of his own kind beneath his feet, of watching the weak suffer and slowly die, sent waves of exhilaration through his whole body.

Yes, thinking about it carefully—

He had never bullied his classmates purely for money from the very beginning—

Though he had always refused to admit it, the truth was that he repeatedly inflicted violence on his classmates because he enjoyed the thrill of abusing the weak.

And now, as the bullying escalated into torture and even murder, Ishikawa finally recognized himself for what he was.

That was right. He liked this feeling.

And unable to control himself, Ishikawa became engrossed in it.

He decided to kill Uchida just like that.

Not out of anger, not out of impulse, but simply because he found it interesting.

That was why Ishikawa had not shown even the slightest panic over Uchida's death.

Not only had he not panicked, he had even remained exceptionally calm and quickly devised a scheme to clear himself of suspicion.

"That's right... That was what happened."

After hearing Lin Xinyi's analysis, Aoki, who had been silent for a long time, cast Ishikawa a timid glance before finally gathering the courage to confess:

"At the time, Ishikawa kept stomping on Uchida's neck for a long time."

"Later, the two of us realized something was wrong and wanted to tell him to stop, but Ishikawa glared us down."

"After that, it was too late for anything."

"Ishikawa threatened us into helping him stage the scene. We had always listened to him, so even though we were scared, we obediently did as he said."

Aoki's testimony dealt Ishikawa the final blow.

That stubborn criminal, always arrogant and domineering, finally lowered his head completely and fell silent.

Lin Xinyi, the police, the crowd—everyone was waiting for him to confess.

But when Ishikawa raised his head again, a savage smile appeared on his face instead.

"Yeah. I killed him. Deliberately."

"I knew doing that would kill him, but I did it anyway. Hahahaha!"

Having completely given up on himself, Ishikawa brazenly and wantonly admitted his crime.

There was not the slightest remorse in his voice. It was filled only with madness and pleasure.

"Scum!"

Mouri Ran let out a furious shout through gritted teeth.

She had put up with that bastard for long enough.

Yet before she could throw a single punch, Ishikawa's crimes had escalated step by step.

From bullying to murder, from murder to torture—the pain the victim had suffered before his death was horrifying.

"Calm down, calm down!"

Kudo Shinichi risked his life to stand in front of his childhood friend.

He knew that if Ran rushed out in her current state—

Ishikawa would ride in a hearse, Ran would ride in a police car, and both their lives would be ruined.

"Mr. Lin Xinyi?"

"Please, help talk her down..."

Unable to hold back, Kudo turned a pleading look toward Lin Xinyi.

Lin Xinyi said nothing.

But this time, he was not standing idly by. Instead, as if he had discovered another clue, he stared intently at the corpse.

"Hm?"

Seeing this, Kudo Shinichi immediately forgot what he had just been trying to do.

"Mr. Lin Xinyi, did you find another problem?"

Fortunately, this question also caught Mouri Ran's attention.

She stopped her charge toward the edge of the law and turned to look at Lin Xinyi, the anger in her eyes turning into confusion and curiosity.

"It's not really a problem."

"This clue has no bearing on the case, but..."

After thinking for a moment, Lin Xinyi finally revealed what he had found:

"Did you notice?"

"The victim only had bruising on the outer side of his right forearm. His left forearm only had defensive wounds and restraint marks."

"That means that when Ishikawa stomped him to the ground, he only used one hand to brace himself and resist."

"Isn't that strange?"

Lin Xinyi imitated the victim's posture, using one hand to brace against the "ground" while leaving the other hanging uselessly at his side.

"To break free from restraint, using both hands to push against the ground would certainly produce more force."

"But why, at such a life-or-death moment, did the victim use only one hand to brace himself and struggle?"

"What was the victim's free left hand doing at the time?"

"He was trying to use his left hand to resist Ishikawa, wasn't he?"

Mouri Ran quickly offered her guess.

But after instinctively placing herself in the victim's position—

She imagined herself lying face down like the dying Uchida, then reaching her left hand behind her neck to attack the "leg" pressing down on her throat.

"No... It seems I was wrong."

"In that position, an arm couldn't even use thirty percent of its strength. It simply couldn't offer any effective resistance."

Mouri Ran frowned slightly and asked in confusion:

"Then what was Uchida doing with that hand before he died?"

"H-He was reaching for his phone."

The one who gave the answer was not Lin Xinyi, but Aoki.

This accomplice, who had shown a good attitude in confessing, directly revealed the answer:

"When Ishikawa had Uchida pinned down, Uchida kept trying to reach for his phone with his left hand."

"But Ishikawa had kicked the phone away, and he never managed to get it."

"What did Uchida want his phone for?"

Mouri Ran eagerly pressed for an answer.

"M-Maybe... maybe he wanted to use it to call the police."

Aoki answered timidly.

Lin Xinyi raised an eyebrow. "Maybe?"

Aoki glanced fearfully at Lin Xinyi. After gathering his thoughts for a moment, he said:

"By the time Ishikawa had beaten Uchida earlier, Uchida was already in too much pain to speak."

"Then Uchida secretly reached for his phone, and we all thought he wanted to call the police."

"That's probably not possible."

"Calling the police right in front of them during the bullying—it would be impossible to succeed."

"Not only would it fail, it would provoke retaliation from the bullies."

"Uchida probably wouldn't do something that would only bring more suffering upon himself."

Lin Xinyi took a deep breath, his voice carrying a sigh.

"I think that, even at the final moment of his life, he was still trying to find his phone..."

"Because there was some message on it that he wanted to show you!"

"W-What?"

Aoki froze slightly, his expression becoming complicated.

He could not understand what important message Uchida could have had on his phone that he needed to show them. Could a message possibly save his life under those circumstances?

Finally, still thoroughly confused, Aoki honestly revealed the clue about Uchida's phone:

"We put Uchida's phone back into his jacket pocket."

"I don't know whether it broke when he was thrown down from that height."

"I understand." Without hesitation, Lin Xinyi bent down and gently searched through the pockets of Uchida's clothes.

There was indeed a phone inside, and fortunately, it had not been damaged.

When he pressed a button, the screen still responded.

"Let's see what kind of message Uchida left behind..."

This had actually become completely unrelated to the case itself, and it was not within a forensic examiner's duties either.

But Lin Xinyi felt it was necessary to bring the victim's final message back into the world.

So Lin Xinyi gently lit up the phone screen and carefully checked Uchida's call logs and text messages from before his death.

Then he immediately fell silent.

"What is it?"

Mouri Ran asked with concern.

Rather than answer directly, Lin Xinyi handed the phone to Aoki.

"Aoki, read these two text messages aloud."

"Me?"

Aoki was confused. Why should he, an accomplice to evil, be the one to convey Uchida's final message?

"I think you need to read them."

Lin Xinyi answered in a grave tone.

Aoki obediently took the phone and glanced over the contents of the messages.

"Th-This..." As though he had been electrocuted, his entire body froze.

"Read!" Lin Xinyi urged coldly.

"The first... the first one was sent to Uchida by the principal:"

Trembling, Aoki read out the message from Uchida's phone:

"The principal asked in the message..."

"'Student Uchida, I have received the forgiveness consent form you submitted.'"

"'Here, on behalf of the school, I must solemnly ask you: Did you truly forgive Ishikawa and the others of your own free will?'"

By the time he finished the first message, Aoki's voice was shaking violently.

"The... the second message was Uchida's reply to the principal:"

"'Principal, it was my own decision.'"

"'Although they have done terrible things to me, I have still decided to forgive them.'"

"'After all, if they were expelled from school, their lives would surely become very difficult in the future, wouldn't they?'"

"'The books say that every person deserves a second chance. I think that if I try to forgive them, perhaps even people as awful as them might have hope of becoming better.'"

"'Although the possibility is small, I still want to try.'"

"'Please give them a chance as well, Principal. Perhaps that way, three lives can be saved.'"

"'That is all. Sender: Uchida Sho.'"

After reading those words, Aoki collapsed helplessly to his knees.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

He clutched his head and broke down crying uncontrollably, tears pouring down like rain, soaked with guilt and sorrow that could never be washed away.

The scene fell deathly silent, with only Aoki's sobs echoing softly through the air.

"Whew..."

Lin Xinyi let out a long breath and looked at Uchida's corpse with a complicated expression.

"What a gentle child."

"It's just a pity that the world was not gentle with you."