I could understand what was happening before my very eyes, but I needed plenty of time to process it.
The man crawling across the floor was the Enbi I'd met? I knew the real Enbi had been killed and dismembered, but the man there before me was the spitting image of him.
"What does this mean?"
"It's exactly as it appears, Onee-sama. This man is the true culprit," said Kirigiri, lighter at the ready.
The man crawling across the floor had a small knife in his right hand. But it would probably be pretty difficult for him to wield it as a weapon, when he was missing both his legs.
"When did you first realize?" asked the man, raising his head to face Kirigiri.
"That your legs were prosthetic?" Kirigiri asked in return, tilting her head. "I first noticed when you stepped out of the van. But it took quite a while before I realized that information was connected to the case."
"Your legs were... prosthetic?" I timidly asked the man on the floor. He nodded. Now that I thought about it, Enbi had definitely been dragging his legs along. I had just assumed that that was due to an old injury.
"I took the legs off and hid them in the telescope in that room over there. I'd appreciate it if you brought those over here, but... that's probably a no-go." He smiled wryly.
"Who exactly... are you?"
"Tadashi Asakura, the unluckiest underdog in the world."
I'd never heard that name before. But he looked like Shiita Enbi. He wasn't wearing his sunglasses, but it was undoubtedly the same face.
"Um... Did you kill those three people, Asakura-san?"
"I did. But... I screwed the whole thing up." There was a refreshing smile on Asakura's face. Maybe everyone has an expression like that when they finally give up on everything. "The story's like the girl told it. I called myself Yoshizono Ooe and sent a job offer to five detectives. That was both to draw you out and to camouflage the written challenge that was also sent out. Incidentally, I sent a letter out to the real Shiita Enbi, too. I just put a meeting time that was a little earlier in his letter."
"You called Enbi out first, killed him, and then dismembered him?" I asked.
"That's right. I hid Enbi's body in the telescopes and in the chair. Well, I was constantly aware of the possibility that I could be found out at any time, so I took as many precautions as I could to avoid that. For example, when I was investigating the rooms with Inuzuka, I tried my best not to let him touch the telescopes. It was because I was there with all of you, as Enbi, that I could manage some deflection away from the corpse. I thought it was a pretty good trick."
True—none of us had realized that there was someone else besides the five of us in the building, dead man or no.
"Aah... So, my new life and 120 million yen vanished overnight?" Asakura said, as if calling out to the heavens.
—What is he talking about?
"I never thought I'd be shown up by a brand new middle school detective. I tried to pick a completely useless detective to play the culprit... Who would have thought that she would expose the real truth?"
Kyouko Kirigiri—she really did expose everything.
"When exactly did you realize that you were sitting right on top of the culprit's hiding spot?" I asked.
"I'd considered it as one of the options from the beginning."
"From the beginning?" Asakura was the one most surprised by that. "I didn't move even a millimeter from where I was, and I even regulated my breathing so it shouldn't have been overheard."
"Yes, you performed perfectly in that respect. I didn't sense a single thing from you. But, logically, the probability that the culprit was hiding in the chair was very high."
"I don't know where you would even start with that kinda logic..." "Consider Yui-oneesama's handcuffs."
"Handcuffs?"
"Why did the culprit put handcuffs on her in a way that made them so easily removable? And why did the culprit make it so that I was holding the key?"
"Well, obviously he wanted me to suspect you, right?"
"That was a factor, of course, but there was another important reason. He wanted you to restrain me to the armchair using those handcuffs. When you believed I was the culprit, your first thought was to ensure your own safety by restraining me, correct? You tried to think of a way to use the handcuffs. Since you had just been restrained to the bed with them, you thought of securing the handcuffs to something else. The only things nearby were the table and the armchair. If you cuffed me to a table leg, I could lift the table and free myself. Therefore, the armchair was the only option."
"I see... By having you sit in the chair, he made it so I wouldn't consider it in the list of the culprit's potential hiding spots—"
"Precisely."
"If you knew from the beginning, you should have said something earlier!"
"As I said before, at first it was just one possibility. Therefore, I had you go and eliminate the other possibilities."
"I see... But if I'd just investigated inside the chair first, then it would have been over, right?"
"That may have ended terribly." Kirigiri shot Asakura a cold, sidelong glance. When I noticed the knife in Asakura's hand all over again, I went pale.
Was... Asakura's knife pointed at Kirigiri's back the whole time? In a way she wouldn't notice, of course. If things stopped going his way, he was prepared to backstab her—
But Kirigiri had had a hunch that that would happen. Or, no, maybe I should say it more like she would: she "logically determined" it. Or maybe she "heard the reaper's footsteps". She probably poured the alcohol on herself while she was still sitting in the chair because she didn't want to make any sudden movements with the knife there. Or maybe that was just her way of showing her own resolve? Probably both.
They had been waging psychological warfare against each other without my even noticing. While I was busy being clueless, I was shifting the burden of bracing for such a terrible thing onto Kirigiri.
"Um... How should I say this...? I'm really sorry, Kirigiri-chan."
"You can save that for later, Onee-sama. First and foremost, could you unfasten these handcuffs?"
"Oh, right."
I quickly unlocked the handcuffs that had been connecting Kirigiri's left hand to the armchair. She backed away from the chair, tending to her newly free wrist.
"Why in the world did you do something like this?" I asked Asakura, my voice trembling. "Was challenging me to a mystery game really enough all on its own to...?"
"You're wrong," Asakura interrupted. "I never wanted any game." He sounded as if he might continue, but he suddenly fell silent. It was the kind of silence you get when someone swallows down what they want to say.
"So that's how it is after all," Kirigiri muttered, brushing the hair out of her face, apparently having noticed something.
"What? What's how it is?"
"Asakura-san isn't the Game Master, but merely another player... is what I meant."
"Huh? There's someone else who set up this game? Who, exactly? The true true culprit? Are they one of the dead people?"
Don't tell me there's another body double?
Asakura slowly shook his head, and began to speak. "I don't really know who the people who set up the game are, either. I just went along with it. It just so happened that they'd prepared something that I was willing to risk my life to get my hands on..."
"You have the obligation to explain to us what you know." Kirigiri boldly approached Asakura. "Surely these games have been happening in secret in many more places than this. And they will continue after this as well. We need you to lend your assistance, so that no one else is victimized the way you have been."
Assistance? Victimized?
I barely knew up from down anymore.
"Yui-oneesama, on the challenge letter you received, there were numbers listed next to each item on the list, correct?" Kirigiri turned to me with her explanation. "Those were surely indicating their cost."
"Cost?"
"To put it simply—the cost of the tricks. Asakura-san bought the locations, the weapons, and the tricks that he needed to pull off this incident from the Game Master."
"Wha—he what?"
"I started with nothing, so to me, those were my weapons to fight against the detective," Asakura offered. "In an RPG, the hero goes to buy weapons and armor at the shop to make himself strong enough to beat the boss, right? So basically, I bought an impossible crime from those people with real life money, to beat the detective."
Someone was selling all the murders and dismemberment that happened here at the Sirius Observatory? I can't believe—why would Asakura go along with this game in the first place? Would there have been some kind of prize if he won against the detective?
"Heh..." Asakura stared down at the ground and let out a short huff before raising his head. "It's all over for me anyway. Sure, I'll tell you everything. It's not a bad idea—wiping the smiles off the faces of those voyeurs watching us. Messing with my life like that... I hope you're all shaking in your boots right now, you pieces of shit!"
Asakura raised his middle finger on the hand holding the knife, threatening the empty air. I followed his gaze, but of course, there wasn't anyone on the other end of it.
"First of all... Right, I guess I should talk about how this happened to my legs. I don't have much time. I'll make this brief, so listen up. You guys have to make yourselves a threat to those people. Or, no, maybe I should say—a hope for victims like me..."
Asakura started telling us about his past, and the serial arson case he experienced. Apparently, as a victim, his legs had been burned so badly that the only option was to amputate. The prime suspect in the case committed suicide, and so the case was settled with that. But one day, a mysterious old man appeared before him. The old man came to whisper in his ear, saying he would tell him the true culprit.
"The bastard who stole my family from me and left me in this wretched state was out there living scot-free, without a care in the world. You think I could just let that slide? Of course not. I did what anyone would have done."
The old man told Asakura he would reveal the true culprit, on one condition. That condition was this murder case.
"Those people probably go around finding people like me, with the coals of revenge all ready to burn inside of them, and they instigate us to murder. The whole thing's a big show, sponsored by the filthy rich."
"Do things like that... really actually happen?"
"All the proof you need is in what you experienced from yesterday up until today." "Who are 'those people' you refer to?" Kirigiri asked.
"The old man said he was from the Victims' Catharsis Committee. He went on and on about catharsis like it's their slogan or something, but really the whole thing's just to entertain some sickos I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. Of course... I knew all that when I started this game. I think they called the game itself a Duel Noir. Apparently they've done countless of these."
"If you knew all of that... then why did you choose to have this blood on your hands? There must have been some better way..." I trembled as I spoke.
"Spare me the concern trolling. At the very least, I really could sense catharsis in what they were saying. The chance to start my life over again..."
Asakura summarized the Duel Noir—all of it, without hiding anything from us. Once the letter of challenge was opened, I had been given 168 hours to indict the culprit. If I had failed, he would have received all the money indicated that was used to buy the tricks and so on, and on top of that, he'd be given the privilege to start a new life as a different person.
It was unfortunate that his experiment had failed, but... he was a murderer now. In the end, he wasn't any better than the person he had resented for so long. The futility of it all was almost too much.
"It's over!" Asakura shouted at the air, out of nowhere. Who has he been talking to this whole time?
"It's Game Over. Hurry up and call the police here already! You're watching, aren't you?"
"Who exactly are you talking to?"
"Those bastards watching us."
"Watching...?"
"Didn't I say? The Duel Noir is broadcasted as a show. I dunno if it's a live broadcast or not, but at the very least there should be someone watching us on the other side of a monitor somewhere."
"No way... There are security cameras somewhere?" I glanced around in shock. There didn't seem to be anything camera-like anywhere.
"Yeah, they've gotta have tons of cameras with microscopic lenses set up somewhere. I scoured the place looking for them myself, but I couldn't find a single one."
We're being watched, this very instant...
I wrapped my arms around myself to stave off the sudden chill I felt.
"Incidentally..." Kirigiri continued the conversation, expression as cold as ever. "Upon whom were you exacting your revenge?"
"Inuzuka."
"I-Inuzuka-san?" I repeated.
"That guy... That piece of shit was the true culprit behind the serial arson case."
"But... isn't he a detective?" Not to mention, he was a Class 3 detective. Detectives don't just rise that high in the ranks every day. Wasn't that proof in itself that he was proactively cracking cases and fighting crime?
A detective like that wouldn't just...
"What, you think detectives can't commit crimes? You think detectives are all knights in shining armor and saints? Well, let today be the last day you ever think that. He's a goddamn fuckface. That bastard... committed crimes, over and over, so that he could solve them and make a name for himself as a detective. He's personally sustaining his own detective business."
"That can't be true..." It felt like everything I'd believed in up until that point was crashing down around me. Weren't detectives there to protect the weak? It shook me down to the very foundation of my identity.
Aren't detectives... heroes?
"Guess he really needed to pull some shit to rise in the ranks after the DSC showed up on the scene. Though really, it's a disgrace that he managed to make it all the way up to Rank 3. The world should be giving me a round of applause for this. I condemned evil to its grave. The world is better off... with Inuzuka dead."
"But... but..." I couldn't find the words past that.
"Why did you kill Amino-san and Enbi-san?" Kirigiri asked.
"Enbi looked like me, so I used him as a body double, just like you thought. Amino... Well, I thought I could use one more person for the dismemberment trick, so I picked him at random. Incidentally—you, young lady, I picked because you were the newest member. I had thought a newbie who didn't know left from right would play the role of the pitiful criminal just as planned."
"Hmmm, I see." Kirigiri crossed her arms and turned away, moving closer to the wall.
"In the end... even if I lost, I still got my revenge. I'm grateful to the Committee in that sense. Maybe these past few days have at least saved me. I got revenge, and fulfilled my life's purpose. It's a refreshing ending. But—it's about time for that to be over, too."
Just then, I heard sirens from outside, signalling to us that it was time to draw the case to a close.
"Did the people on the other side of the monitor call the police?" I swiveled my head towards the noise.
"The end is nigh." Asakura tossed aside the knife in his hand. "But, damn, I really panicked when I thought I might get set on fire. There I was, sitting there in the chair with a knife the whole time so I could shut the girl up when I needed to. I thought, if I'm found out, I'll take her down with me—I'll kill her even if I get a Game Over. But I never would have thought I'd be lured out of the armchair that way. I don't think she even knew I was afraid of fire... That was reckless..." He gave a pained smile towards Kirigiri, behind her back.
Maybe her determination broke Asakura's heart. No doubt, Asakura had assumed that I would indict Kirigiri as the culprit, and that would be the end of it. And in practice, I did suspect her. If she had made one wrong move, I might have even laid a hand on her. If that had happened, then I would never have indicted the true culprit, "Enbi" a.k.a. Asakura, and the 168 hours would have passed with his victory. Or else—in the worst case scenario, Kirigiri and I would have taken each other out, and then it really would have been And Then There Were None.
Thinking about it that way—Kyouko Kirigiri had saved me. Such a small detective solved such a big case. She had already proven her talent with no room for doubt. She had the power to fight back against crime. She was the detective that could be the real knight in shining armor.
Kyouko Kirigiri was becoming more and more intriguing to me.
The sirens finally stopped outside the building, and the police bustled into the hall en masse. Apparently they'd already been given the details of the case, because they had Asakura restrained in an instant to take him with them. We saw them off at the Building B entrance.
Just as he was about to leave, Asakura told us in a low voice, "The two of you might be able to end this game of theirs. If you promise you'll get back at them for me, I'll give you a hint."
"A hint?"
"They take DSC ranking into account when they pick which detective gets involved in these cases."
"Quit running your mouth and get in the car."
A policeman shoved Asakura into a black car, which then disappeared down the snowy road. The snow had mostly stopped by now, and there was a dim light in the sky to the east.
Kirigiri and I exchanged a glance, and, without putting our thoughts into words, went back together to Building A.
There, we found a strange sight waiting for us. The police should have still been there, but there wasn't a single policeman to be found.
"—We've been had," said Kirigiri, full of regret. "Wh-What happened?"
"Those policemen... I'm sure they were with the Committee." "Oh, no!"
An hour later, the real police showed up at the Sirius Observatory. This time, I was highly suspicious of them, but they seemed to be the real deal. Kirigiri and I rode in a patrol car down the mountain, finally leaving the scene of the crime behind us.
What's more, an ordinary citizen found a black car having fallen off the mountain road. In the car was a man with two prosthetic legs, dead from severe blunt trauma across his entire body. The police wrote it off as an accident, and announced through mass media channels that there would be no further investigation. The dead man's name was given as Tadashi Asakura.