"Ah, it turns out we encountered a case..."
At noon that day, Karasuma arrived at the boy's and Hatoyama Keiko's university as usual.
But what is different from before is that only Hatoyama Keiko is here today. The boy seems to have been investigating the case since he received it in the morning and did not return to school at noon.
"Well, the ones who were killed were the students in our class..."
Sitting on the familiar bench, Karasuma nodded.
Opposite her, Keiko Hatoyama has set up an easel, and the brush is sliding rapidly across the paper.
"A corpse placed in a praying position..."
She had just heard Karasuma briefly describe the case the boy encountered in the cemetery this morning.
The naked corpse was tied up in a praying posture and killed in the cemetery. This feels quite like a perverted murderer.
"Did you ask for any information at school?"
Karasuma was extremely eager to assist in this investigation, and the boy probably thought that this case was too closely related to Karasuma, and it would be useless even if he refused, so he simply agreed to her, which might make it easier to control. , won't let her do anything risky.
"No~"
At this point, Karasuma sighed helplessly.
"The murdered classmate Kyoko was not very popular in school. She didn't have any close friends. She couldn't ask for any information related to the investigation..."
She was very frustrated by this. She had promised the boy that she could help before, but she found nothing when she turned around.
She could already imagine how she would be laughed at by the boy expressionlessly next...
【No way? No way? Is there really someone who has no information at all? Hey ~ good food, good food ~]
hateful! So angry!
"You just got nothing?" Looking up at Karasuma, whose facial features were wrinkled subconsciously, Hatoyama Keiko smiled and drew her expression smoothly.
"Yeah, it doesn't mean it's completely meaningless!"
When Keiko Hatoyama said it so directly, Karasumaru was very embarrassed and hurriedly defended himself:
“I heard from Xingzi’s classmate that she has always looked absent-minded in the past few days.
During class, I didn’t always sleep like before. Instead, I was in a daze all the time, as if I had lost my soul..."
"Did Kyoko's classmate tell you the reason?" Keiko Hatoyama asked after hearing this.
[Have you been restless for several days in a row? 】
"How is that possible! This classmate was often bullied by Kyoko in school. She usually didn't even dare to talk to Kyoko. How could she still ask these things...
If it weren't for the fact that they were at the same table, she probably wouldn't have noticed these abnormalities in Kyoko's classmate. "
At this point, Karasuma sighed again.
This is her only gain. It can be said to be a gain. In her opinion, this gain is simply dispensable...
If you don't know the reason, even if you know that the deceased has been mentally disturbed recently, it won't help...
"Karasumaru, I heard you say before that the murdered classmate Kyoko seemed to have contacts with some classmates from other schools?"
Suddenly, Hatoyama Keiko's voice brought back Karasuma's somewhat distant thoughts.
"Huh? Yeah! Yes, there have always been such rumors in the school."
Kokarasuma nodded when he heard this, and replied: "However, this morning I also deliberately asked my classmates who often told these rumors, but they seemed to have never seen Kyoko-san interact with students from other schools.
Even those students who swore that such a thing must exist could not tell the specific information about the uniforms and appearance of those students from other schools.
So I think that the so-called association with students from other schools is probably a misunderstanding of Kyoko-san who spread rumors about her, right? "
For Karasuma, who grew up in the United States, she knows this kind of thing all too well.
At the beginning, one or several students who had been bullied by Kyoko’s classmates probably started to say:
"Wow, Kyoko-san is so fierce and doesn't have any friends in school. Could it be that she has met students from other schools?"
As the number of people who have been bullied by Kyoko’s classmates gradually increases, this confusion gradually becomes:
"Everyone, be careful. She must know someone from another school. If we dare to fight back, she will definitely call those people to take revenge on us when school is over..."
Finally it becomes:
"Xingzi doesn't even join a club. She leaves school so early every day. She must have met a lot of people from other schools. Speaking of which, I also saw a girl wearing our school uniform walking with several boys from other schools. Together, I only dared to take a look from a distance, and I felt that the girl’s back looked like Kyoko-san..."
This is probably such an evolution process.
In the "word of mouth" among everyone, what was originally just a suspicion gradually turned into an iron-clad fact that everyone believed.
Well, of course, there are also many Kyoko-students who have bad styles themselves. This is why they like to bully other students in school...
"Is this so..."
After listening to Kokarasuma's explanation, Hatoyama Keiko did not pause the brush in her hand. She frowned and thought for a while, and then said:
"Xiao Karasuma, when you see Xiao Qing again in the future, you can tell him that investigating the family of the deceased classmate Kyoko may be fruitful."
"Huh? Why?"
"Because the deceased was a bad student who enjoyed bullying other people. Most of these children do not care about others, and they are also difficult to be affected by external factors.
But you just said, Karasumaru, that Kyoko-san was in a very abnormal state of mind in the past few days before she was killed, right?
This can only mean that Kyoko-san must have encountered some major changes in her life recently. Such changes have even had a great impact on her spirit.
I originally thought that maybe there was some irreconcilable conflict between these bad boys.
But since Kyoko-san’s association with a student from another school is probably a rumor, and excluding the fact that she doesn’t have any friends in school...
It is very likely that what caused Kyoko-san's abnormality was something that happened in her own family. If we investigate in this direction, we may be able to find some clues to Kyoko-san's murder..."
"What kind of wealth..."
After listening to Hatoyama Keiko's analysis, Kokarasuma raised his hand to touch his chin and nodded thoughtfully.
Does Keiko-nee suggest that the investigation start with the simple interpersonal relationship of the deceased first...
"Of course, don't tell Xiaoqing that I told you these words?"
At this time, Hatoyama Keiko said with a smile again.
(˙ー˙)
(End of chapter)
