At the foot of the mountain at this time, after the boy visited Keiko Hatoyama in the hospital, he took a police car and quickly rushed to the back hill where the cemetery was located.
Although the tombkeeper told him last night that the back mountain was just a bare mountain with no one living on it, his words were obviously not credible.
When the boy tentatively asked about the situation in the back mountain last night, the tombkeeper immediately showed an obviously uncontrollable nervous look, and even asked him in turn if he had found any clues...
The boy had seen this reaction too many times before.
Obviously a guilty conscience.
There must be something wrong with that back hill. According to the boy's guess, their cult group's stronghold may be up there.
The exact details will become clear when he goes up to take a look.
By the way, although the boy seemed to have said something like "I will let you know when there is any progress in the investigation" when he was separated from Karasuma last night, he had no intention of actually informing the girl now. .
If it was a normal investigation, forget it, but it would be better to leave this potentially dangerous matter to him.
At that time, Japan was only ten years after the war, and a large number of illegal guns and weapons were still circulating on the black market. The Tokyo government had not even promulgated relevant gun control laws, and there were countless cases of guns being hidden among the people.
Especially for a cult group like this that is active in the shadows of society, for certain needs, it is very likely that there will be a lot of guns and ammunition secretly hidden within the cult.
If it was just the boy himself, it would be okay, because he was very strong, very strong. He was more than enough to fight a group of ordinary people who had never even touched a gun a few times.
But it's different for other people, especially ordinary female high school students like Karasuma who are "powerless". If you call her, if you really encounter some extreme situation, you will just become him. burden.
Therefore, not calling her is the boy's most appropriate choice.
Even though she might complain again, but with Karasuma's "not remembering yesterday's grudges" temperament, if she complained one day, she would get over it the next day.
At worst, if I encounter another suitable case in the future, I can invite her to investigate together as compensation...
With this thought in his mind, the police car happened to pass by the cemetery. Subconsciously, the boy turned his head and glanced out the window.
Then, the whole person was stunned.
"parking!"
The boy seemed to have seen something unbelievable. He stared at the cemetery through the car window and shouted suddenly.
"Ah? Yes!"
The criminal police officer who was driving reacted quickly and immediately stepped on the brakes. The tires of the police car that was originally traveling at high speed slid along the road with an unpleasant friction sound, leaving a long mark on the road.
The boy didn't wait for the car to stop, so he quickly opened the door and got out of the car, rushing towards the cemetery behind him. After him, the two detectives also quickly got out of the car and followed.
The boy quickly rushed to Hanada's tombstone where Kyoko's body had been kneeling before, and looked down at the school bag placed on top of the tombstone.
This is a black handbag. The style doesn't look special, but the leather is high-grade. There is a small crow pendant hanging on the button of the bag.
It was placed in such a prominent position that anyone passing by the cemetery could clearly see it.
"Mr. Shirakawa?" The two detectives behind him chased after him. They looked at the boy who was staring at the schoolbag in confusion, and then looked at the schoolbag again. They felt that he looked familiar.
But to the boy, it was more than just familiar. He had seen this schoolbag too many times before. The only person who would hang such a raven pendant on his schoolbag, which was not "girlish" at all, would come to him every day. Little girl with Keiko.
This is Karasuma's schoolbag.
But why does it appear here?
At this point in time, shouldn't Karasuma-chan have already arrived at school?
Feeling a strong sense of uneasiness in his heart, the boy immediately reached out, opened the button of his schoolbag, and took out a notebook from inside.
On the cover of the notebook, Karasuma's name was written in English and Japanese respectively. The English was written very smoothly and gracefully, while the Japanese was a bit ugly, as if it was written by a child who had just learned to write.
When he saw these two names, the last trace of luck in the boy's heart was shattered.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Although Kokarasuma can write English and Japanese, because he lived in the United States until half a year ago, his English writing is quite fluent. On the contrary, because he doesn't have many opportunities to use it, his Japanese writing is very poor. He still can't write it to this day. Not fully proficient.
This is Karasuma's schoolbag.
So, why is it here? Who put it here for what purpose?
"call……"
Forcibly suppressing the uneasiness in his heart and straightening his thoughts, the boy put back his notebook and handed his schoolbag to a detective behind him. He already had a guess in his mind.
Taking out the pistol from his windbreaker, turning on the safety, the boy quickly rushed to the gravekeeper's hut not far from the cemetery.
This is the place where the tombkeeper usually lives. Yesterday morning, when the boy asked the tombkeeper about the details of this case, he even took a look.
"Bang!"
There was a gunshot and the boy broke the lock on the door.
Push the door open and go in. This is a narrow cabin no more than ten square meters in size.
The boy looked around first, then quickly walked up to the small table in the corner of the room.
On this small table, there is an open notebook pressed by a kettle.
The notebook uses crude drawings and text to indicate the location of a path, which is a path that leads to the mountain behind.
【Sure enough, it's you...】
The boy glanced at it, then took the pencil next to him, copied the contents of the notebook at a very fast speed, tore it off and handed it to the two detectives behind him.
"Sending a request to the Metropolitan Police Department, we found a stronghold of a cult group with an unknown number of people. The other party may have dangerous weapons. Additional police support needs to be mobilized as quickly as possible."
"yes!"
After giving this instruction, the boy stopped staying, rushed out of the hut, and ran directly towards the back mountain path recorded in his notebook.
"..."
"In that case, just do what you want..."
On the other side, in the religious group's stronghold on the back mountain, Mr. Muraki nodded expressionlessly after hearing what the tombkeeper said.
"Muraki?!"
When the believers on the side heard this, their eyes widened and they looked at him in disbelief.
"What, what are you..."
"Are you going to betray the 'Lord' too?!"
But Muraki shook his head silently, stopped their words, and still looked at the tombkeeper expressionlessly.
"Thank you, Mr. Muraki. I hope you can truly be saved by the 'Lord'."
The gravekeeper didn't say anything more. He turned around and prayed towards the statue of the "Lord" one last time. Then he walked towards the unconscious Little Karasuma and stretched out his hand to untie the rope that was tied to her.
This is something he has completely decided to do. He is going to surrender. He also believes that this is what the "Lord" wants him to do.
It was at this moment that Mr. Muraki, who was standing behind the tomb guard and looking at him expressionlessly, suddenly slowly raised his right hand hidden under his robe.
Among them was a black muzzle.
"Bang!"
(˙ー˙)
(End of chapter)
