The call from the Twilight Police Department came too suddenly.

When Nao and Sato received the notice, they looked at each other in shock. What Sato didn't expect was that the criminal would dare to commit a crime in the area where the police car was parked, and what Nao couldn't figure out was that it was a different pattern of crimes. The previous four attacks, each of which had been separated by three to five days, were now only one day later! And the strange situation is not only the case - the target of their investigation is not only Nakagawa Kunzi alone, but also three suspects who have purchased luxury goods live in the 2-chome of Rice Flower Town, just a few hundred meters away!

What does this mean?

In a flash of thought, many thoughts flowed through her mind, and each one gave her a bad premonition. She and Sato started acting almost the moment they hung up the phone, and rushed out of the Nakagawa family's house without even saying goodbye.

Not far from Nakagawa's house, there is a small forest with thick sycamores with messy branches. The June sun scorched the dark green canopy, and the air was filled with the strange scent of leaves and asphalt. Nao ran there with all his strength holding his unhealed left arm, and pulled Sato out of a distance of four or five meters in just a few steps.

Hurry, hurry!" came to her mind, the image of the pale girl hanging from the door, and the speed of her feet became more and more intense. She breathed rapidly, as if a giant beast was churning in her heart, and a loud voice rumbled in her ears: maybe this attack will be like the last time, and it will be too late if you don't hurry!

- She thought subconsciously, but when she saw a restless figure standing on the edge of the woods, looking back from time to time, a sudden aura suddenly pierced her brain.

Why woods?

No, there's something wrong with this location!

In the previous attacks - with the exception of the Natsu one - the victims had fallen in easily visible places, and the children's bodies had not been fatally wounded, not even a piece of skin had been scratched, but the location of the Natsu attack was clearly different from the previous one. Whether it's a school toilet on the weekend or a forest with a lot of natural shelter, it's not a place where the victim can be found in a short period of time.

Is it the "choke-necked man" who has changed his criminal style and is finally going to kill him? Or is it ......

The current situation did not allow her to think much about it, because the woods were already close at hand. Nao rushed to the man and yelled, her chest aching like fire as if she were running violently, "You called the police, right?

"There's a ...... in the innermost part of the ."

The report was made by a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl, her round blue eyes full of fear and worry. She was startled by Nao's menacing tone, and reflexively pointed to the depths of the sycamore forest. Nao didn't bother to say anything after hearing the location, just patted her on the shoulder casually and ran towards the crime scene again.

As soon as I entered the woods, the shadows of the trees fell like dark clouds. Nao slid straight in the direction the girl was pointing, and the wet grass quickly wet her white socks exposed at her feet. She walked around one stout tree after another, and soon saw the red brick wall at the end of the clearing. There was a plane tree on the edge of the wall, much taller than the other trees, and a white shadow was faintly shaking between the branches.

Nao narrowed her eyes and ran towards the white shadow.

And just when Nao was still about five meters away from the tree, the white shadow on the tree suddenly let out a short exclamation, slipped off the branch more than two meters above the ground, and fell to the ground with a dull sound.

It was a boy, about the same age as Nao. He wears a light blue T-shirt and white athletic shorts, and has short and vibrant black hair. But his right ankle was bandaged, which appeared to be injured, and his knee had broken the skin when he had just fallen from a tree.

"Damn!" the boy sat on the ground and clutched his right ankle tightly, cold sweat scrambling from his forehead, but his eyes kept anxiously fixing on the branches high up, and an unwilling low roar came from his throat.

Nao subconsciously followed his gaze, and the situation in front of her made her golden green pupils tighten fiercely-

Dappled sunlight shone in through the gaps in the leaves, forming tiny pillars of light. In the midst of these staggered pillars of orange-yellow light, a little boy with short hair floated silently in the air. Shades of sunlight hit the top of his head, casting a golden halo over his short, soft chestnut hair. He wore a dark green uniform, red plaid shorts, and a pair of delicate leather shoes, and his eyes half-closed and his face was serene. He just hung in the air, "standing" on the branch and swaying gently, like a delicately made doll, except for his horrible countenance.

"Get out of the way!" shouted to the boy who was still struggling to climb the tree, and quickly removed his shoes and socks. The moment the boy turned around, she had climbed the big plane tree that needed to be hugged by the two of them.

The rough bark of the tree is easy to focus on, but the thick trunk makes it impossible for her to ride like she does in Okinawa climbing coconut trees. At this moment, she relied entirely on the strength and reflexes of years of karate training, and after stepping on the trunk of the tree with the help of momentum, she jumped up, stretched out her arms and grabbed a drooping branch that looked quite strong, and then swung upside down on the branch, steadily stepping on the thick branch two meters above the ground.

The boy under the tree was already frozen, and watched as Nao moved from branch to branch like a monkey, until she took the rope loop off the boy's neck and jumped to the ground with his limp body, and hurried over. But the first thing that pierced the vision was the abrupt dark color on the girl's shoulder.

"How many minutes?" asked Nao with a gloomy expression as she put her hand on the side of the boy's neck without looking back.

"About a little over four minutes," the boy quickly calmed down and looked at his watch, "from the time the victim was found to the present." ”

Nao heard his words, and a trace of heaviness flashed in his eyes, but the movement of his hands did not stop. She laid the little body in her arms flat on the ground, pulled off the boy's bow tie, ripped off the buttons of his uniform and shirt, lifted his chin up, and pressed the boy's small chest with trembling hands. "Compress evenly five times and blow twice for one second each time, keeping the trachea open. Nao silently recited the essentials of CPR in her mind, completely unaware that the red flowing down her left arm had covered her palm.

"Hey, you...... I'd better do it!" The young man beside him seemed to be a little reluctant to speak.

"One second...... I can't stop for a second," Nao, who already had a sense of detachment, gasped slightly, and said while pressing the boy's chest with the strength of his body, "The heartbeat is very weak, and there is no ...... No breathing, hold on......"

From the moment she jumped up from the branch, Nao knew her condition from the pain of the torn shoulder. The wound that had only been stitched up yesterday was ruptured, and a series of movements accelerated the blood flow to the wound. Although the injuries were much lighter than the day Natsu was saved, and the wound where the vein was sutured was not torn, the dazzling red stained on the boy's white chest was a terrifying scene to see in the eyes of others.

"What the hell is this...... Wasn't the victim strangled?" Sato, who had just arrived, looked in shock at the boy lying on his back with his eyes closed and his chest red, and he couldn't help but be even more shocked when he saw that the blood stains were from the girl who was doing unarmed cardiopulmonary resuscitation. She couldn't figure out what had happened in the two minutes she hadn't arrived, and what could have made the girl who had just walked like this?

"From the time we found the victim until now, no one has shown up except you, and the blood on her body is supposed to have old wounds. The boy said with a white face in pain, "I have asked Lan to call an ambulance and the police, now it depends on how long this child can last......"

As soon as the boy finished speaking, he heard the sound of a whining flute from far to near. Nao heard the sound of the ambulance, and breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, only to realize that at some point, his cheeks were already covered with sweat.

"Shinichi! the doctor is here!" the girl who had just stood at the edge of the woods to answer them hurriedly ran over, followed by several ambulance workers carrying suitcases. And when she saw the young man struggling to stand up, her round blue eyes were instantly filled with tears, and she hurriedly rushed up to support him, "How can this be? Didn't you say that the ankle injury was already healed?"

"Stupid, why are you crying? I just twisted it a little bit just by accident. The young man said nonchalantly, but somehow his cheeks turned red, "...... And I'm not the only one who was hurt. ”

Nao had stepped aside, leaning against the trunk of a tree beside her, panting softly. The anemia and the pain of the wound made her sweat a lot, and the wig was already sticky and greasy. She tore off her wig and put it aside, flicked her long, curly damp bright red hair, let out a long breath, and slowly picked up her shoes and socks and put them on.

The victim's boy had begun to breathe weakly, and the arrival of the ambulance staff had improved his survival rate a lot, and his survival was almost certain. She put on her shoes, touched her shoulder, which was already cold, and smiled a little self-deprecatingly but more relievedly. But it was only for a moment, and the smile in his eyes quickly turned sharp.

Counting Natsu, this is already the second attempted killing. The boy had been fatally attacked and had the same good fortune as Natsu, and if someone hadn't called the police this time, his life would have ended in this quiet and beautiful wood. Nao had a faint intuition in her heart that these two cases were not the "choking man" that appeared before, but the "imitation crime" committed by the prisoner with reference to the content of the news report, and this boy was likely to be the real target of the prisoner. This crime scene, combined with the fact that there are three people living in the neighborhood who bought "that......

Nao could conclude that the prisoner must have been among the three or related to them, and that the prisoner must have had a reason to commit the crime in this place.

If I can find that reason......

Nao thought of the marks she had seen when she saved the boy and narrowed her eyes slightly.

"Nao, why are you still here?" Sato, who had just finished calling to explain the case, saw Nao, who was sitting under the tree, frowned and walked over quickly, "I shouldn't have promised you to participate in the case if I knew it, it's too messy!

"In a hurry, I forgot. Nao smiled and stood up holding on to the tree, "This time it's not so strict, it's just that the wound on the outer skin is cracked." By the way, what about the boy who first discovered it?"

“…… On the ambulance side. Sato smiled helplessly and pulled her to the ambulance, "The people from the forensic department will be here soon, so we'll take care of the rest." ”

"Hi Hi ......"

Walking to the ambulance, Nao saw the boy who had first discovered it, and he was talking to the girl who was with him. The girl saw Nao coming with her arms in her arms, and immediately showed a somewhat nervous expression, and threw down the boy with a thoughtful expression and walked towards her.

"That...... Aren't you, Saotome Nao?"

Nao didn't expect her to know herself, she was a little stunned, and nodded subconsciously. Seeing her nodding, the expression on the girl's face instantly relaxed, and her gentle smile was full of joy, "I didn't expect it to be you!

"Is that the National Junior Championship?" Nao realized, but then he was slightly happy. She used to think that there were not many people studying karate on the island, but now it seems that she can meet karate enthusiasts everywhere.

"Yes, that's the competition! But I had only been studying for half a year at the time, so I was far from the standard for competition. The girl smiled embarrassedly, "I'm Maolilan, the first year of Didan Middle School. ”

"Hello ......"

"Little girl, if you want to chat, please talk later, okay?" The medical staff in the ambulance poked his head out and interrupted the conversation between the two, looking at the blood on Nao's arm and frowning, "Didn't you notice your injury? Hurry up and come in and stitch up, we still have to send this child to the hospital!"

"Ahh Nao nodded apologetically to Moriran, and before she could react, she followed the paramedics into the back of the ambulance.

In the ambulance, Nao quickly took off her shirt, leaving only a close-fitting camisole. The doctor took out sterilization tools and suturing utensils and began to disinfect and suture the hideous wound on her left shoulder. Nao turned her face away, grinning at the pain of the disinfection, and looked at the little boy who was wearing an oxygen mask on the first-aid stretcher behind the curtain and had apparently recovered his breath, and showed an extremely ugly smile.

Fortunately, although she was in a little pain and bleeding a little, in exchange for a human life, these injuries were greatly worth it.

But that wasn't enough, and she couldn't let it go. There are still many suspicious points in the case, and the crime scene has also left unnatural traces. She also needs to ask the teenager who was with Maoriran about the exact time of the crime and the situation in the vicinity, and then find out the piece of the puzzle that leads to the truth and find out the connection between the three suspects and the case.

And, for the sake of Natsu, who is lying in the hospital, and for the sake of this boy who has just escaped from danger - find out the real culprit!