At three o'clock in the afternoon, nine hours had passed since the first case occurred.

The light rain that had only been able to converge at noon fell again, and the foggy rain blocked people's sight, making it impossible to see the road ahead. Beneath the increasingly murky sky, a small hut with only broken walls and ruins stood like a monster at the edge of the forest, and a disgusting black smoke rose from the dark doorway and the shattered glass windows.

A corpse that could only be seen as a human body was curled up on the ground, most of the skin of the body was carbonized, the thin skin such as the lips and eyelids were gone, the teeth that had been gaped by muscle contractions were exposed to the air, and the skin of the whole body was open and the flesh was exposed, revealing the crimson flesh, like a ghost jumping out of the hell of skinning, staring at the sky above his head with his black hole holes......

"It's just ......"

Hattori took a step back with his mouth and nose covered, and Nioh and Yanagi's faces turned a little blue. Even Nao, who had undergone special training, had a slightly numb scalp from such a tragic corpse, not to mention the other teenagers? Even if they had seen corpses before, a complete human body was not a little different from a charred human stick in terms of vision and impact, especially the peculiar scorching smell of protein burning that permeated the tip of the nose, which was really unbearable.

Nao frowned, glanced at the people with different expressions, and exhaled lowly.

"Cordon off the scene and let everyone else go back, no one can leave the villa. ”

Hearing her Yan Sù low words, Hattori Heiji's eyes flashed, and he couldn't help but forget the pungent stench for a while, and put down the hand covering his lips.

"What do you mean......"

"That's right," Nao nodded, "The previous case hasn't found a culprit, and a second one has happened in such a short period of time...... Before the intentions of the prisoner are known, there is no guarantee that a third case will occur, and now it will be relatively safe if everyone gets together. ”

"I—I'm going home!"

Hearing Nao's words, Lei Shan Xingxiang, who was holding a lace parasol, took a few steps back in horror, mist rose in her beautiful apricot eyes, and she screamed out a little uncontrollably, "What are you kidding! I just died in the morning, and now it's like this again, so I don't want to stay in the same house with the murderer! What if I am killed!? I have to go home now!!"

"Stop dreaming!"

Nao, who was already having a low-grade fever, rubbed his temples and sharply interrupted Lei Shan Xingxiang's somewhat piercing cry, "The only road to the outside world has been destroyed by the mudslide, and the rest of the place except for the cliff is the sea of trees, are you going to walk out with two feet from that sea of trees that will get lost or even freeze to death at any time?"

Raiyama was frightened by her stiff, even somewhat stern voice, and subconsciously grabbed the corner of the clothes of the person closest to her, Nioh Masaharu.

Nao was stunned, and Fu'er narrowed his slender eyes, and his grim gaze swept over Nioh, who was expressionless.

Everyone looked at the red-haired girl with dangerous eyes in front of them, and they all fell silent in her involuntary aura.

"Good. ”

The red-haired girl looked satisfied, her coat draped over her shoulders and her red hair tied up high in a smooth arc, and she turned and walked step by step towards the charred hut.

"Is that good?"

Liu Sheng stared at the girl's somewhat vain but unhesitating back, raised his finger and pushed the frame, "Look at her appearance, she should still have a fever now." ”

The silver-haired boy beside him let out a low breath without saying a word, and some excessively long forehead hair obscured his eyes. Yanagi frowned, and when he looked a little worriedly, he realized that the corners of his mouth were slightly upturning—just a small tug added a lot of warmth to his slightly sneering expression.

"That guy isn't a domestic animal!"

Just when Yanagi thought he wouldn't say anything more, the silver-haired boy opened his mouth with a little emotion. But before he could be surprised, the other party put away the soft smile, and restored the laziness that was indistinguishable from the usual, and the sharpness hidden in the depths that could not be seen by ordinary people.

"Let's go back too, Liu ~ Sheng. ”

Nioh Masaharu turned around and took the lead towards the villa, and at the same time glanced at Aika Raiya, who was holding a restless look not far behind him, and the other three people with different expressions, and dragged a long voice and put on a strange smile, "After all...... Na~"

Yanagi raised his eyebrows consciously, and his overly sharp eyes under the lenses glanced around the others, revealing an elegant smile.

“...... That's right. ”

After the few people with their own thoughts returned to the villa, they all stayed in the living room with tacit understanding.

Achiyama's previous words reminded them—whether she meant it or not—that they brutally pointed out a possibility that no one wanted to see, but everyone breathed a sigh of relief as well as fear...... After all, it's much easier to deal with someone who can see than to be on the lookout for an outsider who can't find a trace.

Sitting in a chair near the corner, Yanagi's gaze lingered for a moment on the two men with the initials "K", trying to see something on their faces—whether indifferent or flustered, that would help break through the case—after all, until new clues were found that could overturn the previous reasoning, the two men were still the suspects indicated in the "death message" of the previous case.

Actress Lei Shan Xingxiang seemed to be frightened, her pale face revealed blue, her cheekbones and even abnormal flushing, her eyes swiped back and forth on the faces of everyone present in disbelief, a pair of big eyes with water light looked particularly pitiful, on the other hand, Kurosawa Kazumi was leaning on the sofa lazily half-squinting, but the occasional streamer under the eyelids was with sharp scrutiny; judging from their expressions, they seemed to be observing and even doubting everyone present.

Compared to them, the other two men showed a lot of reactions.

The square-rimmed Tsujimoto belt man sinks into the sofa with his head in his hands, staring straight at a certain part of the floor, not knowing what to think, and his face is a little gray, while the butler Hino Heizaburo stands aside with a stiff face like a clay sculpture, looking unfathomable......

An unbearable silence settled in the living room, and Yanagi lifted his glasses, feeling a little breathless.

Koji Haneda, who had some playboy temperament, died, lying unrecognizably in a wooden hut two hundred meters away, and the sudden death of someone who had been with him all day was obviously a little uncomfortable for Yagyu to get used to compared to the deceased who had never known him at the last Umihara Festival. If the initial turmoil kept him calm, the now quiet and oppressive environment has cluttered his mind, and his mind is uncontrollably flashing with clusters of slide-like fragments.

The letter-opening knife engraved with an unknown abbreviation, the scream of Aika Raiyama, the worried eyes of Kazumi Kurosawa, the blood dripping all over the ground, the black and hideous head, the hand holding the right chest, the boy who fell in the hallway, and the sea of trees in the dark...... Be scatterbrained.

“...... Are you, boy, alright?"

The sudden sound of the voice pulled him out of his almost nightmare thoughts, and he looked up at Kurosawa Kazumi who was frowning, and barely curled the corners of his mouth in the other party's somewhat worried eyes: "I'm sorry, I seem to be a little uncomfortable." ”

Yanagi pushed his glasses stiffly—his fingers were shaking, and he didn't have to look to know how bad his face was.

"Poof, I think it's better to send you back to your room first. ”

A hand slapped him on the shoulder, bringing a hint of warmth, and the silver-haired young man smiled playfully at him, turned his head and raised his eyebrows at the others in the living room, "There shouldn't be any problem for two people to walk together, after all, everyone here is a practitioner!"

"Rest assured, the window of the guest room is outside the Kurobe Gorge, and it is impossible to climb up from there. Hino butler, who had been standing by the wall, said.

"Yes, then I'm relieved. ”

Nioh Masaharu smiled meaninglessly and walked out of the living room with Yanagi's shoulder.

Walking around the corner of the corridor on the second floor, the two stopped at the same time with a tacit understanding.

"Nioh-kun, I didn't expect you to be a practitioner. ”

"Of course~ I'm almost Cheng dù of a boxing master. ”

"Coincidentally, I'm also a swordsman. ”

The young man who had begun to take on the form of a gentleman stood up straight, smoothed the wrinkles at the corners of his clothes, raised his glasses and looked at the person next to him, and there was still a trace of panic in his gestures; the young man next to him put his hand in his trouser pocket and leaned against the wall with a smile, "Swordsman, it won't be fancy fencing, right~ That sword throwing just now was really painful!"

"Thank you for your compliment, Master Taijiquan. ”

"Crack!" Nioh bent his green eyes, "So, where to investigate next?"

"Let's start with the letter opening knife of the murder weapon, the abbreviation on the handle of the knife is very interesting no matter how you look at it, and it always feels familiar. Yanagi pursed his lips, "But let's just swagger out, okay? If the prisoner is really among them......

"Well, if that's the case, the prisoner won't leave the living room, and unlike us middle school students, who are the least likely, the adults in the living room will definitely supervise each other. Nioh pulled up the pigtail at the back of his head and swept his cheeks, "'If you want to clear your suspicion, you can't leave the sight of other people' or something like that, whether it's a prisoner or an unrelated person...... On the other hand, they are afraid that they will become the next target of the prisoners! As for us, they don't have time to take care of it. ”

After saying this, the silver-haired teenager shrugged his shoulders with a helpless expression.

Yanagi nodded approvingly.

"Anyway, what's the point with your 'always feeling familiar'?" Nioh asked.

It's the abbreviation engraved on the letter opener. "Speaking of the case, Yanagi's expression behind the lens turned cold, "'R.K. Showa 63 · E.S.S', the preliminary judgment is that there is a person named E. In 1988, the 63rd year of the Showa era, the S.S people gave the knife to R.K as a souvenir gift...... The problem is this 'E.S.S', where have I seen this abbreviation absolutely somewhere. ”

Listening to Yanagi's words, Nioh's originally squinted eyes suddenly opened, and Fuer slowly curled the corners of his mouth.

"Now, ...... Yanagi"

He swept the corners of his mouth with his silver braid, his turquoise pupils gleaming with a burning brilliance staring straight at somewhere, "I haven't heard of that E.S.S., but this R.K...... It's so familiar!"

"What...... What?"

Yanagi turned his head along Nioh's line of sight, and the bronze plaque nailed to the door behind him was engraved with a row of words that made people's hearts beat heavily-

【Rintarou】

"It's ......"

"Do you remember the last name of the owner of this villa?" Nioh walked to the door and flicked the bronze plaque with his finger.

"It seems to be called Shingo Kitaja, a very famous martial artist," Yanagi Hirushi raised his glasses, and a white light flashed, "I see...... The surname North Claw, plus the name of this house number, is written in English as ''', and the abbreviation is exactly 'R.K'...... ? ”

“BINGO～”

Nioh snapped his fingers, walked over to the door and turned his hand slightly—

The two teenagers glanced at each other.

"The owner is obviously not at home, and the room is not locked?"

"It's also possible that the letter opener was stolen and the prisoner opened it!"

Nioh smiled lightly, his eyes were cold, "Then next, is there a ghost or a snake in the room~"

The doorway rang softly, and the red-painted door was opened by a pair of teenagers.

Nao, who still doesn't know it, would never have imagined that from this door where clues are hidden, she will enter a world of extreme cruelty that ordinary people cannot touch in their entire lives—just like the box that was told to "never open", full of greed, killing, fear, pain, disease, and **.