Nao had a dream.

The sea of trees in the valley of hell with no end in sight and the white mist wrapped around her like cotton wool imprisoned her in a small space, and no matter how much she struggled, she couldn't get rid of the sticky clammy cold. In the darkness where she couldn't see her fingers, a solid gaze stared at her spine tightly, and the coldness and murderous intent contained in it were like a slippery and cold tongue, slowly licking the skin of her whole body, making the hairs on her back stand up in an instant.

The instinct to detect danger is in full swing at this point. Before she could confirm where she was, the muscles in her body contracted uncontrollably and burst out.

She kept running through the identical scenery around her, and the untouchable illusion beast behind her chased after her. Although she couldn't see the road ahead and didn't know where to go, she still ran without hesitation. All thoughts were removed from her mind, and only one thought was engraved in every muscle, and that was to leave the dangerous thing that kept chasing her, and not to be overtaken by it.

Nao didn't know how long she had been running, or how long she had been in this black box-like space, until she was drenched in sweat, her throat was sore from the air she breathed, and her limbs were limp - the light of guidance appeared.

Orange, warm, tiny light.

She ran wildly and couldn't wait to reach out to it, her long red hair fluttering in the air like flames. The moment her fingertips touched the ball of light, a pure breath poured from her fingers into her body, cleansing away the clammy cold that had wrapped around her like a sweet spring—the light enveloped her. The warm air flowing from beneath her feet blew away the black mist in the sea of trees, restoring it to a lush verdant appearance.

She seemed to be able to hear the unwilling roar of the beast behind her.

Suddenly, the orange light pulsed, and a voice came out.

(Let's go back, Mimi-chan.) ）

Get back...... Where? Is there any place I can go?" Nao stared at the light and pursed her lips.

The gentle and pleasant male voice in the light group laughed softly as if it knew her thoughts, and touched her fingers with her misty body.

(Look, isn't it right here?)

Nao lowered her head, and found that the hand that touched the light group somehow held a pale but warm palm, and between her fingers she seemed to be able to feel the rough touch of fine particles in its palm, which was a little itchy, but strangely calmed her.

Return...... ?

She curled her lips and looked up along her clasped hands, meeting a young face with delight.

"Werewolf...... さん？”

The silver-haired boy sat on the chair next to the bed, with one hand on his cheek, staring at her with a lazy smile, "Miss, you've slept so long this night!"

Nao looked at the person in front of her who didn't seem to be here in a trance, she tried to move her body, a wave of soreness hit, and the memories before losing consciousness poured into her mind.

"I used to be ...... Are you unconscious?"

"Poof, not only did I fall unconscious, but I almost died. ”

The boy next to the bed was still smiling lazily, but the green pupils narrowed, revealing a dangerous meaning, "I fell off a cliff during the earthquake, got lost in the sea of trees and almost froze to death...... Our Miss Detective is getting more and more capable. ”

Although his reaction was a little sluggish, his head was not completely broken in the end, and Nao sensitively sensed his uneasiness from Nioh's words, and raised her golden green eyes to look at him in confusion, "Am I not doing it right?"

Seeing that someone's life was hanging by a thread, of course she had to be rescued, she didn't expect an earthquake when she stretched out her hand, and when she saw the girl falling, her body reacted faster than her thoughts, and when she came back to her senses, she was already on the way to fall, and what happened after that was not under her control...... A series of accidents have caused the current facts, but if this qiē happened to Nioh, I believe he would have saved people in the first place.

So, did she do something wrong?

"No, no, no, of course you didn't do anything wrong, you did a wonderful job!" Nioh laughed angrily, but his eyes and voice grew colder and colder.

Nao stared straight into his eyes, and Yingying's gaze was as clear as the water of a lake.

"And what are you angry about?"

Nioh Masaharu choked on the girl's serious questioning, and then as if he was going to use up the oxygen of his life in these few minutes, his chest rose and fell violently, and something was about to erupt.

But in the end, he didn't say anything more, just looked at her deeply, turned and walked out of the room.

The door slammed against the door frame with a loud noise.

In the silence that followed, the red-haired girl hung her head and slowly raised her left hand, which was unusually stiff for some reason.

“…… Where do I belong......"

Thinking of the other hand it had just held, Nao's somewhat chapped lips provoked a slightly bitter smile.

"Someone like me who is in debt...... How could it be ......"

The girl's murmur was not loud, but it was still as clear as a jewel in the empty room.

But she didn't know that outside the door of the room separated by a wall, the coldness in the silver-haired young man's eyes had already melted, and the corner of the lips of a small black mole was gently raised, and a low murmur was blown away by the subsequent breath.

“…… A sucker. ”

Nao woke up, much to the relief of several teenagers, especially Heiji Hattori, who could be called the culprit.

Not only did Nao regain her normal thinking power, but she also regained her terrible wound on the back of her back, and Dr. Kurosawa, after a series of examinations, announced that she was able to get out of bed and do light activities. Having such a crime-solving machine, known as the "rookie of the police world", will be of great benefit to their investigation before the police arrive - of course, no one is aware of it at the moment, except for Nioh and Yagyu, who are well known to her.

Although there are still some worries about Nao's health, none of the teenagers with pure hearts have thought of giving up the investigation - Nao, who has joined the search class of the children's education class, Nioh, who has a considerable interest in criminal psychology, Yagyu, who has a longing for case search and reasoning detectives, and Hattori, who dreams of becoming a detective, these four teenagers and girls with various ideas have a sense of mission, temporarily put aside their worries about their situation, and devote themselves to investigating the murder case.

"So, these are the two doubts? ”

Nao tapped the case materials summarized by Yanagi with his fingertips, and his eyes lit up with excitement that he was unaware of, "This is a death message...... The first suspicion is easy to say, but the second suspicion is not so simple. ”

"That's what we think, too. Hattori, who had previously discussed the case with the other two, said, "The fact that the victim struggled to grab the tip of the umbrella at the last moment before his death, if we are not mistaken, should be alluding to something directly related to the murderer, such as the name - the tip of the umbrella, which is the initial letter 'K' of the word umbrella." ”

"Kasa's 'K' (Japanese for umbrella)...... Who is the person in the villa at the moment, with the first letter of the K?"

"There were two people. "One is Mt. Raiyama in Kaminariyama, and the other is Kurosawa in Kurozawa. We cannot cross-examine them without more evidence...... But I probed from the side, and neither of them had any abnormal appearances. ”

In other words, the focus is on the second death message...... What does it mean. Nao's fingers tapping on his notebook paused and frowned, "But this Kurosawa...... Is it the doctor, Kazumi Kurosawa??"

"That's right. Is there anything wrong with that big sister?"

Looking at Nao's thoughtful expression, Hattori asked.

"It's not a problem...... It's just that I always feel like I've seen it somewhere. ”

"That's not surprising.,This Dr. Kurosawa is the health teacher of the Ice Emperor Academy.,It seems that in the last 'chokehold' incident,The doctor who gave you first aid after you broke down the door and was injured.。 Yanagi pushed his glasses and glanced over the silver-haired boy sitting beside him, "I'm right, Nioh-kun?"

"Ahh ”

Under the gaze of the other two, especially Nao, Nioh replied somewhat coldly.

Nao's eyes flashed, and she withdrew her gaze.

"So according to the current clues, the first suspect is these two people with the initials K. The red-haired girl looked at the record in the notebook, her gaze stayed on one of the lines, "The second unknown death message aside, what is the situation of the words on the murder weapon letter opener?"

"It's engraved on it, and judging by the penetration of blood, it should be something that was already there. Heiji Hattori, who didn't feel the change in the atmosphere at all, explained, "'R.K. Showa 63 E.S.S.' seems to be a souvenir from the point of view. ”

"R.K and E.S.S. are supposed to be both names, which means that the person named E.S.S gave this letter opener to this person named R.K in the 63rd year of Showa...... But does this E.S.S. sound weird, foreigner?"

"I think so too. Yanagi nodded approvingly, "But the question is why did the murderer use this letter-opener knife engraved with obvious clues as a murder weapon? ”

"That's right, in general, murderers will use inconspicuous murder weapons or local materials in order to hide their identity. This kind of clearly marked thing was deliberately chosen as the murder weapon...... Unless it's for some special meaning or to blame, there's no other reason. Hattori rubbed his hair irritably, "Ahhh

"Less?" Nao curled her lips, "In my opinion, there are enough clues, as long as we figure out the meaning of the second death message left by the deceased, the name of the murderer will be called." Let's not forget the topography of the place where we are - this villa is surrounded by the cliffs of Kurobe Gorge on both sides, the inaccessible sea of trees on the other, and the only access road has been destroyed by mudslides...... This is a secret room in the mountains and forests, and in such cold and bad weather, the possibility of outsiders committing crimes is almost zero. ”

"That's right!" Heiji Hattori, who was still inexperienced, immediately reflected when she said this, "which means that the prisoner is in this villa...... No, it's probably one of the two!"

Nao moved his left hand, which was still a little stiff, and smiled but didn't speak.

Although Hattori's reasoning is not wrong, it is still a bit too simplistic - since the victim left two death messages, they must be related or contained, and it is not rigorous to determine the murderer based on a single message. Although it is possible to make associations and reasoning based on the first message that has been cracked, the case pays more attention to evidence, and too one-sided reasoning can only make people have preconceived ideas, which is harmful to the search for the truth. Regardless of who the murderer was, the only thing that could be determined from the current clues was that "the murderer was a person from the villa" - as for the other clues, they still needed to observe and investigate.

For example, what does the second death message -- the deceased clutching his right chest -- mean, and how can it be used to find out the identity of the murderer?

Nao's eyes narrowed, and a cold light flashed through the gap under her eyelids.

-- This chase has only just begun.

And just an hour after Nao woke up, something happened that everyone didn't expect.

A fire broke out in a warehouse near the villa.

Although the fire did not spread to the power distribution room next to the warehouse, the telephone line that was pulled into the villa along the wall of the warehouse burned out, which means that they have completely lost contact with the outside world from this point on.

But that's not all.

When the fire in the warehouse was extinguished, an unrecognizable charred corpse was found in the scorching warehouse. Judging from the remains next to the corpse and the personnel who were not present at the time, the identity of the corpse was the man who had lost his trace since lunch and had a playboy temperament - Koji Haneda.

A few crows quacked and landed on the branches of the trees around the warehouse, their flapping wings bringing green light. Wrapped in bandages, Nao stood under the gloomy sky, looking at the almost charred corpse in the house, her face more solemn than ever.

"If this is your provocation......"

I accept.