At night, Snow Shadow Junior High School.

Ayaka, a short-haired girl, flashlights and a light bulb bought from an electronics store, hurriedly ran to the tennis club's activity room.

"Unlucky, because of the relationship between the city and the king, I didn't even notice ......"

The girl walked into the dark activity room, put the replacement bulb and flashlight on the table, and moved out of the chair to remove the lampshade to replace the broken bulb.

"Gotta get the bulb back on and find that one, if someone else picks it up tomorrow......"

"Da-da."

Suddenly there was a sound of footsteps outside, and someone followed into the activity room, and the girl picked up a flashlight in fright, but the next moment she was relieved.

"What, scare me, why did you come to such a place?"

The man did not make a sound, but took a few steps closer, and raised the short arrow in his hand under the girl's confused gaze.

"Huh?"

The girl was stunned and fled in terror, but was grabbed by someone and fell to the ground.

"Don't!"

"Shimazu-san," Gao Cheng's figure appeared at the door, calling out to the black shadow chasing the girl, "stop it." ”

The dark figure paused, turned its head sharply with rapid breath, and the flashlight revealed the sweaty face of the baseball team's Shimazu.

"How could you ......"

"I'm not sure who the prisoner is," Gao Cheng said as he walked into the activity room, "but it's true that the prisoner is among the people who go to campus in the morning, and no matter how much you plan, it is difficult to ensure that everything goes according to your own plan, so the prisoner needs to take the initiative to participate, and at the same time, he can also provide himself with an alibi." ”

"What are you talking about?" Shimazu smiled dryly and picked up the short arrow in his hand and explained, "I was just a little worried and came back to take a look, and then I found this, I didn't expect it to scare Ayaka......"

"I've seen it all," Gao Cheng's gaze swept over the frightened girl leaning against the wall inside, turned to Shimazu and said calmly, "Don't say anything, if you just came here worried, why did you put gloves on your hands." ”

"That's because ......"

"Haruna's cause of death is indeed suicide, the key is the cause of suicide," Gao Cheng looked at Shimazu and said, "I've been thinking about what Fuyumi did that would make Haruna hate her father to suicide, and now I finally understand a little bit, it was originally the color of happiness, but it has become an unforgivable color...... Haruna is pregnant, right? ”

Shimazu's gaze shrank suddenly, and he looked at Gao Cheng with a tense face.

"It seems that this is the case," Gao Cheng continued, "Haruna said that it was the color of the pregnancy test, and Haruna's mother said that when she came home from work at a restaurant in Misakimachi recently, she found that Haruna was starting to get a little strange, but in fact, it was just Haruna temporarily hiding her mother's pregnancy......

"It was originally the color of happiness, that is, the pregnancy test stick reacted, and suddenly it became an unforgivable color, which means that what happened in the middle of it made the pregnancy unforgivable......

"Haruna puts the blame on her father, and considering the name 'Ryuya Imai', which is easy to rename, I can probably think of whether Haruna feels like she is pregnant with a half-brother or younger brother's child."

Gao Cheng looked directly at the silent Shimazu.

"After hearing that Shimazu-san is reorganizing the family, I found out that your biological father is also named Imai Ryuya, who also lives in Misakimachi and is still a frequent visitor to Haruna's mother's place of work, so I vaguely understand that the reason why Fuyumi was retaliated against was because she conveyed the wrong message to Haruna."

A high school student is pregnant, and he didn't think of it at all, let alone say anything about happy colors.

Unmarried pregnancy is not a joy for high school students in his mind, but the facts do point to pregnancy, and what he sees now confirms his guess.

"Haruna is pregnant with your child, right, Shimazu? It's too late to investigate. ”

"Hahaha," Shimazu clenched his fingers and suddenly smiled, "What if Haruna is pregnant with my child?" Didn't you say the same? The killer went to the campus to kill Fuyumi before it snowed, and when the snow piled up, he went backwards and left his footprints in disguise......

But I was with everyone in the morning before the snow started, so how could I be guarding the corpse and waiting for snow on the campus?! ”

"You know very well yourself," Gao Cheng asked rhetorically, "not that it is impossible to leave footprints, but that you are guarding the corpses...... Why avoid footprints? ”

Shimazu trembled slightly, and was interrupted by Gao Cheng before he wanted to speak.

"That's right, because even if you don't guard the corpse, there is a way to leave footprints," Gao Cheng reasoned in the face of Shimazu, who had great mood swings, and the girl who was paralyzed against the wall inside, "The method of footprints is not to disguise the scene as suicide at all, because in that case, there is no need to go to Fuyumi's house to steal shoes to arouse suspicion, and sooner or later the police will re-investigate because of this, after all, Fuyumi's fatal injury is suspicious in the back of the neck......

"In other words, by leaving footprints on the snow that look like the murderer leaving the scene backwards, people think that the murderer did not leave until the snow covered the ground, which is the real purpose, and the murderer is for his own alibi!"

"Tell me about it, then!" Shimazu argued, "What's the matter with that footprint?" Is there any other way to leave footprints than to leave backwards?! ”

"Salt."

Gao Cheng replied easily in Hasunuma Ayaka's confused gaze.

"Of course, even if it is just a simple knowledge of physics, for ordinary people, it is difficult to think of it at once, you are indeed very smart to come up with this technique, before the snow is sprinkled with salt in the shape of a series of footprints on the campus, after the snow will naturally become the appearance of someone walking, and then a rain will also wash away all traces, and the police will not be able to find out......

"It's a pity that no matter how successful this method is, it still needs the murderer's personal involvement, and the witnesses can't find the clues."

Shimazu looked at Gao Cheng with a calm face for a while, and when Gao Cheng finished speaking, his lips were dry and solemn and asked, "Who are you?" ”

"I've already said it, Special Adviser to the Metropolitan Police Department's Search Section 1...... But this isn't Tokyo, it doesn't matter who you are," Gao Cheng replied, and finally persuaded, "Turn yourself in, Shimazu-san, although Fuyumi and the others are at fault, it would be too sad to kill their good friends because of this." ”

"I'm not reconciled!" Shimazu grabbed the short arrow in his hand, huddled his face together, buried his head in pain and choked up, "Just because I have the same name as Haruna's father, I made up that we are brother and sister, if they didn't make up this kind of boring lie, how could Haruna be so painful that she committed suicide?!" Haruna she ......"

"I'm sorry!" Ayaka cried, "If I knew Haruna was pregnant......"

"I didn't know that!" Shimazu looked at Ayaka again, "But on the night of the funeral, I heard the conversation between you and Fuyumi, saying that Harumi would be wrong herself, not your fault...... Are you kidding! ”

Ayaka was so frightened by Shimazu's scolding that she shrank up, screaming as Shimazu grabbed the short arrow and continued to rush towards herself: "Don't! ”

Gao Cheng hooked his toes, his calves trembled lightly and kicked the mop in the activity room, and he grabbed the end of the forward stab between the electric flashes, hitting Shimazu's soft ribs and arms.

"Bang!" Shimazu only felt that his body was numb, and he fell to the ground uncontrollably, unable to even catch the short arrow, and curled up on the floor in pain in a cold sweat, and the pain dissipated after a while, but he had no strength to stand up again.

"I also understand, Haruna's suicide is not just the fault of Fuyumi," Shimazu cried bitterly as he faced the approaching Takasei, "Haruna came to my house that day to confirm, and suddenly said that she wanted to see my childhood photo album......

"I was expected to go to Koshien because I couldn't pitch anymore because of a shoulder injury, so I was so full of things that I just handed her the album and didn't say anything......

"When she left, I found out that there was a picture of Haruna's father hugging me......

"Haruna's dad used to live near my house, and my mom put all my photos in the album, but Haruna misunderstood!"

Shimazu couldn't hold back his tears and hugged his head.

"I don't know anything, not only don't I know Haruna's pain, but I also personally gave Haruna the final blow when she was facing a desperate situation!! It's actually me who drove Haruna to her death......"

"Do you regret it?" Gao Cheng stepped forward and picked up the arrow with a handkerchief, "But no matter what, Haruna won't come back, even if you kill Dongmei and them, or even yourself, what can you do?" Playing together until the big friends and your death, will it make Haruna happy? Stop, Shimazu, being alive is more important than anything else. ”

Putting away the arrow that was sent as evidence, Gao Cheng stretched out his hand to the frightened Hasunuma Ayaka.

"It's okay."

"I'm sorry!" The girl came back to her senses, covered her face and cried, "It's all my fault, it's just that I lied because I wasn't willing to be with Haruna and Shimazu, and it was we who killed Haruna......"

"Let's wait until tomorrow to have a good worship of Haruna."

Gao Cheng didn't say much, pulled the girl up and took her out of the activity room, just in time to meet Xiaodu and Xiaosuke who were hiding outside the door.

"Well," Koto said embarrassedly, "we're a little worried about Joto-kun, so we thought maybe we might come to the school...... However, I didn't expect Shimazu to be the murderer......"

Kosuke looked at Ayaka Hasunuma, who was crying, and then looked inside the activity room.

"Shima, Shimazu, is he okay?"

"It's okay, it'll be fine in a while."

Gao Cheng glanced back at Shimazu and put away his plan to contact the Akita Prefectural Police immediately.

"Tomorrow morning, dig out the time capsule you buried and take a look, doesn't it mean that Haruna is also looking forward to it? At the very least, this agreement should be fulfilled. ”

"Huh? May I? ”

The next day, before it was very light, a group of students gathered again on the campus of Snow Shadow Junior High School, and the fat boy and the fisherman's son each brought a shovel.

Compared to the junior high school period in the photo, there are only 6 people left, and they can't get together anymore.

Shimazu has also surrendered to the police by phone and will be taken away soon......

The so-called time capsule is a metal bucket buried under a tree, which contains the contents encapsulated by everyone who was still a junior high school student at the time.

Shimazu played a baseball to commemorate the winner of the elementary school baseball game, and when he took it out, he stared at the baseball a little distracted.

Ayaka's is also a ball, and the tennis ball with the Wimbledon Championship Championship Memorial written on it was immediately blushing and hid in her arms before it was opened.

Xiaodu is his own diary.

Haruna's is a sketchbook, and she draws sketches for everyone, whether it's Shimazu or Fuyumi, who is also dead, everyone is doing what they like, lifelike, as if their faces are radiant.

"She's really observant," Xiaodu said sadly, "Although Haruna doesn't like to talk and is always on the side, she actually really likes to be with everyone......"

"Next up is Fuyumi's ......"

"Isn't this a picture of Shimazu?" The fat boy was surprised, "It's the ...... of the competition"

"There are words on the back."

"I hope that when the time capsule opens again, I can become the girl that Shimazu likes...... ...... Fuyumi"

Looking at the message behind the photo, everyone at the scene fell silent.

"That guy...... I've loved Shimazu since then, and I've really become a big beauty......"

Snow began to fall in the sky again, gradually covering the cherry blossoms and the ground, and several police cars drove into the school, taking Shimazu and Hasunuma Ayaka with them in front of everyone's eyes.

Those who remained filled the pit and left the school with a lot of memories.

Xiaodu saw Gao Cheng waiting at the school gate again, opened his mouth, and said with loss in his eyes: "It turns out ...... Is Joto-kun the detective? I thought ......"

"If I have a chance," Gao Cheng smiled, "I'll come back to you again in the future." ”

"Are you going back?"

"yes, work hard, and hopefully one day I'll be able to see your reasoning."

Gao Cheng handed a few people a business card of his own, nodded and turned to leave.

Although such a bad thing happened, he still likes this special village very much, and he doesn't want these few short-lived friends to be ruined because of the incident, life is still long, and anything is possible in the future.

"Well," Xiao Du watched Gao Cheng disappear into the snow, tears flowed uncontrollably under the frame, and he couldn't wipe them off, "I, I'll be a mystery writer!" ”

……

The snow was so heavy that Gao Cheng almost couldn't find the balcony hotel, but fortunately, Xiao Ai put on a coat and waited outside, and stopped Gao Cheng with a snowstorm.

"Is it over?"

"It's over," Gao Cheng shivered from the cold, and entered the hotel with Xiao Ai to drink hot water, "I originally wanted to attend Dongmei's funeral, but I'm going back today." ”

As a result, I didn't see the Sakurayuki Festival in the end.,After all, something happened to Fuyumi, who played the shrine maiden.。

Unfortunately, he was unable to prevent the tragedy from happening.