It takes four hours to get from Shin-Osaka Station to Kofu Station, so the long journey is certainly not for catching up on sleep.

When taking a shower yesterday, Fujiwara Yu had already planned in his mind what he was going to do in the car. The first thing was to investigate Mitsuru Hosho who committed suicide half a year ago. It was not difficult to see from the content of the threatening letter that this person was the key.

After giving up the window seat to Chisuga Akihara, he took out his laptop from his sports bag, plugged in the network card, logged into Google and started searching for information about Mitsuru Hosho.

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Mitsuru Hosho, 22 years old, is a talented violinist. Her best violin piece is: Devil's Trill.

It's true that a lot of her personal information can be found on Google, but it doesn't provide any help in the case. It seems that we have to use other means to find out.

Fujiwara Yu deleted the keywords in the search bar and glanced at Akihara Chisuka beside him out of the corner of his eye. After making sure that the other party's attention was completely not on him, he found a file without an icon in a hidden folder.

This is the virus software that I designed with Yinsen Hondou the year I became a CIA. As long as the virus is placed on someone else's computer, all information can be easily browsed, and after everything is done, it will leave quietly and be difficult to detect.

He also added an anti-tracking system to his electronic products. This system was commissioned by Hiroki Sawada, who lived a stable life with his father in the United States. This ensured that if he hacked into other people's devices, he would be discovered and no one would be able to track him.

Fujiwara Yu implanted the virus directly into Yuuge Masami's mobile phone, locked the bank card transaction statements through the information sent by the bank, and searched for people related to Hosou Mitsuru.

The intimidated Yuge Masami will definitely hide something, so we can only start with the people around him. The most suitable targets are the domestic helpers in the house. They have contact with everyone in the family and are also the collectors of gossip in the family.

If the maid's inquiries yield no results, she can only try the violinists she has collaborated with before.

After eliminating those who did not meet the requirements, a 55-year-old middle-aged woman came into his sight.

Akiko Shimura has been receiving payments frequently for thirty years, but the last time she received payment was six months ago. Moreover, the amount each time was within the range of an ordinary salary, so she is most likely a retired maid.

Fujiwara Yuu quickly wrote down Shimura Akiko's contact information, opened his flip phone with his left hand, and dialed the number directly. When the call was connected, he immediately revealed his identity:

"Hello, is this Ms. Shimura Akiko? I'm Detective Sosuke Takashi from the Osaka Police Headquarters."

On the other end of the phone, Akiko Shimura was on her way to Mahjong House to play Mahjong. When she heard the word "police", her heart tightened. Could it be that someone in her family had done something illegal behind her back?

She tightly covered the mobile phone with both hands and couldn't help lowering her voice, fearing that others would hear:

"Mr. Officer, could it be that my prodigal son has done something bad?"

"No, Ms. Shimura, please calm down. I called to ask you about Mitsuru Hosho. You used to be a maid in Yuuge Masami's house, right?" Fujiwara Yu didn't expect that Shimura Akiko had such a big imagination. He smiled and shook his head. As expected, ordinary people would be nervous if they suddenly received a call from the police on weekdays.

After hearing that there was no accident at home, Akiko Shimura breathed a sigh of relief, but the sadness on her face did not fade away. Whenever she thought of Mitsuru Hoshino's suicide, she felt regretful - such a beautiful girl, she was gone just like that.

She raised her hand to wipe away the sweat that flowed down from excessive nervousness and asked aloud:

"So, Mr. Officer wants to know about Mitsuru. Do you want to know what happened before she committed suicide?"

"Hmm? Did anything happen before she committed suicide?" Fujiwara Yu vaguely felt that this was a very important matter. He took out a notebook with his right hand and prepared to write down the contents to prevent any omissions.

"In mid-January of this year, Mitsuru made a last-minute decision to attend a performance in Yamanashi Prefecture during a snowstorm. While driving alone, she ran out of gas. Her phone had also broken down the day before, so she had no choice but to get out of the car and walk over 30 kilometers in the snow at -15 degrees Celsius."

At this point, Shimura Akiko couldn't help but sigh. She felt heartbroken when she thought of that scene:

"Ah... Although Mitsuru was rescued after that, she had to have several fingers amputated on her hands due to severe frostbite. After she woke up, I never saw her smile again."

Fujiwara Yuu originally thought there was something fishy about Mitsuru Hosou's suicide, but now it seems highly likely she committed suicide. For a violinist, the hands that play the strings are as important as life itself. Losing fingers would naturally make it impossible to play the violin, so she certainly had reason to commit suicide.

But if she really committed suicide by accident, no one would send a threatening letter to Mr. Yuge. Could it be that the accident that Mitsuru Horai encountered during her lifetime was not an accident, but a man-made accident?

Sensing the possibility of a man-made accident, Fujiwara Yuu had no time to speak when his left wrist was grabbed by someone. He looked to the side in confusion and saw Akihara Chisuku directly take away his phone, leaving him with a question mark.

"Hello, may I ask if the accident that happened to Mitsuru Hosho was really just an accident?"

Chisu Akihara had been eavesdropping on Sosuke Takagi's call ever since he'd called. She hadn't heard most of it, but she was able to see the words written on the notepad. So, she realized something was amiss even before Takagi did, and when she saw him, she couldn't help but ask about it herself.

"Hey? Mr. Officer, how come you became Ms. Officer?" Akiko Shimura asked in surprise.

Chisuku Akihara glanced at Sosuke Takashi who wanted to take his phone back and made an "OK" gesture:

"That's not important. Answer the question I asked first."

"Ah, okay." Shimura Akiko didn't dare to neglect the conversation, so she told him everything she knew. "Actually, I think it's more of bad luck than an accident."

In order to prevent Chisuka Akihara from getting too close to him, Fujiwara Yu, who had his phone back, tapped the contents of his notebook with the pen in his hand, implying that she only needed to read the contents he had recorded simultaneously.

Shimura Akiko on the other end of the phone was also talking to herself:

"Mitsuru's performance that day was arranged by Goshimada at short notice. The car was out of gas because Kirishima had almost run out of it when he borrowed it. He didn't realize the fuel gauge was broken and mistakenly thought there was gas, so he didn't tell Mitsuru. Plus, Mitsuru couldn't use her phone to call for help because Murasame had damaged it by dropping it in water. And worst of all, they didn't have any winter gear. It wasn't out of carelessness, but because Hakushu had borrowed it and forgot to return it to her."

Fujiwara Yuu could tell that Goshimada was Manabu Goshimada, but he had never heard of the other surnames before. But that didn't matter—what mattered was that such a coincidence had happened four times.

This cannot be described as "bad luck" nor is it a coincidence.

This might be a premeditated crime.