Ultimately, the first exploration of Tartarus was temporarily halted due to the fog.
Ai Li had also tried it, and that fog was indeed very strange. Hmm... To be honest, it reminded her of some bad memories. After all, Fang Zheng still remembered that when he saw such fog in the Dark Souls world, he usually went in... He was either killed by the boss or killed by the boss.
Therefore, when Ellie sees this kind of fog now, she is also nervous. It is basically the same as when she sees a treasure chest, she has to go up and poke it first. It has become a psychological shadow.
The exploration of film time came to an end. What Ellie had to do next was to continue investigating the late-night TV murder case.
And Setsu was of no help, as she turned directly into a coffin in the Shadow Time. When Ai Li asked her, Setsu said that she felt nothing, as if her eyes blinked and closed, and then she saw Ai Li and the others appear again, and nothing happened in between - in this case, Ai Li naturally would not take Setsu to explore the Shadow Time again, and just let her go back and wait.
Although Setsuna was somewhat dissatisfied, she couldn't even enter the Shadow Time, which basically meant that she had no combat power. Therefore, although dissatisfied, Setsuna had to accept Ai Li's orders and obediently returned to the ninth artificial island to protect Nagisa and the others.
And Ellie turned around and began to re-investigate the entire case.
Although she had obtained information from the Iwatodai branch and the police station, Ai Li still trusted her own investigation results more. After all, Fang Zheng had not stayed in the Conan world for so long in vain.
However, according to a day-long investigation conducted by Ai Li, the three victims seemed to have suffered a heavy pressure before their death. The TV hostess was exposed because of her underground love affair with the director of the artificial island - the latter was already married and had children. This was an obvious act of third party interference, so both parties were interfered with and widely reported by the media.
As for the second victim, Saki Konishi, her situation was somewhat special. She was the daughter of the owner of a store on the shopping street on the 12th artificial island. Not long ago, a large chain supermarket similar to "Carrefour" opened on the 12th artificial island, so the business of the shopping street was also affected.
Therefore, the relationship between the shopping street and the large supermarkets has not been very good. In this situation, Saki Konishi, who came from the shopping street, chose to work in a large supermarket, and seemed to have an ambiguous relationship with the son of the owner of that large supermarket. Therefore, she was accused by many people and believed that she betrayed her family and the shopping street. Therefore, during this period of time, Saki Konishi was also criticized. Her disappearance was even once regarded as a result of running away from home because she could not bear the responsibilities of her family and neighbors.
Strictly speaking, there is no close connection between the three. The only connection between Konishi Saki and the female host is that she was interviewed by the female reporter and appeared on TV, but that's it. The two sides have no private contacts and no special relationship.
What is going on?
Walking on the shopping street, Ai Li was thinking while flipping through the records in her hand.
What the deceased had in common was that they were at the center of social controversy, and the relationships around them were not harmonious in the period before their deaths. The female host was disgraced for being a mistress, the director was disgraced for keeping a mistress, and Konishi Saki was spurned by her family and neighbors for being a "traitor"... In that case, why didn't they fake it as a suicide, but had to make it into a serial murder case?
Could it be that these three people accidentally walked into Tartarus? According to Kirijo Mitsuru, some people do have the ability to adapt to the shadow time, but most of those who have the ability to adapt do not have the ability to fight. If they wander in the shadow time, they will only be discovered by the shadows, and then their spirits will be devoured and they will become living dead, but they will not become the ghostly appearance they are now.
Forget it, if you can’t figure it out, just stop thinking about it for now and go to the next step of investigation.
Thinking of this, Ai Li walked up the slope in front of her.
According to the information, before the death of the female host and the director, they had all stayed at the Amagi Hotel... So my next target would be the Amagi Hotel.
Amagi Hotel is a hot spring hotel full of ancient style. When Ai Li walked up the slope and came to the entrance of Amagi Hotel, she saw a lot of people gathered at the entrance. However, they were not guests. Just looking at the microphones and cameras, she could tell that these guys were reporters.
Speaking of which, this little thing on the artificial island is indeed newsworthy.
Surrounded by reporters was a girl with long black hair who looked very much like a Yamato Nadeshiko. She was wearing a pink kimono and looked quite quiet. At this moment, the reporters surrounded her and asked her all kinds of questions.
"She's a high school girl, but she's already a hotel owner."
"No, that... I was just filling in for my mother..."
"The kimono looks sexy!"
"Why?"
"It seems that the anchor Yamano stayed at the Fushang Inn before he died, right? Director Tanaka also stayed at the Fushang Inn... It is rumored that this hot spring hotel is cursed. Is that true?"
"No, I... that..."
“Ahem.”
Hearing this, Ai Li walked forward, coughed lightly, and looked at the crowd. When the reporters saw her, they were all stunned.
"Silver...Witch?"
"Ms. Ellie? Why are you here…"
"I am currently responsible for investigating the serial murders that occurred on the 12th artificial island."
Ellie glanced at the reporter in front of her.
"You can go now."
“Ah… yes…”
Sensing Ai Li's cold gaze, those reporters immediately put away their original attitude, and they behaved like mice seeing a cat - they didn't dare to provoke the Fourth True Ancestor. Ai Li never liked the media. Not only that, she also had enough ability to deal with those reporters and journalists who dared to talk nonsense. In the beginning, there were some media and journalists who were blind and opposed Ai Li, but after they paid the double price of blood and money, these media finally understood their status and dared not talk too much in front of Ai Li anymore.
Seeing the reporters hurriedly leave, the kimono girl who had been besieged breathed a sigh of relief and thanked Ai Li softly.
"Thank you……"
"You're welcome. I never liked the media. They are a bunch of idiots who like to make up stories."
Ellie waved her hand and took out the license from her arms.
"Let me introduce myself. I'm the magician Akatsuki Aili. I'm here to investigate the serial murders on the 12th artificial island. I know that Anchor Yamano and Director Tanaka once lived in the Amagi Hotel for a while, so I would like to ask you for some details..."
Ai Li did not get much useful information from the girl named Amagi Yukiko. According to her, the anchor came to the hotel after the scandal was exposed. Although Amagi Yukiko did not say much, Ai Li could probably guess that she was trying to avoid being "hunted down" by her colleagues. And Amagi Yukiko's statement also proved Ai Li's guess. After coming to the Amagi Hotel, she almost never went out and just stayed in the room. Amagi Yukiko met her several times. At that time, she was very tired and worried, but there was no sign of life being threatened.
Even the night before Yamano disappeared, Yukiko and the hotel staff did not notice anything unusual. It was not until the next morning when they went to call Yamano for dinner that they found that she was not in the room. At that time, everyone just thought that Yamano was bored staying in the room and planned to go out for some fresh air...
Yukiko Amagi's answer was basically the same as the testimony collected by the police before, and she seemed very calm. As for the situation of Director Tanaka, Yukiko Yamashiro was not so familiar with it, so she did not provide any valuable information. In the end, Ai Li did not collect any useful information at the Amagi Hotel and returned empty-handed.
After returning to the Iwatodai branch, at 12:00 p.m., Ellie entered the Shadow Time and led the team to Tartarus again. Just like before, there was still a fog deep inside the second floor, and it showed no sign of dissipating. So Ellie had no choice but to leave the tower and returned to the Iwatodai branch before the Shadow Time ended.
Almost soon after everyone entered the door, the movie time ended, and then accompanied by the sound of "clatter", heavy rain poured down.
Ellie looked at the raindrops outside through the window, then frowned slightly.
"I remember the legend of late-night TV. It seems to be that on a rainy night, if the TV is not turned on, it will automatically light up and play a program?"
"That's right."
"Then let's take a look."
Ellie sat on the sofa in the living room, looking at the dark TV in front of her.
"See if there's any reaction to that late night TV tonight."
After hearing what Ellie said, the others looked at each other, then sat down and stared quietly at the dark TV in front of them.
Time passes by every second.
I don’t know how much time had passed, but when most people were already sleepy and about to take a nap, suddenly, with a “pop” sound, the originally dark TV screen suddenly lit up.
“Got it!”
Seeing this scene, Yue Yu, who was about to fall asleep, cried out, and the others also perked up and looked at the TV in front of them. They were sure that the TV was definitely turned off and not turned on at all. But the TV screen was really lit up now...
At first, there was only a snowflake on the TV screen, but after a while, the image on the screen gradually became clear, a bit like seeing flowers in the fog. Under the gaze of everyone, a figure in a kimono appeared on the TV. She seemed to be avoiding something, running desperately, and then... just disappeared in the fog.
Then, the picture on the screen disappeared again, and the entire TV became dark again.
"That's late night TV?"
"Who's in there?"
Looking at the scene in front of them, everyone immediately started talking about it, while Ellie narrowed her eyes and stared at the TV screen.
She didn't know why, but she felt that the figure inside looked familiar...