Back in the car, Shizuku happily took out the documents and began to look through the information inside.
First, the victims - just like in the movie and the novel, there are four victims, two men and two women, two of whom are students from the same school and good friends. The man is a student at a cram school and is also someone they know.
If it weren't for some reason, this case probably wouldn't have been transferred to the Police History Compilation Office.
The reason is coincidence.
First, all four died at the same time on the same day.
Secondly, their causes of death were surprisingly consistent: all of them had their hair grabbed tightly, as if they were trying to pull something.
In the end, the cause of death of the four people was unknown. Of course, the forensic doctor gave a scientific explanation after the autopsy. But they were not middle-aged people who were exhausted from work, nor were they elderly people who were already weak. They were healthy and active young people. Four people died at the same time and in the same way, which itself is a problem.
Of course, Shizuku also discovered the differences between reality and novels and movies.
In the novel and the movie, a relative of one of the victims is a reporter working for a newspaper, and he investigates the case out of his professional instinct. In the reality of this world, it is a young policeman who is in charge of recording the case. He seems to have heard from the victim's friends that they had seen a strange tape in which a woman told them that they would die in seven days, and he started to investigate.
Well, this is normal. Young people always want to make a big case to stand out. Moreover, the other party's death was extremely tragic and weird. It is possible that some people who don't believe in evil want to try their luck.
According to the case files, this policeman was the on-site investigator for the two victims in this mysterious murder case. The reason for two of them was that according to the records, two of the four people died in their own homes, while the remaining man and woman died in a car in a remote wilderness.
Of course, the police did consider the possibility that the couple committed suicide or were attacked, but judging from the scene, the two victims were found with their windows closed and their clothes dishevelled, and it was obvious that they were planning to have a big fight. And no drug reaction was detected in their bodies.
Moreover, according to police records, when the bodies were found, the man and woman were leaning against the car doors on both sides, as if they were trying to break out. This puzzled the policeman, because according to common sense, if the two had encountered something terrifying, they should have huddled together out of fear. But they did the opposite, as if they wanted to get as far away from each other as possible.
It was as if something had come between them.
Because the two people's expressions were extremely distorted and terrified, most of the police officers on the scene thought that the two children had taken drugs and died suddenly when they were having fun. However, after the autopsy, it showed that there was no effect of drugs, which made the young policeman want to find out the truth.
So he followed the clues and investigated the other two deaths. He also learned about the rumors about the "strange videotape" from the girl's classmates, and learned that the four of them had once stayed together in Pacific Land in Hakone.
The next step should be to follow the clues, but the police suddenly stopped the investigation and submitted the entire incident record. Then the case file was transferred to the police history compilation room. After all, this kind of weird case is their scope of responsibility.
Could it be that the policeman subconsciously sensed the danger? If so, he might live a long life.
After all, the people who die most in horror movies are the idiots who have no ability but jump into the fire pit on their own initiative.
This is what is called "not knowing whether to live or die".
But for Shizuku...
“It’s time for the Holy Land Pilgrimage!”
And unlike the movie, this is the real set of The Ring, so I definitely had to take a picture there! Fortunately, the policeman was very serious in his investigation and even found out the room number of the victim's villa in Hakone, which saved Shizuku a lot of effort to recall.
So Shizuku immediately drove to Pacific Land in Hakone and booked a room there, and then...
"Ah, the tape was taken away by the guest."
“…”
Hearing the answer from the manager behind the counter, Shizuku blinked, looking confused.
Are you kidding me?
She was already prepared, just like the protagonist in the movie, drinking drinks and eating melon seeds in this little room while watching the cursed videotape and answering harassing phone calls from Sadako. And now you tell me that the tape is missing?
If this were a role-playing haunted house adventure, you'd be out!
"When was it taken away?"
"About... a month ago?"
“…”
That makes sense. After all, the case in my hands is the result of a police investigation. The speed and nature of the Japanese bureaucracy...
"Was the guest who took the videotape a man or a woman? Did he leave a registration?"
"this……"
Obviously, the administrator was a little hesitant. After all, the owner of the tape had come to his door (Shizuku's excuse was that she had lent the tape to a friend, and they forgot to take it back, so she came to look for it), but as a staff member, he might be fired if he revealed his personal privacy at will.
“Pah.”
Shizuku was naturally familiar with this situation. She placed a 10,000 yuan bill on the counter without hesitation.
"I'll get the register."
So you see, having money can make anything work, even pole dancing.
In the registration book, Shizuku quickly found the name Asakawa. The other party checked in a month ago, so he should be the guest of Room 4...but because only the last name was written, Shizuku was not sure whether this Asakawa was a man or a woman.
The movie version is very different from the novel version. In the original novel, Asakawa is a man with a wife and children, a newspaper reporter, and is familiar with Takayama Ryuji. In the movie version, although Asakawa is still a reporter, his identity is changed to a woman, and he becomes Takayama Ryuji's ex-wife, and they also have a daughter.
Of course, this may be for the sake of saving money, or it may be because they don't want too many characters to cause the story rhythm to be less tight. But here you can't tell whether the other person is a man or a woman, because there is only a last name written on it, but Shizuku is not helpless about this.
After returning to the rented house, she immediately called Inspector Ranko Inudo, hoping that the Metropolitan Police Department could provide her with some information.
"You mean, besides those four students, there were other deaths?"
"Yes, there should be. Please investigate it."
"How do we investigate this... Did you discover something? Is it a curse?"
“It’s not a big deal actually.”
As she spoke, Shizuku told Ranko the plot of "The Ring" with a smile. After all, there was no "The Ring" in this world, and she wanted to find someone to tell her about it. What Shizuku didn't expect was that after listening to the story of the "cursed videotape" told by Shizuku, Ranko suddenly became serious.
"Really? If so, I'll investigate right away!"
"Huh? You're so proactive? That's rare."
Shizuku was quite surprised to hear Inspector Inudo Ranko answer so quickly. In her impression, Inspector Inudo was basically lazy all day, either betting on horses or drinking. It was rare for her to work proactively like this.
"Of course. Don't you understand the dangers involved? If the videotape is really as you said, and anyone who has watched it must make a copy for others to watch within seven days, then things will be troublesome. And it doesn't say how many copies of the videotape must be made, right? If four people watch it, do all four of them have to make a copy? Or does each person have to make more than one copy?"
"I'm not sure about this."
Hearing this, Shizuku scratched her head. She just remembered this urban legend more clearly, and originally Shizuku told this story to Inudo Ranko simply because she thought it would be fun to give away the story. Now thinking back, from the perspective of the police, if this curse really came true, then things would be troublesome.
No one wants to die, so they will definitely copy the videotape desperately and show it to others, and then others will also not want to die, and will continue to copy it...
Well, it seems that this curse is really troublesome. From a certain perspective, it is much more terrifying than the Gate of Hell.
After all, the Yellow Springs Gate is local, and it is like a virus that can multiply and infect and spread...
"I will look into this matter immediately."
Inudo Ranko answered with a serious attitude that Shizuku had never seen before, and then hung up the phone. Shizuku yawned boredly, then picked up the phone and called the office. It was Hinasaki Miku who answered the phone. Shizuku told her that she was investigating an incident and would not be going home tonight. Hinasaki Miku also expressed understanding of this.
Then Shizuku opened a bottle of Coke and drank it while watching the TV program in front of her to pass the time.
She knew that Yamamura Sadako's body was in the well below the villa, but Shizuku didn't bother to care because Yamamura Sadako's soul and mind had been transferred to the videotape. There were only bones in the well, and Shizuku didn't feel any spiritual energy or resentment, so she just let it go.
At worst, we can inform Inspector Inudo later and ask her to send someone to collect the bodies.
“Ding-ling-ling…!!”
Just when Shizuku was watching TV bored, suddenly, the phone rang again, and she woke up in the wooden house.
When she heard the phone ringing, Shizuku jumped up excitedly.
Could it be that the harassing phone call from Sadako has finally arrived? !