Chapter 3527-3539 [The Truth About the Ghost]
"I see!" Sonoko Suzuki exclaimed in realization, and took Ran Mouri's arm.
"While the deceased's other classmates knew he enjoyed delving into obscure subjects, it was difficult for them to find such a detailed catalog—so his childhood friend, who had grown up with him since childhood, certainly knew his interests better. He was also the most likely to have found these obscure books!"
"So that's how it is." The senior student who was drawing put down his brush, remembering another paranormal phenomenon that was even more concerning to him:
"Where did the pool of water at the entrance of the art room, under the 'cursed staircase,' come from? I'm pretty sure I closed the windows the night before, so that water definitely wasn't rainwater... Could it have been spilled on the ground by Shigu early this morning?"
Jiang Xia shook his head: "Next to the pond, there is a recessed hole used to store fire-fighting equipment—Senior Shigu just needs to go home after school, get a piece of ice, and hide it behind the fire extinguisher."
"Because of the fire extinguishers, no one could detect the presence of the ice. As night fell, the ice slowly melted, and water flowed from the holes in the wall onto the floor."
"To prevent anyone from discovering this trick, Senior Shigu even applied a layer of waterproof wax to the ground below the recess. This way, the pool of water would be some distance away from the recess, making it look as if it appeared out of nowhere right under the stairs."
"Wax?" Suzuki Sonoko ran to the door with great curiosity, squatted down and scraped the nail. After a moment, she raised her finger in surprise to show Jiang Xia what was on the tip of her nail. "There really is wax!"
Kazumi clenched her fist and looked at Seko Kunishige next to her: "Theoretically speaking, I should beat you up right now—but I want to ask you first, aren't you and Hosaka childhood friends? Why are you doing this?"
Shigu Guofan snorted and turned his head away.
...Then Tsukamoto Kazumi grabbed her collar and pulled her back.
"Your silence means..." Tsukamoto Kazumi's temple throbbed slightly, "...that I can beat you up however I want?"
Ancient and traditional: "..."
He wanted to say something, but if he said it out loud, it would seem like he was losing face, as if he were really afraid of getting beaten up.
After a brief standoff, Jiang Xia looked back and forth between the two of them and sighed in disappointment.
Then he continued listlessly, "Two years ago, when Senior Shigu's childhood friend passed away unexpectedly, he himself was in the hospital recovering from a car accident and was not present."
"When he recovered and returned to school, he heard about his childhood friend's accidental death. But in his eyes, it didn't seem like a simple accident; there must be another reason behind it."
"A while ago, when Shigu's table tennis club had a morning activity, he went to the sports warehouse to get equipment and saw the desk and chair that his childhood friend had used before his death."
"He began to weep bitterly. Just then, the girl from the gymnastics department who was carrying equipment came to the door—the warehouse was dark. Through the crack in the open door, she saw a figure standing in front of the desk, heard the crying, and thought she had encountered a ghost... This was the beginning of that paranormal event."
Tsukamoto Kazumi glanced at Jiang Xia, then at the classmate in front of her who, despite being gripped by the collar, managed to remain silent, exuding a rather tough-guy aura. She asked with some confusion, "Crying? Him?"
“It wasn’t weeping, it was lamenting!” Shiko Kunishige said bitterly. “When I saw that table, I immediately understood everything—it turns out that Hosaka was bullied while I was in the hospital, which is why he was murdered!”
He suddenly looked at Sonoko Suzuki: "Didn't you just say that I knew which books Hosaka had read because we were childhood friends?"
Sonoko Suzuki nodded blankly: "What's wrong? Is something wrong?"
“Of course not.” Shigu Guofan sighed.
"Hosaka is interested in all kinds of knowledge. It's impossible that he only studied a few subjects from childhood to adulthood—even I can't guess what new field he's exploring. How could I possibly guess what kind of books he's borrowed?"
"The reason he was able to pinpoint those four books is because every time he visited me while I was hospitalized, he would bring those books with him."
"To cheer me up while I was lying in the hospital bed, he would sit by my bedside and tell me stories he had come up with based on those books."
“Then one day, he suddenly stopped coming over. I thought he had a girlfriend and was too busy. I was about to be discharged from the hospital, so I didn’t contact him. I planned to surprise him by showing up at school, but when I got back to school… I received the news that he had died unexpectedly.”
Shigu Guofan slammed his fist on the table next to him: "How could a living person 'die accidentally' in the middle of an ordinary daily life? I simply don't believe it!"
"But no matter who I asked, all I got was the answer that 'Hosaka missed a step on the stairs and unfortunately fell to his death.'"
"Although I was unwilling, I could only accept this result for the time being... But who knew that one day, just when I was gradually stopping my investigation, I actually saw the desk with his signature in the sports storage room!"
Seko Kunishige gritted his teeth in anger: "It must have been some bastard who couldn't stand Hosaka's whimsical ideas, so he hid his desk in the warehouse and pushed him down the stairs—we encountered a bully like that back in junior high, but I chased him away back then."
"I thought there would be fewer people like this in high school, but who knew you guys would go even further and kill him!"
"That day in the sports storage room, I noticed people outside. I didn't want anyone to see me in pain, so I quickly left."
"Who knew that after that, rumors of a 'haunted warehouse' would gradually spread throughout the school."
"So I thought about it and decided to create a few more supernatural events—that bastard who bullies Hosaka will definitely feel guilty when he sees these, and then I can use that reaction to find him out from among you and take revenge!"
The senior from the art department stood to the side, hesitating for a long time before finally saying, "That's not how it is!"
Suddenly realizing something, Shiko Kunishige looked at him suspiciously: "You seem to be reacting very strongly to Hosaka's matter?"
Kazumi Tsukamoto stood between them, sighed, and said to the angry avenger in front of her, "There has never been any bullying in my class, and Mononobe is not the kind of person who would bully others—listen to what he has to say."
Mononobe Masao took off his glasses and wiped them, looking pained. "No one pushed him. Hosaka's death was truly an accident—but if you must find someone to take revenge on, then coming to me isn't wrong."
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