Chapter 415

"You're right, but..." Daisuke Momose glanced at Okita-kun, then hesitantly turned his gaze to Hattori Heiji, "Why didn't the famous detective from Kansai think of this?"

"I think it's because detectives don't read supernatural novels." Tokito Muichiro pointed at his phone and pointed the screen at the elders. "The character that Mr. Momose chose to play is Okita Souji who appears in the derivative animation of this game, right? Hattori-san probably only knows that crossing the Torii gate means entering the realm of the gods, so he needs to be careful about his behavior."

"Well, because there won't be any cases caused by demons and ghosts." Hattori Heiji crossed his arms, snorted unhappily, and moved closer to look at the group photo of five people provided by Momose Daisuke. "It's not surprising that I didn't react immediately, right? Speaking of which... this Okita from Kanto, your sister - looks a lot like a certain Okita Souji in this photo."

"Ah! Really, this kid looks like the reincarnation of Souji from Aiwade!"

"…This is not going to be good."

"The suggestion magic on Ms. Okita has been discovered." Fujimaru Ritsuka smiled bitterly while holding his water cup, looking at the real-time images broadcasted to them by BB on the computer screen, "The other two will probably not be able to escape the suggestion magic failure, and ordinary people will find that they look like anime characters or game characters. The worst case scenario is that the suggestion magic on everyone will fail in a chain reaction..."

"We need to find a way to redirect their actions back to this murder case..." Lansemello paused and shook his head at everyone, "However, except for Ms. Okita, the other two should be fine for the time being. Although William has also prepared follow-up countermeasures for ordinary people to notice their special looks."

"No problem for now...?"

"Ah, yes, Okita-kun is most likely not recorded in the higher-dimensional world, and as for Tokito..." Fujimaru Ritsuka called out to BB who was somewhat idle, "BB, Chaldea database - help me retrieve the data of the Demon Slayer Corps' world. I remember when the Watcher gave us the mission, in addition to the sword book, they also gave us a set of comic books that recorded the stories of that world, right?"

"When did the comic series begin serialization?"

"It's still nearly a month away, senior." BB clapped his hands with a smile and replied to Fujimaru Ritsuka.

"My sister looks like that game character, it's just a coincidence." Okita-kun naturally put Miss Okita behind him and turned everyone's attention back to the case. "It should have nothing to do with this case - by the way, can you please tell us about your actions yesterday?"

"We, the police, have saved all the videos they filmed yesterday as evidence." Ayanokouji Fumimaro waved his phone to his so-called helpers in solving the case, "so I hope that each of them can talk from the time they woke up yesterday until the time they last parted ways."

"Show me what they filmed." Hattori Heiji moved closer to Ayanokouji Fumimaro and made some unreasonable requests to the police officer who was surprisingly easy to talk to today.

"You guys go watch over there, and if you find anything, tell me directly—" Ayanokouji Fumimaro opened the video and handed the phone directly to the young high school student detective, "I'll ask them about their experience yesterday."

"Are the videos sorted by time?" Hattori Heiji confirmed with Ayanokouji Fumimaro.

"Well, these are all original videos that they haven't processed in any way." Ayanokouji Fumimaro opened his notebook and walked to the only woman among the four with a pen in hand. "Ms. Aiba, please describe your experience yesterday in detail."

While Ayanokouji Fumimaro was confirming the day's activities with the suspect, the students gathered around Hattori Heiji and confirmed with him whether there were any clues in the video.

"The first segment was filmed from here." Hattori Heiji compared the background in the video with the Senbon Torii, unpaused it, and started playing the video at double speed. "Come to think of it, usually for activities like this that require video recording, makeup artists and photographers will be hired, right? Even for non-commercial works, the same is true, right? Or at least someone should be responsible for looking after their belongings, right?"

"But they only needed five people... Also, the camera in this video seems to be shaking all the time - the height gives a very subtle feeling."

"But this video is different from the photo they showed us before." Toyama Kazuha pointed at his phone, "There's one person missing."

"Indeed, there are only four people in the video!" Hattori Heiji smiled confidently, "I already know the reason - I have found the answer to the question of why there are only five of them. Officer Ayanokouji, the device they used for filming is a mini portable camera, right? It's the kind of battery or rechargeable camera that can be directly clipped on clothes."

"Yes," Ayanokouji Fumimaro replied to Hattori Heiji, and while recording the information, he also stabbed the high school student detective, "I hope you can provide us with some more important discoveries, just like when the Tokyo detectives were present in the past."

"Forget it, I'll just talk to you guys about it." Hattori Heiji puffed up his cheeks and called them to his side to explain his reasoning based on the video. "Based on the group photo we saw before, we can know that the only person who didn't appear in this video is Mr. Momose. And combined with the shaking of the screen and the sound in the video--"

"We can conclude that it was Mr. Momose who was in charge of holding things that no one else was allowed to hold, and who recorded this video."

"We found their channel." Ms. Okita drew everyone's attention and showed her mobile phone screen. "They have been doing this since the club was founded. Every video they release looks like it is from a certain member's first-person perspective."

"However, compared to these videos, this announcement is more important." Ms. Okita clicked on the title of the announcement and showed the content inside to everyone, "Three years ago, a member of the club committed suicide. The club also canceled the filming plan for that year..."

"Who is the new one?" Hattori Heiji asked Miss Okita.

"Aiya Aiba," Ms. Okita replied.

"The man who committed suicide was often joked by other members of the club in their behind-the-scenes footage, saying, 'You are the real Okita Souji.'" Tokito Muichiro glanced at the screening results provided by BB and added more information, "In addition, the man died on his 26th birthday."

"The police at the time also concluded the case was a suicide."

"This is not good." Souji Okita crossed his arms and looked at Hattori Heiji, "Even I can feel that there is definitely a connection between the two incidents. If it cannot be solved quickly, there may be more victims."

"...Then we have to start investigating from the suicide case three years ago." Hattori Heiji looked at the video and responded to Okita Souji, "But, we have to wait until I check these videos. Also, Officer Ayanokouji should also learn something from them that he didn't mention before."

"…In order to reduce the physical exertion, we always took taxis to and from the place." Yuto Miyanohara explained to Fumimaro Ayanokouji, "Even though we all practice kendo, a full day of filming is very exhausting - not to mention that Aiba is a woman among us... and none of the five of us are from Kyoto."

"Did the police see the suitcases in their room?" Hattori Heiji, who had watched all the videos and did not find anything additional, asked Ayanokouji Fumimaro.

"Each of them brought a suitcase, but none of them were big enough to hold a full-grown male." Ayanokouji Fumimaro, who saw what Hattori Heiji was thinking at a glance, answered him, "However, as long as the time of death and the first scene are correct, the murderer must have moved the deceased back to the hotel in an inconspicuous way."

"But, besides wearing cosplay clothes, the body actually had no makeup or wig, right?" Ms. Okita flipped through the photos of the scene she had taken on her phone album. "Could it be that we misjudged the time the murderer had controlled the deceased?"

"What do you mean?" Toyama Kazuha tilted his head in confusion.

"It's difficult to take an unconscious adult male in strange clothes without attracting attention... But if the deceased was wearing his daily clothes at the time-" Hattori Heiji tapped his palm, "you can pretend to be sending a drunk participant home after the dinner and leave without attracting attention."

"It is also possible that the deceased returned to the hotel normally, but was later taken out of the room by the murderer for unknown reasons." Tokito Muichiro turned his back to the crowd and spread his hands. "In this case, the Shinsengumi uniform also has meaning to the murderer - because the deceased changed into this cosplay outfit again after changing back into his own clothes."

"It seems that we need to take the suicide incident three years ago into consideration." Okita-kun handed his phone to Ayanokouji Fumimaro and showed the special announcement content of the club's video channel. "Three years ago, a member of the 'Okita Souji Club', Kento Sakai, committed suicide on his 26th birthday."

Tokito Muichiro quietly changed his position and pointed his cell phone camera at the four people, so that BB could broadcast the situation on the scene to other Chaldea members. At the same time, he confirmed the changes in the suspects' expressions after hearing about the suicide one by one. However, surprisingly, although the four people had different expressions, their emotions undoubtedly became sad.

——Among those four people, not a single one seemed to be free of sadness about the night Kento Sakai chose to commit suicide.