Chapter 419

"Huh!?! Were we suspected before?!"

But among the three people mentioned by Sherlock, only Ms. Okita showed a surprised expression - Okita-kun and Tokito Muichiro both looked as if they had expected it.

"Because generally speaking, since the sword ban was issued, even people who practice kendo can't talk so much about real swords." Tokito Muichiro glanced at Ms. Okita who was ruthlessly blaming him, "Those who can touch real swords are basically not ordinary people..."

——At least it is not within the reach of ordinary students.

Ms. Okita read obvious condemnation in the eyes of her two companions.

"Ahem." Sherlock cleared his throat, drawing everyone's attention back to himself. "Let's not discuss this matter for now. After all, the scope of the murderer has been determined - what we need to decide is what to do next."

"No matter what you plan to do, the plan of using the suspect as bait is absolutely not acceptable." Ayanokouji Fumimaro righteously rejected Sherlock, "Is there no other plan that can be used?"

"Yes, there is... but this is the easiest." Sherlock spread his hands to Ayanokouji Fumimaro and sighed helplessly, "From the victim to the police, everyone's state is the most natural, and it can easily deceive the murderer. If it is another plan, I am worried that the participants will reveal their true intentions in front of the murderer."

"Do you know who the murderer is?" asked Ayanokouji Fumimaro.

"Of course I know." Sherlock didn't even look at Ayanokouji Fumimaro, holding his phone and confirming something with John, "However, there is no evidence to prove that person is the murderer - but my answer will not be wrong, the murderer must be that person. I'll give you a hint - I said before that the motive of the murderer who killed Kento Sakai was extreme admiration."

"Since you have found the online channel where they posted the video, you should also know how many fans they have, right?"

"Just like the commissions related to idol stars that Uncle Kogoro received before, right?" Edogawa Conan stood on tiptoe and pointed out a possibility for everyone, "There will be radical fans who try to follow idols or even invade their private residences - there will also be people who can't stand these behaviors... However, in Beika Town, the conflicts that can be found basically mean that someone has died because of this problem."

"Is it really okay for you Beika-cho people to say this about your city?" Hattori Heiji was confused by the mental state of Beika-cho people for the second time today. "No! Not to mention the security situation in Beika-cho - if Mr. Sherlock means this... then the motive of the murderer in the case three years ago and the case that happened today is the same type!?!"

"Correct answer." Sherlock leaned against the wall with ease and smiled at Hattori Heiji. "Although in the suicide case three years ago, the estimated time of death of the deceased Kento Sakai was across midnight, the deceased was most likely killed before midnight."

"Why do you say that?" Ayanokouji Fumimaro raised his eyebrows and looked at Sherlock.

"Although July 19 was the day that Okita died, his birthday happened to be on that day," John said, holding his notebook. "Speaking of this, we have to mention the age at which Okita died. People usually say that Okita died at the age of 26, but in fact, Okita was not even 26 when he died."

"Their filming plan for that year was 'The Death of Okita Souji'." Hattori Heiji also came to his senses, "If the announcement on July 19th formally coincides with the date of Okita Souji's death - then killing the deceased before he turned 26 corresponds to the age at which Okita Souji died!"

"From this perspective, the reason they canceled the filming plan is not because a member died in the past and they thought it was unlucky..." Okita Souji crossed his arms and looked at Hattori Heiji, "I'm afraid it's because--"

"In their world, those who should have died have already died." Edogawa Conan subconsciously connected, "So they no longer need this plan..."

"Conan gave you an example of idol fans before, right?" John asked everyone, closing the notebook in his hand, "Let me explain it to you with an example that is more relevant to their situation."

"The Cosplay activities carried out by this club are considered a form of secondary creation. Generally speaking, there are basically no taboos on the content and direction of secondary creation." John touched his chin and glanced at Sherlock standing beside him. "So even if Conan, a Holmes fanatic, insists that the original Holmes is just a mystery enthusiast, it cannot stop the creators of secondary creation from compiling stories about Holmes and Watson or Moriarty falling in love - this is still relatively restrained."

"If they don't hold back, they will just cross over to other works, right?" Ms. Okita showed a speechless expression, thinking of the various books she had seen from Fujimaru Ritsuka, which were given to her by another Fujimaru Ritsuka. "For the secondary creations, it doesn't matter whether the characters they write about have had any contact with each other before, or whether they were originally characters in the same work. What matters is what they want to write."

"Generally speaking, the motivation behind their re-creation is basically the unsatisfactoriness of the original story." John cleared his throat and continued, "Most people create in order to give their favorite characters a happy ending... Of course, there are also a few people who want to see their favorite characters become more miserable than before - but, compared to these two situations..."

"There are also extreme originalists who insist that if the character doesn't go through these things, then it's no longer the character."

"Well, in short, this is the premise of the following explanation. Then, let's start to re-understand the case from three years ago from this perspective."

"The deceased Kento Sakai was probably considered by the other four members of the club to be the reincarnation or incarnation of Souji Okita." John looked at his notebook, recalling the magician's rather listless explanation in the previous communication. "So they decided to kill Kento Sakai before he turned 26 - because Souji Okita couldn't live past 26, so neither could he."

"An extreme originalist." Conan Edogawa complained in a low voice.

"However, Kento Sakai, who died three years ago, may be the most innocent person in the entire club." Sherlock snorted and took the notebook from John's hand. "He probably really didn't know anything about his companions' plan to kill him. In fact, the identities of the murderers in today's two cases were exposed at the beginning, but without direct evidence, you police can't catch anyone."

"...Aiba Aya joined the club after Kento Sakai died." Hattori Heiji frowned, "So she is the murderer of these two cases...?"

"That's it." Sherlock took out another cigarette, "Because those four people are accomplices in the murder of Kento Sakai - although I asked about the reason why they were excluded as suspects at the beginning, the five of them were staying in separate hotels at the time. Although the hotel where the deceased stayed was not monitored like this hotel, the other four hotels all captured the figures of the other four people."

"Three years ago, the police ruled them out as suspects based on the surveillance footage from the four hotels. Although it wasn't a very sophisticated technique, they did manage to ensure that the only footage in the surveillance footage was of them returning to the hotel at night and leaving in the morning."

"Did they modify the surveillance footage?" asked Okita.

"If the surveillance was tampered with, the police would have noticed it." Ayanokouji Fumimaro shook his head and denied Okita's guess. "Either there are blind spots that the surveillance cannot capture, or they really were all staying in the hotel where they were staying when Kento Sakai died."

"But if there are blind spots, the police will check whether there are any witnesses nearby?" Conan Edogawa pointed out two possible different problems, "And if they stayed in the hotel at the time, they would need a specific method to make the deceased take the poison at a designated time."

"Ah, although I don't think their method was sophisticated, they did cleverly avoid leaving any evidence." Sherlock looked at Conan Edogawa and smiled at him, "Another reason why the police closed the case quickly was that there were only traces left by the deceased himself at the scene. There was no evidence to prove that the deceased was not killed by himself but was killed by someone else."

"The police initially suspected that the case was murder because the deadly poison was cyanide." John took his notebook back from Sherlock's hand, and while confirming the contents recorded on it, he added to everyone, "But those four people did stay in the hotel where they were staying that day."

“…Huh?”

"Because there is no concrete evidence to support the specific method of committing the crime, we can infer many feasible methods." Sherlock interrupted the discussion of the case three years ago, "Back to the previous topic, this time the hunting - well, Aiwa Aya, who killed these four people, in a sense, also regarded Sakai Kento as the incarnation of Okita Souji..."

"But she and these four people have different positions in this regard, so the reason why Aiba Aya only started killing people this year - it may be that she just learned the truth about Sakai Kento's death not long ago, or it may be that she has been preparing a plan to kill them for the past two years."

"But considering the motivation, I personally tend to lean towards the former possibility." Sherlock cleared his throat and supplemented everyone, "Since she can get along well with the other four people in the club, at least to some extent... or in the past, she also supported the view that Okita Souji would not live beyond the age of 26."

"Until she found out that Kento Sakai was killed by them three years ago - it was like telling her that the 'Okita Souji' in her heart could have had the possibility of living longer."

"Then, what will Ms. Aiba, who has a rather extreme mindset, do after learning about this... I don't need to tell you, right?"