For the time being, we decided to bury Akane-san's body. As was the case with Kanami-san's body the day before, simply leaving it there on the floor was out of the question. Iria-san didn't seem to have any plans to call the police anyway, so we went ahead and did as we felt.
We decided it would be best to use the digital camera to first take pictures of the scene of the crime as we had done the day before, then go bury the body in the mountain woods behind the mansion, so the three of us headed back to Kunagisa's room. But our plans would end up being slightly modified.
"Gah!"
The instant Kunagisa entered the room, she let out a scream that reverberated out into the hall.
I took a peek in and discovered the reason.
"This is… Wow…"
"Ah, what the hell?" Kunagisa was uncharacteristically vocal. "This is bullshit!"
Destroyed.
It was destroyed.
Inside her room lay destruction. All three of her computers, the two PCs and the workstation. They had been completely smashed to bits.
"Wahhh! Why did this happen?!" She frantically scrambled over to the completely exposed, mostly unrecognizable mess of mechanical parts. "Awfulawfulawfulawfulawfulawful! This is bullying! Demonic! There is a demon on this island! It's Diabolos, Ii-chan! A tragedy! Uwaaa! This is the ruptured organ compound fracture of computers! Even the monitors are busted! Why?! Ah, this keyboard was impossible to build! The holographic memory! Oh my God, the motherboard!!! What happened to—oh my God, it's been smashed! What the hell is this?!?!"
She had lost it. Like flipping a switch. For a happy-go-lucky girl like her, this was a fairly rare state of being. Or at least it was the first time I'd seen her like this since coming back to Japan.
"Why would they do something like this? Oh, it's too awful… Ii-chan Ii-chan Ii-chan… So whaddaya think?"
"It's ghastly." Even supposing these computers were a nuisance, there was no need to go this far. They were smashed up so bad, it seemed like overkill. "I wonder if they used some kind of iron bar. It's not a very clean method of destruction. Or maybe it was a hatchet or something."
"Why did this happen? Who did this? You think it was the killer?" Hikari-san said in a whisper.
The killer? Maybe the person who murdered Kanami-san and Akane-san was trying to create some chaos. But what was the point? What did the killer have to gain by destroying Kunagisa's equipment?
"Oooh… Poor me. I want to cry," Kunagisa said as if really about to cry. "Hah… Well, whatever. I already sent a backup to my house and all. But still, I went to so much trouble to build these. I didn't see this coming. I guess next time I'll have to make the motherboard out of unbreakable parts."
"Wow, backup to the rescue, huh? At least you won't lose the software you made."
But in reality, it wasn't much of a "rescue." Kunagisa's computers weren't the normal equipment used by your average professional. They were all completely homemade, so the external parts were actually worth even more than the internal parts.
"Now we can't even view what was on the digital camera. It looks like the camera and the mobile memory are busted as well. Oh, it's too horrible. Does this person think money grows on trees?"
I thought for a moment. "Hey wait, you're one to talk."
I snapped my fingers. As expected, the camera seemed to have been destroyed very deliberately. Which made the culprit's motive entirely clear.
"I see, I see. It makes perfect sense," I muttered to myself. "Yeah, this is surprisingly easy to understand. They must have been afraid of us snooping around any further."
"What do you mean?" Hikari-san asked. "You know why this happened?"
"Yeah, I think so. You saw them yesterday, too, right? Kunagisa's pictures from the atelier had all been sent to the hard disk through a USB connection. Whether or not the culprit knew all that, they must've figured those images were incriminating."
The workstation and mobile memory had probably been destroyed with extra care.
Kanami-san's room.
Those images.
"I think that's why this happened."
We hadn't told anybody about the mail or info from Chii-kun, so the killer wouldn't have known about that, but everybody knew about the pictures. Kunagisa slumped her shoulders in realization of this fact.
"Ah. I didn't even bother applying for extra protection. I never imagined anyone would resort to something like this."
"This room doesn't have a lock, does it?" Hikari-san asked. "I guess you were unlucky."
I patted Kunagisa on the head.
"Keep your spirits up. I guess this means we can't just sit around happily waiting for this detective guy to show up." I put my hands on her shoulders and sort of half hugged her. "No more playing around, huh?"
We didn't know who the culprit was, and we didn't know the motive, either. But we did know one thing for sure: the bastard had destroyed something precious to Kunagisa Tomo for his or her own selfish reasons.
This was unforgivable.
"Huh? Hey. Wait, wait a second," Hikari-san said as if having suddenly thought of something. "Who did this?"
"Uh, the killer, right? We don't know who that is right now."
"But we were all in the dining room, and then we came directly here, right? Who could've had the time to destroy everything like this?"
Whoa.
We had been in this room until Akari-san came. Then we went to the storage room where the murder had happened, but we were the last ones there. Everyone else was already gathered. Then everyone went directly to the dining room as a group.
If that was the case — or rather, that was the case. Logically, there was nobody here who could have committed this destruction.
"This is obviously the work of a human being, but nobody had the time to do it. What the hell?"
It didn't make sense. Yet another mystery to worry about. Just like Kanami-san's sealed room and Akane-san's headless body.
No.
This was different. This was a different sort of mystery. It went beyond simply trying to figure out people's alibis and motives. It wasn't a matter of tricks or gimmicks. It was simply an impossibility.
Which meant…
"Which means maybe this is the key."
I looked at Kunagisa. I looked at Hikari-san.
And then I thought.
If this was the key…
Then where the hell was the door?