It seemed this was indeed the murderer's diary.
Shen Gu Mirai leafed through the contents of the diary, getting a general idea in her mind.
But for some reason, just by looking at the "cruel" words, Shen Gu Mirai felt a chill all over, and fear arose in her heart.
With a tingling scalp, Shen Gu Mirai took a deep breath and continued to read.
"I killed the Sanki family's daughter. When her parents went to work, I dismembered her body. I buried her legs separately, deeply in the front and back gardens. The head was placed in the courtyard, the hands shoved under the tree, and the torso... wait, Yuuki has arrived. I need to entertain her..."
"Yuuki was very happy after seeing the body parts and even kissed me. I increasingly feel that what I did was right."
"The Sanki family next door called the police. Today the police found me, asking where Sanki might have gone. Of course, I couldn't tell these fools what I had done. But for some reason, I always felt like Sanki had come back to life. She seemed to be calling my name..."
"I'm starting to have nightmares. Sanki is like a twisted monster... God, why does Sanki in the dream have no hands? No... I have to check—"
"I dug through the dirt under the tree but couldn't find Sanki's hands! Damn... The voices in my head are ringing again, Sanki, Sanki, Sanki!"
"No! Sanki must have come back to life! I have already heard her voice in the courtyard!"
"I'm starting to fear sleep. Whenever I sleep, I dream of Sanki's dead appearance. Whenever I sleep, I can sense Sanki is beside me. Where could she be? Peering from the window? In my drawer? In the closet wall? No, I will surely go mad at this rate."
"I dropped out of school; nothing goes right there. Matsusaka, that fat bastard, even dared to mock me... kill him, kill him, kill him!"
"Yuuki came to see me again. She's the only one in this world who cares about me. I love Yuuki, and I feel Yuuki loves me too."
"So it was Yuuki who took away Sanki's hands... What? This is...?"
"I'm going insane! I'm afraid to sleep with the lights off! I'm afraid to be alone in a closed space! I need to think of a way! A once-and-for-all solution! Damn it!"
"As long as Yuuki is with me, everything is fine. As long as Yuuki is by my side, then I can remain forever at peace."
"Yuuki said there's a particularly noisy girl in the class next to ours, very annoying. For Yuuki, I have to do something..."
"I killed again today. It was Yuuki who told me to do it, the target was the girl in the neighboring class. The process was unexpectedly simple, with just one swing of the bat, and her previously chattering self went silent like dead meat, never to move again. She even wet herself, how disgusting."
"I sealed her mouth forever with quicklime, and Yuuki praised me for it, but why does she always take the arms?"
"School, such a big fire, what? Was Yuuki in there too? Yuuki...!?"
"Yuuki died. The perpetrator wasn't caught afterward, damn it! I must kill this guy!"
Shen Gu Mirai was shocked by the chilling hatred on the notebook, suppressing the discomfort in her mind. She turned to the next page.
Only to be confronted with a glaring sentence.
"Yuuki came back to life. So there are two Yuukis in this world... My own Yuuki, my own Yuuki..."
Shen Gu Mirai's fingers moved, wanting to see more of the notebook's content, but didn't expect that nearly a third of the content was stuck together with a large amount of blood, forcing it apart would certainly damage the overlapping pages, making the content unreadable.
Just then, the voice of Beichuan Si suddenly rang from behind her.
"Finished reading?"
This made Shen Gu Mirai, who was fully engrossed, shudder as if startled, her hackles raised.
Upon realizing it was Beichuan Si, Shen Gu Mirai let out a complaint,
"Honestly, stop scaring me like that, Mr. Temple."
"How do you feel?" Beichuan Si asked, sitting beside Shen Gu Mirai, his profile turning to her.
After handing over the notebook to Beichuan Si, Shen Gu Mirai pondered for a moment,
"Um... how should I put it, this is basically something written by someone with severe paranoia, auditory hallucinations, and mental illness, right?"
There was a slight uncertainty in her tone.
"Initially, the words were still clear, but after the author of the diary started murdering, the difference was apparent. He began exhibiting symptoms of paranoia, auditory hallucinations, and visual hallucinations. Seeing a dead person in his home's courtyard, how is that possible... uh—"
Shen Gu Mirai coughed as she recalled some impossible things she had encountered today.
"This diary also features another major character besides the diary author, Yuuki." Beichuan Si opened the diary, frowning at the depiction of "Yuuki."
The diary did indeed contain some descriptions of Yuuki, trying to portray "Yuuki" as an unparalleled beauty.
This sycophantic attitude made Beichuan Si raise an eyebrow and shake his head.
Things written solely based on subjective impressions lack any reference value.
But the last sentence of the diary intrigued Beichuan Si a bit.
"Yuuki came back to life, so there are two Yuukis in this world... My own Yuuki, my own Yuuki..."
According to the diary author's earlier notes, "Yuuki" should have died in the fire, so why did it seem like "Yuuki" had been resurrected here?
"Is it possible that such a power to bring the dead back to life exists in this world? Mr. Temple?" Shen Gu Mirai stood up with curiosity and asked, leaning over Beichuan Si's back.
"..." Beichuan Si.
Cell death being the irreversible cessation of life's processes is basic medical knowledge.
But given the world's existence of systems, it's possible that some people indeed possess items that can resurrect the dead.
"However, I always feel that things aren't that simple." Beichuan Si leafed through the diary back and forth, and after a moment of silence, said,
"If 'Yuuki' truly had such extraordinary power, she wouldn't need to use the diary author to commit murder."
It was apparent that the diary author was killing entirely following "Yuuki's" orders.
Whom to kill, whom to find, all were at "Yuuki's" direction.
And this "Yuuki" also had a peculiar interest in people's arms...
Beichuan Si closed the diary and said solemnly,
"There's still an important message left here, Yashan City."
"... Strictly speaking, this time wasn't fruitless."
As long as they investigate the files of Yashan City's cases in recent years, clues are bound to surface.
Just as Beichuan Si put the diary into his bag, his phone rang.
He glanced at the name on it and was mildly invigorated.
Gangye Yoshiko!