Nanahara Takeshi was numbed, he had just moved to Hirarano the day before yesterday, started school yesterday, and if counted properly, he had only been officially living in Hirarano for two days, only to encounter two corpses, both of which had died terribly.
This was nothing like the information he had researched beforehand, where the data had rated the public safety of Hirarano highly, even mentioning that the people here were simple and honest. Was this the extent of their simplicity and honesty?
Was someone murdered every day?
This was enough to negate the advantages of Hirarano's excellent air quality and mostly fresh ingredients. Perhaps it was better not to live here for a long time; it might be better to leave sooner rather than later.
"This is... This is Tominaga-san, isn't it?" Kiyomi Liuli finally regained some strength and, clutching the tie on Nanahara Takeshi's chest, asked shakily.
As humans, it's instinctual to fear the bodies of one's own kind.
In the millions of years of human evolution, the discovery of a compatriot's body often signified nearby danger, whether from wild beasts or some contagious disease. To survive, one had to stay away; this instinct has been passed down from generation to generation, and modern humans naturally have this genetic disposition—those who were not afraid of corpses didn't pass their genes on to contemporary times.
So, Nanahara Takeshi was not surprised by Kiyomi Liuli's fear. He did not mock her for finally facing a dragon after professing to like them, but the look he gave her gradually became strange.
It couldn't be that this dead girl had a reaper-like constitution, could it? It seemed like after encountering her, he continually stumbled upon corpses, yet as a spiritual medium for many years, he had never encountered a murder case before.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Kiyomi Liuli might have been a bit slow-witted, but she did not lack the sensitivity of a young girl and immediately noticed that Nanahara Takeshi's gaze was peculiar.
Nanahara Takeshi came back to his senses and said indifferently, "Please conduct yourself with dignity, Kiyomi. I may sell my skills, but not my body."
Kiyomi Liuli then realized she was pressed up against Nanahara Takeshi's chest, quickly took a small hop away to the side, her face turning bright red: "Don't flatter yourself, only a dog would want to touch you!"
"Then be a person next time."
After responding to her, Nanahara Takeshi turned his attention back to the "sealed room," while Kiyomi Liuli, no longer in the mood to argue with him, also looked inside, trembling and retching again—the state of the corpse was gruesome, the deceased lay kneeling in a coagulated pool of dark blood, with the neck apparently chopped through, causing the head to droop oddly low, the chin almost touching the chest.
She tried hard to swallow her saliva but to no avail, her voice dry as she asked, "It's Tominaga-san, isn't it? Looks very like him..."
While searching earlier, Nanahara Takeshi had seen Fufu Yousuke's photo and his vision was much better than hers; he simply nodded and said, "Unless he has an identical twin brother, that's him."
Then he instructed, "Go call Officers Okuno and Hidaka upstairs."
"Ah, right, we should call them, I will go right now."
Remembering that they should indeed notify the police immediately, Kiyomi Liuli hurriedly ran downstairs, while Nanahara Takeshi stood at the entrance of the "sealed room," staring at Fufu Yousuke's body for a moment and then scrutinizing other parts of the "sealed room"—there was nothing inside, no personal effects whatsoever.
Of course, it was normal for there to be nothing, but if anything was taken, the posture of the corpse...
He was contemplating this when a series of footsteps approached, and then the door was abruptly pushed open. Okuno Yasuharu and Hidaka Tsukasa burst in, exclaiming, "Have we found Tominaga Yousuke?"
Having spent most of the day here, turning the place upside down and finding nothing, they had brought in a spiritual medium for a quick visit and located the person? Considering that, it seemed like the Hirarano Police Department should establish a "Spiritual Medium Unit," or maybe their Public Safety Division should recruit some special talents who knew how to communicate with spirits.
Nanahara Takeshi's train of thought was interrupted. He stood up, stepped aside from the door of the room, and shook his head, saying, "I guess you could say that. His body is inside."
The sight of the body brought Okuno Yasuharu and Hidaka Tsukasa to an abrupt halt; even as detectives, they rarely encountered such a brutal murder scene.
This wasn't surprising; the Public Safety Division primarily dealt with catching perverts like those who steal underwear, train molesters, and so on; they also handled missing person cases that lacked suspicion of kidnapping or extortion or to exclude murder in suicide cases. In short, they were responsible for those neither big nor small criminal cases in everyday life. They didn't often come across brutal murder scenes, and it was just a coincidence that they encountered two in as many days.
They quickly asked Nanahara Takeshi to step back, meticulously inquired whether he and Kiyomi Liuli had gone inside or touched anything, and for caution, asked them to leave fingerprints and shoe prints afterward. They also called for backup from the station—now that the nature of the case was confirmed as a vicious murder, not a missing person, they needed to bring in more people quickly.
After they had taken care of these matters, Okuno Yasuharu, clutching an amulet his mother had given him, still felt somewhat unsettled. He hesitated before asking Nanahara Takeshi, "Nanahara... uh, Nanahara-san, did you sense the residual resentment of Fufu Yousuke?"
That had to be the reason; otherwise, it was impossible to explain how Nanahara Takeshi had found the body. Nanahara Takeshi glanced at the "sealed room" and nodded noncommittally.
Both Okuno Yasuharu and Hidaka Tsukasa were convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt, with no lingering skepticism in their minds that this high school student was genuinely a professional spiritual medium, no, a genius communicator with spirits, an exceptional and rare talent!
Okuno Yasuharu said earnestly, bowing his head, "You've been through a lot, Nanahara-san, and I want to thank you on behalf of the police for your assistance."