Mob
Kousei No Ore Demo Boukensha Ni Nareba Riajuu Ni Naremasuka: Chapter #56
Translators: Nyx and Ririi Rain
Episode 56:
Would You Like To Catch A Serial Killer?
In a corner
of a dimly lit cave-type dungeon...I was looking down at the body of my classmate.
There was
not much I know about this Shishido guy.
They say
that when he was in junior high school he spent his days getting into fights,
or that he might be quiet on campus but after school he was quite reckless, or
on the contrary, that he was actually a fake yankee who had never been in a
fight.......
I didn't
know much about him except through rumors, and I didn't even really try to get
to know him.
I didn't
even know that Shishido regarded me as an enemy until Ono told me, which probably
meant that I wasn't interested in him in the slightest.
If I had
been a little more interested in Shishido, and if I had hung out with him even
once.....
I wonder if
this ending wouldn't have happened.
I thought
about this in front of the body of a classmate who was alive and well just a
few days ago.
“Senpai, are
you okay?”
Anna asked
timidly and worriedly.
"Yeah...
I'm fine.. But to have someone you know become a murder victim... it's more
unpleasant than I expected....."
I wish I had
given him a little more serious advice.
If Shishido had take a break, he would have been able to avoid the
danger of being killed. Did my feelings
of disdain for Shishido cause me to unconsciously abandon him?
Those
thoughts were spinning around in my head.
"Don't
be too hard on yourself. It's all the culprit's fault."
"Yeah......."
"...And
it looks like he didn't die in vain either."
When I
looked towards the voice, I saw Oribe reading Shishido's student notebook.
"Sayo,
did you find something?"
"Mm......
I found that thing I've been looking for all along."
The air
tensed at those words.
"Oribe,
that thing is ......?"
"It is
what is called a dying message."
......
Dying message?
It was a
standard term in mysteries, but when I actually heard it, it felt strange.
I tilted my
head and wondered why.
The
situation in which a dying message was left behind was in itself unnatural.
What would
you do if you were the criminal and your victim was trying to leave a dying
message? Naturally, you would try to prevent it. If the message had already
been made, you would certainly dispose of it.
This term
was a standard in mystery novels, but it's impossible in reality. There should
be such thing as a dying message of an abrupt murder.......
So, why was
there actually a dying message left like this ......?
I looked
into Shishido's student notebook with Anna.
There, the
perpetrator's words and actions, the cards they were using, and other
information were written down in bullet points as if he had written whatever he
could think of.
The
information, which was written in trembling handwriting but in as much detail
as possible, could be called Shishido's last resistance on the verge of death.
One of the
things that caught my attention was about the words and behavior of the Hound
Master.
The killer
must have said things that left an impression on him, such as "noble
aspirations" and "the arrogance of acting as if the cards are your
own power".......
Those were
the phrases I remembered, too, and they were similar to what they had said to
me back then....... too similar.
And the
page ended with Shishido's own sentiments, "The culprit is probably a
religious person," and a message to his family and friends.
"This
dying message left behind, the rosary found at Sato-san's crime site, the
adventurer's circle which the victims belonged to. These are all things that
bring to mind the Star Mother Association."
Is it......
"The
killer is the Star Mother Association-- or is that what the Hound Master is
trying to make us think?"
Oribe
nodded.
"As you
can see from the fact that he has killed countless people and his tail still
hasn't been captured, the Hound Master is extremely cautious. Would such a
criminal allow the existence of a dying message that could lead to their true
identity?"
Not likely.
If there is any such thing, it would be.....
"Perhaps,
they are convinced that the message will not lead to their true identity, or
maybe the Hound Master left it there on purpose. Possibly in order to focus the
investigation on someone else. Letting the victim escape up the stairs without
taking care of matters themselves is to give them enough room to leave a dying
message....... like that?"
That would
explain, to a certain extent, why the Hound Master did not take care of the
victims themselves. But .......
"Why
would they need to have the victim leave a dying message behind for them? There is always the option of killing
them and then planting the message themselves."
The method of
having the victim leave a dying message for them was less reliable. In fact, it
took us dozens of investigations to find it. It would have been faster to do it
themselves from the beginning.
"That's
probably because they want to take advantage of the victim's assumptions.
The Hound
Master makes a statement that could be taken as a noble aspiration or a
sanctimonious view of the card. This does not directly imply religion, but it
is enough to make the victim aware of a religion. A victim who is smart enough
to think about leaving a dying message on his or her deathbed would certainly
think of it first.
On top of
that, they are deprived of their composure by the fear of death to the extent
that they do not think they are being guided. And the police and Guild would
finally get a clue to the culprit through the filter of this victim's
assumption. ......It should be convincing enough, after all, it's evidence left
voluntarily, in the victim's own handwriting."
I see.
...... Certainly, a dying message planted by the killer would not be that
convincing. With handwriting analysis, it is easy to tell if the message was
written by the victim or not. If it is found to have been written by someone
other than the victim, it may even provide a clue to the murderer.
Alternatively,
they may be hoping for variations in information by leaving things up to the
victim's own assumptions.
The keyword
'noble aspiration' can not only be
associated with religion, but also with revolutionary groups.
If the
Hound Master actually has nothing to do with them, it would be enough to
disrupt the investigation.
But .......
"I think
it's too blatant to leave a rosary at the crime scene or to include members of
the Star Mothers Association in their prey. On the other hand, there is a possibility that suspicions
will be averted."
"It's
okay to go overboard on this. They won't be removed from the police's list of
suspects just because they are not too obvious, and above all, they need to
have something that the 'outfield' can make a big fuss about."
"I
see...the media?"
It is said
that there is no smoke without fire, and if there is smoke, the media concludes
that there is fire and writes articles about it. They also had a history of
ritualistic murders in the dungeon. This made them the perfect candidate to be
the perpetrator.
From the
media's perspective, should the real culprit be arrested and they are found
innocent, the media will just shrug off the fact that they treated them as
criminals and publish a sympathetic article the next time.
Either way,
as long as they make a splash, it doesn't matter.
However,
“It seems
that the goal of getting the media to cover it as news is starting to go awry,
though.”
Oribe said
mockingly.
Perhaps it
was because it coincided with the big news of the dungeon's disappearance,
which compelled the government to move.
I don't
know why the Hound Master made the dungeon disappear, but it must have been an
unexpected situation for them as well.
The
government had put information control on the cases in order to ensure the
capture of the Hound Master.
Just as Ono
was able to gather information on social media, this incident was gradually
becoming a hot topic in the public eye as the crime had been going on for
nearly a year.
If it had
not been for the disappearance of the dungeon, this criminal case would have
been in the news every day by now.
If that had
happened, it was possible that the Hound Master would have gone underground,
believing that they had achieved their goal.
"But to
target the Star Mother Association to this extent means that ......"
"Yeah,
the Hound Master is most likely someone who has some kind of grudge against the
Star Mother Association. If they simply want to pin the blame on them, there
are other, more affordable and easier ways to do so."
Someone
with a grudge against the Star Mother Association? The one that comes to mind
instantly is the Dungeon Antis.......
“So, what are
we going to do now?”
We know
that the Hound Master is someone who has a grudge against the Star Mother
Association. The question is, how do we narrow it down from there?
When I
looked at Oribe, she raised her hands above her head.
"Yeah?
That is...?"
"It
means, hands up. There's nothing more we can do."
"That,
that's not true, is it?"
"Then
what exactly do Senpai propose we do?"
”That's
...... for example, checking out anything suspicious with Dungeon Antis, or,
you know, investigating the families of those who were once murdered
ritualistically by the Star Mother Association......."
As I said
this myself, I could hear the volume of my voice dropping more and more.
Oribe said
reprimandingly,
"You're
going to treat every single person as a suspect just because they're a dungeon
anti? The family of the deceased would not
be happy to be treated as a suspect just because their family member was
killed."
"......
T, that's, right! What about
the Aoki brothers? There's
something suspicious about them."
The younger
one didn't even go looking for his girlfriend when she went missing, and the
older one was in the same dungeon as me the day I was attacked.
Normally,
when your girlfriend goes missing, don't you go looking for her, knowing that
it is dangerous? He didn't
go because his brother had stopped him, as if he knew what kind of danger
awaited him.
Moreover,
the card he traded with me that day was a lycanthrope card, a kind that the
Hound Master likes to use.
I can't say
for certain that he is the culprit, but I can't say that he is unrelated to the
crime.
Oribe,
however, shook her head and said,
"It is
true that the Aoki brothers are suspicious in some aspects," he says. But
that suspicion does not lead to them being Hound Master.
Take the
Aoki younger brother, for example. If he were the Hound Master himself, or
someone related to that guy, would he go out of his way to target his
girlfriend? Even if he
attacked her to camouflage himself, he would have gone looking for her himself,
without sending out a search request. It would be more natural.
Next is the
older brother, whose behavior is also too bold. The fact that he traded cards
with Senpai is suspicious, but the nature of the crime, which is to take the
cards before killing, makes it unnecessary to trade cards. He was going to rob
them anyway. Nevertheless, if he traded the card just before the crime, he
would surely be on the police investigation list in case Senpai survived, or if
you left a dying message about him.
Both of
them are too different from the profiling of the Hound Master who would never
leave a trace of themself outside the dungeon."
"..............................."
Completely
refuted, I looked up at the sky in silence.
Through
persistent efforts, we discovered that the Hound Master was somebody who had a
grudge against the Star Mother Association.
However,
this list of suspects was too extensive for them to narrow it down according to
the criteria of having a grudge against the Star Mother Association.
This was
the limit of what we, mere high school students, could do.
If this
were a mystery novel, the culprit would have been one of the characters
introduced so far, and the killer would likely have been one of the Aoki
siblings or the saintess of the Star Mother Association.
However,
reality is not that easy.
In the end,
it was just as Anna said. In reality, there was no set path to get to the
culprit, and the culprit is not always among the known characters...
"The
victim's investigation can only go so far. The only remaining lead is
......."
Oribe then
turned to Anna.
Right,
there was still the lead of the gremlins purchase.
I looked at
her expectantly, but Anna said with an awkward look on her face,
"I'm
sorry, but the lead of the gremlins purchase was cut off in the middle."
"What do
you mean, got cut off?"
"After
tracing the people who bought gremlins from the Guild and where they resold
them to, I was able to confirm that they had converged on a few people.
But......"
"But?"
"Those
people were already missing in the dungeon."
Did, they
had already been silenced?
A heavy
silence fell over the place.
The last
lead that we had, the gremlin purchase route, had been cut off along the way.
There was
nothing else more we could do.
If I dive
into the dungeon alone again, would I be able to hook the Hound Master? No, I probably wouldn't be able to.
Even if I did, there was a good chance they would escape by means unknown to
us.
Is, this the
limit?
After all,
as mere high school students, there was no way we could catch a serial killer
that even the police couldn't catch.
They say
that reality is stranger than fiction, but I guess that means reality doesn't
work so well as fiction.
...Maybe now
is the time to pull back.
Not only
strangers, but even a classmate had been killed.
Perhaps we
should wait quietly until the case is resolved.
That, would
be a wise decision.......
----*Riririririri!*
Just as I
was leaving the labyrinth, dejectedly, I received a phone call.
I wonder who
it is.
I looked at
the display and my eyes widened involuntarily,
——Kannadzuki
Tsubasa That's what it said.
Although we
had exchanged contact information after the tournament, this was the first time
I had received a phone call like this from the other side.
I briefly
apologized to Anna and the Oribe and immediately picked up the call.
"……Yes,
hello."
"Heya
Maro, it's been a while. How have you been?"
A rather
mild voice came through the cell phone. To that, I lowered my head and
answered, even though I knew that it was pointless.
"Yes....
it's been a long time-- Teacher."
There was a
hint of a wry smile over the phone.
"Stop
calling me teacher. We're the same age."
“It’s just
out of respect for me.”
"On the
contrary, I feel stuffy. I've finished teaching you everything, so you can just
talk normally."
I was a
little hesitant, but in the end, I decided to follow his words. Given my
mentor's personality, I'm sure it's not just a social expression.
"Well,
if that's what you say. So, what do you need from me?"
When I
asked that, he said in a light tone,
“————Would
you like to catch a serial killer?”
***
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