Chapter 51: Deduction Lv.2

"Indeed!"

Regaining his train of thought, the mustachioed man hurriedly called out to Inspector Megure, who was about to resume questioning the sculptor.

"Officer, what if this guy figured that out and intentionally left these marks? It's not impossible that he's trying to clear his suspicion through a purposely flawed frame-up..."

"Hmph," Suwa Yuji sneered, cutting the mustachioed man off before Megure could respond, "Mori-san, and here I thought you were a master detective... Why on earth would I go to such great lengths to pull off something like this? I wasn't even under suspicion in the first place, so why would I need to clear my name? Or perhaps you have proof that I tampered with anything?"

"This..."

The mustachioed man stalled once again.

"Maru-san was a 3rd-dan in kendo. Who else could possibly have killed him besides you?"

"You must be joking," Suwa Yuji narrowed his eyes slightly, fixing the mustachioed man with an intimidating glare. "What kind of logic is that? There are countless ways to commit murder. Even a 3rd-dan in kendo is just an ordinary person; if you strike a vital spot, they'll die just the same. If you want to suspect me, please bring out some evidence!"

Sweat beaded on the mustachioed man's forehead. Just as he was at a loss for what to do, Gao Mo gave him a shove from behind.

"Suwa-san," Gao Mo asked, looking straight into Suwa Yuji's eyes, "that murder weapon outside should be the collateral you left here with Maru-san, right?"

Suwa Yuji's sword-like eyebrows arched slightly. "So what if it is?"

"That sword seems to be quite famous, doesn't it?" Gao Mo probed. "It must be very valuable."

"It's the family heirloom of the Suwa family, 'Kikuchiyo'," Suwa Yuji frowned further. "What on earth are you trying to say?"

"Why didn't you mention that just now?" Gao Mo observed Suwa Yuji's expression. "It's a precious family heirloom you supposedly came to redeem by repaying your debt, yet you showed no reaction at all when you saw it... That's rather abnormal, isn't it? Could it be that you're afraid?"

Suwa Yuji's body shuddered violently.

"This... I was simply worried about getting mixed up in a murder case, especially since the corpse was used as a murder weapon."

"Mori," Gao Mo pointed to the cabinet with multiple compartments nearby, "try rearranging these drawers like a jigsaw puzzle. See if you can spell out any words... Some of the carved marks aren't continuous, which might mean their positions were altered."

Suwa Yuji shuddered once more, cold sweat trickling down his forehead as he looked at Gao Mo.

"Words?" Kogoro Mori instinctively complied, only realizing what he was doing a moment later.

Why did it feel like he had suddenly become an assistant?

"Look for the densely carved marks with curved edges."

Reminding him with these words, Gao Mo turned to meet Megure's puzzled gaze.

"Judging by the bloodstains at the scene, Maru Danjiro probably didn't die instantly. Instead, he hung on with his last breath to leave a dying message. When the killer discovered this, they hastily ruined the crime scene."

Outside, the police officers, along with Mrs. Maru and the maid, all looked toward Gao Mo with astonished expressions.

Sweat was accumulating in increasing amounts on Suwa Yuji's forehead, to the extent that even his imposing aura seemed to be suppressed. "Who exactly are you?"

"He is Kindaichi-san, Kogoro's partner," Megure introduced, then pressed on, "Are you suggesting that the dying message was carved into this cabinet by Maru-san?"

"That should be correct. The reason the killer had to stage the scene wasn't just to clear their own suspicion; the primary goal was to conceal the message on the cabinet using knife gashes. Otherwise, no matter how the drawers were rearranged, it would still look exceedingly bizarre."

Gao Mo took out his compiled notes of the clues.

"Besides that, the killer likely wanted to use this opportunity to frame Akutsu, who had also visited today. They probably heard Akutsu's answering machine message left sometime after 3 o'clock and learned about the carving, so they deliberately avoided damaging the wood carving while staging the scene."

"But there is no such message on the answering machine," Suwa Yuji lowered his head, "and furthermore..."

"Unfortunately, I happened to check the time of the call from Akutsu, and it doesn't match the timestamp of your message."

Gao Mo interrupted him directly.

Conversations and lessons from Yusaku Kudo flashed rapidly through his mind. He felt as though all his recent gains were fusing together, carrying his train of thought into a state of soaring inspiration.

"You must have been overwriting and deleting Akutsu's message, getting ready to leave your own, when you heard Maru-san carving in the private room. You rushed back to deal with it, which is why your message time got offset."

"It's here!"

Kogoro Mori exclaimed in pleasant surprise as, with the assistance of several police officers, he successfully restored the arrangement of all the drawers.

The words "Suwa" and "Kikuchiyo," specifically carved with a blade, were now clearly visible.

"This fellow really is the killer after all!"

"And you call this evidence?" Suwa Yuji's face twisted slightly. "For all you know, someone might have intentionally left this message using reverse psychology... According to your own logic just now, that's entirely possible."

"Maru-san anticipated that exact thought, which is why he carved 'Kikuchiyo' as well."

Gao Mo felt his deduction rank advancing toward Level 2.

Although he relied heavily on his supernatural vision, both the information analysis and logical reasoning were entirely his own capabilities.

Real-world practice had vastly enhanced his understanding of detective work.

"Perhaps Akutsu knew about Kikuchiyo as well," Suwa Yuji said through clenched teeth, continuing his rebuttal.

"Wrong," Kogoro Mori suddenly turned serious, holding Maru Danjiro's notebook in his hand. "Even if he knew, it wouldn't matter. Although this notebook doesn't list specific times, it actually implies the order in which he arranged to meet each of you."

Following Gao Mo's line of reasoning, he felt as though all his thoughts had cleared up, and he had successfully reclaimed the demeanor of a master detective.

"Maru-san shared my habit of keeping a journal," the mustachioed man spread open the notebook in his hand. "The names written in it, in order, are Hayato Hatano, Kogoro Mori, Yuji Suwa, Makoto Akutsu... In truth, they were sorted by meeting times. That's right, the person who arrived after me was actually you! Yuji Suwa, you are the one who murdered Maru-san!"

"What kind of basis is that?" Suwa Yuji flew into a rage. "Then explain Dr. Hayato Hatano! If he arrived before you, how am I supposed to have killed him?"

"This..."

The mustachioed man stalled once more. Facing the skeptical gazes of everyone around him, his Adam's apple bobbed, and sweat instantly began to roll down in beads.

He had some competence, but not quite enough.

"That's naturally because you didn't kill Dr. Hatano."

Sensing Suwa Yuji's threat, Gao Mo stepped behind the mustachioed man and took over the conversation.

His deduction rank officially stepped into Level 2.

"Using a prized family heirloom to commit murder and leaving it at the scene—I hardly take you for that kind of person. Dr. Hatano must have been killed right here by Maru-san before we arrived. Although I don't know the exact reason, by using Kikuchiyo, Maru-san originally intended to frame you, but he didn't expect you to strike him down first."

"I think I大概 know the reason."

The mustachioed man regained his master detective aura, as if stepping into his professional domain. He called out over his shoulder toward the mistress of the house outside.

"Mrs. Maru, when you discovered your husband was dead, you only showed shock. The only time you began to cry was upon seeing the doctor's body. Furthermore, I noticed earlier that the corpse carried the exact same perfume scent as you... Madam, Dr. Hatano was your lover, and Maru-san likely discovered this even before meeting with me today."

"An affair?" Megure's eyes widened, not expecting this kind of development.

This inexplicable sense of familiarity... Why did it feel just like the Hatano case?

The killer ended up getting killed by another killer, didn't they?

"That's right," the mustachioed man said in a solemn voice. "I came here today at Maru-san's behest to investigate his wife's affair... Maru-san most likely already had a suspect in mind, and a detective like me was just a tool he used to clear himself of murder suspicion."

With that, the mustachioed man raised his voice and turned back to Suwa Yuji. "Are you still going to quibble? While it's true an ordinary person could have killed Maru-san, the injuries inflicted by a kendo master are distinct enough to tell apart! As for your motive..."

"It was because of that sword."

Suwa Yuji's expression grew calm once again. Seeing Kikuchiyo being retrieved by a police officer nearby, he seemed to give up on further denials.

"I desperately needed money to save my kendo dojo from ruin, which forced me to pawn the greatest treasure of the Suwa family. Yet that swine actually claimed he had sold Kikuchiyo off, and had the nerve to say it wasn't worth much anyway, treating the money he got as interest on the loan..."

"So that's why you killed him?"

"Yes," Suwa Yuji's breathing remained steady. "The legendary blade Kikuchiyo, regarded as the symbol of the Suwa family's honor, was treated like that... I simply couldn't bear it. In a moment of lost reason, I grabbed a decorative sword, and just like this—"

"Hm?"

Gao Mo's pupils contracted sharply.

Though he lacked death perception, a bloody aura was clearly visible all around.

Not good!

"Whoosh!"

Gao Mo activated his eagle-eye vision once again. The next instant, he saw Suwa Yuji abruptly take a stride forward and snatch the precious sword Kikuchiyo right out of the police officer's hands.

"I just went... like this... and with one breath... slashed..."

"Swish!"

Drawing his blade, Suwa Yuji lowered his stance. With a ferocious and menacing expression, he charged forward at high speed. He was infinitely more terrifying than the ordinary fake-fatty criminal, appearing blindingly fast even within Gao Mo's superpowered dynamic field of vision.

The slow-motion scene played out several times faster than ordinary movements for everyone else.

In particular, Kikuchiyo, held and swung in a single hand, came slicing straight down toward the top of the mustachioed man's head.

The mustachioed man, acting as the target of the attack, was entirely incapable of reacting. The blank, sluggish expression on his face formed a stark contrast to Suwa Yuji.

The aura of death lingering around the uncle had nothing to do with Maru Danjiro; he himself had been targeted by the Grim Reaper...

Like hell I'll let you!

Gritting his teeth, Gao Mo grabbed the mustachioed man by the collar and jerked him backward, narrowly missing the tip of the blade by a mere centimeter just as it descended.

Several strands of hair were shorn off, fluttering down through the air.

"What?!"

Catching nothing with his strike, Suwa Yuji looked up in astonishment, running straight into Gao Mo's glowing, transcendent eyes. His entire body gave a violent jolt.

In that fleeting instant, it was as if he had caught a glimpse of the realm of death.

When he finally snapped back to his senses, the police officers behind him were already shouting as they wrenched the prized sword away and pinned him firmly to the ground.

What was that look in his eyes just now?

Suwa Yuji offered no resistance. Lifting his head again, he looked up with a puzzled expression, only to find that Gao Mo's eyes had already returned to normal, as if it had all been nothing more than his imagination.

"Mori!" Megure shouted, shaken out of his wits as he tried to rouse the mustachioed man. "Are you alright?!"

"Ah..."

The mustachioed man's teeth chattered. Looking back like a soul detached from its body, he stared at Megure's familiar chubby face and almost shed two tears of relief.

That was terrifying.

He genuinely thought he was about to be hacked to death by a sword.

"I-I think I'm fine."

[Task completed, extracting reward...]

Behind them, Gao Mo let out a silent sigh of relief.

He had been even more tense than the mustachioed man just now—the guy's current physical condition was truly abysmal, leaving him entirely incapable of any reaction.

Fortunately, the death aura hadn't lingered; it had merely been a localized chain reaction.