Copyright Notice: This story is an original work by VANTA_kun. All rights reserved. Do not copy or redistribute without permission.
5th December 2023
It was time to use the info that she knew. Shuhi gathered the names of the victims. Hiroshi Jakuda, Makito Utashime, Sherley Hirako, and Danao Osume.
All four had one thing in common. They were killed inside their homes. She also learned about their jobs, home addresses…. but the details were too few.
"Where do I even start with this mess?"
A sudden thought popped into her mind.
"This is such a pain! I want to know what happened, but I'm stuck. There's just not enough info… And I can't ask Uncle Paul. He'll just tell me to not get involved."
But the next day of her research, Shuhi did the unthinkable. She went to the first victim's house all by herself, Hiding from her parents.
She grabbed what she could in a rush. A cap to stay low-profile, A knife if things go south, A pocket spray to spray in enemy's eye, just in case there were any. She wore gloves to avoid leaving any finger print and took a magnifying glass.
"Why even bother taking it? I'm sure it will be of no use except only in movies or stories or…. whatever." Shuhi thought, looking at the magnifying glass.
After a long walk, she arrived. The house was sealed by police, looked abandoned. Ignoring the sealings, she went to open the door but found it already open.
"It's open? Could someone be inside?"
She decided it was for her own sake not to enter and started returning from there. A few moments later, she came anyways. Curiosity got the best of her. Whatever would come, she would face it. At least, this was what she told herself.
She stepped inside. Inside was so quiet that a needle fall could be heard. She didn't want to think of the fact that a murder took place in this house and freak herself for no reason.
Quietly, she went upstairs and reached the victim's room. The room's door was already wide open. Markings and prints of the dead body were present which was made by police using some kind of chalk.
She was searching carefully, but…
When she went close to the bed, suddenly a hand grabbed her right leg. A hand from under the bed.
"Ahh! Who is this?! Get off me!" she shouted.
The hand let go. A young man, maybe close to 19 or 20, came out from under the bed.
He was wearing a striped white shirt and jeans. His hair was a bit long, and his eyes had dark spots with blood mixed red eyes.
Shuhi stepped back, her hand reached her bag to grab the spray.
"Oah oh! I am really sorry!" the young man apologized with a surprised voice after seeing her.
"I thought the killer came back. Sometimes they come back to take something they left behind."
She paused.
"Who…. who the hell are you?" she asked.
"My name's Ukize Utaro. I'm a detective," he said and raised his phone to show a verification document in it.
"A private detective to be exact. The family hired me to handle this case personally." He said calmly.
"Japanese private investigators aren't legally issued state badges," Shuhi was still on her guard.
"Eh?" Utaro looked at his phone for a moment to confirm if he had shown her the right thing, "This isn't a state badge. It's my registration certificate," he said, again turning the phone towards her.
After she saw it carefully, she realized that she was being too much cautious.
"Oh. my bad. I'm Yun Shuhi. I'm here because I…uh," she stopped and hesitated on what to say because she clearly knew someone like her wasn't supposed to be here.
"I was curious," instead of hesitating and making the moment more awkward for her, she decided to express her clear thoughts.
"But I'm serious! I can solve this case," she replied.
Utaro raised an eyebrow.
"Huh? Look, this isn't some sick joke! Let us professionals handle it. Civilians like you should not get in it."
"Tch…As expected. He's already trying to kick me out. Now what should I do?…"
"Now if you really have no work to do here then I would have to ask you to leave. Let me do my work."
Shuhi could think of only one way to stay. If she wanted to stay, she needed to give a reason to Utaro for her staying. A solid reason.
She, at that moment, recalled the visual memory of her after entering here. The memories were what she noticed and where. Then something caught her eyes. Now she only had to play along.
"Leave? How foolish!"
Shuhi said with a faint smile.
"You think this case can be solved only if you follow rules? Detective… you have to see the bigger game here. The killer isn't ordinary."
"Huh? Like what? You think this is some game?"
"Game? No no. This… this is like an art!"
Shuhi said with a cold voice.
"You're not helping here. Calling a murder case an art. If you're so smart, why not let the police deal with it?" Utaro asked.
Shuhi stepped closer.
"Why trust the police when the killer doesn't either. You see, I had a weird feeling after entering this room. As if the killer is watching us. Right now!"
Utaro's eyes narrowed.
"Nonsense! And why should I trust you?"
"Because, I've already solved a part of it."
Without turning back, She pointed behind with her right thumb. There was a bookshelf behind her.
"See those books? They're part of the same novel series. But look at the volume numbers. They're out of order. Everything else is neatly arranged. Why you may ask? It's a message from the killer. You didn't notice it, did you? I did."
Utaro after noticing that moved towards the book shelf to check.
"You need my help, Detective. Doesn't matter if you don't like it."
There was silence.
"Huh, you won't play fair, right?" Utaro muttered.
"You think fairness will catch the killer? That's the point I'm trying to make. Now it's up to you. Work with me or keep moving like a blind man in this maze?
He sighed.
"Fine. Just let me check the bookshelf at first. Is this even a thing?" Utaro said and opened the slide glass of the bookshelf.
Shuhi nodded.
"Will you let me work with you if I am correct?" Shuhi said, seemingly excited.
"Okay fine. Just let me check the books." Utaro replied.
Dead Logic © 2025 by Muntasib_Ihshan789 is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International