"That's out of the question," Hayashi Shuichi replied without a moment's hesitation. "It is currently police evidence. Once the case is closed, it will be laid to rest alongside your sister's body."
He paused for a heartbeat, his voice softening slightly. "As the saying goes, 'to be buried is to find peace.' Do you truly wish for your sister to remain forever incomplete in the afterlife?"
Ogasawara Yuto stared blankly at the glass jar. The madness in his eyes slowly ebbed away, replaced by a hollow, indescribable sorrow.
"I..."
His voice hitched, his words dissolving into a choked sob. His fingers clawed unconsciously at the surface of the interrogation table, his nails screeching against the wood in a grating, desperate rhythm.
"You're right... I shouldn't... I shouldn't make Sister suffer even after her death."
Slam!
Superintendent Samezaki, unable to contain his simmering fury any longer, struck the table with his palm. The coffee cups rattled violently. "Enough! Tell us everything! Every single thing you did!"
Ogasawara Yuto didn't try to hide it anymore. In a fragmented, haunting voice, he began to recount the process of murdering his own sister.
"It was a week ago..."
His eyes grew vacant and glazed, as if he had been pulled back into that horrific morning.
"That day, I had just returned home from my shift at the izakaya. I saw Sister in front of the mirror, trying on one outfit after another. I asked her out of curiosity what she was doing. When I found out she was going to Kyoto for a romantic getaway with Okawa... my heart was instantly consumed by jealousy and hatred."
"In a moment of pure impulse—while she was leaning over to paint her toenails—I attacked her. I tackled her onto the bed and wrapped my hands around her throat."
"Just before she stopped breathing, Sister suddenly stopped struggling. She lifted her arms, trying to reach out and touch my face... and she was smiling..."
At this point, Yuto's body convulsed with a violent shudder. He buried his face in his hands, trying to shield himself from the internal agony of the memory.
"I thought I heard her whisper, 'I'm sorry.' Haha... it must have been a hallucination! I was the one killing her, I was the one who failed her! Why... why would Sister be the one to apologize?"
...
After his sister died, Ogasawara Yuto felt as though his very soul had been hollowed out. He fell into a state of profound, twisted remorse.
He sat by her body for hours, staring into nothingness. Driven by a desperate need to keep her with him, he carefully hid Mari's corpse inside the apartment's freezer.
Every day after work, he would open the freezer and sit beside it, whispering to her cold remains as if she were still alive and listening.
Yuto thought he could live in this macabre fantasy forever, but the dream shattered quickly.
When President Okawa realized that Mari had not only missed their trip but hadn't shown up for work for several days, he grew worried and reported her missing to the Beika Police Station.
When officers arrived at Yuto's apartment to investigate, he forced himself to remain calm, telling them his sister had left for Kyoto days ago. His lie worked; the officers took him at his face value and didn't perform a thorough search of the premises.
However, the close call left Yuto living in constant terror. He knew that if his sister remained "missing" for much longer, the police would eventually return and find the body in the freezer.
It was then that he received an invitation to the funeral of a female high school classmate. A dark, wicked idea took root in his mind.
He went to the crematorium ahead of time and used a large sum of money to bribe the staff, convincing them to sever the classmate's head before the body entered the incinerator.
"And those people didn't suspect what you were up to?" Superintendent Samezaki's face was flushed with rage, his eyes glaring.
"I told them that Aine and I were lovers, but her family refused to accept me," Yuto forced a distorted, eerie smile that made his haggard face look even more grotesque. "I told them she was hit by a car while we were trying to run away together. I said I only wanted her head so I could find a place to kill myself and be with her in death."
"You certainly have a talent for spinning tales," Inspector Matsumoto remarked, shaking his head with blatant disdain.
"In truth, they just wanted a reason to tell themselves," Yuto said with a mocking smirk. "Even if I had said nothing, as long as there was enough money, they would have done it."
"Stay on point," Samezaki interrupted, tapping the table impatiently. "What happened after you got the classmate's head?"
"I..." Yuto fell silent, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty. He hesitated for a long moment before continuing. "I went home and used a chainsaw to remove my sister's head as well."
His voice was thick with pain, as if every word he spoke was a fresh torture.
"After that, I went to the owner of the izakaya. I used the excuse that business was good and we needed to restock meat frequently, convincing him to order a massive shipment all at once."
"Then, I placed my sister's head into a jar filled with formalin and hid it deep inside the izakaya's freezer."
"Weren't you afraid of someone finding it?" Inspector Megure asked in surprise.
"I'm the only chef in that shop. I've worked there for years, and the boss trusts me implicitly," Yuto explained. "Usually, nobody but me ever touches that freezer."
"Once that was done, you disfigured the classmate's head and placed it in the convenience store last night?" Hayashi Shuichi finished the thought for him.
"Yes," Yuto nodded, his eyes clouded with exhaustion. "Then, in the early hours of the morning, I took my sister's body... and threw it into the river."
"I thought that if I did this, the police would stop looking for her. With any luck, because of the bruises and marks on her body, I might even have been able to frame Okawa for the murder."
"Once everything blew over, I was going to take Sister with me and go on that trip to Kyoto," Yuto hissed, glaring at President Okawa with eyes full of venomous hatred. "The one who was supposed to go to Kyoto with her... was me."
"Actually..."
President Okawa, who had been standing silently by, hesitated for a moment. His face was a mask of internal conflict, but he finally spoke.
"Mari... she probably loved you too. It was only because of your blood relation that she felt she had to run away. That's why she started liking those... those games where she hurt herself."
"When we played those games together, she would often beg me to call her 'Sister.' I always thought it was just a roleplay she enjoyed."
"But looking at it now... perhaps she was trying to pretend I was you."
The revelation struck Ogasawara Yuto like a physical blow. He froze in place, his eyes bulging, his face filled with shock and disbelief.
A moment later, he slowly turned his head to look at the glass jar.
Inside, Ogasawara Mari's head maintained that serene, peaceful smile, gazing quietly at her brother. That smile, once as warm as sunlight, now pierced Yuto's heart like a million needles.
His regret surged into an uncontrollable tide. His body began to shake violently, and tears finally burst from his eyes.
"I'm sorry, Sister... I shouldn't have been so impulsive!"
(End of Chapter)
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