If what he was thinking was right, then there would definitely be more victims...
But what exactly was the killer's motive? Were they killing based on the characteristics of each house's mummy?
Mulling it over, Fujino asked Kazamatsuri Jun'ya, "Uncle Kazamatsuri, besides the villagers, does anyone else know about these mummies?"
"That, I don't know." Uncle Kazamatsuri looked a bit uneasy. "The secrets of these guardian deities are known only to the masters of the various manors in our village. Other people shouldn't know. And according to tradition, the other manor masters wouldn't speak of it. You only found out about this secret, which is why I brought you to see."
"Is that so?" Fujino observed Kazamatsuri Jun'ya, his mind racing.
It was clear the killer was very familiar with this village. Otherwise, they wouldn't have known that the skylight on the church roof could be used to hang Wakaba from her bed and kill her.
As it stood, the only one who fit the killer's profile was Kabuto Kiriko...
Lost in thought, Fujino opened his system's task interface:
[Detective Profession Quest: The Rokkaku Village Murder Case
Quest Objective: Solve the murder case that occurred in the church.
Quest Reward: One million yen & One hundred Detective Reputation Points.]
Seeing as the quest wasn't completed yet, Kabuto Kiriko definitely wasn't the killer. If it really was her, the system quest would have surely been completed after he explained the method of the crime and the police confirmed Kabuto Kiriko as the murderer.
Time passed, and it was now afternoon.
Coming out of the basement where the mummies were stored, Fujino returned to his guest room at the Tokita house.
"Damn it..." Fujino scratched his head; he didn't have a single clue about this murder case. He had pretty much figured out the murder method, but the killer's identity was completely elusive. Based on the method, Kabuto Kiriko was the most likely person to have pulled it off, but she wasn't the killer. Since she had disappeared, it was highly possible she had also been killed by the culprit.
Under the current circumstances, there was absolutely no one who fit the profile of Wakaba's killer... Everyone had an alibi.
Could Wakaba have killed herself? Fujino quickly dismissed the thought. To say that Kabuto Kiriko killed Tokita Wakaba might have been plausible. But killing oneself... that really didn't make sense.
***
Around noon, another body was discovered.
Isshiki Torao of the Stained Glass Manor was found dead in his own refrigerator, his right foot severed. On his back, the words [The seventh body's revenge is not yet over] were written.
According to the police officers who had arrived that morning and stayed in the village, along with the forensics team, Isshiki Torao's time of death was in the afternoon. He had been stabbed through the heart with a single blow, then his leg was cut off. However, because the area was too large, the few police officers remaining in the village couldn't immediately conduct alibi checks.
Fujino immediately found the secret room in this villa and examined the mummy inside. Just as he had guessed, the mummy in the secret room was missing its right foot, corresponding to the victim, Isshiki Torao.
"A curse! It must be a curse!" Just as Fujino returned to the crime scene, he saw Tokita Jūzō shouting frantically, "It's their curse! The six people from that day will all be killed!"
"The six people from that day? A curse?" Fujino watched Tokita Jūzō, who muttered to himself madly before walking straight off. Fujino's eyes narrowed, a sense of doubt creeping in.
As things stood, all the victims had a connection to the mummies in their respective houses. It was just that Tokita Jūzō's words – "that day," "they" – left Fujino puzzled...
Could it be that these mummies had some direct connection to the manor masters? If that were the case, it would contradict what Uncle Kazamatsuri said about them being passed down since ancient times.
Before Fujino could think it through clearly, another body was discovered.
It was Kusanagi Mitsuko from the Ivy Manor. Her cause of death was exactly the same as Isshiki Torao's: stabbed through the heart, then a leg cut off. However, the leg that was severed was her left leg.
On a nearby curtain, written in blood, were the words: [The blood of the seventh body's revenge has not yet run dry].
Fujino, as usual, found the secret room and examined the mummy. As expected, this mummy was missing its left leg.
However, Fujino keenly noticed something about this particular mummy: its teeth showed signs of treatment with modern dental instruments.
From these marks, Fujino could tell that these bodies had been alive in recent decades, not passed down since ancient times as claimed...
"Recent decades, huh?" Fujino gazed at the body lying peacefully in the stone coffin. His mind immediately flashed back to the pastor's family who had died in the church fire twenty-seven years ago... Judging from the skeleton, it was indeed a female body. It could match the pastor's daughter.
But why would they keep the body of the pastor's daughter in their own manor?
Thinking this, Fujino grew even more puzzled. However, he could feel that he was getting closer and closer to the village's secret. At the same time, the killer's identity was directly linked to this string of secrets.
***
After briefly discussing the case with the police, Fujino didn't mention the marks he'd found on the mummy. Instead, he returned to the Tokita house, planning to ask Tokita Jūzō about the curse. But the man wasn't home. So, Fujino searched around the village and finally found Tokita Jūzō. However, he found Jūzō's behavior somewhat suspicious...
Fujino tailed him, going through a nearby forest, along a winding, steep woodland path, climbing over a fence with a 'No Entry' sign, wading through a marsh, and finally arriving at a seemingly endless 'meadow.' Only, the shape of this grass was very strange, different from normal plants; it was clearly meticulously cultivated.
"The curse... it's all because of this damned marijuana!" Tokita Jūzō knelt on the ground, slamming his fists hard. "If it weren't for these accursed 'Golden Apples,' Wakaba wouldn't have..."
"'Golden Apples?'" Hearing this, Fujino paused for a moment, then realization dawned on him. The so-called Golden Apples, judging from what Tokita Jūzō had just said, had to be marijuana.
Immediately, he walked up and called out, "Mr. Tokita."
"Nani?!" Tokita Jūzō turned his head in surprise. "Who in the world are you..."
"A hundred years ago, a group of missionaries came to this village looking for Golden Apples. They found them and started cultivating them here..." Fujino glanced around. "If I'm not mistaken, those Golden Apples are marijuana, aren't they?"
"With marijuana on this scale, everyone in your entire village must be involved, right?"
Tokita Jūzō stared grimly at Fujino, saying nothing.
"The marijuana cultivation is one thing; that's plain to see." Fujino slowly stepped forward, his voice heavy. "What I'm really concerned about are those seven bodies. After all, from what I've seen of the three mummies, they aren't some village guardian deities at all. They were people burned alive in a fire in recent decades."
"Coincidentally, twenty-seven years ago, the pastor's family in the center of this village died in a fire... Parts were cut off from each of those seven bodies. And the body parts that the recent victims have lost match the missing parts from the mummies in their own homes." He paused, his gaze fixed on Tokita Jūzō. "Mr. Tokita, you mentioned a curse earlier, and revenge. This must be connected to the deaths of the pastor's family, mustn't it?"
A drop of cold sweat trickled down Tokita Jūzō's forehead. He still said nothing.
It was within Fujino's expectations that the man would remain tight-lipped about such matters.
So, Fujino decided to play the emotional card. He looked at Tokita Jūzō and said, "Mr. Tokita, surely you want to catch Wakaba's killer too, right?"
"Wa... Wakaba..." Tokita Jūzō faltered upon hearing this. "You... you're sure you can find Wakaba's killer?"
"I'm sure." Fujino nodded. "As long as you tell me about these bodies, and what's really going on with the marijuana."
"If that's the case... alright. I'll tell you everything." Tokita Jūzō hesitated for a moment. He figured that since his only daughter was now dead, his family line was finished anyway. So, he steeled himself and laid everything bare.
A hundred years ago, missionaries who came to this village from abroad found wild marijuana. Together with their followers—the six families heading the prominent manors and the church pastor—they cultivated marijuana to profit from it. After the missionaries left, the seven families in the village made a pact to secretly cultivate marijuana, keeping it hidden from the other villagers, and covertly amass wealth.
But then, twenty-seven years ago, the pastor at the time suddenly wanted to stop growing marijuana. The pastor and his wife had adopted seven young orphans. It was because of those children that the pastor began to think about stopping the marijuana cultivation. But this, obviously, created a conflict of interest with the other six prominent families in the village. After several negotiations, the pastor and the others couldn't reach an agreement. When talks finally broke down, the pastor decided to call the police.
Then, the six manor masters of the village ruthlessly shot and killed the pastor and his wife, who were planning to set fire to the marijuana fields. After that, they forced the pastor's seven children into the church and burned them all alive.
But afterwards, in the ruins of the church, the children's bodies were each missing a part, as if torn off by a demon's claws... After that, each of the six manor masters took one body back to their own manor and hid it in a secret room.
After hearing the whole story, Fujino's expression turned grim. Killing nine people in total, seven of whom were underage children. And their bodies were taken back to their killers' homes after death...
These people... they were absolute monsters.
But taking a deep breath to calm himself, Fujino focused on a key point: "These bodies, when you found them, they were already like that? You didn't cut them?"
"No... We didn't do that..." Tokita Jūzō's face showed a hint of anguish, his forehead already soaked with sweat. "We took those bodies back to hold leverage over each other, so no one could ever think of backing out or going to the police again... Because they are the evidence of our crime."
"I see now..." Fujino nodded, the clues in his mind gradually connecting. "If I'm not mistaken, then of those seven bodies, there are actually only six."
"Only six?!" Tokita Jūzō's eyes widened.
"That's right." Fujino explained, "If a part was cut from each of them, those parts could form a seventh body... The one who killed Wakaba... it's possible it's that child who survived back then, setting up this chain of serial murders for revenge..."
***
Having established a motive, the two had just returned to the village when they heard that another body had been found.
This time, the deceased was Kabuto Kiriko...
Kabuto Kiriko was hidden inside a suit of armor at the entrance of the Armor Manor. Her left shoulder had been removed, and her head was severed from her body.
Behind the armor, written in blood, were the words: [The seventh body. This is the second person. Not enough blood has been shed!]
According to the police who remained, Kabuto Kiriko's time of death was around the same time as Wakaba's. Meaning, Kabuto Kiriko was already killed when Wakaba was murdered.
Fujino secretly slipped into the secret room of the Armor Manor.
"It's different?" Fujino stared at the mummy in the coffin before him, stunned.
The mummy in the coffin was missing its lower body, but Kabuto Kiriko was missing her left shoulder.
This time, the pattern was completely broken.
From the first victim, Wakaba, to Torao and Kusanagi afterwards, all three of them lost the body part corresponding to the one missing from the mummy in their own house. But this time, it was abnormal.
However, amidst this abnormality, Fujino sensed a clue.
"So that's how it is..." Fujino took a deep breath, looked at the mummy before him, and lowered his head. "To have killed... oneself?"
(End of Chapter)