Killed Again, Mr. Detective Volume 1 Case 3 Chapter 3 part 1

Volume 1

Case 3: The Serial Killer of Kowloons Hotel

Chapter 3 It has been Torn Off, right? (Part 1)

TLed by: TanoshiKara

When I realized it, I was lying on a bed.

I woke up feeling the worst.

I felt a nausea unique to someone who had slept too much and an eerie sense of buoyancy, as if my body was not mine—.

I moved my eyes slowly and looked around the room.

There was no mistaking that it was the room of the hotel we were staying in, and it was still dark outside.

My head was resting on a soft and warm pillow.

It was the lap pillow of my assistant, Lilithea.

She is always the first to be by my side whenever I come to.

However, this time, she seems not to have noticed that I had come back to life.

She was muttering something while staring blankly at the corner of the room.

I thought to tell her immediately that I had come back to life, but I was slightly curious about what she was doing, so I quietly strained my ears.

"Those words......I return...to you, bow knot tied. ......I guess it feels a little off...... Return......Respectfully return. Return…bow knot tied......"

That was Uzura's catchphrase.

She was practicing that line enthusiastically. My Lilithea has a keen interest in the acting industry.

"U-Ugh......!" I groaned to make it seem like I had just come back to life.

"Ah"

Realizing this, Lilithea hurriedly ended her private lesson and quickly fixed her outfit and her hair with her hands.

After fixing her appearance, she looked at me and said those signature words of hers.

"Welcome back (You have revived), Sakuya-sama"

"I'm back, Lilithea. Erm, I......"

The monster I faced off in the lobby; Hound-headed Bellboy.

I was, by his hands—

"So you've been killed again, Mr. Detective"

'Mr. Detective'. Lilithea emphasized sarcastically as she said those words.

"Looks like it, huh"

It was just before four in the morning.

"By the way, Sakuya-sama......Did you hear something just now? You did not, right?"

"Eh? Hear what? I didn't hear anything. I just resurrected"

She was asking like it was a rendezvous for a date.

"By the way, what's the situation like right now?"

While feeling slightly dizzy from the remaining traces of dying, I lifted myself up.

"Several things have happened. However, there may not be time for us to talk leisurely"

In other words, the culprit has not been caught, and we're in a situation where it wouldn't be weird for there to be another victim at any time.

"I got killed by a strange person wearing a hound mask"

"That means the culprit is literally the Hound-headed Bellboy. ......That said, how careless. Even though you emphasized that it would be fine"

"I have no words"

Lilithea was mad.

Caring for my dead body whenever I get killed and waiting endlessly for the moment when I resurrect—. When I think about her point of view and her feelings, it is only natural that she would be angry.

"So, I want to ask about everything that happened, in chronological order, while I was dead......"

"I first felt that there was an anomaly when it was a little over one twelve in the morning. At that time, Yuriu and I were alone together in her room, but there was a sudden scream coming from somewhere in the hotel; At the really important point where there were only three spaces left to the goal......"

"Three spaces?"

"Even though I was close to returning the debts I owed in my previous life"

Seems like the two of them were having fun playing the Game of Reincarnated Life.

"I then heard someone yelling, 'Someone, someone'. When I came out of the room, I heard the voice coming from the lobby. When I headed down to the lobby, I saw Director Toriho. Indeed, he was the one yelling"

"Why was he in the lobby when it was that late?"

"It seems like he could not sleep no matter what he tried, so he went out to the hallway to smoke a cigarette. He then leaned against the railing on the sixth floor and tried to light his cigarette while looking down at the lobby. He said that at that time, he noticed that there was something resembling blood splatters on the lobby floor, so he went down to the first floor to check"

To think that he would leave his room when he told the staff not to after he had received the threat letter. He's more careless than I am.

"By anomaly, do you, perhaps, mean Nakuji's head had been found......for example?"

"Did you see it for yourself, Sakuya-sama?"

As I thought. The thing I saw before I got killed was not a dream.

"I saw it. It was placed on the front counter, right?" I said confidently.

Lilithea had a dubious expression when she heard that.

"......Am I wrong?"

She opened the door and turned back to me.

"Shall we have a look?"

With her leading the way, we headed down to the lobby, and I saw the same thing that Director Toriho did.

As I expected, it is Nakuji's head.

However, it was not on the counter but in the dragon's mouth, and the dragon was biting it. And, of course, dragon refers to the dragon sculpture in the lobby.

However, I was speechless for a while due to how off-putting it was.

"Terrified, Director Toriho repeated this"

—The threat letter is real!

"Mr. Nakuji was already in this state when I rushed over. His neck and body were lying flat on the floor at the sculpture's feet, but we have placed it in the freezer room behind the kitchen to temporarily preserve it. The head has, most regrettably, been left as is as it was forced into the dragon's mouth, so the fangs are biting into it and it cannot be removed despite our efforts"

Now that she mentioned it, there are blood stains on the floor. That was probably where the headless body lay.

"The head......why is it left bitten at a place like that?"

That time, it felt like the Hound-headed Bellboy was satisfied after aligning the head on the front counter. So why?

"The others woke up and came down after hearing the voice, and there was an uproar in the lobby"

"The police?"

"Sozorogi contacted them. Unfortunately, due to the mass flooding caused by the heavy rain, they will only arrive after sunset"

The immovable dragon's jaw was stained in the color of Nakuji's blood - reddish-brown. It had already hardened, so it showed no signs of dripping.

"In other words, we will be...in this hotel until then......"

"Yes. We will be spending our time together with the culprit who killed Mr. Nakuji. Everyone is trembling with fear"

"I guess that would be unbearable. To spend time together with such an eerie person"

A guy who has a hound's head, exposes the upper half of his body, and chases people around with a huge blade in hand; A person I don't want to recall.

"You are mistaken, the others have not seen the culprit. There is a different reason for their fear"

I tilted my head, to which Lilithea responded by pointing to a specific place.

It was the wall behind the front counter. There were words written on it. It was the words left behind by the underworld organization that once had this town under their thumb.

If it's those words, I saw them when I was talking with Utaki about the roof leakage.

"What are you talking ab......" I said as I realized.

The words have changed.

[⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛The greedy to the bottom of the ocean; The insurbodinate scoundrels to the claws of the Tiger—]

"The upper half has been covered with paint......"

"It was like this when we gathered in the lobby"

When I got a closer look, it seemed like blood had been used.

"It's not even most likely, it's definitely the culprit that did it"

"Yes. 'Hurl the traitors into the jaws of the Dragon.' In order to imitate the first line that had been covered up, he had the jaws of the dragon bite into Mr. Nakuji's head. In other words, this is—"

"A Calling Card Murder"

A phrase that refers to a murder that imitates the lyrics of a nursery rhyme or the plot of a drama.

"Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, Van Dine......and Seishi Yokomizo. A theme that many authors of Detective Novels use," She explained.

Explained, she did, but I did not know Detective Novels too well.

It is not like I am trying to defend myself, but I would like people not to assume that all detectives are Mystery lovers. There should be scientists who do not read Science Fiction.

The blood that was trickling down the wall had dried and turned an eerie black.

This really is horror at full swing.

"In other words, this is a declaration from the culprit that he intends to murder more people in accordance with the text on the wall, huh"

"Yes. It is clear to anyone who sees this that there will most likely be more murders by the Hound-headed Bellboy"

That's why Lilithea said that there may not be much time, huh.

"Everyone was panicking and saying, 'What should we do now?', 'We have to stay in the hotel with a culprit who has committed such a horrifying murder.', 'Who will be killed next?', and the like. However, amidst this, Yuriu-sama courageously yelled, 'Don't worry! A stellar detective just so happens to be staying in this hotel!'"

"Does this stellar detective refer to me?"

She seems to have high praise for me.

"Starting with Director Toriho, who said, 'Now that you mentioned it', everyone seemed to have found their ray of hope. And, naturally, everyone started asking where Sakuya Outsuki was and asked that he be brought over here immediately"

"But, by then, I was already......" I interjected reflexively as I turned back.

"However, as you can see, the text on the wall had already been covered with blood. In other words, contrary to everyone's expectations, the second murder had already been committed by then," Lilithea continued, however, paying no mind to my interjection.

Ahh, that would be the case, huh.

"And it was right at that moment. A young hotel staff, Utaki-san, was it? She leaned over the railings on the corridor of the sixth floor and yelled that there was a fire"

Lilithea pointed to the upper parts of the lobby's atrium.

"Utaki-chan did? About a fire?"

"It originated from the southern wing’s room 606"

"......Wait a minute, the person staying in that room"

I combed through my memory.

"Yes. It was the room of Yuriu's manager, Mr. Nakuji," She said as she turned towards the stairs.

I followed her as I listened carefully to her words.

"When everyone started gathering in the lobby after Director Toriho discovered Mr. Nakuji's body, Utaki-san seems to have failed to notice the commotion as she was near the top floor"

Utaki... She gave me such a cold reception in the lobby, but I've got to hand it to her for her exceptional response behind the scenes last night. Seems like she has a serious side, even though she is lazy.

"When she went down to the sixth floor, she saw that smoke was oozing out from the gaps of room 606's door. The door was locked, and it seemed like there was no response when she called out. It was then that Utaki-san used the master key to unlock the door, and the room was already filled with smoke when she opened the door"

At that point, Utaki yelled that there was a fire as she was convinced.

Lilithea heard this and immediately headed to room 606. Many people had chosen to remain in the lobby at that point, but there were others who followed Sozorogi and Toriho.

"When I reached room 606, the fire alarm finally rang, and water started spraying from the ceiling. When I strained my eyes to look at the scene on the other side of the room, engulfed in smoke, I noticed someone had collapsed on the floor, and they were the source of the fire. However, that, too, was soon extinguished"

"Someone was burning? In Nakuji's room?"

"While ensuring that it was safe, I entered the room, unlocked the windows, and opened them to let the smoke out," Lilithea continued without answering my questions.

We had arrived in front of room 606 as she said that. The door was left open.

"This door...It was locked until Utaki used the master key, right?"

"She said that it was definitely so. She also said that she saw room 606's key hanging on the key hook beside the door"

"That means"

"Yes. That means—it is a locked room"

"Ahhhh......" I said as I scratched my head reflexively.

Another troublesome thing to add to the list.

"I tried to call out to the person collapsed on the floor, but I soon understood that it was a futile act, so I stopped"

"Futile?"

"The burning body had no head"

"Head......"

That means the person who collapsed on the floor died without being able to call out to anyone.

The second murder had already been committed.

"When Director Toriho realized this, he became even more frantic and caused a scene, demanding that the detective be brought over as soon as possible. However, his demands could no longer be met......No, strictly speaking, it had already been met"

I sighed.

"......I understand. In other words, I was the one who was killed here, huh"

"Yes. Sakuya-sama had already been killed in this room"

I stepped into room 606 timidly.

A portion of the floor and part of the bed sheets had been burnt to a crisp, and the ceiling was covered with soot; Remains of a fire. Even the carpet, which probably had a delicate design, had been ruined.

"A dead body set on fire...... 'Hurl the interferers into the flames of the Phoenix', huh"

That dragon sculpture has been placed on the eastern side of the lobby. And this room, room 606, is in the southern wing, and was where the fire started.

If the Dragon of the East is Seiryuu, then Suzaku can take the place of the Phoenix of the South.

"I see, the four Gods placed at each of the hotel's cardinal directions, huh"

Lilithea pointed to one of the beds in the room.

"Sakuya-sama's head was lying on the bed over there" 

"Here......you sayy"

"It was then that Yuriu-sama and a stuntman, Shirasagi-sama, came to the room. However, Yuriu-sama sank to the floor right there and then when she learnt of your death, and Shirasagi-sama was desperately trying to comfort her"

I feel bad that she had to see my charred body.

"I wonder why the culprit went through the trouble of severing my head, though. It would have been a Calling Card Murder, simply by setting the body of his victim on fire. In the first place, what is my dead body doing in Nakuji's room......?"

I should have been in the lobby when I was killed by Bellboy.

"That is what I want to ask. What were you doing in a place like this? Don't tell me you were having a tryst?"

Lilithea had a weird look on her face as she backed away from me.

"No, that's impossible! Why must I secretly visit Nakuji's room in the middle of the night!"

I have no memory of that at all.

"I will get your explanation for this after you have calmed down. In any case, it was in this way that you were discovered. Your body...and your one-and-only fashionable clothes, burnt to a crisp. It was truly a horrible sight"

"......My clothes too?"

"It is only natural. Your body was set on fire, after all"

Now that she had mentioned it, I took a proper look at myself for the first time after I came back to life.

Indeed, my clothes were in a horrible state. My body had regenerated, but my clothes had burnt to a crisp and were in tatters.

This makes me look like a zombie that had come back from the grave, which is exactly the case, though.

"You should've said so earlier! I've gone and walked around looking like this!"

I hate this meaningless chronological trick.

"There is no need for concern. I have prepared a change of clothes for you when you decided to stay in a hotel. Let's change into them later"

In that case, I would have very much liked for you to tell me that before we left the room.

"Sozorogi-sama and Shirasagi-sama were the ones who helped to carry Sakuya-sama's horribly charred, dead body back to the room. As for the breakdown, Shirasagi-sama carried your body, and Sozorogi-sama carried your head"

"Do we need the breakdown?"

"Witnessing such a shocking scene had made Yuriu-sama bawl. She is most likely moping in her room even at this very moment. Let's head over and apologize later"

How should I explain my resurrection to her? I'm in quite a dilemma this time. I'm not confident that I could proudly say I got lucky and survived after my head was severed and my body was burned.

"You were the one who told them to handle my head and my body with care, stick them together, and leave them as is, huh? Thank you"

She bowed when she heard this and made a little peace sign with her hand.

The peace sign isn't required, is it?

While feeling thankful that I am alive once again, I rotated my shoulders. My joints felt stiff, and their flexibility was limited.

Seems like my body is not back in shape yet.

"I barely escaped the fate of not being able to come back to life because my head and body were separated"

I will come back to life even if I were to die or be killed. It is not exactly a specialty of mine, but that is the constitution my body has.

And, of course, when resurrecting, my body regenerates. The cells that had been wounded and died come back to life, and my wounds close. Should there be any severed parts like my arms, legs, or head, they would reattach themselves to my body.

However, that is only if they are near the body.

I have not tested everything with regard to my body's quirk, but it would most likely be difficult for me to revive if my limbs and head were severed and disposed of in various locations that are far away from one another.

My head and limbs wriggling on the floor, on their own, and gathering at one place---I do not expect something that convenient, but creepy, to occur.

"But......the culprit sure did some cruel things"

Looking up from the bed that my head had supposedly lain on, I shifted my gaze to one of the walls.

I had known about the existence of the message written on that wall ever since I saw it when I entered the room.

[Bellboy won't stop knocking]

He probably wrote it with my blood.

"He sure has gone and done it"

This is a challenge from the culprit.

"I was killed by Bellboy. It's because I saw him while he was committing his murder. But that occurred in the lobby. Even so, my body was discovered on the sixth floor, in Room 606"

"In order to imitate the words, 'flames of the Phoenix', on the second line, I surmise"

"That would be the case. However, he went out of his way to carry my body up to the sixth floor for that, so he is oddly straight-laced, or rather, he has quite the Guts, huh. Even though the elevator had broken down and couldn't be used"

"He then entered Nakuji's room, severed Sakuya-sama's head, and set your body on fire. Even shouldering the risk of not knowing when he could run into someone," Lilithea said, helping me to sort my thoughts out.

"He must have really wanted to commit the murders, according to the lines on the wall, huh. Despite that appearance of his, he is meticulous, or rather, he is a perfectionist. But, you knoww"

I scratched my head and sat on one of the beds.

"Something feels off. Choosing Room 606 among all of the rooms in the southern wing is...well, understandable. The culprit knew that there was no one in this room. He had already killed Nakuji beforehand, after all"

"The culprit called out to Mr. Nakuji from the corridor and got him to open the door. It was at that point that the lock on the door was unlocked"

If the culprit lured Nakuji out using that method, then the chances are high that he is an acquaintance of Nakuji's.

"This room is the perfect place for the second Calling Card Murder. ......That said, would he really go through the trouble of carrying a dead body all the way up to the sixth floor?"

In the first place, I wouldn't be able to get up here if it were me. My stamina would run out before then.

"If his motive were to start a fire, then anywhere in this hotel would have sufficed. In terms of direction, it only had to be facing the southern wing, so he could have done it on the first floor. However, the culprit chose......the sixth floor. Is there some reason for him to do that......"

Nakuji's head was severed, and the dragon was biting on it. My head was severed and was burning in the flames. Nakuji's body—.

"Ah!"

"Is something wrong?"

"Lilithea......earlier...what was Nakuji's dead body like at the start again? Not his head, but his body!"

"Everything below his neck? As I have said earlier, it was lying near the feet of the aforementioned dragon sculptu......"

"I-It wasn't there!" I yelled as I grabbed Lilithea's shoulders after I got confirmation from her.

"Eek" 

Lilithea let out a quiet and surprised yelp, a rare occasion.

"At that time! When I was attacked by Bellboy in the lobby! Nakuji's body wasn't there!"

"That would mean......Ah"

Seems like she had caught on to the same thing I did.

"Lilithea!"

"This way"

We nodded to each other and flew out of Room 606's door.

Trying to sprint with all my might had made me realize the sluggishness of my body’s movements.

Seems like it feels different from what I am used to. I sense that there is a complicated anomaly.

However, it stands to reason; It is only natural.

What a ridiculous assumption; I had gone around thinking that I had come back to life, safe and sound, but this isn't my body.

Allow me to repeat myself. I hate this chronological trick.

A headless body, frozen solid, lay in the corner of the freezer room on the first floor.

"How is it?"

"There's no mistaking it," I said with absolute certainty after examining the body.

"This is my body"

This body, which was discovered in the lobby along with Nakuji's body, was later carried to the freezer room. This is the very body which is originally my own.

"Our bodies have been swapped; Through Bellboy's hands. Look here. The huge wound left behind on the belly. This was from the time when Bellboy's weapon, a willow-leaf saber, pierced me"

"Now that you have mentioned it, the body discovered in Room 606 was charred by the fire, but it had no stab wounds"

I had assumed that the wound on my belly would regenerate and disappear through the revival process, but I was wrong.

"......My goodness. To think that you would mistake your own body," Lilithea said, astonished.

"Don't say that! I did think that something was weird. It was oddly hard to move around, and there was also a pair of weird pimples at a certain embarrassing place that I don't remember. However, our physiques are quite similar, so I didn't realize it immediately......"

"T-There's also the fact that there was never a time when another person's body and my head were stuck together carefully and left as is, so......"

"That embarrassing place you were talking about, where is it?"

"The place doesn't matter, right? To think I would come back to life this way......"

"Even so, would it normally reattach? Would you revive? Is Sakuya-sama some kind of subspecies of the Planarians? Such absurdity"

It's a little too late to call out the absurdity, but I'm shocked as well. To think that I could revive after reattaching myself to someone else's body.

I have learnt something new about how abnormal my physical constitution is once again. What a downer.

"As I thought, Bellboy definitely killed me in the lobby. And Nakuji was not killed in the lobby but in his own room, Room 606"

"So the body that was burnt in that room was Mr. Nakuji's"

"Yeah. Bellboy probably thought that it was difficult to carry my body from the first to the sixth floor"

"It was then that he took Sakuya-sama's severed head and clothes, and returned to Room 606, huh"

At first, I did think it was strange that he not only set me on fire, but went out of his way to sever my head. However, it was the opposite. It was not that he willingly severed my head, but that he was forced to in order to bring it along with him.

"Yes. Nakuji's body was already lying on the floor in Room 606. All he needed to do was to put my head on the bed, put my clothes on Nakuji, and put Nakuji's clothes on me. The switch would be complete after that. Of course, the switch would quickly be discovered via autopsy once the police arrive after the flooding subsides, though"

"That means—he would be able to have them remain as Calling Card Murders until then," Lilithea said, seemingly understanding my thoughts immediately.

However, I had thought beyond that.

"That's right. They are impulsive...and improvised Calling Card Murders"

"......Impulsive, you say?" Lilithea said as she tilted her head, perhaps surprised, as that was not the word she had expected me to say.

"It's impulsive. The Calling Card Murders are merely an exaggerated ornament he prepared to have people think that the murders are linked"

"So it was merely for consistency"

"Yeah. A murder plot and a Calling Card Murder......the sequence had actually been reversed. Think about it. It was an absolute coincidence that I stayed in this hotel. It wasn't something Bellboy could control. He merely sent the threat letter to someone involved in the filming, and my presence should have been an anomaly for him. Of course, if being seen in the lobby late at night was also something he didn't expect, then being forced to kill me in order to silence me was also not part of his plans"

He must have pondered about what to do next after getting rid of the detective.

"However, at that very moment, Bellboy saw those texts on the wall in the lobby and thought that he could imitate them using the two murders he had already committed. And, at the same time, that would mean the culprit didn't have it out for Nakuji alone"

It is precisely because he means to continue to commit murders that he would shift the direction of his murder plot because of such a troublesome and impulsive idea.

Should the culprit's only aim be to kill Nakuji, then he would have already accomplished it. In that case, there would be no need to imitate a Calling Card Murder.

"He hastily changed his plans, you say? But how could you say so with such certainty?"

"It was because I saw it. At the time, Bellboy was meticulously placing Nakuji's head on the front counter. His original plan was probably to place the head there to show it to the world. The impact it would have had when it was discovered the following morning would have been more than enough. Even though that was the case, he forced the head into the dragon's mouth, almost like he had eventually reconsidered"

He actually has quite the improvisation skills.

"That information is the kind Sakuya-sama could bring back precisely because you can resurrect, huh," Lilithea said as she nodded, seemingly convinced by that fact.

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Feel free to comment/pm me if you find any mistakes. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed the first part of this chapter.