Killed Again, Mr. Detective Volume 1 Case 3 Chapter 3 part 2

Volume 1

Case 3: The Serial Killer of Kowloons Hotel

Chapter 3 It had been Torn Off, right? (Part 2)

TLed by: TanoshiKara

"By the way, there is something else I am curious about. How did the culprit get out of the locked room? The door was locked when Utaki-san noticed the smoke"

"Ahh, that's simple"

"Simple, you say?"

Lilithea pouted a little and looked dissatisfied, perhaps finding that it was unamusing that I had the initiative in the deduction.

I said that it was simple, but I might have been misled if I were there at the time. However, by hearing it through Lilithea, I'm able to think about it objectively.

"The culprit was in the room the entire time"

"If he did that, he would have been discovered immedia......Ah, I see"

Lilithea tried to argue, but she soon understood the reason.

"Indeed, it was simple. What a blunder"

"That's right. When Utaki-chan hurriedly unlocked the door and checked the room, it was filled with smoke and the visibility was bad. The culprit was on the other side of the smoke. Well, he could have been hiding under the bed, though"

"And, normally, when someone is met with such a scene after they opened the door, they would hesitate to enter the room. They would first try to turn back and call someone else over"

"Utaki-chan did, in fact, leave the area to call someone else over. The culprit probably left the room during that time"

"I understand the trick. However, what would have happened if Utaki-san did not pass by the room? Would the culprit not have been in danger as he was surrounded by smoke?"

"No, it's the opposite. The culprit did not mean to create a locked room in the first place. But Utaki-chan noticed the anomaly before he could leave room 606, so I think he panicked"

"However, the smoke had leaked out of the room and into the corridor, so there was no telling when someone would have noticed, even if Utaki-san did not. I would think that it was very risky"

"He chose a timing that had a low risk of being discovered. Try and remember. Where were most of the people in the hotel at that time?"

"......I see. Everyone gathered in the lobby on the first floor after hearing Director Toriho's scream"

"That's right. Most of the people were gathered there. But Utaki-chan was not there as she was checking for roof leaks"

There are quite a few times in this incident where it felt like the culprit was walking a tightrope. Even so, he managed to cross them all by improvising.

He really is quite the individual. I can also sense that he has quite the obsession of sorts with seeing his criminal acts through no matter what.

"After overcoming that unexpected situation, Bellboy switched directions and turned his murders into Calling Card Murders. He has gotten rid of the interfering detective, so this is probably the final stretch for him"

The greedy to the bottom of the ocean; The insurbodinate scoundrels to the claws of the Tiger.

Two more people will be killed at the very least.

"We must hurry. Erm, that's why, umm......there's something I want you to do, Lilithea. Right here and now"

"By 'something I want you to do'......Don't tell me, Sakuya-sama"

"Yeah, that's right"

"No......I don't want to, Sakuya"

Lilithea backed away from me.

I lay down on the floor of the freezer room.

"Please cut off my head and reattach it to my body!" I asked of her after mustering up my courage.

Perhaps we had stayed in the freezer room for a long time, as Lilithea's lips were pale. She bit regrettably on those pretty lips of hers as she glared at me.

"Kgh......Of all the things to ask of me!"

"Please! I can't stand this body anymore!"

I finally blurted out my honest thoughts.

□ 

"Wewww, my own body is the best"

It was probably a good thing that my head was reattached immediately after it got cut off, as my resurrection this time was a lot faster than I had expected.

I hugged myself to savour this fact.

"You were a great help Lilithe......Ah"

I turned back enthusiastically, but there were tears welling up in her eyes!

"Ug......With this......I am an accomplice of the murderer...... I will now carry the dishonor of having killed a detective"

"You're b-blowing things out of proportion. This is resurrection treatment, you know? A medical procedure with the patient's agreement, you know?"

"The sensation as I cut off Sakuya-sama's head......I still feel it in my hand......*sniffle*...... Even thoughh......I never ever wanted......to do something like that......What a cruel person......I hate you!"

She eventually bawled after covering her face with her hands.

"Whoa, whoa! Sorry! I'm sorry, Lilithea! I had no intention of having you bear such a heavy burden! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"

I've gone and done it!

I ran up to her, hugged her so tightly that her legs were in the air, and apologized to her over twenty times

Lilithea is a strong girl. She is actually strong in many ways. She's cool, careful, and impeccable. However, no, that is precisely why I forget that she is a fragile girl sometimes, and have her bear too many burdens.

"Look, I'm all fine and dandy already! The injury on my neck has already healed too!"

"It's all thanks to Lilithea's knife skills. You're good at preparing fish after all"

I tried my best to joke with her. It was like the scene of a dad trying to soothe his daughter.

I wonder why, when it comes to humor, it gets less hilarious the more jokes one chains together.

Lilithea wiped her tears away and turned away from me with a cold look on her face.

Ahh, this is not good.

I would usually hear the set phrase, 'What a fool', most of the time when she forgives me, but she did not say it this time.

This calls for me to find a good time later to sincerely apologize to her.

But before that.

I clapped my cheeks with my hands.

"Lilithea, I'm sorry for asking this of you right after, but could you call Chou-san to my room? My clothes are in tatters, as you can see, so I will return to our room and change into something else first"

"......Understood. But what reason should I use to call him over?"

"Please just tell him the detective resurrected or something"

□ 

When I returned to my room, I took off my burnt clothes, threw them aside, and opened the suitcase Lilithea brought to the hotel.

"Change of clothes, change of clothes......Oh"

I turned the TV on with the remote controller and searched the suitcase.

"These are......toothbrushes, huh. Two, one red, and the other white......This here is......Lilithea's spare tights, huh. Hm? What is this box......? The Game of Reincarnated Life? So Lilithea was so set on playing it that she brought this over, huh. Well, whatever. That aside, change of clothes, change of clothes......Hm? This is......a book?"

That's not it, it's Lilithea's diary. Man, I really want to have a look.

"No! That's the one thing I shouldn't do! Ah"

The diary slipped out of my hand as I shook my head to drive away the wicked thought. Thanks to that, the diary was now sitting on the floor, open.

[✖ Day 〇 Month,

I will be staying overnight at a hotel with Sakuya.

I must carefully select the things I should bring along. I wonder what I should bring.

Sakuya's change of clothes, Sakuya's favorite sweets—. And it is a rare opportunity, so a board game......?

I wonder if he will play it with me. It should be fine if I act natural and invite him, right?

By the way, I have a confession—.

The roof leak at the office. It was actually because Lilithea was too focused on driving away a rat that I opened a hole in the ceiling.

I had no ill intentions. To think that the knife I threw would destroy the pipe.

I'm sorry, Sakuya.]

"......"

Unable to say anything, I closed the diary.

There's no need to apologize, Lilithea. I made you cry earlier, so we're even.

"Guess it's not even in the slightest, huh"

Finally finding the change of clothes, I put them on and buttoned up my shirt.

It was about time for the morning news broadcast on TV. That was how late it had gotten.

First up was news about the heavy rain. The showers in the Kanto region had gotten lighter.

That's a relief.

Next up was news on an entertainer's drug use. 

There have been a lot of those recently.

The news also reported that there were prison breaks occurring one after another from high-security prisons. This fact was brought to light through a post from a person involved in the matter on SNS.

Sounds like fake news to me.

"According to our investigations, the first Prison Break occurred last year, and it is to our understanding that this is the start of multiple prisoners escaping from prison, which is still occurring to this very day"

"Police from all over the world are still investigating this matter, but they have yet to obtain any clues on the matter," The beautiful female caster continued, reading from an ominous script.

The door burst open, pulling my attention away from the TV.

Yuriu was standing at the door.

"M......Master......?"

"I stopped by Yuriu-sama's room while I was on my way to call Chou-san over. I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to inform Yuriu-sama as well," Lilithea, who was standing behind her, said.

Was that unnecessary?, or so Lilithea said somewhat coldly as she looked away from me.

"That's fine, Lilithea. Thank you"

Even my molars tingled from Lilithea's kindness.

Yuriu stared at me with a dazed expression, but tears eventually welled up in her eyes as if blood had oozed out from her wound a little while after she had been hurt.

"You're actually......alive...... Ug......Master~!"

Seemingly unable to hold her feelings back for any longer, Yuriu jumped into my arms.

"I thought that you dieddd! Uwaaah! It had been torn off after all......Master's head had been torn off, so! I thought ......! Huh? It had been torn off, right?"

"Wew, I was a hair's breadth away from death. It's the epitome of 'Saved by the skin of my teeth'," I joked to try and calm Yuriu down.

She seemed to think for a second before she started bawling once again.

"That wittiness......It's the real Master!"

"......Sorry for worrying you"

"Seriously......Nakuji was in that state......And even Master had died, so......darkness was all I could see......! Ugg......Don't screw with meee! Apologizeee! Uwahhh!"

Seems like when humans panic, they use words they would never use normally. But I don't blame her. The manager who was in charge of her was killed, after all.

I don't know what relationship an idol shares with their manager, but it's probably a way different matter from when some stranger gets killed.

Honestly, I don't have a good impression of Nakuji, but that does not mean he should be killed.

While feeling the pain of having my chest beaten, I looked towards the door that had been left open and saw that Old Man Chou and Utaki were there, seemingly arriving late.

“I am really surprised......Are you actually alive?”

It was only natural, but the two of them looked like they had seen a ghost.

I sat Yuriu, who finally calmed down, on the bed, and approached Utaki.

"So you followed him, huh, Utaki-chan"

"She was in Chou-sama's room. When I explained the situation, she insisted......"

"I see. Well, as you can see, Utaki-chan. You might not believe it, but I'm alive. Lilithea probably freaked out when she found me, so she exaggerated when telling it to everyone else"

"Sakkun, you real?"

"Yeah, I'm real. Do you want to have a feel?"

Utaki-chan had an unusually mature personality for a middle schooler and would always belittle me even though I am older.

I had thought that she would grill me for answers and poke fun at me by calling me a zombie or a walking corpse this time, but—.

"I'm glad......that you are fine......I'm really......glad......"

Surprisingly, she reacted like a normal person. On top of that, tears had welled up in her eyes, and she even had a caring smile on her face.

"I......thought that you were de......"

To top it off, she even hugged me with her hands around my waist.

"So you do worry over me like a n-normal person, huh"

That's way too surprising. To think that impudent little devil would do that.

However, the person herself seemed to not know why I was surprised, and merely sniffled softly.

'Well......I'd obviously worry. Why?"

Her cluelessness is like a child's, and it's charming. Well, I guess she's a child in the first place.

"It's nothing. That's true. That's how someone'd usually act when they hear that an acquaintance died, right?"

"You're not an acquaintance but a friend, though"

"......Right. Sorry"

Hearing Utaki's simple question made me realize my oddity.

It seems like, before I had even realized it, I was starting to get used to dying.

It is scary, it is painful, but dying is not that big of a deal, or so I had started to think like that at the back of my mind.

But come to think of it, to the people I leave behind who do not know of my situation, a person's death is a matter of great importance. It might even leave a lifelong mental scar.

Anyone would lose their calm after witnessing someone else's untimely death. They will not be able to act like they usually would.

I, too, was once like that.

"Thank you, Utaki-chan. Can I hug you?"

"If it's Sakkun, sure. A thousand yen each time. You can use crypto too"

"At least put a point reward system in place......"

"No," She said as she giggled.

She was extremely cute as she did that.

"I cannot imagine how you are able to stand there unscathed, but you are alive, so it must be as you say. Thus, I shall accept reality"

Ignoring the reunion, Old Man Chou sat on one of the chairs in the room

"After all, there were a number of thugs in the past who would show up suddenly even though they were said to be dead"

Magnanimous, as expected. Hurray for elderly wisdom!

"So, what does Mr. Detective want from me right after you have resurrected?"

"Right. I want to ask you something"

"Ho. I thought the first thing you were going to say was that I was the culprit"

"I would never. I only want to ask about the murder of a family that happened twenty years ago"

Yuriu and Utaki had uneasy expressions on their faces when they heard those disturbing words.

"......Who did you hear that from?"

"I overheard a part of it. An entire family was massacred. Chou-san happened to be present at the scene at the time, right? Just like tonight"

"......I was there"

Old Man Chou looked up into blank space as if he was thinking back to the old days.

"But what has that got to do with this incident?"

"The culprit at the time......did he, perhaps, call himself this? The Hound-headed Bellboy......"

His gaze wavered.

"Why do you think that?"

"It seemed like you knew the name in the lobby yesterday, so I thought that might be the case"

"......Huh. I would not want to be suspected without evidence in this situation just because I mumbled, so I will talk, but it is not a pleasant story"

"That helps"

"That happened on a rainy night like this one. No one could go outside even if they wanted to, so they were stuck in this hotel. Four members of a family, who had been staying here for a long time, were killed one after another"

"As many as four people were......" Yuriu uttered reflexively.

"What kind of people were they? It might be rude for me to say this, but a family staying in this hotel for a long time is"

"Not a normal family, yes. They were being pursued. By people from some shady organization"

"Was it an organization that had a lot of presence in this area?"

"That seemed to be the case. The father had some blundered big time or betrayed them or something

"How were they killed?"

Old Man Chou had an expression on his face that seemed to say, 'You would ask that?'.

"I trust you because Utaki warms up to you, but you are quite the heartless person. Hmph, it was gruesome; The husband, the wife, the eldest son, the eldest daughter. Everyone of them had their bodies sliced into vertical sections...... It was as if......"

"They had been bitten to death by a beast with sharp fangs, right?"

"......Yes, that is correct. It is exactly as you say. In fact, when the body of the first victim, the eldest son, was discovered, the youngest, the second son, who was still a child at the time, exclaimed, 'My brother was bitten to death by a scary dog'. I doubted my ears at first, but......it seemed like he saw the culprit for a moment......"

"He saw him?"

"He did. That prick had......the face of a hound"

Old Man Chou looked away, as if he had said something revolting.

"Isn't that just like......a demon?"

It is only natural for Utaki to have such an opinion.

"No, that face was not real. He was actually wearing a wolf mask he got from somewhere to hide his actual face. In any case, I only learnt of it when he was taken away by the police"

"Ah, so he was caught, huh"

Yuriu let out a sigh of relief even though it was an incident from twenty years ago.

"Yeah. A certain detective stuck his nose into the incident at the time; Solved it in quite the exhilarating way"

A certain detective......? No, don't tell me.

"In the end, there were four victims, and only the youngest child miraculously survived"

"I see. By the way, was the culprit a pursuer from the organization, as expected?"

"No, you are wrong. He had nothing to do with the organization. He was a normal......man. However, he may have been possessed by something whenever he killed another person, eventually turning him into someone abnormal at some point. He had no motive. He was merely a serial killer"

Why it had to be that family is something I shouldn't be thinking about right now. I just need to know that it was the case.

"I do not know what happened to him after that. Not whether he got executed or if he is still behind bars. I do not want to recall the incident, so I did not follow it on the news as well. However, it was the talk of the town for a while after that. And so, from who knows when, the people in Little Kowloons started calling that prick by that name - the Hound-headed Bellboy - in secret"

Old Man Chou let out a sigh after he told us everything in one breath.

He looked like a person who had put something heavy down.

"Twenty years after that......I thought that I no longer hear that name, though"

"You must have been quite shocked when you heard that name all of a sudden during the filming preparations"

Hound-headed Bellboy's threat letter that was sent to Toriho.

"Yeah. To the people who knew the town at the time, Hound-headed Bellboy is a name that is revolting to even say. They won't readily share the story with any outsider. Even though that is the case......"

A secret but popular nickname, 'Hound-headed Bellboy', known only among the people of this town.

Someone has used this to threaten Director Torihi. In other words, this means that there is a high probability that the culprit is someone who had lived in this town in the past.

"Master, does that mean the culprit is......mimicking the culprit from twenty years ago?"

"It is as Yuriu-chan says. A copycat criminal"

The eastern skies had started to brighten when I looked outside the window.

In contrast, there was a silhouette of a Ferris wheel slightly further up on the western side. It belonged to an old amusement park called Mizushima Park.

I remember going to Mizushima Park once when I was young.

It was also called the Sun Wheel Ferris Wheel and was a part of the town's scenery for a long time.

However, Mizushima Park shut down last year, and I heard that there were plans to demolish everything, including the Ferris wheel.

Time is fleeting, and it never stops. It treats everyone fairly.

Even the Hound-headed Bellboy cannot escape from the flow of time.

The rain has already stopped, and the police will arrive soon.

He is running out of time.

Just as I had that thought, the corridor had gotten quite noisy.

We met eyes with each other and got out of the room.

Several of the filming staff were talking among themselves along the corridor with a troubled expression on their faces.

"Is something wrong?" I asked as I called out to them.

"He's not there," A female staff member replied.

"See, Manager Nakuji was in that terrible state during the night, right? So we visited the director's room to confirm our plans for the filming of the remaining scenes, but......"

"He's not there? Did he go for a walk?"

"That's not the only thing. Marugoshi-san was not in the room beside his as well when we checked. That's why we're waking up each staff member one by one and are planning to look for them......"

"Marugoshi-san too? Where did the two of them go......?"

"Erm," Yuriu said as she raised her hand reservedly while I was pondering.

"The two of them might have...... gone to check the filming location. That said, umm......I overheard something. When there was quite the commotion after the murder last night...... I overheard the director's murmur"

"What did he say?"

"As if I'd yield to such sabotage. I won't stop the film......or so he murmured"

"That guy......As I thought, he intends to film the movie until the very end, huh. Even when a murder incident is ongoing"

"It looks like the director is really betting on this movie......so it might be causing him to be stubborn. Of the planned scenes, there's only one scene remaining that is to be filmed in this hotel, so maybe he wants to film it no matter what happens?"

"Filming in this situation is......almost like he's a movie maniac," Utaki, who was standing behind us, said, astounded.

I don’t know whether he is right or wrong, but what I know is that he has quite the fixation.

"Where's the filming location for the remaining scene?"

"Erm......I think it is on the top floor of this hotel. So I thought the director might have gone there with Marugoshi-san after they met up. You know, since the skies cleared up suddenly at dawn, the director might have thought it would be best to film before the police arrive......or something"

Her presumption might unexpectedly be on point.

"By the way, what kind of scene is it?"

"An action scene where the character Marugoshi-san is playing jumps out of the window on the top floor. He'd protect me like this, jump through the window, and go bam together with the culprit," She said as she popped her hands open in front of her face.

"And the scenario is that he is saved by the lake below him. ......Ah, but the action scene will be done by a stuntman, of course. And he won't actually be falling into the lake; It will be done through wire action"

"......Lake? There's one here?"

I looked reflexively at Yuriu before I thought about it and shifted my gaze to Old Man Chou.

"Yeah, there is an old lake that my dad made in the backyard"

"There is a guardian living in the lake. A turtle," Utaki added.

"Come to think of it, he did demand that I let him use the lake"

Lake—Water......

"Don't tell me that lake......is on the west side?"

"It's impressive that you knew. Sakkun's like a detective"

"This is bad!"

The conditions for a Calling Card Murder have lined up.

I sprinted towards the stairs as if I was knocked back towards it.

"Ah! Where are you going, Master!? I-I wanna come too......!"

"Wait here, Yuriu-chan! Lilithea, let's hurry!"

I ran up the stairs after warning my reckless disciple.

Wew, as I thought, it's easy to move around in my own body.

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Feel free to comment/pm me if you find any mistakes. Thank you very much for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.