Tokyo: Rabbit Officer and Her Evil Partner-Chapter 821 - 497: Essence Beneath the Surface

In order to find out where the fourth person’s fingerprint came from, Kensaka Takataro and Mori Na disguised themselves as journalists and went to the Hokkaido Police Station, intending to access the original files and interview all officers involved in the hall shooting incident.

Unfortunately, the progress was not smooth. Their lack of Kitajima accents quickly gave them away.

The Hokkaido Police Station was quite exclusive and uncooperative, and they were driven away.

The progress of the other investigation teams wasn’t very good either. The novelist got side-tracked by sightseeing, and the famous detectives were equally helpless with this old case, only able to wander about hoping for luck.

Some smart people, like Kensaka Takataro, didn’t give up on the prize money. For instance, Aoshima Harano and his partner went to the Kawai Family temple, questioned the abbot, and learned about the conversation between Fushimi Roku and Minamoto Tamako in front of the tombstone, having a vague suspicion in mind but no evidence.

One day passed quickly. The detectives determined to solve the case stayed up all night, while the easygoing novelist chatted about inspiration as if it were a writer’s retreat.

The next evening, the second murder case unfolded at the Hokkaido Police Academy as scheduled.

It was the famous "Sugamo Apartment Massacre" in Tokyo!

The performance location was a replica site built on the left side of the hall, replicating the corridor of the Sugamo Apartment on a one-to-one scale.

Upon entering, Mori Na felt it was like a haunted house, clutching her arms in fear, even her eyebrows were trembling.

Investigating the case wasn’t as smooth as anticipated. Kensaka Takataro was quite idle due to a lack of clues, so he came with Mori Na to sort out the information on the second case.

Most of the other investigation teams were paired up too, with hardly anyone too busy to come.

"That idle? Looks like everyone’s progress isn’t going well..."

Kensaka Takataro felt complicated, not knowing whether to be happy or anxious.

The two walked through the corridor toward the audience seats. On the left side of the corridor were a row of old apartment doors, each with a bowl of salt in front of it; the right side had a concrete railing, with a limited view, the scenery on it was a pasted-on image, and in fact, the corridor was an enclosed space.

Mori Na approached the railing to observe closely. The paper showed pigeonhole-like apartment scenery, much like pigeon cages.

She had visited similar apartments before during field trips, left behind from around the seventies, small, cramped, and dilapidated, generally horror movie shooting sites, which are a core part of Japanese dreams.

To make sure everyone could see inside the corridor, the designer added tiered stands at the end of the corridor.

All the guests were crowded on the seats, shoulder to shoulder, feeling that the corridor’s depths were pitch-black and nothing could be seen clearly.

Suddenly, two beams of light shone from the end, accompanied by footsteps, and everyone held their breath in concentration as Fushimi Roku and Minamoto Tamako, dressed in patrol police uniforms, entered.

The performance began.

Mori Na felt a bit excited and took out her notebook to record.

From their attire, it was clear they were still junior officers at the police station.

Minamoto Tamako kept urging Fushimi Roku, her flashlight sweeping around, observing the environment.

Listening to their conversation, it seemed they had just started duty; Tamako mentioned hearing gunshots during the day and insisted on a thorough patrol from house to house, while Fushimi seemed lazy and kept opposing.

Before the case started, Mori Na had anticipated the second case would interlink with the first, equally detailed, resentful, intricate, and buried with grudges and secrets.

Until that eerie vocal line rang out.

"Is this ghost a soul or a monster? A single sound from a bowstring will reveal it..."

"Heaven, clear... Earth, clear... Inside and out, clear... Six senses, clear..."

These were the lines from the Noh ghost play "Aoiue".

Minamoto Tamako suddenly turned her flashlight, casting a beam to the corridor’s end.

Everyone focused intently, seeing a room door slowly creak open. The vocal sound became notably clear, accompanied by shamisen music, like a ghost whispering.

Soon, the shadow of a ghostly woman appeared at the corridor’s end, fleeting, causing the audience to exclaim.

Isn’t this development wrong?

Isn’t there something amiss?

Mori Na knew well that adding fantasy elements in detective stories was a taboo, potentially damaging the whole story’s tone, instincitvely giving it a critical look.

But she reconsidered, remembering that Mr. Fushimi and Miss Tamako had promised all cases happened in reality, feeling a bit uneasy and leaned toward Mr. Kensaka. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"Why are you leaning so close?" Kensaka Takataro asked softly.

Mori Na blushed and whispered back, "Aren’t you scared? This is something that actually happened..."

"It must be someone pretending to be a ghost, there’s no such thing as ghosts," Kensaka Takataro scoffed.

"Then how did that woman disappear all of a sudden?" Mori Na didn’t believe it; her flexibility in accepting the worldview was high.

"I don’t know, let’s wait and see the case details later." Kensaka Takataro found himself intrigued, his curiosity piqued unusually.

Mori Na pondered carefully and jotted in her notebook—incorporating supernatural horror elements into a mystery novel can attract readers’ interest.

But how to rationalize the supernatural events in the end?

Mori Na thought this was a tough point; if not handled well, the setting couldn’t be accepted by readers, risking backfire.