It was night.
The bright moon hung high.
Three shadowy figures climbed out of the dormitory window, meeting under the hazy moonlight in front of the teaching building's main door.
"Yo! Nice to meet you for the first time," the tall girl greeted with a smile.
"Shh!"
Minamoto Tamako lowered her voice, nervously following behind her, "Keep it down! What if we get caught?"
Fushimi Roku shone a flashlight on Minamoto Tamako's face, questioning, "Didn't you say you hadn't asked Kawai to come?"
This tall girl was Nagono Kawai, Minamoto Tamako's good friend. The two had shared similar interests since high school and were inseparable in daily life.
Minamoto Tamako squinted at the intense light, exclaimed "Ah," and shrank behind Kawai's back, softly explaining:
"I-I was too scared to sneak out alone."
...
Fushimi Roku squinted at her, unsure where to start with his complaints.
This fellow suggested searching Instructor Sakurai's office. He had come here in the dead of night to accompany her, only to find that their duo had turned into a trio.
The more people, the greater the risk of exposure. Dorm supervisors and patrolling instructors are not fools. If students are caught violating regulations and leaving the dorms at night, the lightest punishment is a demerit and a twenty-page handwritten reflection, the heaviest being expulsion from the academy — the police academy's closed training regimen is this strict, with personal insults and corporal punishments being commonplace.
Since they were already here, it was inappropriate to send someone back.
After introducing themselves, Fushimi Roku and Kawai knew each other. Time was pressing, so they climbed through the window into the teaching building, heading towards the office one after the other along the stairs.
Fushimi Roku led the way, Kawai guarded the rear, and Minamoto Tamako, being the most timid, only dared to walk in the middle.
Using the phone light, the three crept to the office door on the third floor. Kawai used a hairpin to quickly pick the lock.
"My dad is a locksmith," she casually explained.
Fushimi Roku thought to himself that he hadn't even asked, and her smooth explanation seemed a bit like a guilty cover-up.
He pushed the door open. Instructor Sakurai's single office was very simple, with only a desk, an office chair, and a fax and printer. The documents and files were neatly arranged on the storage rack.
Fushimi Roku glanced around, inquiring, "Are you sure the anonymous letter is in the office?"
"Very likely."
Minamoto Tamako paused, adding, "Earlier, when I submitted a leave application for Takagi, who was unwell, I saw through the reflection in the glass door that Instructor Sakurai was reading a piece of paper, with a scary expression. When I knocked, she hastily put the paper into the drawer."
"Sounds very suspicious," Kawai said.
The three communicated verbally while their hands weren't idle and quickly found the paper in the desk drawer.
To be precise, it was a letter.
The three of them bent over together, heads close, and turned up the phone light.
On the pale letter paper were some lines of slanted, sinister writing, in a dark red ink that was unsettling.
"I know what you did, you murderer."
"Do you think hiding in the police academy is safe?"
"Be prepared, I will make you pay."
...
Fushimi Roku's first reaction was that he couldn't leave fingerprints. The letter had to be sealed in a protective bag for photographing and evidence collection … A moment later, he came to his senses, realizing he was falling into professional habits.
Perhaps it was the lighting, but Minamoto Tamako and Kawai's faces appeared somewhat pale.
Kawai gulped, nervously asking, "This color … could it be blood?"
"No," Minamoto Tamako sniffed it, saying, "It smells like birch oil, kind of like red flower oil tincture, should be PELIKAN brand red ink."
"You can even tell that?" Fushimi Roku was somewhat amazed.
"Tamako was the president of the high school detective club, don't underestimate her," Kawai praised her good friend, then asked, "What do you think? Is it a prank or a threatening letter?"
"It- it should be a prank, right?"
Minamoto Tamako, very nervous, said uncertainly, "Instructor Sakurai is an active duty officer, it's unlikely she would break the law knowingly, not to mention she is usually very diligent at work …"
"No, this is definitely a threatening letter."
Fushimi Roku put the letter back in its place, speaking in a low voice, "Moreover, what the writer accuses — 'murderer' — is probably real."
"Eh?" Minamoto Tamako was taken aback, "How did you deduce that?"
"If it were you, facing such a prank, would you stay silent? Considering Instructor Sakurai's temper, why didn't she publicly pursue responsibility? Keeping it secret and privately searching for the sender like this shows she has a guilty conscience."
As an experienced criminal lawyer, he had handled numerous bizarre cases in his past life and had seen countless dark sides of human nature. He could instantly determine the authenticity of such "malicious information" of unknown origin.
Some people appear decent but are no different than beasts at heart — aside from murder, they even dodged paying his legal fees — such people, Fushimi Roku could predict their intentions just by their posture.
As he finished speaking, a system prompt appeared before his eyes again.
"Task Completed"
"Congratulations on acquiring Tracking Skill LV1"
"Follow-up Task Unlocked"
"Hire to Kill: Accept a commission to avenge the victim by acting against Sakurai Chizuru"
"Task Reward: *2 Skill Points"
...
Fushimi Roku felt a warm current flowing through his spine, making him feel so comfortable that his limbs tingled and he got goosebumps.
Various tracking techniques kept flashing through his mind as if they had been honed a thousand times, and his body developed muscle memory.
Minamoto Tamako was too nervous to notice his anomaly—or perhaps she noticed but didn't bring it up—she bit her thumbnail, quickly saying:
"There's no logical support for this! It's just your personal guess, right? Instructor Sakurai might have had other considerations for not pursuing it publicly, like worrying about her reputation being harmed …"
Looks like she was really scared.
"Don't panic!" Kawai patted her back, comforting, "Didn't you always want to solve a real case? The opportunity is right in front of you; don't back down!"
"Yeah, what's there to be afraid of? It's just a murder case stirred up by a threatening letter, right?"
In his previous life, Fushimi Roku read case files until he was numb, studying "who killed whom" every day; to him, a threatening letter like this wasn't even as harmful as sandpaper on bare skin.
"Shh!"
Minamoto Tamako suddenly raised a finger.
"It's nothing, don't be so jumpy …"
Before Kawai could finish her sentence, she was interrupted by both Fushimi Roku and Minamoto Tamako, "Someone's coming."
Tap …
Tap … Tap …
From the depths of the dark corridor came a series of crisp footsteps.
Minamoto Tamako put her hands to her ears, listened intently with closed eyes for a moment, then revealed a terrified expression:
"Oh no, it sounds like Instructor Sakurai! She's almost at the office door! If we go out now, we'll definitely be detected!"
"How did you figure that out?" Fushimi Roku was astounded.
"Because she's very light and walks quickly, I remember her footsteps!"
Minamoto Tamako was so anxious, beads of sweat appeared on her forehead. "What do we do? What do we do! If she catches us, we'll definitely be expelled … We're screwed!"
No sooner had she finished speaking than they heard a clicking sound — the lock had been opened.