Kazama Tatsuya put on the head cover, shoe covers, and gloves, signaling Minamoto Tamako to stand at the door: "Just watch from here, you're soaked through and could compromise the crime scene."
The driver snickered, glancing at Minamoto Tamako. He raised his head proudly, ready to follow in, but Kazama Tatsuya unexpectedly turned around and said, "You too."
"Huh? I'll just take off my suit, the shirt underneath isn't soaked yet..."
"You're in the way." Kazama Tatsuya interrupted.
"..."
From over twenty meters away, Minamoto Tamako saw a circle of human-shaped white lines drawn on the ground. She recalled the scene when Fushimi Roku was carried out of the hall, and her heart ached sharply.
Half an hour ago, the class leader marked attendance in the dormitory and found that Fushimi hadn't shown up, then notified the trainee patrol police to search for her.
Several interns planned to do a perfunctory patrol but found the auditorium doors open and unlocked. As they approached, they saw one man and two women lying on the ground, blood everywhere, horrifying them to the point of being completely at a loss, ending up running off to find an instructor.
When Minamoto Tamako arrived at the auditorium, she just met Fushimi Roku being placed onto a stretcher and pushed into an ambulance.
After several inquiries, she learned what had happened.
——Nagono Kawai and Sakurai Chizuru were dead, and Fushimi Roku was barely breathing, sent for emergency treatment.
How could this have happened?
Minamoto Tamako couldn't understand. She had many things she wanted to ask Kawai, clearly it was agreed to leave the past behind and become police officers together... what exactly happened? What had they gone through?
She had played countless detective games and read countless mystery novels; the desire to uncover the truth had never been so intense.
She watched Kazama Tatsuya enter the chapel, who glanced back at the pews, and she immediately asked, "Did you see something?"
Kazama Tatsuya didn't turn around and said, "A bullet hole, a bullet embedded in the back of the pew."
"Is there blood?"
"Yes." Kazama Tatsuya paused: "What do you think?"
The driver scratched his head, thinking what is there to see? Am I not just supposed to watch from the door? From so far away, who can see what's going on...
"It should be a stray bullet; after penetrating a body, its kinetic energy got weakened, so it didn't pierce the pew, carrying with it bloodstains," Minamoto Tamako said.
"Just as I thought." Kazama Tatsuya nodded.
The driver looked down at this little brat, feeling rather annoyed, vaguely sensing that he would soon fall out of favor.
I am Kazama's right-hand man! How can I let some kid who hasn't even graduated steal the spotlight? Next time Kazama asks a question, I must grab the answer! The driver gritted his teeth, determined internally.
"What's the name of the deceased?" Kazama Tatsuya avoided the bloodstains and paced onto the stage.
"Hey!" The driver raised his hand, exclaiming energetically, "I don't know!"
"If you don't know then shut up," Kazama Tatsuya said.
"The older female corpse is called Sakurai Chizuru, an on-duty instructor of Class A; the girl in a uniform is Nagono Kawai, she used to be an enrolled student... They knew each other and had a conflict last night."
Minamoto Tamako paused, briefly explaining the anonymous letter and the matter of the stolen diary without any concealment.
"I see," Kazama Tatsuya didn't comment further and said, "Listen well, now start describing the scene."
"Yes!" Minamoto Tamako and the driver said in unison.
"The deceased Sakurai Chizuru had three apparent gunshot wounds: the forehead, lower right abdomen, and upper left abdomen, presumably piercing the kidney, spleen, and brain. The abdominal gunshot wound shows signs of burning, but the head doesn't;"
"The deceased Nagono Kawai had a noticeable piercing wound on the right chest, presumably piercing the lung, her shoe soles had mud, and the uniform she wore was wet;"
"Both corpses have bloodstains on their right hands, a sharp knife and a New Nambu M60 revolver are on the ground. There are dragged bloodstains on the stage, no footprints, and 'Heavenly Punishment' is written on the wall in blood..."
Kazama Tatsuya's speech was rapid, descriptions objective, without any subjective speculation.
At first, the driver thought of remembering by brain, but as Kazama Tatsuya spoke more and more details, he soon gave up, intending to just read the scene report later.
Anyway, it's not meant for me...
He glanced down, finding that Minamoto Tamako had actually closed her eyes.
"Hey! Listen to the boss's words properly! No matter how dull it is, you can't doze off!" The driver quietly reminded.
"Watanabe, shut up." Kazama Tatsuya interrupted the description, turning back to say, "She's profiling, do not disturb her."
"Yes! I'm very sorry!"
"Didn't I tell you to shut up?"
"Sorry! I'll shut up now!"
...
Minamoto Tamako couldn't hear the quarrel and not even the sound of rain or thunder, her mind filtered out all ineffective information.
She was indeed profiling but not in the traditional sense.
Criminal psychology experts integrate scene information to reconstruct the criminal's psychology, replicate the offender's personality, and behavioral logic — by relying on extraordinary information processing ability and an almost self-hypnotic imagination to reconstruct a crime scene in the mind, this is called 'profiling.' It's the ultimate aim of all detectives and a popular setting in major TV dramas and mystery novels.
But Minamoto Tamako couldn't achieve that, but she could link all clues together to reconstruct the crime scene, restoring that moment's scene in her mind.
In the world she constructed, there is no "humanity," only "logic."
The rainwater pours back in, rises to the skies; blood returns, the dead stand once more. Minamoto Tamako slowly opened her eyes within her mind, sitting in a dim study with a miniature version of the auditorium on the desk.
She lowered her gaze, the storm fell again, this moment should have thundered. The auditorium's dome opened, she saw two delicate little figures standing in the hall, seemingly saying something. An invisible barrier muted them, she couldn't hear the specific dialogue.
Scene of the crime replays.
Nagono Kawai's gun jammed, Sakurai Chizuru drew a knife to stab, Fushimi Roku picked up a gun killing Sakurai Chizuru...
Wait...
Where did the sixth bullet come from? Is there a fourth person at the scene?
The crime model was paused, Minamoto Tamako kept rerunning it, yet each deduction stopped after the sixth shot.
What happened after the two died?
Why did the perpetrator leave messages on the wall?
Where did Fushimi Roku's wounds come from?
The crime model started to collapse, gradually dispersing, shattering into unclear pieces.
"Something is missing, some clues are missing..."
Minamoto Tamako murmured to herself.
——Snap!
Suddenly she felt her shoulder weighed down, jolting awake from deep thoughts, opened her eyes to see Kazama Tatsuya had somehow walked up close, standing by her side, with his right hand resting on her left shoulder.
"Follow me." He opened an umbrella.
"Eh? Not continuing the investigation?" Minamoto Tamako looked bewildered, "Where are we going?"
"The identification officer will sort the scene report later, evidence won't grow legs and run away," Kazama Tatsuya walked into the rain with an umbrella: "The most important is people, the golden interrogation time is within ten hours after the incident..."
Watanabe, the driver, looking at the two's backs, felt they were the real mentor and apprentice, while he seemed a bit redundant.
"Hey! Boss, wait for me!" He held his suit, stepping in water to catch up.