boyutpedia Page 129
Page 129
The beginning of a movie could perhaps use a similar technique, subtly hinting at the protagonist's impending danger through a seemingly insignificant detail.
"Alright, don't be scared, Eriri," Yuto said with a smile, trying to soothe her. "It's just a story. How about some hot tea to calm your nerves? And then... shall we continue with the second pot of soup?"
"W-Do we have to do it again?!" Eriri looked up, her face full of resistance.
“Of course,” Kasumigaoka Utaha put down her teacup, a mischievous smile playing on her lips, glancing at Eriri. “I’m finding this more and more interesting. What’s wrong, Sawamura-kun? Are you scared already? What a coward.”
"Who, who's scared! I'm not!" Provoked, Eriri immediately straightened her back and said defiantly, "Bring it on! Who's afraid of who!"
Seeing the two regain their fighting spirit, Yuto smiled and looked at Kato Megumi, who remained calm.
"What do you think, Kato-san?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Kato Megumi nodded and reached out to pour Eriri a cup of hot tea. "But, could the next story be a little less... realistic? It's giving me the creeps."
As she spoke, she subtly moved closer to Yuto.
Yuto understood; it seemed that even Kato-kun was still afraid.
"Don't worry, the next story has absolutely nothing to do with our lives right now." He smiled mysteriously and then took out the second card.
"Listen carefully, the soup noodles for this pot of turtle soup are four strips of paper."
He used his ventriloquism skills to make his voice deep and magnetic.
The first note read: This is the last time the teacher will hit you.
The second note read: "I'm withdrawing. I wish you happiness."
The third note reads: "I'll give you the manager's position."
The fourth note reads: "Only here can I feel at ease."
When Itsuka Yuto finished reciting the name of the second pot of soup noodles, the three girls looked at each other, somewhat puzzled.
"These four slips of paper... are there large time intervals between them?" This time, it was Kato Megumi who spoke first.
“Yes,” Yuto replied.
"Was it written by the same person?" Kato Megumi continued to press.
"Yes."
"Written for...the same person?"
"Yes."
Three consecutive "yes" statements quickly brought the clues to a focus.
A mysterious letter writer left these four strange notes for the same person over a long period of time.
"Hmph, what a charade." Kasumigaoka Utaha pondered, holding her teacup. "Are the person who wrote the note and the person who received it rivals for his affections?"
"no."
"So, is the person who wrote the note still alive?"
"Yes."
"Where is the person who received the note?" Shiyu asked immediately.
Yuto paused, then slowly uttered a single character: "No."
“Something’s not right.” Shi Yu frowned. “If it’s just a normal blessing or a gesture of courtesy, it doesn’t constitute a suspense story at all. There must be something fishy going on.”
She changed her approach, "The first note, 'This is the last time the teacher will hit you,' could it be that the person who wrote the note... disposed of that teacher?"
Her wording was euphemistic, but the meaning was self-evident.
Yuuto: "Yes."
"Wow!" Eriri gasped. "Did they really kill someone?"
“Then, by the same logic.” Once Shi Yu’s train of thought was unleashed, it was unstoppable. “The second note, ‘I’m withdrawing, I wish you happiness,’—did the person who wrote the note kill the recipient’s rival?”
"Yes."
"The third one, 'I'll give you the manager's position,' means giving it to your competitors as well..."
"Yes."
A series of affirmative answers gradually revealed a distorted image.
A hidden "guardian" clears away all obstacles in the path for the recipient in the most extreme way.
"This is terrifying..." Eriri hugged her arms, her voice trembling. "Who is this person? Why would they do this?"
“The problem is the fourth note,” Kato Megumi said softly, drawing everyone’s attention back. “'Only here can I feel at ease,' does this note also mean… another person has died?”
"Yes."
"Who died this time?" Shiyu asked. "It couldn't have been the recipient of the letter themselves, could it?"
Yuto looked at her, but instead of answering directly, he asked, "What do you think?"
“That doesn’t make sense,” Shi Yu shook her head. “If the letter writer was protecting the recipient, why would they kill him? Unless…”
A thought flashed through her mind: "Are the writer and the recipient relatives?"
"Yes."
"Father and son? Or mother and son?"
"Keep guessing."
"Was it written by the mother to the child?" Kato Megumi's voice was soft, but unusually certain.
"Yes."
This answer instantly twisted and saddened the tone of the entire story.
A mother, through killing, paved a "smooth" path for her child's life.
“That fourth note…” Eriri’s voice trembled with tears, “Mom killed so many people, all for the sake of the children… Who did she kill with the last note? Did she commit suicide?”
"no."
“That was… she put the child…” Eriri didn’t dare to continue.
Kasumigaoka Utaha's expression also turned serious. She thought of a kind of love that was common in Japanese ghost stories, the most extreme and morbid kind.
"'Only here can make me feel at ease'... Is this 'here' a specific, real geographical location?"
"Yes and no," Yuto replied ambiguously.
“Could it be…” Kato Megumi’s eyes widened in disbelief and horror. She seemed to have thought of the most terrifying answer, “Could it be… that the mother thought the world was too dangerous for her child, so… to make the child ‘safe’ forever, she killed her own child, and then… he…”
She couldn't finish her sentence, but everyone understood what she meant.
"...stuffed back into his stomach?" Yuto said the complete soup base in a calm tone.
"Yes."
"Ugh—" Eriri gagged on the spot, her face as pale as paper. "Stop talking! I'm going to throw up! What kind of ghost story is this!"
Even Kasumigaoka Utaha, who is known for her cunning and sharp tongue, fell silent at this moment, her hand holding the teacup trembling slightly.
"Alright, alright, take a break, everyone take a break." Yuto quickly smoothed things over, refilling Eriri and Utaha's teacups. "This is the last one. I promise it won't be too heavy-handed. It's a crime story that leans more towards mystery."
"I don't want to play anymore!" Eriri shook her head like a rattle-drum.
“No,” Kasumigaoka Utaha insisted unexpectedly. “We’ve come this far, how can we give up halfway? Let’s begin, beautiful teacher. I can’t wait to see what other twisted things you can pull out of your filthy brain.”
Yuuto: "..."
“Okay, one last one.” Yuto cleared his throat.
"Listen carefully: A business couple moved to a dilapidated neighborhood after their business went bankrupt. One night two weeks later, they both fell to their deaths from the balcony."
"Police have preliminarily determined that the metal railing on the balcony broke accidentally due to years of rust. The husband's cell phone was found on the balcony floor with a recently connected call on it, the caller's contact name being 'debt collector'."
"In addition, there was a half-eaten candlelight dinner on the table inside the room."
This story sounds like a news report; it lacks suspense but is full of details.
"It's the balcony again..." Eriri muttered softly.
"Is the metal handrail naturally rusted?" Kasumigaoka Utaha immediately grasped the key point.
"no."
"Was it done by someone?"
"Yes."
"Was it done by one of the couple?"
"Yes."
"〦二玖企?鹨蹴尹??拌八榴丈夫做？"
"Yes."
"Is he planning to... kill his wife for insurance money?" Eriri immediately thought of the most common plot.
"no."
"That means... he wanted to commit suicide and fake it as an accident to collect insurance money?" Kato Megumi's thinking always breaks the mold.
"Yes."
A corner of the truth has been revealed.
A husband who had devoted himself to his family, after going bankrupt, wanted to give his life to secure a future for his wife.
"And what about your wife?" Shiyu asked. "Did she die in an accident?"
"Yes."
Was her husband murdered?
"Yes."
"What?!" Eriri exclaimed in shock. "The wife's death was an accident, and the husband's was murder? But they fell in together! Was there a third person present?"
"no."
“There was no third person…” Kato Megumi murmured to herself. “Then it could only be that the wife killed her husband, but in the process she also slipped and fell. But the husband was already planning to commit suicide, so why would she go through all that trouble?”
"To make things seem more real? Or... she couldn't wait?" Shiyu guessed.
"Is the candlelight dinner on the table related to their deaths?" Kato Megumi once again turned her attention back to the details of the scene.
"Yes."
"Is there anything unusual in the food or drink?"
"Yes."
"There are sleeping pills in the wine?" Shi Yu reacted very quickly.
"Yes. [The rest of the text appears to be gibberish and doesn't form coherent sentences.]"
"Did your wife poison you?"
"Yes."
With the clues connecting here, a complete story has emerged before everyone's eyes.
Yuto looked at them and decided to stop keeping them in suspense and reveal the soup base directly: "Before his entrepreneur husband went bankrupt, he bought himself a huge personal accident insurance policy, with his wife as the beneficiary."
"After going bankrupt, feeling deeply guilty, he decided to commit suicide to fake an accident in order to defraud his wife of insurance money. He applied corrosive liquid to the balcony railing every day to accelerate its aging."
"On the other hand, the wife accidentally discovered the insurance policy and had evil intentions. She couldn't wait for her husband's 'accident' to happen, so she decided to take action herself."
"That night, she prepared a candlelight dinner, put sleeping pills in the red wine, and after her husband passed out, she planned to drag him to the balcony and push him off to make it look like he had accidentally fallen while drunk."
"To make the scene more realistic, she even used a new phone card to impersonate a 'debt collector' and call her husband's cell phone."
"However, despite all her calculations, she didn't anticipate that the balcony railing, which her husband had tampered with, was already extremely fragile."
"Just as she was dragging her husband, intending to push him off the balcony, she leaned against it herself, and the handrail snapped. In the end, the unconscious husband and the conscious wife both fell to their deaths."
After the story was told, a sigh of regret filled the activity room.
One wanted to sacrifice for love, the other wanted to murder for profit, but in the end they perished together in the most absurd way.
"Human greed and the irony of fate..." Kasumigaoka Utaha murmured, a complex light flickering in her eyes. "This story is quite good."