Chapter 140 – Episode 17. Island Village and Murder and the Daughter of the Abyss
When I left the cave with a lantern, a pot shaman and a palanquin worker were waiting at the entrance of the cave.
“How much time has passed?”
“It’s been about an hour.”
“This is the ‘moment’.”
The jar shaman nodded slightly at my words. She seemed to know a lot. I got back into the palanquin and returned to the shrine. The torches were still burning and the villagers were dancing to the sound of drums coming from somewhere. The rain seemed to be gradually stopping and the rain was getting weaker.
It seemed like this ritual was held in the village with a festival-like feel. As I was watching with interest, the jar shaman started talking.
“After the ancestral rites are held, strangely, a lot of fish are caught around here for a while. This is one of the reasons why the people who live in this village never leave this island. “I make a lot of money just by being a fisherman.”
Ah, it seemed like the Daughter of the Abyss was giving something similar to a blessing for performing the ancestral rite. Since the people of this village can be said to be believers of the Daughter of the Abyss, do they take good care of them?
“I donate part of the money I earn to the shrine. “Next year’s ancestral rites must be held for another big catch to come.”
Hmm, I see. Although it is not a famous shrine, I was a bit surprised that the site was so large, but it seemed to be receiving significant donations from the entire village. I passed the dancing villagers and headed to the room where I had dressed up earlier to change clothes.
This time, I took off my clothes without any helpers and put on my clothes that were neatly folded in a corner. What do I do with the clothes I take off? Let’s just walk away and leave. I put my raincoat back on and left the room.
The jar shaman was still waiting outside.
“I didn’t know what to do with the clothes I was wearing, so I just hung them up.”
“You don’t have to worry. What are you going to do? Are you going to enjoy the ancestral rite after-party? Or are you just going to go back?”
Hmm, I don’t really have anything else to do, but I didn’t want to dance here. I suddenly became curious about something else, so I opened my mouth.
“Are the people from Kwandong University still at the shrine?”
“Yes. “Some people enjoy the after-ancestral rite party, while others look at our shrine’s digitized materials.”
“Oh, is that so? “I’m tired from what happened ‘for a while’ so I’ll go down first.”
The jar shaman laughed softly at my words, took something out of her pocket and gave it to me. It was a small wooden box.
“It was given to me by Shinkaihime.”
The Daughter of the Abyss gave it to you? You didn’t tell me about the gift. Is it like a surprise gift? When I opened the box and checked, it contained something that looked like a bead.
◆Mermaid’s Tears [Legendary Elixir]: Can increase the level of one trait that can be evolved. It is unclear whether the tears were really shed by a mermaid.
Oh oh! They give me mermaid tears here… ! It was one of the few means by which one could go from being an adult to being a superhuman, and it was a treat to get it like this. Or you can upgrade other special characteristics.
There was a small note under the mermaid’s tears, so I took it out and read it.
-When I think about it, I didn’t pay the price for God and the unique soul. Even if this is not enough, I hope you understand as a pet.
I was very satisfied, but Daughter of the Abyss seemed to think it was lacking. Do you want to give me something else as a service later? I closed the box again, put it in my pocket, and went back down to the inn feeling refreshed. It was a trip that gave me so much to gain. Tomorrow the ship will arrive and we will return, and I have gained a lot in that short time.
I returned to the inn with light steps. She was quiet as if no one was in the inn. I went into my room and took off my clothes. I had done ablutions before I came, but it felt like a very long time since I had been mingling with the Daughter of the Abyss for an eternity. I’ll be busy when I return home tomorrow, so I might not be able to take a hot spring bath, so I’ll have to do it one more time now.
###
Suddenly, I felt like I had fallen asleep in the bathtub. I woke up because the hot springs had cooled down a bit and I heard some noise outside. I got out of the bath, took a quick shower with cold water, and went out. When I went outside wearing the yukata provided by the inn, people from Kanto University, the innkeeper’s grandmother, and Konoka Hamahata were standing there.
“What’s going on?”
As I spoke as I entered the crowd, Haruto Wano, who already had a depressed expression, opened his mouth with an even more depressed expression.
“As I was returning from the festival, Professor Honmura, who was walking ahead of me, fell and fell almost 20 meters. “I rushed over and found that he had already passed away.”
Hmm, somehow this seems like murder, not death by accident… Still, I thought it was strange that there was no Professor Koga Honmura at Kwanto University.
“Is it also murder?”
“Yes.”
Haruto Wano answered firmly. His confident answer made it seem like he had figured something out.
“Actually, when I returned from the festival today, I was going to gather everyone together and reveal the truth, but I didn’t know that there would be another victim in the meantime.”
Well, Professor Honmura Koga, who constantly irritated me, died, but she didn’t do anything wrong to me, so I felt a little sad.
“If you reveal the truth, does that mean you have found the culprit?”
“Yes.”
Oh, what? He really looks like a detective. Haruto Wano stroked his chin for a moment and then opened his mouth.
“The dead are three people: Morisuke Makiuchi, Atsuhiro Kimura, and Professor Koga Honmura. “They have one thing in common.”
What do they have in common? I have no idea… Maybe it’s because I’m not from Kwandong University, but it seemed like we had something in common that I had no idea about. I waited for Haruto Wano to continue, wondering what they had in common.
“Moriske Makiuchi and Atsuhiro Kimura worked under one professor. When the professor died, he went to work under Professor Koga Honmura, who was a friend of the professor. “Then we have something in common: that professor.”
Oh right. It seemed like Haruto Wano had told me that story. What does that relationship have to do with the current murder?
“The professor is Professor Kosaku Ueshima. This is the name of the professor who was first conducting research on Chooten Island…”
No, tantalizingly, why do you keep interrupting me? Haruto Wano turned his body slightly and directed his gaze towards his grandmother, the owner of his inn.
“This is Motoko Hamahata’s son.”
Everyone seemed shocked and couldn’t say anything. The innkeeper’s grandmother, Motoko Hamahata, also had a stiff face and could not say anything.
“But does this murder case have anything to do with the fact that the owner’s grandmother is Professor Ueshima’s mother?”
No one was saying anything, so I opened my mouth and asked. Haruto Wano nodded his head.
“Why was Professor Koga Honmura doing research on Chooten Island? I searched for papers on my phone and found a paper posted by Professor Koga Honmura two years and six months ago. 〈The independent culture and considerations of the Izu Islands. 〉 Before that, you had been writing a completely different paper, but suddenly you were writing a paper about the Izu Islands, that is, this island. “Look at the co-authors.”
Haruto Wano said this while showing everyone his thesis titled “Independent Culture and Considerations of the Izu Islands” On his thesis site. Lead author Koga Honmura, co-authors Morisuke Makiuchi, Atsuhiro Kimura… Uh, didn’t you say that these two are definitely under Professor Ueshima?
“Then…”
“Yes, they stole Professor Kosaku Ueshima’s thesis and posted it first. Because of that, Professor Kosaku Ueshima committed suicide. “I felt betrayed by his friends and students and the loss of having my thesis taken away from me.”
They are very bad people. In the end, what Haruto Wano meant was that his innkeeper’s grandmother killed three people for revenge.
“If that is certainly true, it would be a reason to kill, but isn’t this just circumstantial evidence? “Shouldn’t there be evidence for all three murders?”
“We should look at the first case first. Morisuke Makiuchi died in a women’s bathhouse. Why did she go into the women’s bathhouse? She couldn’t have gone in to wash herself. Because it’s a women’s bath. I guess someone asked me to go. For example, if you asked me to listen to something…”
Haruto Wano looked at Konoka Hamahata this time. Hamahata Konoka slightly bit her lip at that gaze.
“If you were holding something with both hands and were looking at one person, you could not see the person holding the stone behind you and get hit helplessly. “This is Idol.”
Haruto Wano took out a stone contained in a transparent plastic bag.
“It was easy to hide the stone. Just throw it on the edge of the bath. “Thank you, Mr. Uchidate, for helping us find the stone.”
It was Uchidate Tekanimi, who was hesitating at Wano Haruto’s words and his face was blushing. Hmm… Kanimi Uchidate seemed to like Haruto Wano. But why did she ask me to ride her bike?
“And thank you to Tyra for the hint about the accomplice.”
Did I say that? Ah! While arguing with Professor Koga Honmura, he said that an alibi would be meaningless if he was an accomplice, and upon hearing that, Haruto Wano seemed to realize something.
“If Motoko Hamahata and Konoka Hamahata are accomplices, then the alibi is completely meaningless. And the key to the second incident is Kimura, who died without any trace of resistance. This means he used sleeping pills. “If you give Kimura food laced with sleeping pills and come back under the pretext of cleaning up the food and stab Kimura in the back while he is asleep and make him scream, you can easily commit murder.”
Oh, there were sleeping pills. Of course, for this hypothesis to be correct, Atsuhiro Kimura’s body would have to be cut open and examined. It was definitely a reasonable reasoning.
“The last murder also used drugs. Since we were guests at the inn, they kept giving us food, and it was an environment where we could easily give medicine. Since the two of us knew when the festival would end, they would have been able to predict the time we would go down and give Professor Honmura the medicine. The time of drug administration must have been exquisitely controlled to hide the fact that the drug was administered due to a fatal accident. “Is there anything wrong with what I said?”
In response to Haruto Wano’s question, her grandmother, the innkeeper, shook her head. It probably means that everyone acknowledges it.
“One thing went wrong. My granddaughter Konoka did not participate in this incident. “I did it all.”
“Grandma… ! No, I helped avenge my father too! “To punish those who betrayed my father.”
Until the end, she insisted that she committed the crime alone for the sake of her granddaughter, but since it only made sense if she was an accomplice, the other three members of the Kwantung University could not accept it.
“You two should stay here in the room. Let’s take turns watching from outside. “Tyra, can you help me too?”
“Whatever.”
We put the innkeeper, the old woman, and Konoka Hamahata in one room, and we decided to take turns as a group of two to keep watch until the police arrived. Now that the rain has stopped, the police will come right away tomorrow morning.
Me and Saori Hijitani were in a group, and Haruto Wano and Kanimi Uchidate were in a group. Since it was already 11 o’clock, we decided to monitor for 3 hours at a time. Since I had been sleeping a little while ago, I said I would watch first. I had never talked much with Saori Hijitani, so it was awkward, so I quietly looked at my phone and three hours passed.
I went to my room after switching shifts with the second surveillance team, went to sleep, and when I woke up, the police were already there. But for some reason, the grandmother was still in the room, but Konoka Hamahata was nowhere to be seen, either rising into the sky or falling to the ground.
The police searched the entire village, but they could not find Konoka Hamahata. The shrine remained, but the police ignored it as if it did not exist. We boarded the boat that brought us and the police back and departed for Hachijo Island.
“I think you liked Mr. Wano, but why did you ask me to ride your bike?”
When she asked out of curiosity, Uchida Tekanimi opened her mouth with a slightly apologetic expression.
“It was a strategy to induce jealousy, but I guess it didn’t work. I’m sorry, martial artist… !”
It was something like that. No matter how handsome you are, you can’t make a girl fall in love right away if she’s already in love with you. “I wish you well,” She said with a smile, and went to see her grandmother, the innkeeper, who was tied up in a corner of her cabin.
“Miss Hamahata, maybe… Did she go to Shinkai Hime?”
“As expected, you are the sire. You’re right. Perhaps Konoka will become her next shrine maiden… Where was our poison? “It was all given to us by Hime.”
Ah, in the end, the daughter of the abyss was behind this murder. This was the end of my short but very long trip to Chooten Island.
