"Did you forget? The case happened fifteen years ago." Gojo Satoru reacted quickly, immediately waving his hands with a look of pure innocence written across his face. "I was only three years old back then, and I couldn't even reach the cookie jar in the kitchen. Even if I've been a genius since childhood, there's no way I could have noticed stuff like that, right?"
Matsuda: As expected, only a narcissist would naturally call themselves a genius since childhood!
"True..." Date Wataru scratched his head, only now realizing he was acting a bit too desperate due to the situation.
To his surprise, Gojo suddenly changed the subject. "But... out of the three people you investigated, I actually find one specific guy exceptionally suspicious."
The moment he said this, everyone was shocked.
"Does that mean you've already found the killer?" Morofushi Hiromitsu widened his eyes slightly.
"Not necessarily the actual culprit~" Gojo raised a single finger and shook it, no longer dragging out the mystery on purpose. "But that Uncle Tofori's suspicion is definitely much bigger."
"Tofori Hajime?" Matsuda recalled the honest and ordinary face of the laundry shop owner, asking in confusion, "Why him?"
"Hmm... if I say it's intuition, would you guys believe me?" Before the group could look at him with a collective expression of disbelief, Gojo added with a mix of truth and playfulness, "Actually, when he came to the police academy to collect the dirty laundry before, I thought the look in his eyes was a bit strange."
Furuya Rei perked up. "Can you be more specific?"
"It's the kind of look... where he seems to be sorting clothes, but he would actually steal glances at everyone, almost as if he was searching for something." He paused with deep meaning. "Especially when he saw Hiromitsu, his expression became incredibly complicated."
"Could it be the exact look a killer gives when they see the prey that once managed to escape from their hands?"
Hiss, I'm getting goosebumps!
?? What kind of super observation skill is this, call me when detective Kuno starts broadcasting.
Oh right! I remember a panel a few chapters ago was a close-up of Tofori coming to pick up clothes. Mystery manga don't give useless clues, looks like the killer is definitely this guy.
By the way, how does Kuno know so much, the more I think about it, the scarier it gets.
Why is that scary guy back again? You just can't stand seeing someone smart, can you?
"Putting it that way, Tofori is indeed suspicious." Date knitted his eyebrows tightly, raising a question. "But it's still the same problem... The tattoo on his body is a Guanyin statue, right? It looks completely different from a goblet."
The others also felt like something was missing, temporarily falling into deep thought. Under Gojo's targeted guidance, they subconsciously multiplied Tofori's suspicion, starting to deduce the process based on the answer rather than deducing the answer based on the process without even realizing it.
Very quickly, Morofushi recalled something. "Right, I asked my brother about the closet before... the place where I hid."
"He said it was a double-door Western-style wardrobe, not a Japanese-style sliding door."
"Are you saying the style of the door is connected to the goblet you saw?" Matsuda immediately noticed the inconsistency, taking over the conversation. "If that's the case, isn't it strange? If it was a double-door wardrobe, when the culprit slipped and crashed into it, the door should have shut completely."
Hagiwara rubbed his chin. "Yeah, but Hiromitsu said he saw the culprit covering his shoulder. Unless you opened the door yourself, it should have been impossible to see..."
Morofushi quickly denied it, "No, no, how could I possibly open the door myself!"
At that moment, a faint electric current seemed to hit Date's nerves instantly.
"Wait!" The tall, thick-browed man's eyes lit up. "What if the crack Morofushi looked through wasn't vertical, but horizontal?!"
Matsuda froze. "Are you saying... a louvered door?"
"Exactly! If it was the crack of a louvered door, you could see outside even if the door was shut!" Date's tone was entirely certain. "Precisely because it's a louvered door with horizontal slats, looking out from the crack will cut your field of vision, and the top and bottom parts will be blocked by the slats. Therefore, the goblet Hiromitsu saw wasn't the full view of the tattoo. The real pattern is actually..."
"The Guanyin statue!"
Indeed, the two Guanyin figures sat facing each other, perfectly forming a symmetric gap that resembled the outline of a goblet. At that time, Hiromitsu's upper and lower vision was blocked by the slats, and he only saw the middle cup section, naturally believing that the pattern of the tattoo was just a goblet.
"Yes, the killer is Tofori Hajime!"
After reaching this conclusion, Morofushi realized instantly that the missing girl was highly likely right in Tofori's hands!
Without a single shred of hesitation, the group tossed their cleaning tools onto the floor. Like arrows flying from a bow string, they rushed out of the academy gates, running at full speed toward the direction of Tofori's laundry shop.
A short while later, Instructor Onizuka, who intended to see how this bunch was doing, arrived at the locker room. He was thoroughly dissatisfied with the still-dirty floor.
"It's still so dirty. You guys move a bit faster, watch out or you won't make it in time..." He pulled the bathhouse door wide open, only to find that the six people who were supposed to be cleaning with great energy had long since vanished without a trace.
"Huh?! Where did every single one of them go?"
On the other side, the glass door of Tofori's laundry shop, which carried a sign saying "Closed for Rest," was pushed open roughly by Matsuda Jinpei.
"Uncle Tofori! Are you here?!" Matsuda's voice was like a clap of thunder, echoing through the slightly deserted shop.
The group walked inside slowly, looking around with high alertness. The laundry shop only had two floors in total. If Tofori wasn't down here, then he was highly likely upstairs.
Suddenly, Furuya's gaze locked hard onto several large drum washing machines near the corner of the wall.
In the gap between two of those machines, there seems to be something?
He instinctively took a step closer, bending down to look closely, and discovered several electrical wires twisted and tangled together. "This is..."
"Don't touch it!" Matsuda took a giant step forward, forcefully pulling Furuya away. "That's a bomb!"
"What?!" Matsuda examined it carefully. "Correct, there are a lot of bombs, probably all placed by Tofori..."
Gojo stood nearby, glancing at the structure of the bomb inside the washing machine, unable to resist complaining in his mind.
As expected of this strange world, if a culprit doesn't know how to build a bunch of bombs, they'd be too embarrassed to even step out and greet people.
Hagiwara knitted his eyebrows. "Why would he do this?!"
"Now is not the time to guess a madman's motives." Date made a decision on the spot, displaying the leadership qualities of a class leader. "Matsuda, I'm leaving the bomb disposal to you! Me, Kuno, and Morofushi will go to the second floor to find Tofori! Furuya and Hagiwara, go evacuate all the nearby residents immediately!"
"Wait a minute!" Matsuda suddenly raised his hands, which were currently wrapped in thick layers of bandages. "I forgot to tell you guys earlier, but to catch that cat that stepped on our class flag, I accidentally got injured. I probably can't defuse a bomb, Hagiwara should take my place instead."
Hagiwara Kenji let out a bitter smile, slowly raising his right hand, which was similarly wrapped in bandages. "Sorry, Jinpei. Actually, I didn't manage to escape the judgment of the master cat either..."
"Hey, hey, the two of us are way too unlucky!"
Hahaha, what kind of brothers in misery are they, can't they even beat a single little cat, haha.
Kuno should also know how to defuse bombs, right? The value of a perfect score on the comprehensive test is no joke.
Not necessarily, right? By the way, before entering the police academy, where would they get so many bombs to practice on?
You just don't get it, our Beika town is absolutely packed with talented people.
Date thought about it and changed his orders. "You two take charge of evacuating the residents. How about Furuya handles the bomb disposal?"
"Ah? But I'm really not that good at this..." Furuya felt a massive headache. His gaze instinctively turned toward the black-haired, red-eyed youth beside him, who looked completely relaxed even at a crime scene. "Kuno, if I remember correctly, your bomb disposal skills aren't bad either, right?"
Matsuda hummed. "Though I don't want to admit it, during the mock competition last time, this guy almost beat me. Luckily, I was one step ahead."
"I was just worried that if I got serious, Jinpei would be so discouraged he'd cry." Gojo lazy countered.
In reality, back when he was at the organization base in Mexico, he had already mastered the skills of building and taking apart bombs. Compared to the naturally talented Matsuda, his level was even a step higher. He just held back a lot in secret to avoid looking too suspicious. Gojo didn't want to steal Matsuda's shining moment of teaching Furuya how to defuse a bomb, so he shrugged his shoulders. "But it's still better for Jinpei to stay behind... just in case something goes wrong, right?"
"That makes sense." Date nodded.
The threat of the bomb was right in front of them, so it had to be the first priority. Even without Kuno around, just himself and Morofushi should be entirely enough to restrain Tofori Hajime.
"In that case, Furuya, Kuno, and Matsuda will defuse the bomb together, Hagiwara is responsible for evacuating the residents, and Morofushi and I will go upstairs to find the guy. Let's move out now!"