Tokyo: Are you even a proper lawyer?

Masashi Akiyama's words were like a boulder thrown into a deep pool, creating countless ripples.

"You...you're talking nonsense!" Kenichi jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. "What's wrong with my slippers? Isn't it normal for them to get wet from snow after coming back from outside?! Why are you doubting me?!"

"Is this normal?" Masashi Akiyama asked. "According to the boss, the vending machine is next to the entrance on the first floor. From your room on the second floor, you go down and come back through the hotel's internal corridors and stairs. Unless you specifically go outside, it's unlikely you'll get a lot of snow water on your clothes that would leave noticeable stains indoors. More importantly..."

He paused, carefully observing every subtle change in Kenichi's face.

"If it was just a trip to the vending machine, a round trip of only five or six minutes, the snow water on the soles of the shoes should have evaporated or dried quickly in the warm indoor environment, leaving relatively fresh marks like those on the tatami near the door. Those marks are more like... marks left when briefly stopping at the door of the deceased's room, or even when entering or leaving. And based on my observation just now, one of the windows in the deceased's room was slightly ajar. The night wind blew in with snowflakes, and the area near the door was cooler, so the water stains evaporated more slowly, allowing them to remain."

"That's just your guess!"

"Guess?" Masashi Akiyama shook his head slightly, then turned his gaze to Yumi.

"Ms. Yumi, you just said that after you heard the door next door close, you quickly went back to your room. Was Kenichi-kun in your room when you went back?"

Yumi trembled, her lips quivering. She dared not look at Kenichi or Masashi Akiyama, and simply kept her head down.

"Yumi!" Kenichi shouted anxiously.

"I...I..." Yumi's voice was choked with sobs, and she looked like she was on the verge of collapse.

"Yumi," Masashi Akiyama began, "you know how A-Zhu died, and you also know that once you start hiding things, there's no going back. Do you really want to bear the guilt of not reporting or even helping to cover up for someone who might not even be worth protecting? Think about A-Zhu, he used to be someone close to you."

"I didn't! I didn't want to cover it up for him!" Yumi suddenly looked up, tears welling up in her eyes.

"I just... I just saw him walk over from A-Zhuo's room, looking a little flustered! I asked him what was wrong, and he said nothing, told me not to ask any more questions, and to hurry back to my room! I... I'm scared... I didn't know A-Zhuo was already..."

"You're talking nonsense! Yumi! Are you crazy?!" Kenichi was furious and tried to rush over, but was instinctively stopped by the boy next to him.

"So, you did see Kenichi return from the direction of Takuya's room around the time of the incident, looking unusual," Akiyama Masashi concluded. "This contradicts your testimony that you were with him the whole time, Kenichi-kun."

"She's mistaken! She was drunk at the time!" Kenichi hurriedly explained.

"You were drunk, yet I can clearly remember your flustered expression and your telling you not to ask any more questions?" Akiyama Masashi pressed on. "Furthermore, Ms. Yumi, your previous attempts to deny seeing anything weren't just because you were afraid of Kenichi, were they? Was it also because... something unpleasant happened between you and Taku recently? So much so that you harbor a complex emotion about Taku's situation that you yourself are unwilling to admit?"

"Shut up!"

Kenichi was restrained by the boy next to her, and she struggled to lunge towards Akiyama Masashi.

Yumi, on the other hand, seemed to have all her strength drained away. She collapsed to the ground, covered her face, and burst into tears.

This is almost tantamount to tacitly acknowledging some of Masashi Akiyama's speculations.

"A relationship dispute?" the woman in the couple exclaimed softly.

"It seems so..." Suzuki Maki whispered to Arimura Rio beside her.

Masashi Akiyama ignored Yumi's breakdown.

It's time to present a more crucial chain of evidence.

"Emotional entanglements might explain part of the motive." Masashi Akiyama's gaze swept over the university students present. "But murder cases, especially premeditated ones like this one involving a hotel knife, usually require a stronger driving force. Kenichi's choice of such a hasty method clearly did not involve any meticulous steps, which fits the characteristics of violent killing."

"In other words, he was far from adequately prepared. Its expansion was also obvious, and as your companions, you couldn't possibly have been completely unaware."

His gaze slowly shifted to the college student companions beside Yumi.

"You two," Masashi Akiyama said, looking at them, "while Yumi left the room for some fresh air and Kenichi left to buy drinks, you were alone in the room. Did you really not notice anything unusual at all? For example, was Kenichi gone for longer than he claimed—five or six minutes? Was he completely unsuspecting when he returned?"

The group exchanged glances, each seeing panic and struggle in the other's eyes.

Their silence itself is an answer.

"And another thing," Akiyama Masashi said, giving them no chance to catch their breath, turning his gaze to the couple who had remained aloof but were now equally tense.

"Gentlemen, before the incident, did you see or hear anything unusual in the hallway or elsewhere? Any detail could be important."

The man in the couple hesitated for a moment, looked at his girlfriend, and then spoke.

"We...we were on our way back to our room from the hot springs less than half an hour before the screaming, and we thought...we thought we heard a faint arguing sound from the second floor, but it stopped quickly, and we didn't pay any attention to it..."

"An argument?" Masashi Akiyama pressed. "Can you tell whose voice it is? And roughly where it's coming from?"

"I can't quite hear... It sounds like a man and a woman? Direction... It seems to be over there..." The man pointed uncertainly in the direction of the guest room area.

Masashi Akiyama nodded, having a general idea in mind.

"Also," Masashi Akiyama suddenly changed the subject, looking at the proprietress, "Proprietress, proprietress, regarding the fact that the hotel doesn't have a car, making it impossible to call the police or leave..."

The shop owner froze, then quickly said, "Y-it's true! We really don't have any cars that we don't usually use!"

The proprietress nodded in agreement, but her eyes flickered, and she dared not look directly at Akiyama Masashi.

"Yeah?"

"When I was checking in just now, I glanced near the back gate and saw what appeared to be tire tracks. Although they were covered by a thin layer of snow, the outlines were still discernible. Also," Masashi Akiyama gestured towards the front desk, "besides room keys, there seemed to be several car key designs on the key bar. If the hotel really doesn't have any cars, why would they provide car keys? Are they for the guests? But right now, we're the only guests at the hotel. None of us drove here. So, whose keys are they?"

The boss's face turned deathly pale instantly, his lips trembled, and he couldn't utter a single word.

The proprietress looked at her husband in alarm, then at Masashi Akiyama, at a loss for what to do.

"Boss," Masashi Akiyama's voice turned serious, "concealing important information, protecting suspects in a murder case, and even providing false testimony to obstruct the investigation—do you know what that means? This is no longer a simple hotel management issue; it involves harboring criminals and obstructing justice. You might think this is just simple cover-up, but I'm telling you, that's equally criminal."

"I...I didn't cover it up! I didn't!" The boss waved his hands frantically, sweat pouring down his face.

"Then please explain what's going on with the car keys and tire tracks? If you insist there's no car, can we go check the backyard and garage now?" Akiyama Masashi refused to back down.

"No!" the boss blurted out, then immediately realized his slip of the tongue, and his expression became even more flustered.

"Why not?" Maki Suzuki pressed sharply. "Is there something in the garage that you can't show to anyone? Or... is that car related to this case?"