Ke Xue: I picked up a bottle of sherry at the beginning.

"Officer, do you know the story of the goblin named 'Bansi'?"

"Is it an Irish leprechaun? Legend has it that once Banshee starts crying, someone will die—"

"They're also called mourners. In ancient times, a type of person would be hired at funerals to wail for the deceased. One explanation in folklore is that this old custom gradually became the legend of this demon... But I wonder if the cause and effect are reversed?"

"Inverted?"

"Officer, I inherited not only psychic powers but also knowledge from Haruka Nagara."

Shiraizumi Mashi looked back into Kato Megumi's eyes, trying hard to see the true meaning of what she wanted to explain.

"The spirit of a mourning woman. Anyone who is gazed upon by it will be killed within a year—"

When these words came out of Kato Megumi's mouth, it couldn't help but make people feel inexplicably terrifying and creepy.

"Ms. Kato Megumi, how did you determine that Nagara Haruka was killed by a mourner?"

"Next to Nagara Haruka's body... there was also a drop of water, like a tear mark, inconspicuous..."

"That's why you felt like a mourner at that time—"

Kato Megumi nodded slightly.

"Let's go back to the Bansi legend I just told you about... It's amazing that the custom of mourning women exists all over the world. It has appeared all over the world since ancient times when information was difficult to communicate."

"Jung's theory of the collective unconscious, perhaps? This might be an association arising from related archetypes within the common subconscious of all humanity. If this hypothesis is true, then it wouldn't be particularly surprising if people around the world share the same imagination..."

Bai Quanyi muttered to himself, but then a chill ran across his spine.

What if mourners aren't just figments of the imagination, but real people?

"Since ancient times, certain individuals with strong psychic powers have reported seeing mourners before their death... and since this phenomenon has been observed by humanity as a whole... did the legend of the mourner arise? It's not impossible..."

But when you think about it this way, you can't help but feel a slight chill.

"Here's how I explain it. No one knows the real answer, no one can prove it, and there's no one to ask for advice. Ultimately, this kind of thing seems completely absurd to outsiders..."

Shiraizumi Mashi saw a look of distress in Kato Megumi's eyes.

Kato Megumi raised her head, looked at Baiquan Yi, and said seriously: "I'm counting on you. Please use my power to find out who killed Miss Kuramochi——"

"Of course, that's my duty." Shiraizumi Masu picked up the coffee cup and took a sip. He put it down and observed Kato Megumi's expression. "When you saw Nagara Haruka's body, you said the murderer was a woman, right? What did that sentence mean?"

"...At that time, I saw in my mind the scene that Nagara Haruka saw before her death?"

"Do you already know who killed Nagara Haruka?"

Kato Megumi nodded, but didn't seem sure. "What I saw wasn't a particularly clear image. It's like when you're dreaming, the things in the dream are clearly visible, but they're quickly forgotten once you wake up..."

"So, what did you see?"

Kato Megumi answered uneasily, "It looked like a woman's profile. I fell to the ground, and that person squatted beside me with her face bent... It was really a very vague scene, and that's all I can remember now. When I saw Miss Kuramochi's body, my mind was full of this scene, and I hastily thought that the murderer was a woman. Sorry, I really don't have much confidence... Maybe that wasn't the murderer, but the mourner..."

"By the way, when you said, 'What are you looking for?' I thought you were talking to me, but your tone seemed strange. Could that be what Nagara Haruka wanted to say?"

"I said something like that...?"

"All I heard was: 'What are you looking for?'"

"What are you looking for……"

Kato Megumi looked confused and repeated the sentence.

It seems like he has no memory at all.

So, could it be what Haruka Nagara said?

If so, what does that mean?

Looking back, the eyes of the deceased Nagara Haruka were open, which has always bothered Shiraizumi Yoshi.

What were those eyes staring at? If she didn't die instantly, what did she see after she collapsed to the floor that prompted such questions? Was she seeing the same profile of the woman Kato Megumi had seen? Was it "her" crouching beside the dying Nagara Haruka, searching for something?

If the murderer was a burglar, it wouldn't be surprising if he was looking for valuables. A handbag had fallen beside her, and the cash and cards in her wallet had been taken out. Oh, no—

The handbag was beside her, yes, but on the right side of her body, while she was facing left. Shouldn't she have been unable to see the murderer rummaging through the handbag? So what could she have seen? On her left side, there seemed to be only shards of broken glass, nothing else particularly striking.

No. Was "that thing" still there when Nagara Haruka was watching?

Could it be that the murderer took "that thing" away?

If there was something within her sight that a burglar might be interested in—

That's not right. Kato Megumi just said she saw a woman, while the targeted burglary suspect, Tatematsu Goro, is a man. If the suspect is a woman, then the first suspects should be Nagara Haruka's female friends, including Kobayashi Mai. However, despite the large number of Nagara Haruka's female friends, no motive for the murder has yet been determined.

What was the murderer looking for? If the murderer took "that thing" away from the scene, then is it possible that the murderer killed Nagara Haruka just for "that thing"?

Perhaps because Shiraizumi Mashi had been silent for too long, he suddenly looked up and found Kato Megumi gazing at him with an uneasy look. Her neatly trimmed eyebrows drooped into the shape of an "eight," as if she were in great distress.

There's no point in thinking this way; it just keeps you going in circles.

"When I first heard you talk about this, I was a little confused, so I wanted to try to sort this out as clearly as possible."

"¨" Which part do you mean?"

"It's ridiculous to force logic into supernatural events—did Nagara Haruka die because the mourner wept at her, or did the mourner weep because she was going to die? That's the question I want to answer."

Kato Megumi remained silent for a long time, staring at Shiraizumi Masu with her mouth open.

"For some reason, I'm very concerned about this. Ms. Kato Megumi, what do you think?"

"You're asking if Nagara Haruka was killed by the Weeper's curse, right?" Kato Megumi widened her eyes. "I never thought a Weeper could kill with a curse."

"Do you have any reason to think so?"

"Well... there are several reasons... It's really hard to put into words what I vaguely feel."

Kato Megumi changed her posture and fell into deep thought.

"I can now sense the presence of spirits through 'smell'. I was indeed in that room and sensed the presence of a spirit. But it wasn't a bad thing. I didn't sense its malicious intent to harm or curse anyone. I only felt its sadness and powerlessness. If I could go there again, perhaps I could understand it a little more deeply..."

"In other words, if Nagara Haruka died because of the weeping of the mourner, then the mourner should have had malicious intentions. However, the reality is, Ms. Kato Megumi, you didn't feel any malice from her, right?"

"Yes. Another point is, based on my experience, it's impossible for a ghost to harm a human. At most, they can drive a person's spirit into a difficult situation and weaken their body—that's the limit. Miss Kuramochi was killed by a human."

"Could it be possible that someone was possessed by the (good) mourning woman and was ordered to kill Nagara Haruka?"

"Officer, you've watched too many movies," Kato Megumi pouted in dissatisfaction. "I can't say it's completely impossible, but if that's the case, the spirit would probably have malicious intent."

"That's why I asked about the curse you mentioned. If someone hated Nagara Haruka so much they wanted to kill her, that hatred would surely corrode her spirit and manifest itself through 'smell,' wouldn't it? And the mourner, sensing this, transferred it from you to Nagara Haruka?"

"If you continue like this, you'll be killed. But the mourner can only watch helplessly."

So who was the woman that Kato Megumi saw?

At this moment, Bai Quanyi's phone rang.

He greeted Kato Megumi and answered the phone.

He had a vague premonition.

The call was from Inspector Shiratori.

"Inspector Bai, I have some sad news that I thought it best to tell you."

"Is it about Ritsu and Nishimura?"

"Oh? Inspector Bai, your intuition is very accurate. Yes, it's a pity that these two

①The people are innocent, and they all have alibis at the time of the crime——"

The investigation team of the Third Division quickly arrested Goro Tatematsu. While investigating his crime, they discovered that Tatematsu had an undeniable alibi for the night of Kuramochi Nagara Haruka's murder.

On the other hand, at the time of the incident, Nishimura Jiuxiang was visiting an illegal sex and alcohol trading place, and his alibi was established as a beggar.

409. Ms. Kato, please take care of me

After listening to Zhong Chang's briefing, Bai Quanyi hung up the phone.

He put his phone away and briefly explained to Kato Megumi that the police were investigating the case based on a break-in, but had hit a wall. After all, it was police information, so Shiraizumi couldn't reveal too much to outsiders.

"I see," Kato Megumi looked a little disappointed. "I wanted to use the psychic power that Nagara Haruka gave me, but it seems like it didn't help much. I'm so sorry..."

"No, no, at least this result doesn't contradict the logic of the mourner we just discussed. The person who killed Nagara Haruka must have hated her. That's why the mourner was able to predict her death."

"But this is just a contradiction, not the truth," Kato Megumi shrugged. "My own understanding of the mourner might be wrong. Judging the spirit itself by regularity or logic might be a mistake. Or even all this might be my own imagination..."

"Nevertheless, the two suspects who have now emerged on the police investigation line both have alibis, and it is more likely that the woman Ms. Kato Megumi 'saw' is the real murderer."

Bai Quanyi followed up with a sentence that sounded like both comfort and encouragement.

Even if the murderer was a woman, they currently had little solid evidence. Their only recourse was to review surveillance footage near the scene, but there was very little surveillance in that area, and this was causing Zhongba a headache. Nagara Haruka had many friends and often invited them to her home. It would be normal for her to have no alibi for the time period of her presumed death, making it extremely difficult to identify a specific suspect among her friends.

It would be nice if we could find some more clues...

What was the murderer looking for at the time?

Just understand this—

He squinted his eyes and looked up at the sky outside the window, which was dyed red by the sunset.

"I know who the murderer is. There will definitely be evidence—"

"Officer Bai, do you already know who the murderer is?" Kato Megumi was incredulous.

"Yes, but there will always be evidence." What Bai Quanyi needs to find now is evidence.

"Officer Shiraishi..." Kato Megumi was surprised. Just as Nagara Haruka said, there is no problem in this world that Shiraishi Masayuki cannot solve.

After asking Kato Megumi to have some snacks and coffee, Shiraizumi Mashi drove Kato Megumi home and comforted her to go back and have a good rest. He would inform her if there was any progress in the incident.

……

On Saturday afternoon, Shiraizumi Mashi invited Kobayashi Mai to talk.

"Thank you for coming all the way here."

Bai Quanyi said this just as she sat down across the table.

"No, no...it's about Nagara Haruka, right?"

Kobayashi Mai nodded slightly, then revealed a very confused expression.

Her bangs were neatly cut, giving her a serious look. She wore a pair of black-framed glasses and a plain shirt.

The two of them sat in a cafe near a university. Many students were regular customers of this cafe, and Mai suggested that this cafe be the meeting place.

"I told you on the phone, I'm Shiraizumi Masu, a Metropolitan Police Department criminal, and I'm investigating the case of Nagara Haruka."

"I'm Kato Megumi, a person of interest in the case, and I'm assisting Detective Bai in finding the truth behind the case."

Kato Megumi, who was sitting next to Shiraizumi Masu, bowed her head. She was wearing a girlish white dress today, without any dark colors.

"I don't know...Officer Bai, what do you want to tell me?"

Bai Quanyi said calmly: "I hope you will surrender yourself."

Hearing this, Mai gave a twitching laugh.

"Surrender yourself...? What? Officer Bai, such an outrageous joke..."

"On the day of the incident, you went to Nagara Haruka's house, right? You seem to spend the night there often, watching dramas together, right? That day, you also went to her house quite late, right? There are call records on your phone. You claimed that you called just to confirm your schedule, but in fact, you told her that you were going to visit her house soon, right?"

"What?" Mai's eyes began to wander. "This is fabricated! This is too much. This—"

Bai Quanyi interrupted her stammering rebuttal.

"Then, you got into an argument at her house, which turned into a fight. You already had a grudge against Nagara Haruka, didn't you? Your hatred for her suddenly erupted, and you pushed her down—I assume that even if you hated her to the core, you didn't mean to kill her. But she hit her head in the wrong place, and she died. In a panic, you tried to fake a burglary, so you opened the window, took the cash and cards from her wallet, and fled the scene."

"That's too much. What evidence do you have—"

"Evidence? I have it."

Bai Quanyi took out a small plastic sealed bag from his pocket.

He put the small bag on the table.

From a distance, it looks like there is nothing in the transparent bag.

But if you look closely, you can see a small transparent fragment that reflects the light and sparkles.

Wu Yi was speechless.

Bai Quanyi took out his cell phone and opened a photo.