A sudden development was bringing the case to its resolution—though I understood far too little to consider it so. A backwards glance at me as I was taken by a vortex of confusion, Hakui-kun used my phone, and really did call the police. He briefly gave his name, gave his residence, and said he stabbed someone—and lightly tossing back my phone, he passed by my side as he entered the elevator. By that point,
"H-Hakui-kun—"
I finally managed to call out to him.
"W-why—"
"Could you leave me alone? You can read all the details in tomorrow's morning paper. I'm sure it'll have at least half true."
The conversation apparently over, Kyouko-san turned to Kyouko-san, "Ah…" he almost said something but, "Nah, it's nothin'" he finished up.
"Bye-bye, Kyouko-san."
And like that, he pushed the close button.
Incredulous to whatever was going on, I thought I couldn't just let him go I tried pressing the up button to stop the elevator, but my arm was grasped—it was Kyouko-san.
She shook her head, "Let him go," she said.
"But—"
"If you want an explanation, I can give it—Oyagiri Mamoru-san."
When she called me that, I knew something was off. What was it? That's right, since helping out Kyouko-san on the stairs, I had yet to fully introduce myself—I only gave her my surname Oyagiri. Of course, I was in my normal clothes today, and I wasn't wearing any nametag. Yet did Kyouko-san just bring up my first name Mamoru? Wasn't she supposed to have forgotten about it?
While that was going on, the elevator climbed—no matter how I mashed the button now, I wouldn't be able to halt it.
"Come this way."
Kyouko-san walked towards the emergency stairwell—still in confusion, I followed her back—there wasn't the time for a leisurely chat at the crime scene.
"Five minutes is enough—I'll exhibit my fastest puzzle solving, so rest assured."
Kyouko-san nonchalantly said and climbed down the stairs—her footing was firm and steady. Walk a hundred years, and I couldn't see those feet slipping—more so, she spoke in a tone as if she clearly remembered what was in the basement. Unable to hold my silence, just as I entered the workspace,
"Kyouko-san, don't tell me… you haven't forgotten about this time's incident?"
I asked.
"Yes. I remember it quite clearly."
"B-but how can that be? Doesn't the forgetful detective's memories reset upon sleep…"
"Yes. That part wasn't' a lie. There's no way I would deceive you, Oyagiri-san—it's simply that at the time, I did not fall unconscious"
I was merely pretending to be unconscious. That's why I didn't forget.
Kyouko-san boldly declared it—but no matter how brazenly she said that, wouldn't that still mean she was deceiving me… good god, after seeing her lie to Atelier House's residents so many times, I was even wary of it, but I completely fell hook line and sinker.
But why would she tell such a lie, what's more, to me?
"Then… do you also know who pushed you down? Was it perhaps Hakui-kun…?"
"I wasn't pushed—That was me falling on my own. Because I fell on my own, I got away without being knocked out."
That was a bizarre phrasing that made it hard to swallow, but at the very least, the implication didn't seem to be that she carelessly slipped—though it didn't change my incomprehension. What exactly happened in the mere thirty minutes since Kyouko-san left me in this basement room to operate independently?
"I'm telling you, I'll properly explain. No need to rush—no need to do anything really; now that Hakui-kun's confessed, the case is already resolved."
"I-I see… but,"
I turned an eye to the rack in the corner of the room. Beside it, the books I'd pulled out were piled up.
"What about those? I haven't found anything between the pages yet."
"Oh, that's perfectly fine. If you actually found something, I'd be startled out of my wits. That was an excuse to let me take separate action from you."
While she easily admitted it, did that not mean she put me up to busy work? When she said she'd split the work and rooted me to the basement… she used that time to speak face to face with Hakui-kun? I'll admit, going over something Kyouko-san had already gone over once before did seem like double the effort from the start, but…
"I wanted to go see Hakui-kun alone no matter what—by the way, I was short on time, so I took the elevator up."
"I-I see…"
If this was supposed to be an explanation, she was doing a good job keeping everything shrouded in mystery. I was left on the receiving end of confusion.
"So, in essence…? Back then, you didn't go up to question Hakui-kun in order to confirm some things regarding Wakui-san's final job, you went to meet him so you could urge him to confess?"
"Mnn. Well, that's right. Though I haven't gotten into the specifics."
"… But as I recall, Kyouko-san, you said at that point you still didn't know who the culprit was."
"I lied."
Oh, so she lied
I was even developing a form of admiration for that undaunted attitude that wouldn't shy back from anything—of course, tired out from all the lies, and with one of them, namely her playing unconscious, seriously getting me worried, I had quite a bit I wanted to say, but more than that, I wanted to know how she figured out Hakui-kun was the culprit.
"Then from when—at what pointed did you suspect Hakui-kun?"
In mystery novels, that was a pretty standard question to toss at the detective—in most cases, the detective would answer, 'from the moment I met him,' but the fastest detective preceded even that.
"From the moment I saw Wakui-san collapsed here."
"W… what?"
Wouldn't that mean from the moment she learned of the incident—in the course of such prompt lifesaving measures, Kyouko-san had already finished her deductions? The investigation after that was all just her checking her answers?
That was—way too fast.
She hadn't even met Hakui-kun yet.
"Yes, strictly speaking, it wasn't as if I knew Hakui-kun was the culprit yet—but from the very onset, I suspected a child like him might have done it."
"Why's that?"
"The location of the wound."
Kyouko-san pointed at her lower abdomen. At present, it was wrapped in my coat and hard to make out, but I could recall old Wakui was stabbed somewhere around there.
"The entry point was too low. If an adult was stabbing an adult, the wound would have quite likely been off another ten centimeters up."
Now that she mentioned it, it really was nothing at all, she was right—a difference in height.
Just as the blade's angle could make out if someone stabbed themselves, from the wound, one might be able to determine the height of the assailant—and in her emergency measures, Kyouko-san surely analyzed the wound.
"That's also why we were able to resuscitate Wakui-san. With the height difference, stabbing the heart was impossible."
"Was that the— certain inevitability you mentioned?"
To add onto that, as Hakui usually used nothing but a pencil as his drawing tool, he likely couldn't properly grip the painting knife that was just lying around. Perhaps that was also an inevitability.
"If they had a scuffled and the painting knife was stabbed in, it wouldn't be strange no matter where it was stabbed, but that didn't seem to be the case—so at that point, I estimated that the culprit was a child, or otherwise an individual of diminutive stature."
I see. Come to think of it, in her visits around Atelier House, when she confronted Hakui-kun, I placed my attention solely on the fact he saw through her lies… but I should also have taken note Kyouko-san wasn't in the least bit surprised to find a child living in Atelier House. At that point, she had already foreseen a child in the apartment complex.
"That's why, when I was questioning him, I tried a few things. To shake him up, one might say."
"… Like delivering Wakui-san's condition in an intentionally negative light?"
"Yes. And calling the weapon a knife, waiting for him to slip up and say painting knife… but that didn't quite work out, or rather, he didn't fall for it."
So it seems she was doing that—I thought it was just intel gathering, but the battle between detective and culprit had already begun.
"Whatever the case, when the visits were all over, I knew Hakui-kun was the only child living in Atelier House and had him pretty much pinned down as the culprit. At the very least, the other residents seemed to be taller than me."
It seems she was using herself as a measuring stick—no wonder she was so fixated on meeting them in person. Are you going to tell her every action had meaning… but if that was the case, wouldn't it be alright if she told me at an earlier stage?
"There's no way I could tell you. I didn't particularly wish to show off my puzzle solving abilities, to the end, I simply took over Wakui-san's will… in that case, when the time came that Hakui-kun finally considered turning himself in, there couldn't be anyone who knew of his crime. Otherwise, he wouldn't truly be turning himself in—neither you, nor me."
Mnn? What did that mean? He wouldn't be turning himself in?
"And I'm saying… for example, if I solidified the evidence, cornered the culprit with airtight reasoning, and told them to please turn themselves in, that would, as a matter of fact, be like threatening them with no other alternative, would it not? Unless the culprit turned themselves in under their own free will, it wouldn't make for succeeding Wakui-san's will."
Well yeah—idealistically, perhaps, but such a thing was in itself effectively impossible. Someone who would turn themselves in of their own free will would turn themselves in even if she didn't do anything at all—no, not that, it's because the culprit fled from the scene that Kyouko-san had to set out as a detective—detective.
The forgetful detective.
Aah—that's right.
That's why Kyouko-san pretended to pass out and forget her memory. I don't know the details, but… when Kyouko-san confronted him a second time, she met Hakui-kun as the forgetful detective. She exposed her white hair, and on top of indicating who she was, she created an excuse to call him to the emergency stairs and delivered her deduction—on top of that, she probably pretended to slip before his eyes and fell down the stairs.
She lost her memory. She pretended to.
When she met him in the first-floor elevator hall, she deliberately emphasized her 'pleasure to meet you'—she played a first meeting. She made Hakui-kun believe upon pointing out his crime, she forgot about it.
By doing so, she granted him the option of turning herself in. On top of driving him into a corner, she afforded him a way out.
A confession of his own free will—
"Fufu. My pants tearing up was unbearably embarrassing, or should I say beyond my calculations, but—I knew you'd come around to help when thirty minutes had gone by."
Though Hakui-kun temporarily fled at the sound of you rushing up the stairs—Kyouko-san said, but what is it, I ended up wondering if even that much was part of her plan. Thought I think beyond calculations wasn't enough to write off her pants falling apart.
Even if she wasn't reaping what she sowed, this had to be some comeuppance for all the lies.
"What did you plan on doing if you really did lose your memory…"
"That would be perfectly fine. With Hakui-kun in mind, that way would have been better… but Oyagiri-san, I couldn't quite let things end without offering you an explanation."
"That being the case, I'm reluctant to admit its true there was a mystery I couldn't solve to the end— it took the name of Wakui-san's final job as a framer. As long as it was clear how that was related to the motive, I could not neglect it—so I really am thankful, Oyagiri-san. It's thanks to you that the mystery was solved."
"I-Is that so…"
With all the lies she told, I wasn't going to believe anything she said anymore—or so I felt, but not too surprisingly, when she said she really was thankful, it honestly made me happy.
I feared this person, with her smiling, virtuous face, was an outrageous vixen. Yet more than the ability to lie, more than the ability to never forget a lie she had told, perhaps her ability to be forgiven for telling a lie was most worthy of mention.
"Come to think of it, you were probing out the motive the whole time."
I was sure she was trying to whittle down the possible suspects through motive, but instead of that, as a card to urge the culprit towards turning themselves in, she wanted a firm grasp of their motive for the offense.
In her pursuit of speed, she never neglected the fundamental portions—so that was the fastest detective.
But in the case her thanks for me weren't a lie, when I was the one who gave the hint, I pathetically didn't have any clue as to what sort of frame old Wakui was making.
In my fixation on that point, I had yet to accept Hakui-kun as the culprit. Even if I conceded he was—I mean,
"That's right, what about his alibi?"
"Alibi?"
"Remember… we just talked about it here. A blood spot was left on the stairs, so the culprit must have carried out the crime while the elevator was under inspection… in that case, it would be impossible for Hakui to have done it when he was out at the museum… was that bloodstain irrelevant? Or could it be he lied about going to the museum?"
"Going to the museum was apparently true. It's probably alright to consider the drop of blood as having fallen when Hakui-kun was climbing the stairs—maybe we just haven't found them, and a search will turn up even more."
"Then…"
"As I wanted Hakui-kun to turn himself in, when we were speaking here, I didn't want you to doubt him too much, so I didn't quite deny it… but his alibi doesn't hold up. You simply have to consider that the crime took place before the elevator was under inspection."
Forget not quite denying it, I get the feeling she assertively affirmed it, but that aside, I didn't get how the alibi didn't hold up. If the elevator wasn't undergoing maintenance, would a resident of the thirtieth floor, Hakui-kun really use the stairs?
"Oh no, there's no guarantee. Even if the elevator is moving, the stairs are still readily available."
"Well yeah…"
Those aiming to be healthy and other such people might choose the stairs over the elevator or escalator—it's not like the stairs were ever sealed off. But I didn't really see Hakui-kun as the health-crazed sort…
"Yes. But if he had no use but to use the stairs, he'd use them, wouldn't he?"
"Hmm… well yeah, I mean if he had no choice."
"The height difference."
Kyouko-san said.
"You look like you've had a large build since you were a child, so it might not have hit you… but there are times a child might be unable to press the top buttons of a high-rise elevator."
"Ah."
No, I started growing in high school, so I got what she was saying—It was a hackneyed complex I'd rather not assertively go on about, but based on the model, an elevator's button might be stationed outside the reach of a child.
As a matter of fact, Kyouko-san had to reach out for the button to go to the top floor—there was no way a child like Hakui-kun could reach it. Additionally, considering his impertinent attitude, he wouldn't seek out help.
… But what if, hypothetically, the highest button he could barely reach was somewhere around the seventeenth floor? Wouldn't he take the elevator to the seventeenth—and climb the stairs from there?
When he said he wanted to be left alone and returned to his room, was Hakui-kun going through that process right now? In that case, it wouldn't be strange to find blood there.
This apartment complex never focused on removing obstacles, it seemed difficult for the elderly Wakui to live here—or so I thought, but by no means was it kind on a child either.
I guess it was inevitable if you wanted to call him that. Letting a kid around ten live in Atelier House was probably something old Wakui never anticipated—
"Then… you're saying the crime happened before nine o'clock? When Hakui-kun went to the museum after that… was it to create an alibi?"
"No, according to him, he didn't have any alibi forging intentions. He was panicking, and just went out to run away… if you're distressed, draw a picture, that's the kid's mindset, as I feared."
What was I supposed to think having heard that? Should I be happy Hakui-kun didn't try to make up a makeshift alibi—what should I think of a kid who even at a time like that could only draw pictures?
"I used that spot of blood as a pretense to call him to the emergency stairwell—but my real intent was what came after, to have myself fall down the stairs—it seems he never noticed blood had dripped, after all."
If the police actually got involved, forget half a day, this is a case they would have worked out in three hours, Kyouko-san carelessly threw out.
But if she was really up to it, Kyouko-san managed to solve the case three seconds after seeing the wound—and didn't choose that route. Not only that, when I started doubting Hakui-kun, she nonchalantly sealed off that route, and in the end, even led me to arbitrarily imagining up an alibi that could never come to be.
With every means available to her, she tried to have the culprit give themselves in—if I pointed it out, she probably wouldn't admit it, but just maybe she tried to so not just because Wakui tried to cover for them, but also because the culprit was a child? Kyouko-san had no mercy for children.
When confronting Hakui-kun one on one, I'm sure she didn't hold back—she cornered him with an adult's wiles. But, even so, to the end, she fixated on having him recognize his own crime.
Rather than catching him, she fixated on having him reflect—I don't know how many detectives there are in the world, but I'm sure Kyouko-san was the only one who would do that… Albeit, it was something she could never do if she wasn't the forgetful detective.
"I already said it, but he's at an age the law can't judge. Considering how Wakui-san was covering for him, even if he was caught, he might get off with no punishment at all—in that case, it all comes down to what Hakui-kun himself things about what he's done."
Sure enough… in hindsight, all that happened was a child who did something wrong got scared and ran away, but with nowhere to go, he ended up coming back—no, Kyouko-san contained the case as that.
"… In the end, what was the motive? Why did Hakui-kun stab Wakui-san?"
It wouldn't be strange if a scuffle broke out between the two. Birds of a feather, or rather, they both shared a nature easy to fly into a passion—but even so, there had to be some sort of trigger. That's what Kyouko-san must have been mindful as well—was it tied into old Wakui's last job after all?
"Yes. He told me himself. Rather, it was just as he told the both of us—reaching the conclusion that Wakui-san's painting orders to Atelier House's residents weren't fakes but all real, he went to talk to him directly. I reached the notion from the material orders, but it seems the thought struck Hakui-kun as he spoke to the residents painting the pictures. Well, I'm sure he saw there were far too many residents who received an order."
When I passed by him the day before, come to think of it, he did seem to suspect that ordering fakes was 'not like him'—in that case, by that point, his suspicions were considerably solidified. Knowing the project was entering the final stages of hiring a security guard, he finally sprung to action—something like that.
No matter the situation, the boy could only draw.
To that boy—to be among the very few who weren't chosen was a humiliation of a great degree.
To be blunt, it was a feeling I couldn't understand. Sure, it may be humiliating, but realistically speaking, was that reason to hurt someone—it wasn't as if he was being denied in his entirety.
… Was he being denied in his entirety?
To Hakui-kun, perhaps.
"Wakui-san should have properly explained it—of course, it's Hakui-kun's fault for snapping, but Wakui-san is also responsible."
"Is that… as his patron?"
"Well there's that too—but he should have properly told him. Being secretive is good and all, but there should be a limit to such things."
Should have just told him… she might say, but if she told him, wouldn't that just hasten the strife? No matter how cruel or harsh, the facts were simply facts—mn?
But didn't Kyouko-san distinctly reject the theory they were all real? Was that also a lie to take me in—but it was by gaining the answer to that question, Kyouko-san determined she had all the cards she needed to negotiate, and left me in this room to face Hakui.
"Yes. Looking at the result, the sort of thing Wakui-kun's final job would entail did not directly tie in to the motive—if I had to say, the motive was Hakui-kun's misunderstanding, but reaching the truth of the matter was by no means a wasted effort. If I didn't inform him of that truth, I'm sure Hakui-kun wouldn't have decided to turn himself in—he couldn't have."
Sure enough, if the anger of being removed from the many real paintings was the motive, and that's all there was to it, Kyouko-san would have had all the components on her first confrontation. I was lacking the viewpoint that a misunderstanding could become a motive too.
But if the story ended there, Hakui-kun wouldn't reflect—he couldn't reflect. It would end as a simple competition of obstinacy between himself and old Wakui… there would be no space for Kyouko-san to intervene. But if that motive was wrenched in a misunderstanding—then pointing out that misunderstanding might free up Hakui-kun's coagulated heart.
"But… what sort of misunderstanding was it? What did wakui-san have in mind when he ordered such a large quantity of materials and a large number of paintings?"
I asked, worrying about the time.
Now that Hakui-kun had called the police himself, there was no further need to mind the time limit, but more than four minutes had gone by since the puzzle solving began, and it was right time for the police car he called to roll in. As the first people to discover the body, there were many circumstances we'd have to explain, and once they came in, I'd lose the situation to speak with Kyouko-san.
The fastest and forgetful detective. It was her fate to constantly be on the run from time.
Then at the very least, I had to hear out that truth—what sort of job was old Wakui going to have me protect? The last job of a legendary framer's life…
"All of the paintings couldn't have been real, right… then that would mean a single someone would be chosen. Could it be that was actually Hakui-kun, or something like that?"
While I didn't know if that was consistent with what she had said to that point, I suggested that hypothesis. Meaning, that right now, every single resident who received an order was fake…
"That would make for quite a moving tale, but it would make far too sad of a misunderstanding. As long as Hakui-kun didn't receive an order for a painting, that possibility does not exist."
"Then… as we thought from the start, a single one of them was real, and the other residents were asked to, made to paint camouflage paintings?"
If she could prove that, it might offer some consolation—though when you boil it down, it didn't change the fact he was left to the wayside, and in the strictest sense, I got the feeling it was difficult to call a misunderstanding.
I didn't get it. Just how did Kyouko-wan untangle Hakui-kun's heart?
Just cornering them with reasoning, the culprit of the case might confess, but they wouldn't turn themselves in—anyone could say 'I did it'. Just what did she have to do to make him accept 'I was in the wrong'?
"And I'm telling you you're the one who told me the answer—the notion to calculate back from the frame."
"No, you say that… but I really don't that's as easy as you make it sound. When it would be difficult just to imagine what sort of frame a framer would make from that mass quantity of materials, whatever sort of painting he planned to contain in that frame is…"
"Hm? Ah, no, you don't have to think that hard, you know? This is just a simple analysis from the material quantity."
"Huh…?"
Quantity? The large order of materials… no, that would put me back at the starting line. This all started from Kyouko-san questioning that the order was too large…
If Wakui-san planned to use every material he had prepared, or at least a majority of them, that would bring us to Hakui-kun's hard-to-accept conclusion that every one of them was real.
"It's not that each painting was real."
Kyouko-san repeated for emphasis.
"However—every painting was real."
"……? I'm not really getting what you're saying…"
My apologies I couldn't return an adequate reaction for the great detective's long-awaited deductions, but that's how I honestly felt.
"In short, you're saying Wakui-san intended to use up the materials, correct? It's because he ordered a great many paintings, he intended to make a great many frames, so he ordered a great many materials…"
"Not quite. For those great many paintings, he was trying to make only a single frame—a sizable frame that would hold a great many paintings. A huge frame that would use up a majority of a great many materials."
"A g-giant—frame?"
"And I'm saying—it's a puzzle."
Kyouko-san dropped her gaze to the floor as she spoke—where the pieces of Kyouko-san's handmade board puzzle were scattered about.
"The sizes of the paintings Wakui-san ordered from the residents was greatly diverse—if you lined them all up like a tangram, I believe they'll make a tidy rectangle. Regarding that as a single canvas—Wakui-san was going to provide a frame for it."
So that's why each individual one wasn't real, but every one made up the real. Gathering so many paintings, only together did they complete a single painting…
A joint project between the residents of Atelier House—was the sort of painting old Wakui schemed to make. If Atelier House itself could be thought of as a single one of his works, then there was no scale more worthy for his final job—the culmination of his life.
That also solved the mystery of why he chose the paintings of his painters' eggs instead of some famed expert's work for the final frame of his life—more so, I could even believe old Wakui erected Atelier House ten years ago for that sole purpose. It fit him far better than returning the favor, a service spirit, or perhaps a hobby.
Lining up every painting he ordered, he would build a painting like a puzzle.
Sure enough, if that would the case, it would use up a large quantity of materials—what's more, the secret wouldn't come out. It was a divided work… even the ones painting them wouldn't know what portion of the completed painting they were making.
But for a giant frame… he did say he was starting on his largest job, but I never thought he meant it literally. In that case, it would also lift the veil on the inevitability of old Wakui hiring me—making a piece on that scale would be impossible in that basement room. Kyouko-san anticipated not even the materials would fit in there—in that case, he would have to rent out some separate warehouse.
That's why his real request wasn't guarding inside Atelier House, but guarding him on the move—to add to that, since I visibly looked like I had stamina, perhaps he intended for me to help out in odd jobs or so.
"B-but… as with the sizes, the types of paintings everyone was painting were all over the place, weren't they? If you lined them up, would they really make a piece? It's all mismatched, or mixed up… I get the feeling it'll turn out as just a miscellaneous display."
"Do you know about mosaic art? It's often done with photographs, but… by separating a great many pictures by color, it's a technique to make a single completely different picture… I think Wakui-san was trying to do something similar…"
"Lining photographs to make a different photo…"
It wasn't really hitting home, but come to think of it, I'd seen it somewhere before. Though instead of photos, I get the feeling it was made using anime screencaps… the point was, the general color of each picture was taken as a dot, and by lining them up with intent, a single picture would appear.
A color-divided—puzzle.
Kyouko-san might have rooted me to the basement just to buy time, but in a magazine on that rack, I touched on the information that old Wakui once set out to be a painter.
To one who had once given up on the painter's path, this may have been his final act of defiance—using paintings themselves as the material, he was trying to make a single giant piece.
That concept, and that scale. That vindictiveness impressed me. Though with my admiration, I also felt fed-up. He was too out there I couldn't keep up—to the residents of Atelier House dragged into it, it was honestly a right brother.
While I could accept it at once, the way he kept it a secret from Atelier House's residents as he schemed wasn't too praiseworthy… but, well, rather than painting a fake, making a piece was an improvement.
A joint project among the residents of Atelier House.
If that would decorate the path to old Wakui's departure, then the residents might… no, wait?
That didn't change the fact Hakui-kun was left out. Hakui-kun, and the other few residents who didn't receive an order.
More so, was that not in itself a humiliation—not allowed to participate in the joint project and left out of the group, to Hakui-kun who respected old Wakui as his teacher, as I thought—just maybe that would be even harder to forgive.
Even if you told him old Wakui's true intention, wouldn't Hakui-kun just turn more obstinate—
"That's not true at all. He immediately accepted it—he was- in his own way- quite ashamed of jumping to conclusions."
"R-really? I'm pretty sure ten's around the age where one hates being left out the most—"
"Ten or not, he's an artist, after all."
Kyouko-san shrugged her shoulders.
"It was the same when he had me model—see, whenever Hakui-kun paints, he only uses black."
"Yes, that's right… when I first met him, he said something about colors being disgusting and filthy…"
While the words were on my lips, I belatedly noticed—and "Yes, that's how it is," Kyouko-san nodded.
"Wakui-san had no plans to used black in the work he was trying to depict—it seems the other residents who didn't receive an order generally had similar circumstance."
When painting a painting, there were colors that occurred with low frequency, and those that weren't used at all—it wasn't a matter of ability, but a matter of color.
With a backward glance to Kyouko-san, I recalled how old Wakui put Hakui-kun up to drawing that marbled view of earth. Even that ended up in monochrome—but would it be reading too deeply if I saw his orders as trying to get Hakui-kun to paint other colors up to the very last moment?
"As I recall… black is quite unmanageable when painting a picture. It kills the other colors, and strictly speaking, they say it's a color that doesn't exist in the natural world…"
But that didn't mean he could match the other colors solely to compensate for it—if he forced it, it would end up as a single dead pixel. If Hakui-kun truly set out to be a painter, this was truly a truth he could have nothing to say against.
"That's right. And so, I offered him some advice."
"Advice?"
"Yes. He seemed oh so surprised, and depressed at what Wakui-san had schemed… my apologies, thought up, so before I slipped myself, I went just a little beyond a detective's reach and gave an amateur's advice. 'In that case, why don't you work with the other residents who weren't chosen for the final stroke, you can just sign it 'Atelier House' can't you?' I told him—if it's a signature, I'm sure black won't be a problem."
I see, that statement did go beyond a detective's reach—but Hakui-kun resolved to turn himself in, not because of the truth or the puzzle solving, but perhaps because of that amateur advice.
With that boy who called the speckled marbling disgusting—mixing in with all other sorts of colors, would something change?
The moment I thought that, I heard the sirens.
The police car sirens—and the sign time was up.
"Now then,"
Kyouko-san said.
"How about we take a page out of Hakui-kun's book and apologize to the good coppers? Let's say we're sorry we went and investigated without reporting, and didn't accomplish anything. They're going to scold us plenty until we cry."
"… You're right."
Now then, the detective would say once everyone was gathered—but this detective didn't gather anyone, what's more, after all the puzzle solving was over, the now then finally came.
Sure enough, as an adult, the real trial was soon to come.