Chapter 381: The little girl who blushes easily

"This person looks a bit familiar?" The middle-aged man happened to see Akaso Kaze, walked over with some doubt, handed out a business card, and smiled, "Hello, my name is Hisao Nagahisa. I’m from the Okayama branch of Naniwa Securities. I came here this time to talk business with Mr. Ushikubo."

"What are you doing?" Gizo Ushikubo followed with a dark face and interrupted unhappily, "You should be able to go back now, right?"

"Uh," the middle-aged man named Hisao Nagahisa said awkwardly, "Haha, that’s true. Actually, I also like Renku very much. Let’s talk again if there’s a chance. Well then, everyone, I wish you a good time."

"Hmph!"

Gizo Ushikubo pulled a long face and drove the man away, immediately smiling: "Don't worry about that guy, Mr. Kaze, let’s eat together later. It’s a good time to hear about your detective experiences."

Akaso Kaze agreed with a smile.

In the evening, the sun set, and Lake Shinji was illuminated into an orange-red color. Akaso Kaze walked into the hotel hot spring and soaked comfortably in the small pool surrounded by stones.

Amidst the steaming heat, looking at the sunset and the beautiful scenery of Lake Shinji, he felt all his fatigue disappear, and he just wanted to lie by the pool and sleep.

"This is truly comfortable."

"Yes," Takashi Yagisawa, who had a handlebar mustache, was also soaking in the hot spring opposite.

Akaso Kaze asked: "Right, what exactly are your Renku rules?"

"This," Takashi Yagisawa thought for a moment and said.

"Actually, simply put, it’s a game of connecting sentences. For example, if the first person just read a 5-7-5 syllable sentence, the next person has to create a 7-7 sentence, and after the 7-7, they have to create a 5-7-5 sentence..."

"We call the initial 5-7-5 the 'Hokku'. There is also a Hokku in Haiku, which also adds a description of the season..."

Akaso Kaze understood.

Just like poetry, they all have fixed formats. Renku is everyone making poems together.

"Then what kind of sentences does Mr. Yagisawa like?" Akaso Kaze continued to ask.

"I prefer humorous sentences," Takashi Yagisawa looked at Ryosuke Shiina, who had just arrived at the hot spring, "Shiina, what do you like?"

"Me?" Ryosuke Shiina walked into the hot spring pool, "This, I prefer sentences with emotion, for example, a father’s love for his daughter."

"Oh?" Akaso Kaze asked, "Mr. Shiina, do you have a daughter?"

"Yes," Ryosuke Shiina’s expression darkened, "But my wife took her and ran away from home. If you want to talk about this, it’s all because I owed debts outside."

Ryosuke Shiina smiled cheerfully.

"Right, can you tell me about the cases the great detective has solved later?"

"No problem," Akaso Kaze certainly wouldn't refuse, "Speaking of cases, I remember..."

He picked a few unimportant cases and talked about them.

After finishing the hot spring, everyone changed into *yukata* and went to the adjacent Japanese-style room to dine.

"Come, Mr. Kaze, drink some more."

"Right," Ryosuke Shiina helped pour a cup of wine and suddenly asked, "Do you already have plans for tomorrow?"

"Plans." Akaso Kaze thought for a moment, "I heard Teacher Reiko talk about Yaegaki Shrine on the road, so I plan to go take a look tomorrow."

"I remember there is a god at Yaegaki Shrine who specializes in tying the red thread of fate," Ryosuke Shiina chuckled, "Many people go to the Mirror Pond there to ask about their marriage."

"In that case, let’s go together," Takashi Yagisawa suggested, "Except for Mr. Ushikubo, it seems everyone here is single, right, Mr. Kaze?"

"Hmm."

Although Akaso Kaze wasn't interested in gods or marriage, it would be nice to stroll around.

"Is that so?" Mizuki Kawaguchi asked in surprise, "Mr. Kaze is still single?"

Akaso Kaze looked at her, puzzled, "Yes, what’s wrong?"

"Ah! Nothing." Mizuki Kawaguchi didn't know why she blushed.

"I see it this way," Ryosuke Shiina said with a laugh, "Tomorrow morning, there happens to be a bus from Matsue Onsen Station to Yaegaki Shrine. Let’s go together."

"I say, Teacher Reiko," Gizo Ushikubo sat on the side, looking out of place with his arms crossed, and said seriously, "Has the location for creating the first sentence tomorrow already been chosen?"

Reiko Ando was stunned: "This, Shiina..."

"I think we should decide the location by drawing lots."

Ryosuke Shiina took out note paper and wrote down different locations: "Miss Mizuki, help me get my hat, okay?"

"Okay."

Mizuki Kawaguchi handed a bowler hat from her luggage bag behind her to Ryosuke Shiina.

"Thank you."

Ryosuke Shiina folded the note paper, put it into the hat, mixed it up, and turned to Gizo Ushikubo next to him: "Let’s start with Mr. Ushikubo, and then according to age, it’s me."

Akaso Kaze rested his chin on his hand, watching the Renku Society members draw lots to assign locations.

"Is everyone going to different places?"

"The results are out," Ryosuke Shiina summarized, "Mr. Ushikubo drew Matsue Castle, Takashi Yagisawa drew Jozan-ji Temple, Miss Mizuki drew Shiomi Nawate, and as for me, it’s the Garden Art Museum."

Reiko Ando nodded: "In that case, we will depart from the hotel at 9:00 tomorrow morning and return by 11:30. Mr. Kaze, after that, we will officially hold the linked-verse duel at the Tamatsukuri Hot Spring. You will need to participate then as well."

"Do I have to compose verses too?"

"That won't be necessary, though if you are interested, Mr. Kaze, you can certainly give it a try. Linked-verse is actually not difficult at all."

"Fine." Akaso Kaze nodded with a smile.

As night fell, Akaso Kaze walked out of his bedroom and bought a bottle of coffee from a vending machine, when he suddenly heard voices coming from the hotel lobby.

Ganzo Ushikubo and Takashi Yagizawa, who was keeping his head down, sat facing each other on the sofa.

"Show some backbone, Yagizawa! Who else is to blame for your shop ending up like this? In any case, you must scrape the money together and pay me back by next week! Otherwise, I will have no choice but to take over your pastry shop."

"Yes, I understand." Yagizawa clutched his fingers and bowed, his expression despondent.

Mizuki Kawaguchi watched from behind a pillar, a look of worry on her face.

"Miss Kawaguchi, what's the matter?"

"Mr. Kaze." For some reason, Mizuki Kawaguchi blushed the moment she saw Akaso Kaze.

"It's nothing, Mr. Ushikubo is a loan shark."

Akaso Kaze said: "Miss Kawaguchi, if you are in any trouble, I can help you."

Upon hearing this, Mizuki Kawaguchi was deeply moved: "Mr. Kaze, you are so kind."

They had only just met, yet Akaso Kaze was willing to help her; such a person was truly rare.

The next day, Yaegaki Shrine.

Akaso Kaze arrived at the Mirror Pond.

Though called the Mirror Pond, it was actually just a small, enclosed pond. It wasn't very clear, with fallen leaves floating on the surface, and a small shrine stood on the opposite side.

"If the paper sinks within 15 minutes, your romance will have a result, and the faster it sinks, the closer that person is to you."

After reading the instructions on the wooden board erected by the pond, Akaso Kaze couldn't help but curl the corner of his mouth.

This is too perfunctory.

Ring-a-ling, his phone rang.

Akaso Kaze answered it.

"Miss Kawaguchi? What's wrong? Mr. Ushikubo was murdered?!"

Akaso Kaze's brow twitched.

He suddenly remembered.

This is a case.

"Don't cry, where are you? I'll come find you right now."

A spatial gate had already appeared in the corridor.

He pushed the door open, and Mizuki Kawaguchi immediately threw herself into his arms in surprise.

"Mr. Kaze, I'm so scared. Mr. Ushikubo, he... he's dead. I found Mr. Yagizawa's eye drops at the scene."

Akaso Kaze asked: "Do you like Mr. Yagizawa?"

Mizuki Kawaguchi shook her head, "Mr. Yagizawa has helped me before. I don't want to see him get arrested. Can you help him?"

Akaso Kaze smiled: "But my fees are very expensive."

Mizuki Kawaguchi said pitifully: "I... I don't have any money."

Akaso Kaze smiled and lifted her chin, "In that case, there is only one way."

He lowered his head and captured the girl's lips.

After a long while, their lips parted.

Mizuki Kawaguchi looked at Akaso Kaze with hazy eyes, humming with a seductive nasal tone: "Mr. Kaze~"

Akaso Kaze had originally only intended to kiss her, but Mizuki Kawaguchi's appearance was too tempting.

It made one unable to resist continuing.

He checked the time, feeling a bit nervous.

But it didn't matter; returning a little late wouldn't hurt.

He closed the door and placed Mizuki Kawaguchi on the table.

At the Tiger's Mouth Park, Ganzo Ushikubo lay on a path in the middle of a bamboo grove. The scene was already under police control, and the members of the linked-verse society stood by with heavy expressions.

Akaso Kaze walked into the scene with his arm around Mizuki Kawaguchi.

It was indeed Ganzo Ushikubo. His face still bore an expression of pain. The fatal wound on the back of his head was caused by a heavy blunt object. His watch seemed to have been broken during a struggle, with the time stopped at 10:05.

Akaso Kaze curled the corner of his mouth. The killer actually committed the crime knowing full well there was a detective present.

What mysterious confidence.

"It looks like he was beaten to death," Akaso Kaze said after watching for a while, "likely with some kind of blunt object, struck heavily on the back of the head."

"Hmm," the investigating police officer nodded, then suddenly reacted as he looked at Akaso Kaze, "Eh? Who are you?"

"I am a detective from Tokyo," Akaso Kaze said casually, "I suspect that when Mr. Ushikubo was attacked, he must have used his left hand to block, which is why the watch was broken."

Akaso Kaze looked at the body. Ganzo Ushikubo's right index finger was extended as if trying to point at something, and the fingertip was stained with blood, looking as if it had touched something.

A black notebook had fallen next to the body. Akaso Kaze picked it up with a handkerchief and flipped through it, finding many notes. Several pages of yesterday's date were stock information, one page in the middle had been torn out, and the last page seemed to be a poem written here in Matsue Castle.

"'Autumn sky is crisp and clear, like my life without frost...'" he read aloud, "Is this the opening verse Mr. Ushikubo composed today?"

This poem is actually quite good.