Chapter 402

"Actually, everyone understood back then that the senior had been framed," Fukatsu Harumi explained, "It's just that the fathers of those two people were both powerful local figures, so no one in the school dared to come forward to testify against them."

"Them?"

"It was Shibasaki Asuka and Anzai Ema, those two."

Fukatsu Harumi looked outside with some unease.

"Asuka is the daughter of Councilman Shibasaki, and Anzai Ema is the daughter of the president of the large construction company, Anzai Global. When they were in school, they were always dissatisfied because the senior was more popular, and they often clashed because of the senior's sense of justice. Please, Lord Akaso, I can only rely on you!"

Akaso Kaze looked at the nervous and pleading Fukatsu Harumi and sighed inwardly.

"Don't worry, they will receive the punishment they deserve."

"Thank you!" Fukatsu Harumi cried tears of joy and bowed deeply, "Lord Akaso, thank you so much!"

29

Akaso Kaze smiled slightly.

At 10 o'clock at night, in the inn corridor, Akaso Kaze, who was preparing to take a bath, happened to run into Akechi Eri coming out of the leisure lobby, also holding a bath towel.

"Lord Akaso," Akechi Eri greeted, "Are you coming to soak in the hot spring too?"

"Have you already soaked, Ms. Eri?"

"Yes, I suddenly felt a bit cold."

Akaso Kaze glanced at her and said nothing.

He passed through the leisure lobby to head to the open-air hot spring in the valley below.

"Tap, tap."

As the sound of footsteps faded away, Akechi Eri, who had parted ways with him, turned her gaze toward the shrine in the middle of the snowy courtyard, narrowed her eyes slightly, and continued to return to her room with her bath towel.

Meeting Akaso Kaze was an accident, but the plan could no longer be stopped.

And she was not afraid of being discovered.

As long as she could get revenge, everything was worth it.

At the entrance to the bathroom, Akaso Kaze ran into Fukatsu Harumi.

"The women's bathroom has been reserved; we can't go in until after 11:30," Fukatsu Harumi said with some regret.

Akaso Kaze smiled slightly, "The men's side was reserved by me just now. If Miss Harumi doesn't mind, you can join me."

Fukatsu Harumi's face turned red instantly.

She secretly looked at Akaso Kaze's handsome face and remained silent.

Akaso Kaze did not force it and walked in first.

He took off his clothes, wrapped himself in a bath towel, and entered the hot spring.

Not long after, Fukatsu Harumi walked in timidly.

She was also wrapped in a bath towel and entered the water shyly.

She seemed a bit nervous; as soon as she entered the water, her foot slipped, and she fell into Akaso Kaze's arms.

Akaso Kaze naturally held her.

"Lord Akaso~"

The girl let out a delicate cry in his arms.

"Don't move." Akaso Kaze held her and sat her on his lap.

He could feel the girl trembling.

The hot spring began to ripple.

Time passed 11 o'clock, and a scream suddenly came from nearby.

Akaso Kaze and Fukatsu Harumi changed their clothes, and the two walked out of the bathroom.

In front of the women's bathroom next door, the landlady's eyes widened in horror.

"Lord Akaso, someone, someone is dead!"

Akaso Kaze walked in and took a look.

Shibasaki Asuka's body was still floating on the steaming water, her body wrapped in a pile of gorgeous long-sleeved kimonos.

Fukatsu Harumi's eyes widened in surprise.

She looked at Akaso Kaze in disbelief.

In the evening, Lord Akaso said those two would be punished; she thought it would take a long time, but who knew it would be realized immediately.

Could it really be the curse of the Onmyoji?

The landlady hurriedly gathered the guests, but found Anzai Ema's body in the shrine.

After calling the local police station, everyone gathered at the entrance of the lobby courtyard with worried faces.

The old policeman from the police station soon arrived at the inn.

"Sorry to disturb everyone," the old policeman saluted, "It is my honor to meet Lord Akaso here. I am a police officer from the village police station. My surname is Ogura. Please treat me well!"

Akaso Kaze nodded and said: "Protect the scene first."

Everyone went to the shrine together, where they could see Anzai Ema's body lying on the long-sleeved kimonos under the flashlight.

Strangely, there were only footprints on the snow in the courtyard leading from the lobby to the shrine, which should have been left by Anzai Ema.

Because it started snowing again, the old policeman had to ask the landlady to get some towels to protect the footprints at the scene.

Akaso Kaze asked: "Have you notified the prefectural police?"

"I have already contacted them, but they said the snow outside is too deep, and I'm afraid they won't be able to come until dawn," the old policeman said helplessly.

"Dawn, huh? There's no help for it. Everyone, let's wait in the Japanese-style living room first," Akaso Kaze said.

In the living room, Editor Yasuda and the others discussed in low voices, mentioning that the time Anzai Ema passed through the social lobby to the shrine was around 10:30, and no one passed through the lobby after that until the landlady found them.

The time of the crime was between 10:30 and 11:30. Judging from the condition of the bodies, to be precise, it should have been between 10:30 and 11:00.

At the open-air hot spring, Akaso Kaze walked over from the leisure lobby.

The door to the women's bathhouse had been removed and placed to the side, with a "10:00 to 11:00 Reserved" sign hanging on it, and underneath it was a Kimono Sleeve Hannya paper doll wearing a ghost mask.

The landlady discovered the incident when she came to remove the sign.

Shibasaki Asuka's body was still floating on the steaming water, her body wrapped in a pile of gorgeous long-sleeved kimonos.

The deaths of these two people were exactly like the local legend of the Kimono Sleeve God, or rather, the killer also had the intention of using the legend; a Kimono Sleeve Hannya paper doll was placed on Anzai Ema's body.

Akaso Kaze looked at the long kimono sleeves unfolding like a painting in the bath, and suddenly remembered the university senior Suzuka Sakurako mentioned by Fukatsu Harumi.

If the suicidal Suzuka Sakurako was the Kimono Sleeve God Xiaohua, then Shibasaki and Anzai were the two village chief's daughters from the legend.

They died as they deserved, so Akaso Kaze did not intervene.

"Hmm?"

Akaso Kaze looked down and found that something seemed to have fallen to the bottom of the pool.

He pointed under the water and said: "I think this should be the murder weapon."

There were two items at the bottom of the water: the knife used as the murder weapon and a stun gun.

Judging from the wounds on the bodies, Anzai and Shibasaki should both have been killed by this murder weapon.

"So the murder weapon was here!" The old policeman's expression tightened, "If that's the case, Miss Asuka was murdered after Miss Anzai, that is, after 10:30. But the landlady and the staff were always in the leisure lobby, and no one passed through there at all. Could it really be a ghost?!"

"Where would there be any ghosts? It should just be a deliberate design."

Akaso Kaze looked at a blood-stained printed headscarf floating next to the long-sleeved kimono.

It was the one Anzai Ema always wore on her head.

Judging from the situation at the scene, the killer first murdered Anzai Ema in the shrine, then murdered Shibasaki Asuka here, and threw the murder weapon into the pool.

The key is that whether entering or leaving the open-air hot spring, one must pass through the open-air bathhouse, and the landlady who was always in the lobby did not see anyone pass by.

Moreover, there were also doubts about the snowy courtyard; after 10:30, only Anzai passed through the lobby to the shrine, and only Anzai's footprints were left on the snow.

All clues pointed to the only possibility.

The killer is an invisible ghost.

Akaso Kaze looked again at the Kimono Sleeve Hannya at the entrance of the bathhouse and the reservation sign hanging on the door, a meaningful smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

In the inn's social lobby, Editor Yasuda and the others did not go to the Japanese-style living room to wait, but remained sitting on the sofa in the lobby, the atmosphere silent.

The old policeman said: "I have already checked; there are no suspicious traces on the cliff. If someone bypassed the leisure lobby to go to the open-air hot spring, it should have been clearly visible."

"In addition, the landlady just confirmed that the murder weapon found in the bathhouse is the divine sword originally worshipped in the shrine."

The female editor said in a deep voice: "Added to the blood-stained headscarf of Miss Ema in the pool, if it was used to wrap the murder weapon, the order of the crime should be Miss Ema first, then Miss Asuka."

"But how did the killer do it?" Fukatsu Harumi gripped her fingers tightly, "Maybe it really is the curse of the Kimono Sleeve God; only the Kimono Sleeve God could do such a thing."

"Um," the landlady hesitated, "During the day, I saw in the shrine at the village that there were two new dolls used to worship the Kimono Sleeve God."