Chapter 363

Archer crossed his arms, brows furrowed as he stared at the button in Heitian'e's hand: "This thing probably can't really, as she said, blast the whole Pinokangni into the sky, right?"

"Impossible." Saber flatly denied, "Detonating the whole Pinokangni would probably require extremely elaborate preparations; this kind of dull, tedious work, Huohuo probably wouldn't like it much..."

"Not necessarily?"

Shirou Emiya's voice came from the kitchen: "If letting the whole Pinokangni take off could satisfy her 【Pleasure】, she would definitely do it. However, the scale of detonating the whole Pinokangni is indeed too large; I think she's more likely to blow up some landmark building."

——

Continuing forward, they also found a plush toy shaped like a Pam.

"Regardless of whether the image is that of the Astral Express's conductor, is this plush also related to the case?"

The constable solemnly explained: "You don't know this, but in mystery stories it's called a 【red herring】, meaning a 【false lead that misleads the train of thought】!"

Heitian'e nodded as if suddenly realizing: "I see. But if you say it so bluntly, isn't it useless then?"

"Ah this..."

The constable flusteredly looked for an excuse: "This, this isn't because you two failed to notice Miss Huohuo's ingenuity and mistakenly thought she just tossed a useless clue... uh..."

He couldn't keep making it up.

Heitian'e gave a "pfft" laugh: "Thanks for your good intentions; let's just pretend we were misled by the 【red herring】. Hmm... Is this plush also related to the case?"

Sangbo was also annoyed, pursing his lips: "No need to give her face like this..."

——

MYGO

"Ah~ Miss Heitian'e is really gentle..." Aiyin sank completely into the lounge sofa in the practice room, "It's just like soyorin coaxing someone, you know."

Sushi's hand slipped while adjusting the bass, emitting a harsh noise: "... Please don't use such a strange metaphor next time." She lifted her gaze to Heitian'e, who was cooperating with Huohuo in causing chaos in the sky curtain, and sighed: "Indeed, it's like dealing with a spoiled child."

"Huh." Lixi put down his drumsticks, "When dealing with someone like a terrorist in the news, I think we should handle them like catching a stray cat that sneaks into the house——" She made a motion of grabbing the scruff, "Taking advantage of when she's playing wildly, just grab and throw her out. By the way, Xingqiri also dislikes her."

"Ah, Rikki is so heartless~"

But upon mentioning the stray cat, everyone realized there was still one person missing from the practice room.

Lixi clicked his tongue: "This time, won't we again fail to practice properly because of the stray cat?"

"After all, it's Lenai, what can we do? I remember that kid actually quite likes Huohuo; I guess right now they're probably hiding in the shop, eating a parfait while waiting for Huohuo to appear in the sky curtain." Sushi speculated.

"Hmm~ How about we postpone practice today and go to the shop to look for Lenai?" Aiyin immediately went over to Sushi's side.

"Huh?! Absolutely not!" Lixi tapped out a "thud" sound, using action to express his protest, "Next week's the live, you think everyone's as free as you?"

Seeing this wasn't working, Aiyin immediately turned to the short-haired girl in the corner: "Tomorin, what do you think?"

"Um... I... I..." Gaosongdeng lowered his head, fingers fumbling at the hem of his clothes, "I'm also worried about Lenai; last practice..."

Lixi's expression visibly wavered, quickly softening: "Since Deng said that too... once... tsk. We gotta agree first: if we find Lenai, we have to bring them over, no letting the sky curtain delay practice!"

"Yay~" Aiyin secretly gave a victory sign, "But last time when Miss Liuying and Xing were on the rooftop, it was obviously rikki who was most engrossed! Didn't even notice the drumsticks falling in the practice room~"

"Huh?!"

"......" Sushi looked helplessly at the two people whose voices were getting louder, silently packed up the bass, and headed to the shop without looking back.

——

After obtaining the final piece of evidence, the next step was to pin down the culprit's identity, but Sangbo had no clue at all... or rather, in such a casual murder case, being able to deduce the true culprit would be considered supernatural.

However, Heitian'e already had a train of thought; after reversing it and using elimination, they pinned the culprit on the legless Ayou.

After giving the answer to the constable, the constable said the riddle was answered correctly; according to the game rules, they told the two the location of the next riddle.

"Huh? The next riddle? This isn't what we agreed on." Sangbo complained.

"It seems the key to victory isn't the riddle itself; if we can't see through Miss Huohuo's odd behavior to her true intent, this chase might never end."

Sangbo kindly reminded: "Huohuo is just a fake fool; are you planning to look for logic in a fool's head?"

"Indeed, that's what I'm considering. Even if there's no subjective pattern, behavior will definitely leave some commonality—memory doesn't lie, and it might understand her nature better than that girl does."

The two arrived at the scene of the next riddle; Huohuo still used her old trick of sending people back to reality, leaving only a puddle of memory bubbles.

This time, the Shock Dream Troupe played the roles of sheriff and deputy sheriff.

"Oh~ Detective Blackswan~ Detective Sangbo~ you've finally come~ Without your help, we truly wouldn't know what to do!"

Upon hearing that, even the usually composed Heitian'e furrowed their brows.

"Um, why are you talking like that? Is this some art form I, Sangbo, don't understand?" Sangbo felt like they'd been left speechless countless times tonight.

"Talking? Is there something wrong with how we speak? Deputy Constable, Your Excellency, is my way of speaking really strange?"

"Yinliao Gou clasped his throat, with a fawning tone: 'Of course not~ Sheriff Your Excellency, your way of speaking is even more sparse and ordinary than the cat lounging on the apple tree in my grandmother's backyard.'"

"'Let's talk about this baffling case! The victim of this case is a person named 【Huahuo】, a galactic wealthy merchant...'"