Chapter 18

No matter what, the roller coaster shouldn't be operating today.

After waiting outside a while longer, Amamiya Ren noticed a man and two women exiting the roller coaster.

Both girls looked extremely pale, even occasionally gagging, while the boy seemed completely unfazed, radiating full energy.

"Today was really bad luck—came to the amusement park and saw a headless… vomit…"

As Suzuki Sonoko recalled the headless corpse she'd just seen, and the human head finally retrieved from the roller coaster's track, she felt acid rising in her stomach, barely holding back another bout.

"Sonoko, don't say any more…"

Mao Li Lan, who had sat right next to the scene, also felt nauseous.

Sonoko might not have directly seen the corpse with its severed neck spurting blood, but she had felt the blood splatter against her neck.

Mao Li Lan couldn't help covering her mouth—she had already vomited once, yet the urge to vomit still wouldn't subside.

"Is it really that bad?"

Kudou Shinichi looked at the two with helpless exasperation.

"Just get used to it."

"You really…"

That phrase "just get used to it" struck a raw nerve in Suzuki Sonoko—who could grow accustomed to corpses? They weren't police or forensic technicians; how could they ever become used to something like that?

"Hm?"

Before Sonoko could finish speaking, Yu Guang of Amamiya Ren locked onto a man dressed entirely in black suit, wearing a round hat.

"That black-clad man was on the roller coaster—where's the other one?"

The detective's instinct told him the two were extremely dangerous; unlike Sonoko and Xiao Lan, they hadn't screamed or vomited upon seeing the corpse—those cold eyes showed no concern for who had died.

"Those two are suspicious."

The moment this thought formed, Kudou Shinichi immediately sprinted toward the man.

Only at the last moment did he remember Sonoko and Xiao Lan, glancing back as he ran.

"Xiao Lan, you and Sonoko go home today—I've got an urgent matter and need to leave."

"Huh…?"

Suzuki Sonoko's eyes widened.

"He's not serious, is he?!"

Leaving two girls alone in an amusement park where a murder had just occurred, then claiming an emergency and running off?

Anger flared up instinctively; she grabbed Xiao Lan's hand.

"Xiao Lan, let's chase after that idiot and teach him a lesson!"

"Huh?"

Before Mao Li Lan could react, she was dragged into a run.

But before they'd taken more than a few steps, the shoelaces on their sneakers suddenly snapped, causing both to stumble and nearly fall.

"No way…"

Suzuki Sonoko noticed her own shoelace had broken—and it seemed Xiao Lan's had too.

Mao Li Lan stared blankly at her broken shoelace, and at Shinichi's figure now vanished into the crowd; a terrible premonition suddenly welled up inside her.

This entire scene had been captured in full by Amamiya Ren.

PS: New book seeking data