Chapter 239: Dog
Once again, her thoughts were seen through by Matsumoto Gin, and Uda Ryoko felt like a bird stripped of its feathers, looking unsightly without them.
Uda Ryoko simply stopped pretending and vented, “Yes, yes, her reports were ones I deliberately kept following up on. It was me who had the campus media keep making articles about Kawakami Rumi, so that all teachers and students couldn’t shift their attention away from her, letting everyone notice her ugliness at all times! That way, everyone would have to realize that the former angel had turned into an ugly monster, and no one could avoid this fact anymore, while those with hearts like mine would feel great satisfaction. Hahaha, that guy finally fell! Serves her right for always being so arrogant!”
Uda Ryoko laughed loudly, wildly, but a trace of despair flickered in her eyes as she provoked Matsumoto Gin: “How about it, Law Enforcement Officer, are you going to arrest me?”
“Don’t worry, I won’t arrest you just because you’re low-class and morally corrupt.” Matsumoto Gin shook his head and said calmly, “Unless you’ve done something that actually harmed her.”
“What have I done? Her death has nothing to do with me!” Uda Ryoko sneered, then chugged more than half a cup of tea, as if drinking down her courage.
Matsumoto Gin couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “Death? What I originally meant was, have you been involved in disfiguring her?”
Uda Ryoko, who had incriminated herself again, clenched her fists. She felt toyed with by Matsumoto Gin, and his laughter at that moment reminded her of the adults around her back then who treated her as a joke. “You bastard, are you looking down on me!?”
Matsumoto Gin controlled his laughter freely. “No, I just think you’re somewhat pitiful.”
“Well, from our investigation of Kawakami Rumi’s suicide case back then, we discovered an interesting detail: actually, on the night Kawakami Rumi said she wanted to commit suicide, someone called her.” Matsumoto Gin watched her face gradually drain of color and said softly, “You made that phone call, right?”
“Do you have evidence?” Uda Ryoko’s face darkened, her hand gripping the cup trembling.
Matsumoto Gin spread his hands and shook his head. “Unfortunately, I don’t. This is just my personal speculation.
The phone call to Kawakami Rumi back then came from a public phone booth. There were no cameras in the park where that phone booth was located or nearby, so the post-incident investigation couldn’t find any results. Moreover, Kawakami Rumi’s mobile phone only had call records, no recordings, so no one knows what the caller said to her. Whether that phone call was the last straw that broke her is hard to say.
Therefore, even if the person who made that call is eventually found, it would be impossible to truly convict them.”
Uda Ryoko laughed. “I thought you had some powerful evidence.”
Matsumoto Gin shook his head and said earnestly to her, “Miss Uda Ryoko, please don’t misunderstand one thing. The purpose of my visit here has never been to accuse you. I just wanted to confirm something, and from your performance just now, I’m very sure you’re not the person I’m looking for, so… you know, you’re actually quite lucky.”
“He’s telling the truth. Otherwise, he would’ve drawn his sword and chopped you down already.” He Jia’an, who had been silent until now, finally spoke.
Uda Ryoko was horrified. “You… you’re not Law Enforcement Officers. Who… who the hell are you!?”
At this point, Uda Ryoko was 100% certain that neither of the two in front of her could possibly be Law Enforcement Officers, but they were definitely not ordinary people either.
Then, Uda Ryoko thought of a possibility, but it was a truth even more despairing than confirming their Law Enforcement Officer identities.
“You… you’re Investigators?”
Matsumoto Gin smiled; for Uda Ryoko, the truth was already self-evident.
Investigators had come home and inquired about Urban Legend-related matters, which meant the “Urban Legends” were all real!
“Rumi… Kawakami Rumi will kill me… she will kill me…” Uda Ryoko collapsed to the floor, whispering incessantly.
“If you think you didn’t do anything bad to her, why do you feel she must kill you?” He Jia’an asked.
Uda Ryoko fell silent.
He Jia’an and Matsumoto Gin exchanged a glance; there was really nothing more to pursue, and even if there was, it wasn’t their job.
They had experienced even stranger and more bizarre things as Investigators. They could more or less imagine what kind of evil things a villain like Uda Ryoko had done in the past.
It was nothing more than kicking her when she was down in Kawakami Rumi’s moment of despair: she made an anonymous phone call to her, spewing baseless malicious accusations and venomous adverse curses, ultimately extinguishing Kawakami Rumi’s last shred of hope for life.
The disfigurement made her see the truth of this world: all her beauty was built on that once exquisite appearance. Losing her looks was like a tall building with a weak foundation—once the foundation collapsed, everything crumbled, and what fell was not her former happiness, but hypocrisy and resentment.
Hanako’s Curse actually resided in her mother Takayama Keika, because Takayama Keika carried Hanako’s resentment.
By the same logic, Miyako’s Curse should also reside in a similar person, at least someone who deeply empathized with Kawakami Rumi.
He Jia’an had originally thought it might be Misaki Naomi’s chemistry teacher, but unfortunately, that guy was actually a deeply hidden pervert with strong antisocial personality tendencies.
Judging from the corpses of those beautiful birds that died miserably hidden in the secret compartment under the floor, Kawakami Rumi’s disfigurement back then had a huge connection to this pervert—perhaps he was the one who caused it all.
Heaven has eyes; Thousand Illusions Moon had done one good deed, as that pervert had mistakenly entered the Inner World and died miserably.
Therefore, He Jia’an later thought of Uda Ryoko, hoping there might be some twist in the story on her.
Unfortunately, this woman turned out to be a pervert too.
Good grief, is there no normal person on the whole Sakura Island?
“Sorry for the disturbance.” He Jia’an and Matsumoto Gin stood up to leave; time was not ample.
After leaving Uda Ryoko’s home, the two didn’t take a car but directly broke into the Kawakami home, which had become an abandoned house.
And not even five minutes after the two entered the Kawakami home, they rushed out, their facial expressions urgent.
Matsumoto Gin had already drawn the tachi hidden behind his back, his eyes sharp.
The Chosen Alliance Investigators who had been waiting outside were all stunned. Someone shouted to the figures rushing past, “Senior Matsumoto, what happened to you?”
They first thought there was some ferocious creature hidden in the Kawakami home, but after being on high alert for a few seconds with no commotion, and seeing the hurried faces of the two leaving weren’t panicked, they dismissed the idea.
“Dog! It’s a dog!” Matsumoto Gin shouted sharply.
The Shiba Inu at Uda Ryoko’s home was once Kawakami Rumi’s beloved dog during her lifetime!
Celebrating a birthday with friends tonight, probably no time to update, so I stayed up late last night to write a bit, and wrote some more during lunch break, finally barely scraping together one chapter, posting it first.
