Tokyo: Are you even a proper lawyer?

Masashi Akiyama's gaze calmly fell on the face of the girl who had first discovered the body.

She was around twenty years old, with delicate features, but at this moment her face was contorted with anger and fear, her eyes wide open, staring intently at Akiyama Masashi.

"What do you mean?!" the girl shrieked. "You think I killed A-Zhuo?! Are you crazy?! How could I possibly kill him! We're a couple!"

Her companions immediately gathered around, each with an angry and wary expression on their face.

"Yeah! Yumi and Taku are such good friends!"

"What right do you have to make such baseless accusations!"

"Does being a lawyer make you so great? Does that mean you can frame people at will?!"

The others in the hall were drawn to the sudden accusation and rebuttal, watching the two sides stand off nervously.

The owners wrung their hands nervously, while the couple hugged each other even tighter.

Maki Suzuki frowned, Kiyoshi Saionji shielded her younger sister behind her, and Rio Arimura looked at Masashi Akiyama with concern.

Meanwhile, Rieko Uchida stood in front of Masashi Akiyama, watching the girl named Yumi warily.

"Calm down." Masashi Akiyama pushed up his glasses, his gaze calmly sweeping over Yumi and her companion's faces behind the lenses.

"I didn't say you were the murderer."

Yumi's tense body relaxed almost imperceptibly for a moment.

However, Masashi Akiyama's next words made her face turn pale again.

"But it's clear that you also played a part in the deceased's death."

"What?!" Yumi exclaimed, and her companions were also stunned.

"What nonsense are you spouting?! I didn't do anything!"

Whether it was fear or something else, Yumi's voice began to tremble.

Masashi Akiyama did not answer her immediately.

Because at this moment, a strange change was taking place in his field of vision that was invisible to others.

Just now, when the thought of the murderer clearly surfaced in his mind, when he focused his attention on the group of people in front of him.

The unexplained skill, "Eliminate Evil Completely," was activated.

In his eyes, the world was instantly divided into clear camps.

Most of the people in the hall were shrouded in a neutral gray.

Maki Suzuki, the Saionji siblings, Rio Arimura, Rieko Uchida, and the couple and the business owners all had a green halo above their heads, symbolizing innocence.

The girl named Yumi, and her three companions, had varying degrees of dark red light swirling above their heads.

Among them, the red light above Yumi's head was the faintest, while the red light above the other two men and one woman was much deeper.

But what Akiyama Masashi cared about most was the tall, thin boy standing diagonally behind Yumi who had been shouting the loudest.

Above his head, there was not only a deep red halo that was almost dripping with blood, but also a huge, clear arrow pointing straight at him.

There were even two large characters in the air around his body.

Murderer!

Masashi Akiyama's lips twitched almost imperceptibly.

It really is... simple and straightforward, it's hard for him to ignore it.

The problem has become both simple and complex.

The simple thing is that he seems to know who the murderer is.

According to the conversation just now, the tall, thin boy seems to be called "Kenichi".

The complexity lies in the fact that he cannot simply point at the other person and say, "I see it, you are the murderer, there is an arrow and words above your head."

He needs to act like a real detective, working backward from known clues to deduce the murderer's motives, methods, and process, then peel back the layers of disguise to expose the truth to everyone, and ultimately... bring them to justice.

Masashi Akiyama slowly shifted his gaze from Kenichi's face and returned it to the agitated Yumi.

"Miss Yumi, right?" Masashi Akiyama began, "You and the deceased, Taku, were lovers. Your companions can testify to this."

Yumi bit her lip, nodded, and her eyes reddened again.

"But from what I've observed, your trip to the hot springs doesn't seem to be entirely a pleasant romantic getaway for couples."

Masashi Akiyama's gaze swept over Yumi's three companions. "Did you guys have a fight?"

Yumi's body stiffened visibly, and she subconsciously glanced at Kenichi beside her.

Kenichi immediately retorted loudly, "Stop trying to sow discord! We're just ordinary friends hanging out together!"

"Just ordinary friends?" Masashi Akiyama raised an eyebrow slightly. "Then, in the hours before A-Zhu's death, that is, between dinner and the time of the incident, what exactly were the five of you doing? Where were you? Can anyone testify to that?"

"We...we had a few drinks and were playing cards and chatting in the room..." another boy said hesitantly.

"They've been in the room the whole time? None of the five of them have left?" Masashi Akiyama pressed.

"I went to the restroom once during the journey..." Yumi whispered.

"I went out for some fresh air too, and came back shortly after," another girl replied.

"Where's Kenichi? Have you been with everyone the whole time?"

Masashi Akiyama turned his gaze to the real culprit.

Kenichi's facial muscles tensed as he forced a calm reply.

"Of course! I've always been here!"

"Is that so?" Masashi Akiyama remained noncommittal, turning his gaze to Yumi. "Ms. Yumi, approximately when did you go out for some fresh air?"

"About... about ten minutes before I screamed? I was feeling a bit stuffy, so I went out and stood in the hallway for a while, and came back quickly," Yumi recalled.

"When you went out, was anyone in the hallway? Or did you hear or see anything unusual?" Masashi Akiyama prompted.

Yumi frowned and thought for a moment. Suddenly, as if she remembered something, her expression changed slightly, and her eyes flickered.

"No, nothing special... it's just... I think I heard the door close in the next room... Ah-Zhu's room? It was very quiet, I didn't pay attention..."

"A-Zhu's room is right next to the room where the body was found, right?" Akiyama Masashi asked to confirm, and the boss nodded quickly.

"After hearing the door close, Ms. Yumi went back to her room? And then?"

"After that...after that we continued chatting until...until I felt that Ah Zhuo hadn't come to see us for so long, so I wanted to go and call him, but..." Yumi's voice trembled with tears, and she couldn't continue.

"And that's how they found the body," Akiyama Masashi continued. "Kenichi, when Yumi went out for some fresh air and heard Takuya's room door close, are you sure you were in the room with other people the whole time? Is there anyone who can vouch for you the whole time?"

Kenichi's forehead began to bead with sweat, but he forced himself to say, "Of course! They can all testify!" He looked at his two companions.

However, the boy and girl who were not the murderers showed hesitation at this moment.

The girl hesitated before saying, "Kenichi...you seemed to have left for a bit, didn't you? You said you went to get a drink..."

"I just went to the vending machine downstairs! I'll be right back!" Kenichi immediately explained, his voice sounding somewhat anxious.

"A vending machine?" Masashi Akiyama looked at the proprietor. "Boss, where are the hotel's vending machines?"

"It's in the small rest area next to the entrance on the first floor," the owner replied.

"How long would it take at the fastest possible distance from your room to the vending machine on the first floor and back?"

"About... five or six minutes?" the boss estimated.

"Five or six minutes..." Masashi Akiyama seemed to be thinking, his gaze sweeping over everyone again before finally settling on Yumi's face.

"Miss Yumi, you just said you heard the sound of A-Zhu's door closing in the hallway. But based on your account and the time you returned to your room, A-Zhu should have already been murdered by then. So, who made the sound of the door closing? Was it the murderer leaving? Or...?"

He paused, then looked at Yumi, whose face was growing paler and paler.

"Or did you actually see something? For example, did you see someone coming out of A-Zhuo's room? And that person, you know them, and even... for some reason, you subconsciously chose to cover it up for them?"

"No! I didn't! I didn't see anything!"

Yumi shook her head frantically, but her eyes and body language betrayed her.

Masashi Akiyama stopped pressing her for answers and instead turned his gaze to Kenichi, whose face was ashen, and slowly said.

"Kenichi, you said you went downstairs to buy a drink, which should only take five or six minutes round trip. But based on the degree of rigor mortis, A-Zhu's time of death was roughly within half an hour before she screamed."

This period of time covers exactly five or six minutes of you leaving the room, and the time Ms. Yumi heard the door close next door.

"More importantly," Masashi Akiyama stepped forward, "I noticed a detail in the deceased's room, besides the body and the murder weapon."

"There's a small, barely noticeable water stain on the tatami mat near the door. It snowed tonight, and although the snow wasn't heavy, it's easy to get unmelted snow on the soles of your shoes or the hem of your yukata when you come back from outside."

His gaze fell on the hem of Kenichi's yukata and the hotel slippers he was wearing.

"Could you please lift your foot so we can see the sole of your slipper?"