Occultic;Nine

Why Kiri Kiri Basara?

This guy... knows about me?

I've heard of you through Miyuu Aikawa.

I know you also visited Seimei University Building 10 on the day my father died.

I wasn't the one who did it! It wasn't me!

I didn't do it!

Believe me!

I didn't do... such a...

I'm not suspecting you at all.

R-Really?

Tell me what you know.

You're the site owner of Kiri Kiri Basara, right?

A-And you're Professor Hashigami's son?

Sarai Hashigami.

I've posted a few comments on Kiri Kiri Basara.

Oh, right... Sarai!

SARAI!

Yes. So, I would like to confirm...

You saw the crime scene where my father was dead, right?

Th-That's...

I told you before. I'm not suspecting you at all.

Because there were traces of my father being locked up and tortured inside that room.

And for you to do that, after considering various elements, is impossible.

Oh, is that right?

On the other hand, I confirmed with Miyuu Aikawa

that you visited my father's lab around 7 pm on February 22nd.

If you saw the crime scene and then escaped, without informing the police about it...

That's incomprehensible and also rather unpleasant.

Was there anything that stuck on your mind? Tell me.

S-Something?

Something. Because the police haven't given me detailed information.

I'm his survivor, yet I don't know how my father died.

What did you see at the crime scene?

Anything will do. Tell me something that stuck on your mind.

CODE.

Code? What's that?

Your father wrote letters of the English alphabet with blood on the ground.

C-O-D-E.

You're telling me there was a dying message?

Y-You didn't know?

The police didn't tell me one word of that.

Why?

CODE... C-O-D-E... CODE... I've seen that somewhere.

Where was it? His study? At home?

Some kind of file?

Let's look for that clue!

Well, but...

I beg of you! Don't you want to find the true culprit?

Of course I want to do that, too! Why was my father murdered?

But that's all useless anyway!

The day my father was murdered,

the study at home was ransacked by someone.

It's presumed that the culprit snuck into our home

and was in the study between 4:15 pm and 5:30 pm.

That timeframe almost exactly matches the estimated time of my father's death.

This crime was completely planned beforehand.

Of course, all the evidence should've been taken away!

Planned...

How do you know there aren't any hidden enemies out there?

It's not that you're about to be roped into it...

You're here to become roped into it because you want to!

Even if they ransacked the place, some evidence might still be there!

I-In any case, let's check it out! Please take me there! I beg of you!

I'm not responsible for what happens to you.

This is not a game, nor is it an anime.

This way.

He's so surly.

Feels like he has a grudge against me.

Well, I'm sure he has a grudge against the real culprit.

But it seems like he's the type I won't get along with.

Though, you could say Ryo-tas is my only real friend.

Right now, you must be thinking that I'm the type you dislike.

No, wait—

Do you know behavioral patterns that show up when you lie?

First, you stop making eye contact. How about you?

You've been staring at the bottom right of your field of vision.

Second, the number of blinks decreases.

Since we started this conversation, 18 seconds have already passed,

and surprisingly enough, you haven't blinked once yet. Third—

Please, that's enough!

I'll be waiting here.

If you want to check it out, you go by yourself.

Wh-Why?

I have yet to sort out all of my feelings towards my father.

Inevitably, my emotions get in my way.

I-I've lost my father, too.

What?

S-So, well...

Don't think you're the only one facing hard times.

That was the wrong way to say it.

It's all cleaned up.

There's no way to look for any clues.

Key...

Truth is stranger than fiction, they say. That's got to be a lie.

In the real world, miracles don't happen at all.

It was too late.

I'm nothing more than an ordinary person.

A mere high school student. Nothing more than a NEET God.

There's no way I can solve crimes like the great detectives in novels.

I don't care.

I don't care about anything anymore.

I'd better recite the prime numbers to calm myself down. Just kidding.

Plugging up to prevent leaks in the roof.

Nah, that can't be.

This ceiling weighs in on my mind.

Hello, Mr. Ceiling.

You were watching what the assailant took away from this place, right?

If so, tell me what that was.

You're already staring at the answer!

Wait, Zonko?

Why don't you notice it? Are you an idiot?

I don't know, but you have a lot of static noise.

But why did you choose this as the timing for you to start talking?

I don't have time to tell you the reason.

That again?

Soon, an old ghost lady will arrive at this room.

A ghost?

I was joking when I said ghost... But...

A joke, you say?

But isn't the static getting worse?

That old lady is the mother of that boy with glasses.

Mother? What are you talking—

I'm sure she aged that much due to anxiety.

Being so wary of others.

I got proper permission from Sarai—

Listen up, okay?

Mimicking a detective novel in real life won't let you find anything.

You know exactly what was hidden in this room, right?

There's no turning back now, so... You have no other choice.

It's okay if you speak normally! Just give me the answer instead of hints!

I told you earlier.

The answer is the ceiling you're staring at.

There's no way I can figure it out with just that...

PUTTY A

Can it be... that these holes in the ceiling... The professor...

Zonko! The ceiling is plugged up in several places!

Is this the message the professor left behind?

Pretty sharp there. That's a code.

A code? Another CODE? This irregular array of dots?

You can imagine the rest, can't you? Don't just stand there.

Wait, hold—

I'm not a great detective.

CODE... The message the professor left behind...

What are the characters he had to leave behind in such an elaborate manner?

Wait, then CODE means...

These dots are some code for characters?

Oh, you're pretty good there!

Wait, you're still there?

It was a mistake.

It wasn't that one.

I see.

Why didn't you tell me?

Because you didn't ask.

No... I guess it was jealousy.

Jealousy?

A humble harassment from a pitiful magician

who envies her big sister who everyone admires.

So your last name is Nishizono.

In the news...

I saw your name.

So that's what that meant...

It was unexpected that even you'd go to that side.

To think that I was drawing a picture of myself...

But in any case...

this must be the new world.

March 4th (Friday)

Molars, doujin manga, a fortune-teller and black magic...

Kichijoji is full of mysteries lately.

Well, even among the mysteries from fantasy, the card to draw in this phase...

has to be Kiri Kiri Basara.

A date in a tasteful café, huh?

Or is there some reason that it has to be this shop?

That can't be!

Agent Moritsuka here.

Why aren't you going after the 256 people?

Are you telling me I should dance with the ghost of Nikola Tesla?

In any case, the list will connect us to those 256 people.

Do you mean that the key was Isayuki Hashigami after all?

That's all we have to catch that ghost out.

There's a reason for the 256 corpses,

and Isayuki Hashigami knew that reason.

Sarai is late!

Really.

He said, "I figured out the mystery of the CODE," so I'm waiting anxiously.

Please give me a drink you recommend.

Sure!

Under the supervision of Myu Aikawa, this drink has all the luckies for today.

This is amazing!

The visual impact sure is something!

H-He's drinking it normally...

...or not.

Horrible! Tastes like puke! No, really, it's horrible like puke!

There's zero culinary sense in this!

You'll know if you have some, too!

Try it! It's horrible like puke!

No, thanks. I could guess the taste by looking at it. And I know about that series.

Ryo-tas wants to try some...

Nothing less from you, Ryo-tas. It's horrible like puke.

What's this? I put all the luckies for today on this,

and you say it tastes horrible? How rude!