Horizon:GT2 Chapter11

Chapter 11: Sniffing and Deduction

Deduction is

A theory based on speculation

It’s really no more than that

Point Allocation (Hypothesized Truth)

●

Naito placed the Magie Figur “boards” on the ground along the lines where Mitotsudaira smelled blood the strongest.

“The indents suggest the boards should be spaced about 3mm apart, I think,” she said.

“You can see a lot of the ground below them,” noted Mitotsudaira.

“With gaps this size, would the tension cause the blood to gather on the underside of the boards before dripping down?”

Naito indicated what she meant with a gesture and Mitotsudaira’s eyebrows rose. Then she nodded.

“You know a lot about this.”

“Yes, but remember this is only based on my imagination. These boards were originally used to support the tatami mats, but each mat can bend a fair bit. So they would curve like this with the weight of someone on top of them.”

Naito spread her right hand out horizontally and created a downwards indentation. Then she used her left hand to represent blood dripping down from the bottom.

“So the boards would bend, the blood would gather there, and then it would fall. I’m guessing the victims ended up collapsed on this board and this one, with one board in between them.”

“You mean their bodies weren’t on that center board?” asked Mitotsudaira.

“I can’t say for sure yet.”

But there was one thing she thought she knew.

“Mito-tsan, Let’s say they died on these outer boards. Now, let’s look at the ground even further out than those outer boards. Where do you smell blood the strongest?”

“Let’s see.” The wolf’s nose twitched as she moved around the Magie Figur “boards.”

But eventually…

“Huh?”

She made another circuit around them before turning to Naito.

“Margot, can I step on these Magie Figurs?”

“Go for it.”

The wolf got down on all fours and sniffed around. Just like a dog. No, wait. That’s To-chan’s joke. But she really lifts her butt when she goes into sniffing mode. If she does that around To-chan, he’ll definitely touch her butt. Touch it a whole lot.

…Especially when she wiggles it like that.

○

Silver Wolf: “T-time out! This is slander against my king!”

Horizey: “In that case, Mitotsudaira-sama, go into sniffing mode with your butt directed our way.”

Silver Wolf: “Eh? Y-you mean like this?”

Girls: “…He’d definitely touch it.”

Still Got It: “That’s it, Nate! More of that!”

Silver Wolf: “Can we please move on!?”

●

Mitotsudaira noticed something for the first time after seeing the virtual boards.

…The boards parted the blood to the sides.

She had known the blood spilled from the boards, but she hadn’t had a clear width in mind. But Adele and Margot had given her that now.

“The scent is strongest on either side of this central board. And it gets weaker at the ends of the left and right boards. I could tell the victims were a man and a woman yesterday because, while the blood was mixed in the center, it was clearly separated on the sides. But…”

“The fire was set in advance and while it burned, the blood dripped down and gathered on the underside of the boards,” said Margot. “The blood that fell into the central gaps mixed together, but the blood that fell on the outer gaps was burned and solidified separately, right?”

“The boards were taken away, so they must have been burned badly enough to break away.”

“I did not see them in my check,” said Tenzou.

Did that mean the remnants of the dried blood pools were the best circumstantial evidence they had?

But something else bothered Mitotsudaira.

“This is odd. I’m not sure why, but this doesn’t feel right.”

“What about it?”

“The distribution of the blood.”

Margot stood on the right board.

“I’ll be on this side,” she said.

“Then I will be on this side,” said Mitotsudaira.

Mitotsudaira stood on the left board. They both faced the entrance and Adele stood on the central board, facing them.

“We’re assuming the killer was in front of them like this, right?”

“Right,” said Margot, holding her right thumb to her neck and pulling it to the side.

She mimed slitting her throat.

“And then I’m killed like this. Mito-tsan too.”

“Judge,” agreed Adele. Then Margot crouched down.

“Then the blood gushes from our necks.”

“Gushes?”

“Oh, my gush! Look at it gushing gusher!”

Let’s just say that was a divine transmission from Kimi.

“Oh, sorry, Mito! There’s too much noise for a divine transmission to reach us from Musashi!”

“Oh, really? Then let’s say a Mikawa mysterious phenomenon made me imagine it.”

Mysterious phenomena sure are convenient.

Anyway, Mitotsudaira and Margot sat down and imagined their necks were badly bleeding.

“Most of the blood would gather on the board in front of us. Right, Adele?”

“Judge, that’s right.”

“Then,” said Mitotsudaira, looking to Margot.

The Schwarz Hexen nodded with eyebrows raised, so Mitotsudaira nodded back and spoke.

“Why did a different amount of blood fall on the right and left of the boards?”

●

Adele didn’t know what Mitotsudaira meant at first.

“Eh? The amount of blood on the sides is different?”

What that meant was the biggest question here. But…

…Umm.

Adele thought back on the performance those two had done.

They had faced her, sat down, had their throats slit, and let the blood fall to the boards below, but…

“There’s a different amount of blood on either side of where they were sitting?”

“Judge. Based on the strength of the blood scent below, there wasn’t as much on the outer sides and there was more on the inner sides.”

What did that mean? Adele tried to imagine it.

“U-um. When they had their throats slit, was it done on the side of their throat corresponding to the inner side of their board?”

“If so, the killer either switched which hand they held the blade in between killings, or killed one with a forehand slash and the other with a backhand slash. Or there were two killers with different dominant hands and each one killed one of the victims.”

“Hmm.”

Was one of those the answer? Were those plausible? But while Adele thought about it…

“Why would they need to do it that way? They could have just slashed both victims the same way.”

Doubt filled her mind and the wolf provided more information while sniffing her nose.

“The arteries and veins are in different locations, so the blood will spray in a specific direction immediately after the cut. But unless they turned their hand around between cuts, the blood should have flowed in the same direction. Also…”

Naito continued for Mitotsudaira. While pressing down on her head with her right hand.

“Hostages will resist and the head needs to be supported when it’s cut, so the killer probably held the victims’ heads with their other hand.”

If so, thought Adele. “They wouldn’t have moved the weapon to their other hand.”

“Hm. So would that mean there were two killers with different dominant hands?” asked Tenzou. “When Honda Masazumi-dono was attacked last night, it looked to me like there were multiple attackers.”

“In that case, some of them could have been setting the fire while two of them killed the victims and then they all escaped.”

“Hmm,” groaned the Extra Special Duty Officer while Naito placed her left hand on her throat and pulled it left, to the inner side between the two of them.

“Oh.”

Adele realized something that let her reject one of their theories.

“That isn’t possible. Two killers couldn’t have killed the victims at the same time.”

That was impossible. Because…

“If both wounds were on the inner side, then from my perspective, the slash to Naito-san’s neck would have to go right and the slash to the Extra Special Duty Officer’s neck would have to go left. And if they did that…”

“Their arms would collide before they finished the slashes,” said the Extra Special Duty Officer.

She beat me to the punch!

○

Silver Wolf: “Adele? I still have some soup left? Do you want it?”

Flat Vassal: “N-no, I don’t need to be comforted for something that happened that long ago! And in a way, that was me working as a vassal to assist a knight, so it’s perfectly fine!”

●

Mitotsudaira heard Tenzou call out “wait”.

“Then what if a single killer killed one of them first and then, for some reason, moved the blade to their other hand and killed the other?”

“Do you know why they would have switched hands?” asked Mitotsudaira.

“Maybe the blood spray got their hand wet and their grip slipped?”

“Were they holding it barehanded?” asked Margot.

Even the Far East’s standard gloves were made to have non-slip grips. Those grips were three-dimensional and would lock onto whatever you held, so they wouldn’t slip off just from getting wet. Plus…

“The blade would have a grip too,” said Mitotsudaira.

“Then why is there more blood on the inner sides?”

Margot tilted her head and stood up. Mitotsudaira did the same.

…How can we explain this?

Mitotsudaira thought about it.

This mystery weirdly bothered her. The blood should have spilled off equally, but it tended toward the center instead.

…Could there have been something heavy placed across the center board?

That would cause the center board to bend the most and the blood would flow toward the center. But a weight like that would have left a mark in the center of the blood pool once the boards burned away and it fell.

But Mitotsudaira’s nose and eyes detected no trace of that in the center of the blood pool.

There was evidence of something having fallen below the left and right boards, but she couldn’t tell what.

What could that have been?

She didn’t know. So she decided to speak her thoughts aloud. But Margot ended up saying the exact same thing at the same time.

“What a mys-”

They paused in surprise at their identical words, but then they smiled bitterly and turned to face each other.

“It really is a mystery, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is. Maybe we’re wasting our time trying to figure this out.”

Just as the Schwarz Hexen said that while facing her, Mitotsudaira had a realization.

…Could it be?

The instant it came to her…

“Margot, stay right there.”

She immediately put her idea to action.

She reenacted the murder.

●

Adele saw the answer before her eyes.

It was a simple answer taking the distribution of blood into account.

The Extra Special Duty Officer held her hand out to Naito’s neck.

And she placed a hand on her own neck too.

Then she pulled the hands to the side.

“Then the blood spills like that,” said Adele when the answer came to her.

Everything was the same as before except for the direction those two were facing. Naito and the Extra Special Duty Officer were no longer sitting and facing ahead.

“So the victims were facing each other!” said Tenzou. “And that’s why the blood was mostly in between them!”

Now he beat me to the punch!

○

Scarred: “U-um, should I compliment Master Tenzou’s cleverness here?”

Gold Mar: “Wouldn’t you also be criticizing Adele for being slow?”

Art-Ga: “You’re as bad as Neshinbara, Adele.”

Flat Vassal: “Th-that’s the most painful insult yet!”

●

Naito found this unusual.

…Isn’t that weird? Why would they have been facing each other?

Mitotsudaira tilted her head, presumably considering the same question.

“Maybe the two of them had some information the killer wanted out of them, so the killer killed one in front of the other to scare it out of them.”

“But the inn was already on fire and didn’t the blood pools dry the same amount?”

“So the two were killed at the same time while facing each other?”

That was the only conclusion. But something wasn’t adding up.

…This is strange.

The situation was strange, but it shouldn’t seem strange if they had a proper understanding of the circumstances.

So while they had gone through a number of deductions…

“Are we making a fundamental misunderstanding here?” asked Naito.

“Judge. I think so too,” said Mitotsudaira. “We deduced what we could about the murders based on the circumstantial evidence, but the answer that gives us doesn’t seem right. But…”

But…

“If that answer is the truth, then one of our earlier assumptions must be wrong. We have failed to understand a fundamental fact about this case.”

“So what do we have right and what do we have wrong?” asked Adele.

Naito took a look around.

“This isn’t good…”

She felt like this case was headed in a dangerous direction.

But she said it anyway. Because that was what a Technohexen did.

“I can’t be sure, but…”

She took a breath and said it.

“I think they killed each other.”

●

Mitotsudaira turned toward Margot.

“Killed each other?”

“What do you think, Mito-tsan?”

“Well,” replied Mitotsudaira, taking another look around. “I think this was a double suicide.”

●

Mitotsudaira saw it as a double suicide, not a murder case.

…That answers a lot of our questions.

Why did they die after the fire had already spread to a dangerous extent?

Why was most of their blood spilled into the center area between them?

“After working up their resolve…they killed themselves while facing each other.”

The blood had spilled into the center at first. Then they had collapsed and the blood had spread out to the sides.

Of course the deaths had happened after the fire had spread. Because they had intended to die in the fire. But…

“Why did you think they killed each other, Margot?”

“Well…I think this is something you forgot because you’re so used to Far Eastern culture.”

“Eh?”

Mitotsudaira saw Adele look over at her in sudden realization.

“Um, Extra Special Duty Officer, when you hear about someone killing themselves, what do you picture in your head?”

“Eh? Well…”

She had provisionally inherited the name of Mito Matsudaira. So…

“The Far Eastern method would be seppuku?”

She said it as a question because she was technically a knight sent from Hexagone Française. But when she considered the Gallican ways of her homeland…

“Oh, suicide is forbidden by Catholicism, isn’t it?”

Recalling that was enough for her to realize the truth. At least as far as who these two had been.

“They were Europeans, weren’t they?”

She could guess they were Catholic. Most likely, from Tres España.

The wounds on their throats were proof enough of that.

They had not killed themselves via disembowelment. They had slit their throats.

But Catholicism didn’t allow suicide, so the answer was obvious.

Now she knew why Margot had said they killed each other and why she had said this wasn’t good. Simply put…

“They killed each other so they would only be guilty of murder.”

○

Wise Sister: “Heh heh. So why was that clever ninja so quiet through all this? Surely he had more detailed advice to give after stealing Adele’s line.”

Gold Mar: “Hm, I think he did say some things, but none it stuck in my memory, so he doesn’t get any lines. I think there was some Tenzou-ness in that last conversation, but I don’t feel like figuring out what it was. Sorry, Ma-yan.”

Scarred: “N-no, that earlier line was enough for me. I can ask Master Tenzou about the rest later!”

Unturning: “So it can be your shared secret?”

Art-Ga: “ ‘He’s at it again’…and posted.”

Asama: “Naruze, what thread do you keep posting in?”

●

“Um.” Naito raised her hand, knowing it probably wouldn’t do any good. “Just a reminder that there’s no shame in turning tail and running when things get dangerous.”

She looked ahead to their class’s wolf, but…

…Didn’t work.

Look at the way Mito-tsan’s eyebrows are raised. She’s super excited.

That’s not good. She’s definitely going to get involved in this. And then word will get around to To-chan somehow. Probably. Definitely.

…Sigh.

Yeah, there’s no doubt about that. Our class is going to solve this one.

Not the Chancellor’s Officers, not the Student Council, not the committees, not the government office, not Mikawa, and not anyone else.

Our class – Class Plum – is going to clean up this mess.

But she was worried about one thing.

“You get what this means, don’t you? This Catholic couple traveled to Mikawa through P.A. Oda to escape pursuit. Then they killed each other in a way that was bound to be noticed. And now Tres España is trying to cover it up and Mikawa isn’t sure what to do about it.”

“My! Then we need to help settle their regrets.”

She doesn’t get it at all.

Naito sighed, but she was more or less ready to do this. When she contacted Ga-chan later on for advice, she would probably already be on “that side”.

So she needed to come to terms with this. But something else also bothered her a little.

“Were the weapons they used not found?”

“I heard a single burned knife was collected from the scene,” said Mitotsudaira.

“Was the single weapon why they decided this was a murder case?”

“So if they did kill each other as a form of suicide, where did the other weapon go?”

“It could be around somewhere, but you can also slit someone’s throat with a spell.”

That made sense. After all…

“I bet the knife they found was a Tres España weapon. Their San Mercado is a major brand. Having the country of origin determined or suspected from the weapon would be a problem, so Mikawa will probably keep it hidden.”

“San Mercado?” asked Tenzou with a tilt of the head. He raised his right hand. “When Honda Masazumi-dono was attacked last night, she drew a San Mercado knife. What could that mean?”

“Probably just a coincidence,” said Mitotsudaira. “I mean, the one we know about was burned, so wouldn’t the other one be too?”

“Hard to say,” said Naito. “I say we hold off on determining if that knife is connected to all this or not.”

Naito could sense the danger of this case rising. It kept doubling over and over again. But…

…What is going on here?

She honestly had no clue. But they did have some facts.

“Asama-chi, can you contact that Honda Masazumi and-”

Before she could say more, a sign frame opened next to her face. One appeared by Asama’s hands too.

It said…

“Divine transmission restrictions? First the frozen requests and now this!?”

●

Mitotsudaira hurriedly opened a sign frame. But…

“Oh?”

A frame following her personal setup appeared, but some of it couldn’t access the data it needed.

Those areas instead displayed a black frame with the word “restricted” inside. A closer look showed an explanation.

“To prevent an illicit leek of datums regarding the recent merger case in Threekawa, Three España has been given divinity transmit authority for every one of Threekawa visiting peoples. -This text has been translated into Far Yeastern for your convenience.”

“Tomo…I think my sign frame’s translation program is busted,” said Mitotsudaira.

“No, this wasn’t us,” said Asama. “They must have translated it themselves before sending it over.”

“This part about a ‘merger’ case was supposed to say ‘murder’, wasn’t it? And that last part where it says ‘Far Yeastern’ is really pushing it. Like they were getting stuff wrong on purpose.”

Who was the “they” those two were talking about?

“This came from Tres España,” said Mitotsudaira.

“Correct,” said a voice.

She had sensed them coming. The scent of metal had been unmistakable. It came from…

“Tres España Inquisition Ship Captain Don Rodrigo.”

She turned around to see a vermilion uniform. The girl looked to about their age and she bowed before speaking.

“As our on-site representative, I have decided the importance of this case warrants some data restrictions. Any frequent external access and excessive inspection poses a threat.”

“Then…”

“Testament.” The girl nodded and raised her right hand. “I do apologize, but I have caught you red-handed. I must impose some data restrictions on you.”

She produced a cadena firma. It was…

…A Catholic data restriction spell!

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