stonecrandall Page 25
Page 25
Logically, at this time, the only person running into the village should be a detective he invited to investigate.
And that was indeed the case. Apart from Hoshimiya Yu and Xiaolan, none of the other tourists even entered the village; they all went sightseeing instead.
Hoshimiya Hayao, who had been observing Asai Makoto, smiled.
You're kidding yourself! Who would have thought Uncle Mori would be so unreliable and just go back?
Makoto Asai acted very well; if Hoshimiya Hayao hadn't known the inside story beforehand, he wouldn't have been able to detect the flaws.
But once you've already made your judgment, you can immediately spot many deliberate attempts at execution.
034 Moonlight Piano Music Murder Case
Hoshimiya Yu believed that even if Ran didn't ask for directions, Asai Makoto, who happened to be leaving the clinic, would take the initiative to greet her.
Then he deliberately brought up Tokyo and his own background, and finally, regardless of whether others were interested, he forced a popular science explanation of the village chief election.
After observing Asai Makoto with interest for a while, Hoshimiya Yu deliberately said, "Dr. Asai seems a little disappointed. Did you not find the person you wanted to see?"
"Ah...no, it's not."
Makoto Asai suddenly snapped out of his daze and realized that the handsome man with black hair and red eyes was staring at him with a faint smile.
"What is Dr. Asai disappointed about?"
"No, I am not disappointed. Mr. Hoshimiya is mistaken."
Asai Makoto put on his previous innocent smile and said enthusiastically, "You two should hurry up and find a hotel, or there might not be any rooms left."
Undeterred, Hoshiguma Yu stepped forward, staring at the other woman's beautiful face, and asked, "Dr. Asai, are you urging us to leave because you feel guilty?"
Looking into Xing Gongyu's red eyes, which held a strange meaning, she trembled slightly and subconsciously looked away.
Being watched by Hoshino Yu, she felt as if her thoughts had been completely read.
Just as Makoto Asai was flustered and unsure how to answer, Ran's voice rang out.
“Hoshimiya-nii-san, don’t make things difficult for Dr. Asai.”
Ran has a good impression of Makoto Asai, this warm and gentle older sister.
“Lan, I’m not making things difficult for her; on the contrary, I’m helping her.”
After confirming that Makoto Asai was a woman, Yu Hoshimiya was determined to save her.
In front of the two women, he took out the letter of authorization and said, "Dr. Asai, this letter should be the one you sent to Uncle Mori, right?"
Makoto Asai stared at the letter for a while before turning his gaze to Yu Hoshimiya.
"It really is you guys, but where is Detective Mori?"
Makoto Asai did not answer directly, but the answer was already obvious at that moment.
Xiao Lan covered her mouth, looking surprised.
Unexpectedly, a random person I met on the street turned out to be the client hiding behind the scenes.
Even more unexpectedly, Hoshiguma Yu realized the truth so quickly.
"Uncle Mori has already gone back."
Hoshigumi Yu waved the letter in her hand, raised her chin, and gestured towards the clinic, saying, "I'm taking over this case now. Won't you invite us in to talk?"
Without hesitating for long, Makoto Asai led Hoshimiya and the other person into the clinic, then locked the door and hung up a sign saying he was going out.
After making sure no one would disturb her, she slowly asked, "How did you find out?"
Because I knew it from the beginning.
Hoshimiya Yu would never answer like that.
"That's not the key point. The key point is that I know what you want to do next."
In stark contrast to her previous gentle demeanor, Hoshiguma Yu said seriously, "I know you want revenge, but that will ruin your life too."
"As long as the police don't find out, it'll be fine."
After being discovered, Makoto Asai stopped pretending and said casually, "Just like those four people who killed my whole family back then."
Ran listened from the side, completely bewildered, not knowing what riddles Hoshimiya Hayao and Asai Makoto were playing.
It wasn't until the words "kill the whole family" appeared that she belatedly realized that Makoto Asai was the one who had commissioned the investigation into the true cause of death of the Aso family.
And it seems their relationship is quite close.
"Dr. Asai..."
Ran wanted to persuade Asai Makoto to give up his revenge, but she didn't know how to bring it up.
Sensing Ran's sincere feelings, Makoto Asai smiled gently and said, "I wonder if you two have time to hear the story from twelve years ago?"
She asked these questions, but before Xing Gongyu and Xiao Lan could respond, she began to tell her own story.
"Twelve years ago, I was receiving treatment at a hospital in Tokyo..."
What Makoto Asai said was almost identical to what Hagumi Hoshimiya remembered, except that Makoto Asai was indeed a woman.
Keiji Aso had two daughters, but due to his desire for a son to inherit the family business, coupled with the strong preference for sons on the island, it was easy to be looked down upon by others if there were no boys in the family.
Therefore, after discussion, the Aso couple kept saying that their first child was a boy.
The original plan was to have another boy and then switch identities between the two.
Unexpectedly, the second one was also a daughter.
So Makoto Asai continued to live as a boy.
There is little difference between boys and girls in childhood, and the Aso couple deliberately cut Asai Makoto's hair short and dressed him up like a boy, so no one else noticed.
The original plan was to move the whole family to Tokyo once the two children were older, especially after Makoto Asai's health improved.
At that time, Asai Makoto will be able to regain his female identity.
The Aso couple even came up with a new name for Makoto Asai: Makoto Asai.
But to everyone's surprise, just after returning from abroad, his entire family was brutally murdered because he refused to continue cooperating with drug trafficking.
Only Asai Makoto, who was in poor health and hospitalized for a long time, escaped the disaster.
In fact, she survived largely thanks to the fabricated gender.
Of course, she couldn't use a false gender when receiving treatment at the hospital; in the hospital's records, she was always listed as a girl.
After murdering Keiji Aso and his family of three, the four members of the Kuroiwa gang certainly did not forget their last remaining son, Makoto Aso.
However, they sent people to search various hospitals in Tokyo, but they couldn't find it.
They sent people to find a boy, but it was actually a girl, which is how Makoto Asai escaped this predicament.
What followed was exactly the same as what Hoshimiya Yu remembered.
She was adopted by an elderly couple surnamed Asai. After her adoptive parents died, she went to the island as a female doctor to investigate the true cause of death of her parents and sister.
She had been on Moonshadow Island for over a year, and not long ago she couldn't hold back any longer and took the initiative to confess her identity to the former village chief.
Seeing that Asai Makoto looked almost exactly like his mother, the previous village chief couldn't even deceive himself and was so frightened that he had a heart attack.
After recounting the truth of the past twelve years in a rambling monologue, he died of a heart attack.
Knowing the truth, Makoto Asai wants revenge and plans to kill the other three murderers, but he also wants to clarify the truth of twelve years ago, so he anonymously asks Kogoro Mouri to investigate Tsukikage Island.
Makoto Asai's original plan was to keep his method of murder a secret, and Kogoro Mouri even found clues from the three murdered people, thus clarifying the case from twelve years ago.
In this way, she not only completed her revenge, but also cleared the name of the Aso family from the wrongful conviction twelve years ago.
All I can say about Hoshiguma Yu is that she's beautiful and has pretty big ideas.
No matter how you look at it, a case from twelve years ago is more difficult to investigate than a murder case that just happened.
Moreover, while the four individuals were the direct perpetrators of the Aso family tragedy, the other elderly people on Tsukikage Island also bear some responsibility.
The profits from the drug trafficking activities of the four former village chiefs did not only benefit themselves, but also the entire generation on the island.
Such a strange fire, how could no one have missed something amiss, they just chose to ignore it?
Because Keiji Aso's choice threatened everyone's interests, apart from the four main culprits, the others were also afraid that he would leak information.
Even after Keiji Aso's death, the four village chiefs who took over stopped out of fear, but drug trafficking still continued to occur secretly on the island.
The piano used to hide drugs was the only one left behind by Keiji Aso.
035 Wishing you great success in your military endeavors.
"The drug trafficking case involving the entire Moonshadow Island originated from a fire incident twelve years ago that has already been classified as a crime... Without evidence, reasoning alone cannot clarify the matter, and it will not even be reported in the media."
After hearing Makoto Asai's story, Yu Hoshimiya also shared her true thoughts.
"I underestimated the situation."
After a long silence, Makoto Asai took a deep breath and said, "I can let others go, but I must kill those three murderers."
"Dr. Asai, murder is wrong. Let's call the police."
Xiaolan clenched her fists and stood up excitedly, saying, "The police will definitely be able to find evidence. Even if the police can't, I know a detective who can definitely help you solve this problem."
Hoshimiya Yu remained silent. If Asai Makoto were so easily persuaded, he wouldn't have chosen to self-immolate after the incident.
For Makoto Asai, revenge is probably his only goal in this life.
Makoto Asai smiled but didn't respond to Ran; he simply said thank you politely.
Looking into Makoto Asai's gentle yet unwavering eyes, Ran knew that he still hadn't given up on his revenge.
Ran mustered her courage and said earnestly, "Dr. Asai, no matter what, killing is wrong, and I will definitely stop you."
Upon hearing this, Makoto Asai, who always smiled when talking about the case from twelve years ago, stopped smiling for the first time.
She looked at Xiaolan seriously as well, "You can report me afterward, but you can't stop me."
Ran wanted to say something more, but Makoto Asai had already opened the clinic door.
"Take care, gentlemen. I won't see you off."
“Hoshimiya-nii-san, I…”
Xiaolan anxiously held Xinggong Yu's hand. Her long-term education prevented her from knowing about this matter and simply watching it happen.
Hoshimiya Yu understood the inner turmoil Xiaolan was going through, but that was precisely his purpose.
Through Makoto Asai's experience, she realized that the world is not simply black and white.
More often than not, gray is the dominant color of the world.
“Lan, when the law fails to bring justice to the parties involved, private revenge becomes justified, even noble, from that moment on.”
Looking into Ran's amethyst eyes, Hoshimiya Yu calmly said, "That's a famous quote from Sherlock Holmes. Kudo probably never mentioned it to you."
Having grown up with Shinichi Kudo since childhood, Ran's values have been greatly influenced by him.
Shinichi Kudo's idol, Sherlock Holmes, is also considered Ran's mentor in life.
But she had never heard this phrase from Shinichi Kudo, and Shinichi Kudo had never told her that Holmes deliberately let the criminal go.
After all, Shinichi Kudo, that devil of justice, had long since selectively forgotten a part of Sherlock Holmes's humanity.
He can only see what he wants to see, let alone convey it to Xiaolan.
"If the police were effective, the Aso family wouldn't have suffered injustice for twelve years."
Hoshimiya Yu began to show Ran the cruel truth of this world: "Even if you let Kudo investigate, even if he deduces the truth, so many years have passed, there is no evidence left, and you still can't bring those three drug dealers to justice."
"How...how could this happen..."
Xiaolan's values were greatly impacted, but she is a normal person and can listen to advice.
More importantly, Asai's honesty made her realize that Hoshimiya Ha was right.
"When the law fails to bring justice to the parties involved, private revenge becomes legitimate, even noble, from that moment on..."
Makoto Asai softly repeated Hoshimiya Hayao's words, a slight smile playing on his lips.
"I like what Mr. Hoshimiya said, but unfortunately, no matter what, murder is not allowed, so I will turn myself in afterward."
Hoshino Yu glanced at her sideways. Was it a confession? It should be self-immolation.