People are in Conan, but Ace Attorney

Chapter 930 Thinking about problems from another direction

"Reverse the line of thinking?"

Gui Yueying repeated the sentence.

Then, she looked down at the floor, at the white line inside the victim's body—clearly the gap left by the sword piercing the floor—before looking up at the chandelier again and said,
"You mean, by working backward from the result that [a longsword was hidden inside the chandelier and pierced Gerald Pegasus precisely to his death], we can deduce the [possibility] of creating this outcome?"

—There are just too many possibilities.

Furthermore, how can one ensure that the result derived from backwards is not wrong? If one starts from an incorrect result, then whatever possibilities one deduces will ultimately be wrong, right?

Gui Yueying thought to herself.

However, she did not bring it up, but instead chose to try to figure it out on her own.

Everything around her began to rewind again, centered on where she stood. Geralt Tenma stood there arguing with Kanazane, and then the longsword fell, stabbing Geralt Tenma to death on the floor.

"...That doesn't seem right."

she said softly.

If Gerald Pegasus was standing upright in front of Kanazono, directly below the longsword of the crystal chandelier, which is why he was pierced through the back and pinned to the floor by the longsword, then...

Therefore, this result cannot be achieved through any process.

Even if a person is standing on the ground and leans forward, it's impossible for their back and waist to be completely out of sync. They're not dancing like Michael Jackson; they're arguing with someone.

In other words, if this result is to be achieved...

Therefore, Geralt Pegasus could not have been standing while arguing with Kanazono, but rather in a position that would expose his back. Only in this way could he possibly be pierced through the body and nailed to death by the longsword in that position.

"Is Mr. Gana lying? Or... is he just too panicked to notice this fact?"

"Ghost Moon Firefly said in a low voice."

If that's the case, it's likely that Ganashan was intentionally concealing the truth of the case, eliminating himself as a suspect while allowing the real culprit to disappear without a trace.

In that case, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department would close the case according to the standard conclusion for unnatural death.

Compared to cases where the killer is found and the case is closed, cases ending in unnatural deaths make up the majority of cases in this country, if that's what Kana Yoshino really thinks and does.

I'm afraid his performance last night was just acting.

"Kana Zenzuru? He's probably not the murderer, and he really doesn't know who the murderer is."

Xiang Yuanguang took a sip of coffee and said slowly.

Hearing this, Gui Yueying turned to look at Xiang Yuanguang, wondering how he had come to this conclusion, but then she heard what Xiang Yuanguang said next.
"He believes he is not the murderer and that he is likely to be arrested by Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department officers as the murderer, so he has already spent a lot of money to hire a lawyer to help him."

Upon hearing this, Takagi Wataru subconsciously asked,

"I see. So, Attorney Xiang Yuan, how did you know that?"

Upon hearing this question, Xiang Yuanguang paused for a moment before answering.

"Because I was the first lawyer he hired."

“I met with him once and learned about the situation. I can basically confirm that he is not the murderer and does not know anything about the murderer. He just overlooked this aspect.”

"Well, when handling cases in different places, you always encounter witnesses like this that give you high blood pressure, don't you?"

The blue-skinned lawyer's words were undoubtedly heartfelt after experiencing much hardship. He had encountered witnesses who caused him high blood pressure more than once, and compared to them, Kanazan was actually quite alright, because what he said was not problematic; he simply omitted part of the process of Gerald Tenma's death.

The process of Gerald Pegasus's death can be summarized as Gerald Pegasus dying during an argument with him.

"The real process of Gerald Pegasus's death was that he was arguing with Kanazono while tuning the piano, and then he was pierced and nailed to death by a longsword in front of Kanazono."

—Is that how it is?
Gui Yueying nodded.

If that's the case, then it matches the situation she just determined.

Gerald Pegasus was indeed impaled to death by the falling sword in an abnormal fighting posture.

"But why did he maintain that posture at the scene?"

Ghost Moon Firefly asked herself in a low voice.

When asked about this, Xiang Yuanguang simply took a photo from a police officer in the forensic department next to him, placed it in front of Guiyue Ying, and said nothing more.

Although he didn't say a word.

However, when Guiyue Ying saw the photo appear in front of her, she naturally knew that it was Xiang Yuanguang reminding her how to further judge the direction of the case, so she reached out and took the photo.

These are photos taken by forensic officers at the scene after the victim's death.

This photo clearly shows that Gerald Tenma was holding a tuning fork when he died, which proves that Gerald Tenma was indeed stabbed to death by a longsword while using the tuning fork to tune the piano.

But this is a bit strange.

“A tuning fork is used for tuning and should be leaned against the piano. If Gerald Tenma was stabbed to death while tuning, then his body should be leaning against the piano.”

"Ghost Moon Firefly murmured."

Clearly, this is yet another puzzle that needs to be solved.

She recalled the reasoning method that Yuan Guang had just taught her—reversing her train of thought.

If we don't deduce from the conclusion that "Geralt Pegasus was stabbed to death in this strange posture while tuning the tuner," but instead conclude that "Geralt Pegasus was stabbed to death by the longsword because of this tuning fork," then we can proceed to the conclusion that "Geralt Pegasus was stabbed to death by the longsword because of this tuning fork."

Therefore, clues resurfaced in the case that had previously reached a dead end, allowing for further deduction.

"If I were Gerald Pegasus, would I die this way..."

She turned to look at the gap between the piano and the piano bench. If she bent over there, she would be pierced through the body by the long sword in the chandelier and pinned to the floor.

This scene was also repeated within her field of vision.

She walked lightly to the chair, carefully squatted down, and looked at the scene that appeared before her eyes. She adjusted her position again and again until the scene of Gerald Pegasus's death was exactly the same as the white line drawing of a human figure in reality.

Then, Ghost Moon Firefly held a tuning fork loosely and slowly extended it toward the spot where Gerald Pegasus would reach out to grab.

"……organ?"

She then looked up at the window.

If picking up the tuning fork under the stool would lead to Geralt Pegasus being stabbed to death, then there must be a mechanism connected to the longsword. Perhaps we can find clues to continue the deduction by going to the window.

(End of this chapter)