People are in Conan, but Ace Attorney

Chapter 932 The Almighty Thread
"Hey, this is..."

Xiang Yuanguang squatted down as well, his gaze falling on the legs of the piano stool.

There are obvious abnormal marks on the legs of this wooden stool, as if something had strangled it and cut into the wood, leaving such deep scratches on the surface.

Just by looking at this stool leg, he immediately knew what one of the murder weapons was.

The lawyer in blue stood up, sighed, and rubbed his forehead.

"Fishing line again, isn't it?"

Fishing line holds a significant place in many mysterious and bizarre murder cases. In any case, the presence of ligature marks almost always indicates that the murder weapon is related to fishing line.

As a tool used for fishing, the fishing line is strong enough and fine enough to be hard to see if one is not paying attention.

One of the murder weapons was clearly fishing line. Even if it wasn't fishing line, it was something similar, such as silkworm silk, kite line, or some other thread-like thing that is hard to see if you don't pay attention.

Upon hearing Xiang Yuanguang's words, Gui Yueying also stood up, placed her hands in front of her chest, and nodded seriously.

"That's right. If I'm not mistaken, the murderer likely used a tool similar to a fishing line to carry out a nearly impossible, unusual method of killing, based on my deduction..."

Within her line of sight.

A mysterious shadowy figure has appeared inside the piano room and, following the murder method deduced by Ghost Moon Firefly, has begun setting up murder traps inside the piano room for use in the subsequent murder.

The man first wrapped the hilt of the longsword with silk thread, then looped it around the handle of the crystal chandelier at the top of the piano room.

Using this method, the longsword was successfully pulled up. Then, part of the silk thread was tied to the four legs of the piano bench, wrapped around them, and finally the silk thread was wrapped around the handle of the tuning fork.

Use the corner of the piano bench to hold down the tuning fork, ensuring the thread won't come loose.

In this way, as long as someone pulls the tuning fork out from under the piano bench, the threads on the tuning fork will come loose on their own because there is nothing to hold them down.

The longsword above, no longer bound by silk threads, will fall naturally and kill the person below.

Ghost Moon Firefly clearly explained the method of murder she had deduced.

The forensic officers nearby were shocked and quickly went out to call other forensic officers to bring a ladder. Then, with a camera hanging on his arm, he climbed up the ladder to check the condition of the chandelier handle.

Last night, the light source was below the crystal chandelier, and the scratches were not very noticeable.

Therefore, the forensic officers were completely unaware of the scratches until earlier today, when, after being reminded by Guiyue Ying, they deliberately checked the handle of the chandelier.

Sure enough, there really were those unexplained scratches from the murder method described by Ghost Moon Firefly!
Click.

The forensic officers were convinced of this, took out their cameras and took a few pictures, then climbed down the stairs.

Standing beside Gui Yueying, he no longer cared whether his salary assessment would be put to the test—that was not something he could decide. All he could decide now was to confirm the specific situation again.

He then asked seriously,

“Prosecutor Ghost Moon, even if that’s the case, the silk thread is merely a murder tool that exists only in theory.”

"Whether it's the hilt of the longsword, the handle of the crystal chandelier, or the leg of the stool, we can only find scratches, but not the thread you described."

"If these scratches were indeed left during the murder, then where is the thread?"

Upon hearing this question, Guiyue Ying showed no sign of panic whatsoever.

She simply led the forensic officer to the window, lightly touched a corner of the windowpane with her finger, and then directly answered the forensic officer's question.
"If things go as expected, the silk thread should have fallen into the sea." — The silk thread fell into the sea? What does that mean?
A hint of doubt appeared in the eyes of the forensic officers.

He noticed a scratch along the edge of the window that ran from the inside to the outside, but he couldn't understand how Guiyue Ying had come to that conclusion.

"Probably one end of the thread was connected to the outside of the window, and then something heavy was hung outside the window."

"Once the tuning fork under the piano bench is pulled out, the silk thread attached to it slips off, causing the weight outside to fall along with the thread. Then, the knot at the other end of the rope automatically loosens, allowing the longsword to fall, and so on..."

Before Guiyue Ying could answer, Xiang Yuanguang spoke first.

He looked up at the crystal chandelier above him, a hint of doubt in his eyes.

Honestly, no matter how thin or inconspicuous the thread is, it shouldn't have wrapped around the outside of the piano bench and then hung down to the window without anyone noticing, right?

If such a method of murder could succeed, then it can only mean that Gerald Pegasus was too careless.

If it were him, upon seeing such an amazing arrangement in the piano room, he would at least want to check where the wires were connected, satisfying his curiosity before doing anything else.

—Never mind, let's respect the dead.

Regardless, now that the case has occurred, it's pointless to investigate whether Gerald Tenma was careless at the time; it's enough to reconstruct the killer's method of murder.

Xiang Yuanguang took another sip of coffee.

After receiving the answer, the forensic officer scribbled notes in his notebook, then looked up and asked,

"Then, is it still necessary to go to Kanami Saki's bedroom?"

"Lady Kanami Saki was reportedly attacked by Jellal Tenma in her room last night. Moreover, Jellal Tenma escaped through the window and then went around to enter through the front door..."

In any case, this is outrageous.

Xiang Yuanguang shook his head slightly.

However, Guiyue Ying stopped paying attention to the situation in the piano room and went to the forensic officer's side, speaking seriously.

"Yes, please remove the barricades from Mrs. Kanami Saki's bedroom. I want to go in and investigate."

"By the way, where's Officer Takagi? I just saw him at the door... Did he go out for something?"

Her questions were a bit tricky.

Out of consideration for their past as colleagues, the forensic officer didn't stab Takagi Wataru in the back at that moment. He merely smirked and then replied,

"Takagi said he went on patrol and asked me to accompany Prosecutor Kizuki and Attorney Mukai to continue the investigation."

Upon hearing this, Gui Yueying and Xiang Yuanguang exchanged a glance.

Needless to say, Takagi Wataru was probably worried about problems with his salary assessment, so he went into hiding beforehand. It's nothing serious; he'll come out on his own once the investigation is over.

She didn't press further, only saying,

"Then please lead the way."

(End of this chapter)