The Daily Life of a Salted Fish Assassin in Anime Crossovers

He stood up and looked at Jiang Hang somewhat nervously: "You're that famous eagle-eyed detective, right?"

Jiang Hang was somewhat surprised by the sudden enthusiasm shown by the other party.

After he admitted his identity, the prop master walked over and asked him about Ōmiya Jūshirō: "Um, Detective, Mr. Ōmiya should be alright, right? This incident should just be a simple accident, right?"

It seems that the prop master has great respect for Ōmiya Jushirō, as his first question was about the other party's situation.

"The case is still under investigation and there should be a conclusion soon. I personally came here to investigate because I wanted to prove Mr. Omiya's innocence."

Although Jiang Hang only heard of Ōmiya Jushirō's name today, and from the beginning he believed that this case was intentional homicide rather than an accident, when communicating with this person who was obviously a fan of Ōmiya Jushirō, Jiang Hang chose to lie through his teeth.

Standing behind Jiang Hang, Mu Chunyuno couldn't help but purse her lips after hearing Jiang Hang's nonsense.

But it seems that the prop master believed Jiang Hang's words without a doubt.

"Detective, if there's anything you'd like to know, just ask me."

Jiang Hang sighed softly, then his gaze fell on the prop master: "Let me tell you something, the police are actually quite suspicious of this case."

The prop master's expression became even more tense: "How could this happen? We all saw it with our own eyes. This should be an accident."

Jiang Hang shrugged: "Although that's the case, according to the police investigation, Mr. Omiya still had a motive to kill Mr. Shirota. After all, the photography studio that had been open for so many years was suddenly going to close down, and the people at the studio probably didn't have a very good impression of the deceased Mr. Shirota."

Upon hearing Jiang Hang's words, Yamamoto's expression changed slightly, revealing that he also harbored no goodwill towards the deceased Shirota Haruhiko.

Jiang Hang didn't say much on this topic, but looked at the other person: "Anyway, I also hope to help prove Mr. Omiya's innocence. The props from the film crew should all be here, right? I've come over to check where the prop knife and the real knife are placed, and I'll ask you some questions as well."

Upon hearing the words "to prove Ōmiya Jūjō's innocence," Yamamoto immediately sprang into action, leading Jiang Hang, Yoshino Kiharu, and the others into the prop warehouse.

On the way, Jiang Hang asked Yamamoto about the situation when Ōmiya Jūshirō came to get the sword earlier that day.

"Does Mr. Ōmiya usually come to retrieve the sword himself?"

Yamamoto sighed and shook his head: "It wasn't like that before. Usually, someone would come and get the props for him. But because the studio is closing down, a lot of people have left. Plus, today's rehearsal was decided on the spot, so Mr. Omiya came and got them himself."

Chapter 329: Chapter 327: Evidence of Intentional Murder

Soon, Jiang Hang saw the cabinet containing real knives and prop knives.

To be honest, each cabinet actually has a label that tells people what they took.

"I think it must be because Mr. Omiya hasn't come to pick up his props himself in a long time, and he's been working too hard lately, so he must have misread the label. This is my dereliction of duty. If I had come to pick up the props for Mr. Omiya in the first place, I would have..." Yamamoto sighed repeatedly as he explained.

Seeing the other person's expression of defending Ōmiya Jūshirō, Jiang Hang followed their line of thought and asked, "Could someone have deliberately switched the positions of the prop sword and the real sword?"

Yamamoto's attitude suddenly became uncertain: "Well... I don't know. There are many people coming and going at the prop warehouse every day, but there are only cameras installed at the entrance. I don't know what the people inside do. But I don't think anyone would deliberately play such a prank, right?"

"And when I went to get the prop knife, it was still in its original place, not in the place of the real knife."

Jiang Hang was naturally aware of this, but he certainly wouldn't say it at this moment.

“That’s hard to say. After all, there are quite a few people in the photography studio who are dissatisfied with Mr. Shirota. Maybe someone knew about tonight’s rehearsal and deliberately did this to scare Mr. Shirota, but they didn’t expect such a serious accident to occur.” Jiang Hang explained to Yamamoto. “Mr. Yamamoto, please think about it. After Mr. Omiya took the real knife, who came here? Maybe the real culprit in this case is among them. To avoid being discovered, he went back to the prop warehouse and put the prop knife back in its original place.”

"However, since Mr. Omiya came here, until the incident at the film crew, no one else has come here," Yamamoto replied somewhat hesitantly.

"Are you sure? I think it's best to check the surveillance footage for this kind of thing."

After receiving Jiang Hang's reply, Yamamoto still had some hesitation in his eyes, but when he thought that Jiang Hang had come to prove Ōmiya Jūshirō's innocence, he nodded vigorously: "I understand, I'll go check the surveillance footage now."

Watching Yamamoto leave in a hurry, Koharu Yuno, who was standing next to Jiang Hang, avoided Mikami Daisuke, who was admiring the other props, and whispered to Jiang Hang, "Jiang Hang, you said that to him on purpose to make him trust you, right? There's really no possibility of that happening, is there?"

Jiang Hang glanced at Yoshino Kiharu: "How do you know there's no such possibility?"

"Because if the goal was just to scare Haruhiko Shirota, there was no need for this at all. According to other crew members, there have been instances of props being mixed up before, but there have been virtually no serious accidents. Moreover, Mr. Omiya has been a period drama actor for over 30 years, so the possibility of an accident is theoretically very low. Perhaps after the rehearsal, no one will even notice the prop knife."

After training at the agency for a few months, Yoshino Kiharu's thinking has become much clearer than before: "If you just want to scare Haruhiko Shirota, there's no need to use this method. I think I'm right."

Jiang Hang nodded, acknowledging Kiharu Yuno's explanation. He had only made it up on the spot, and it was only good enough to fool most people.

“That prop master clearly idolizes Mr. Omiya. If I told him we were here to investigate Mr. Omiya, he might not have cooperated. Now he should be willing to cooperate with our questioning,” Jiang Hang said simply to Muchun Yuno.

Now that the prop master seems to trust him quite a bit, it's less likely that his questions will attract the other party's attention.

After saying that, Jiang Hang began to observe the prop warehouse.

This warehouse contains not only the props currently in use, but also many damaged or obsolete props that have been used for many years.

Soon, Jiang Hang found what he was looking for.

A more refined, but damaged, prop moon.

"This is..." Yuno Kiharu looked at the burnt-looking moon prop with some confusion, seemingly still not understanding why Jiang Hang had specifically looked for this thing.

What's the difference between this moon and the one that's currently hanging on the stage?

“It’s the era,” Jiang Hang offered an answer.

"When I discovered that moon, I noticed that it looked very old, at least ten or twenty years old. Although period dramas and tokusatsu dramas like to use these kinds of props until they are completely unusable, I saw other stills on set, and the moons in those stills from a few years ago were obviously much newer."

"So I wanted to come and take a look, and sure enough, I found this thing. There's even a label on it explaining the details of this prop," Jiang Hang said, pointing to the prop moon.

Yoshino Kiharu leaned closer and, sure enough, saw a newly affixed label on the back of the prop moon. It explained that the moon had been accidentally burned out by a lighting lamp during the morning's work and had been replaced urgently.

"Look, this is the only damaged moon left in the entire prop warehouse, and it even has a 'Needs Repair' label on it. It seems the photography studio is planning to repair it and continue using it," Jiang Hang said to Mu Chun Yuno. "In other words, the prop moon currently hanging on the stage is probably just an emergency backup."

"Could it be that Mr. Omiya knew there were no other spare prop moons, and that he deliberately raised the moon up so as not to affect the filming later?" Yoshino Kiharu made this guess.

"The bloodstains on the background wall are easy to remove, and the bloodstains on the fake tree don't matter even if they're not removed. But if there are bloodstains on the moon, they will be very obvious and not so easy to remove. Is that why Mr. Omiya made this choice?"

"So, Mr. Omiya killed Mr. Shirota with murderous intent?" Although Yoshino Kiharu was still somewhat unwilling to admit this fact, she still expressed her opinion to Jiang Hang.

Jiang Hang did not answer Koharu Yuno's question, but instead kept his gaze on the burned prop moon: "Well then, it's time to go back and have a good talk with Mr. Omiya."

Chapter 330: Chapter 328: The Killing Intent Revealed by the Moon

After concluding the investigation, Jiang Hang led the complex-looking Koharu Yuno back to the crime scene.

He had just returned to the crime scene when he saw Takagi Wataru looking at him with a miserable expression.

Seeing Takagi Wataru's expression, Jiang Hang knew that the plan here had completely failed.

Jiang Hang quickly learned what had just happened from Takagi Wataru's explanation.

Takagi Wataru was testing Ōmiya Jushirō in the manner that had been agreed upon beforehand.

But it's unclear whether he was seen through from the start, or whether Ōmiya Jushirō truly couldn't distinguish between a real sword and a prop sword.

In short, he directly took a real knife and repeated the movements from the rehearsal with Wataru Takagi.

During this process, Takagi Wataru, knowing that the other party was holding a real knife, naturally cooperated with the other party very carefully.

Even so, when simulating the final strike, Wataru Takagi was still just a hair's breadth away from being hit by Jushiro Omiya.

"If I hadn't reacted quickly, I might have actually been slashed." When talking about this incident, Wataru Takagi still seemed a little scared. "According to Jushiro Omiya, in order to make the movie look more realistic, they really used force when slashing. If the opponent was a little slow to react and didn't follow the action design in time, they might get hit. Even if it's a prop knife, it still hurts when it hits a person."

At that moment, Ōmiya Jushirō walked over with an apologetic expression and apologized to Takagi Wataru.

"Officer Takagi, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize I had mixed up the real knife and the prop knife again. Luckily it was just a simulation. If it had been used in a rehearsal, something might have gone wrong."

As Ōmiya Jushiro said this, Takagi Wataru could only smile awkwardly at him, indicating that it was all his fault.

"It seems that filming is indeed a rather dangerous thing," Jiang Hang sighed to Omiya Shishiro.

After hearing Jiang Hang's words, Ōmiya Jushiro simply smiled slightly and then inquired about the progress of the investigation: "Mr. Jiang Hang, Officer Takagi, how is the investigation going? I think we should have a result by now. I have already confessed, so shouldn't I be going back to the Metropolitan Police Department for questioning next?"

Takagi Wataru originally wanted to respond that they were conducting the investigation according to procedure, but Jiang Hang simply shook his head.

"Even if you confess, the difference between intentional homicide and manslaughter is not small. I think Mr. Ōmiya, you should understand this."

Hearing Jiang Hang's words, Omiya Shisoro smiled.

"So, Mr. Jiang Hang, do you think I deliberately killed Mr. Shirota out of dissatisfaction with him?"

Jiang Hang nodded: "Indeed, because no matter how I look at it, I can find your motive for killing Shirota Haruhiko."

"An irresponsible studio owner who wanted to close the studio and then arbitrarily played a villain in the studio's last film, making the filming more difficult. It's not surprising that you would have murderous intent towards someone like that, Mr. Omiya."

Hearing Jiang Hang's words, Omiya Shishiro did not directly refute them, but instead expressed his agreement: "Indeed, I have no good feelings towards Shirota-sama."

“But this was just an accident, and everyone on the crew can confirm that.” His gaze fell on Koharu Yuno behind Jiang Hang. “This lady witnessed the scene herself, and I think she should know it very well. Of course, I don’t mean to excuse her.”

Hearing what Ōmiya Jushirō said, Koharu Yuno subtly shifted her gaze away, unwilling to meet his eyes.

“I asked the action director, and he told me that the action for this scene was designed by you and him. In addition, you have acted in period dramas for so many years, so you can say that your understanding of this scene is probably even better than that of the action director.”

"During the formal rehearsal, Haruhiko Shirota impatiently refused to listen to the action director's detailed instructions and only briefly understood the instructions before starting filming."

"Of course, it could be because Haruhiko Shirota is an impatient and very confident person, but before that, the only person who could have talked to him about this action scene was you, Mr. Omiya, who went to Haruhiko Shirota's office."

"I'm sorry, although I wanted to explain the specific choreography for tonight's rehearsal to him, he refused, saying that a distinguished guest was about to visit. I think Mr. Jiang Hang is aware of this, right?"

Omiya Shishiro calmly shifted the topic back to Jiang Hang.

Seeing that Ōmiya Jūshirō's expression remained calm, Jiang Hang pointed to the prop moon on the stage.

"I've already asked the stage management about the moon. They didn't touch the stage before the rehearsal, but the moon suddenly rose during the rehearsal. I think it must have been you, Mr. Omiya, who raised it?"

"Why would you think that? What reason would I have to do that?" Ōmiya Jūshirō did not acknowledge the matter.

"Because you don't want Shirota Haruhiko's blood to splatter on the moon." Jiang Hang directly stated Koharu Yuno's analysis.

He also added an even more important point.

"If we rewind time more than thirty years, Mr. Omiya, what was the name of the first movie in which you played the lead role? I think you should still remember, right?"

In fact, without Ōmiya Jūjō saying anything, Kōharu Yuno, a film enthusiast, had already said the name of the film.

"Tadaoji Returns Home, my mother's favorite period drama." Yoshino Kiharu looked at Jushiro Omiya.

"Yes, it's about Tadashi returning to his hometown, and this moon is a prop from over 30 years ago when Tadashi returned to his hometown. In the stills, there is a scene where Tadashi looks at the moon in the sky and reminisces about his hometown. That scene is also the most highly regarded part of that period drama."

"So, this moon has a special meaning to you, and you even kept it as a memento. All of this can be found in the warehouse records. I'm not wrong, am I?"

"Therefore, this murder was not an accident, but a murder you deliberately designed, Mr. Omiya, to cover up your murderous intent with an accident."

"But this moon, which was replaced because the original prop moon was burned, completely exposes your murderous intent."

Jiang Hang pointed to the moon, which had a history of several decades and could be said to have witnessed the rise and fall of this photography studio, and asked the silent Ōmiya Jūshirō a question.

"Mr. Omiya, now that things have come to this, are you still insisting that this was just an accident?"

Chapter 331: Chapter 329: Another prisoner who surrendered