The Eyewitness
By the time Natsume Xiayu finally made her way to within sight of the roller coaster entrance, she spotted Ayumi and the other two kids from earlier worming through a small gap beside the coaster tracks, clearly planning to sneak in for a free ride.
Before she could stop them, all three children had already wriggled through with impressive speed.
If these three were here, that meant Kudou Shinichi and Mouri Ran had only just arrived as well.
Sure enough, when Xiayu shifted her gaze to the entrance, she saw a pair of high-schoolers waiting in line — a boy chattering away nonstop about something, at one point abruptly grabbing the hand of the girl in front of him. That had to be this case's killer. Beside him stood a girl with a distinctive horn-shaped fringe in her hair, looking somewhat displeased.
Xiayu couldn't immediately think of a way to prevent the murder, so she decided her best option was to ride the same car as the protagonists and improvise from there. Even if she couldn't stop it, she could at least gather firsthand information — which would make her eventual deductions all the more credible.
But just as she was about to move, a thought struck her — there were no seats left on this coaster. Eight in total. Kudou Shinichi and Mouri Ran took two. The victim and his companions — the three suspects — took four. And the newly arrived Gin and Vodka occupied the last two. Not a single seat remained for her.
Then her eyes fell on the small gap Ayumi and the others had just crawled through. Recalling the relevant plot, an idea formed.
Xiayu turned and walked over to the gap and, while no one was looking, crawled inside.
She had caught a glimpse of her own reflection while washing her hands earlier — her face was nearly identical to the Traveler Lumine's from the game, just a few years older, enough to pass for a young adult. Her athletic ability was excellent too, so slipping through the gap took her hardly any effort at all.
Inside, everything was pitch black — but just as she'd hoped, Xiayu's night vision was superb, and she could make out her surroundings with ease.
She walked forward a short distance and soon heard children's voices up ahead.
"Ayumi, is that you?" Xiayu called out. The three silhouettes ahead, which had frozen at the sound of footsteps and been about to bolt, stopped short.
"It's that big sister from before!" Ayumi exclaimed with delight.
"Big sister, what are you doing here?"
Xiayu obviously couldn't reveal her real purpose, but luckily she'd already prepared an excuse. "I saw you three crawl into this hole and I was worried, so I followed you in."
While she was at it, she figured she ought to lecture the kids a little and stall for time until the coaster passed. In the original story, these three were always reckless and foolhardy, boldly burrowing into places no child had any business being.
She crouched down to their level. "Do you have any idea how dangerous this is? The roller coaster runs right next to you. What if it came through before you could get out of the way and you got hit?"
The three children exchanged glances, then all bowed their heads and dutifully apologized.
Seeing them so meekly contrite, Xiayu had no way of knowing how much actually sank in — but they had only just met, and it wasn't her place to lecture them further.
She patted each of them on the head and stood. "All right, it's way too dark in here. Don't stay inside any longer — hold my hand and I'll take you out."
At that moment, she finally heard the roller coaster approaching the tunnel. Paimon chimed in right on cue. "Traveler! The coaster's almost here!"
Xiayu took Ayumi's hand and pulled her toward the side, holding her other arm out in front of Mitsuhiko and Genta to press them back as well. "Careful, get close to the wall — the coaster's coming through."
Whoosh— The roller coaster roared past and, moments later, sped out of the tunnel.
Xiayu's keen nose caught a faint trace of blood in the air. Then — tap… tap… — she heard beads hitting the ground.
Ayumi felt something drop by her feet, bent down, and picked it up. It was a pearl.
Xiayu eyed the pearl in Ayumi's hand. As expected, this had to be one of the pearls from the necklace the killer had used in the murder.
She didn't linger in the tunnel. The crime had already been committed — the next step was exposing the killer.
When she emerged, a crowd had indeed gathered around something, with murmurs rippling through it — "How awful…" "…The head just came off…" (A few details here differ from the original story.)
Just then, a high school boy suddenly appeared and stopped them. Ayumi recognized him at once and rushed up to him. "Are you — are you that high school detective?"
The boy crouched down and introduced himself. "Kudou Shinichi."
Xiayu took the opportunity to study Kudou Shinichi as he was before his transformation. A confident smile on his face, perfectly at ease under everyone's attention, lacking in wariness — he looked like someone who had never known failure, the type to overlook anything outside his own interests.
So this is Kudou Shinichi, Xiayu thought. He's confident to the point of arrogance. No wonder he took that fall later on.
Noticing him questioning Ayumi and the others about what had happened in the tunnel, she stepped forward. "Excuse me — could you tell me what just happened? I heard something like a case occurred."
Kudou Shinichi looked up at the girl before him and blinked in mild surprise — this was the first time he'd ever seen such a beautiful blonde. He gave her a rough summary of events, and had just opened his mouth to press her with questions when she spoke first. "If what you just said is accurate, then I think I know who the killer is."
"Huh?!" Kudou Shinichi stared at her. "How would you know the killer? Who is it?"
"You said you were sitting in front of the victim, right? Then the killer is whoever sat in front of you on the coaster. When the murder happened, I was in the tunnel with Ayumi and the others." Xiayu continued, looking a little embarrassed, "My night vision is pretty good, so I saw it — when the coaster went by, someone in the first row leaned over the second row and did something to a person in the third. And then there's that pearl Ayumi picked up in the tunnel… Now that I think about it, the killer must have made their move at that moment."
Just then, the police — having received the report — arrived at the scene as well.
An inspector in a brown uniform and round brown cap took in the situation and spoke up directly. "Well, well, Kudou my boy — you're here too?"
"Inspector Megure." Kudou Shinichi greeted him, then nodded at Xiayu. "This young lady says she witnessed the murder in progress."
Kudou Shinichi was quietly fuming. The moment Xiayu had named the killer's seat — even the rough outline of the method — he'd worked out exactly how the trick was done. But this feeling of having the answer spoiled in advance, of not unwrapping the layers himself, was deeply unsatisfying. He felt strangely bereft, as if he barely had the energy to present the solution to Inspector Megure at all.
The inspector, hearing there was an eyewitness, was overjoyed.
Xiayu repeated what she'd said before. Since Inspector Megure already knew everyone's seating positions on the coaster, one listen told him exactly who the killer was.
At that, Kudou Shinichi finally perked up and supplied the details of the trick.
He walked up to the killer — Kotono — and asked, "Then perhaps you can explain what you were doing in the tunnel — and that pearl necklace on your chest?"
Kotono had no answer. Covering her face, she broke down in tears and confessed why she had done it.
While everyone was absorbed in listening, Xiayu quietly slipped away. She had no intention of being hauled down to the police station to give a statement afterward.