Kirigiri Novel Book 4

Chapter 4- Kareobana Academy - Salvador Yadorigi Fukurō

In the middle of the dark mountain road, Yadorigi slammed the car brakes to a stop.

In the light of the car's headlights, a huge black shape can be seen.

A giant that completely blocked the mountain road.

If the brakes were a bit late, the car probably would have crashed into it.

The giant is hunched over in the middle of the road with its dark arms spread wide. Is it trying to find an unfortunate person who has wandered into the forest? Or is it dozing off, tired from its duty in the forest.

Yadorigi reversed his car, stopped it on the side of the road, and got out of the car with his coat and bag. He took out the Maglite flashlight from his bag and directed it at the giant.

Probably a little trick by light and shadow, the thing that looked like a giant isn't a giant of course– In some way, it's more problematic– It's a landslide.

The ground along the left-hand slope collapsed like an avalanche, and the road got blocked by soil with rocks and trees. What looked like a giant's left arm is actually a fallen cedar tree, and what looked like a giant's body is a huge rock. Ghosts reveal their true form in Kareobana. Yadorigi chuckled to himself, remembering that saying.

Okay, what to do next?

To get to Kareobana Academy where the problem lies, one has to take this road, but there's no way for the car to go any further.

And due to the steep slopes on both sides of the road, it's also difficult to detour on foot.

He checked the time. It's already the next day, 2 AM on January 12th. He got here as fast as he could, but it still took him quite a while. 38 hours had passed since the 'Black Challenge' started, and there are still 130 hours left.

It should be safe to assume that all the people involved in Kareobana Academy case have gathered in the school building ahead, and the landslide may be a means to trap them in Kareobana Academy. After the only way to the outside world got blocked, a closed environment has been formed, and the stage for the 'Black Challenge' is impeccable.

Having said that, is it possible to artificially cause a landslide of this scale? It may be possible to do it with explosives, but the scale is too big for it to be a personal crime.

Of course, if there is an organization scale of assistance, it would be another story.

Is it really a 'Black Challenge'?

A murder case is being carried out ahead, and this assumption is getting closer and closer to the truth.

Kirigiri Kyōko said before that 'excessive intervention is strictly prohibited'. because by the nature of the game, interferers are

dangerous and will probably be ruthlessly eliminated, but Yadorigi doesn't intend to listen to her. The case may happen right under his nose, how could he just sit back and watch, let alone a case related to the Crime Victims' Relief Committee?

For Yadorigi, it's no longer a matter of no concern to him. Because that organization took the life of his partner.

His partner's name was Uozumi Taehime.

She had been tracking down a scammer since last year and suddenly lost contact at the end of the year. She was a person who was keen on solving crimes. Once she goes out, she wouldn't return for a long time. This was a common occurrence. However, something wasn't right that time. Not only was there no news from her, but was completely missing.

He had tried to follow her footsteps, but found no clues, as if someone had carefully erased all the traces she had left.

Yadorigi intuited that scammers wouldn't adopt such tactics, and smelled the scent of a syndicate crime. Maybe a certain organization felt that Uozumi was an eyesore and resorted to coercive measures. Yadorigi investigated several organizations with this in mind. In the process, he heard rumors of a mysterious criminal organization that specializes in targeting detectives, but due to too little intelligence, he wasn't able to catch any clues.