Chapter 285: Not Quite Dead—What a Shame  

*Ding! A new detective job task has been detected. Please check it out!* 

Fujino turned toward the sound. 

Someone's really gone this time? 

Mihua's one heck of a weird place, that's for sure. 

He glanced at the glowing screen that popped up in front of him: 

**[Detective Job Task: The Mystery Lodger]** 

**Objective: Solve the mystery at the Ogata household** 

**Rewards: 500,000 yen, 50 detective reputation points** 

"Only 500,000 yen, huh…" 

Fujino narrowed his eyes. "That's a pretty small reward this time… Maybe the guy's not *fully* dead yet?" 

"That direction… Could it be coming from the room where Mom used to keep her old koto?" 

Tsuneo Ogata turned his head, pinpointing the sound from the snapped koto string. 

--- 

A few of them arrived outside the room. 

The sliding door was pulled open, revealing a dim interior. Inside, a figure lay sprawled on the floor, smashed down by a wooden koto, their life hanging in the balance. 

Fujino's eagle-eye vision locked onto the faint signs of life still present. Just as he'd expected. 

Yup, like he thought—the guy wasn't completely dead. 

What a shame. 

"Nen!" 

The Ogata family instantly recognized the figure—it was none other than Nen Ogata from earlier. 

Seeing their relative lying there, looking half-dead, everyone's faces twisted in panic. 

"Are you okay, Nen?" 

Tsuneo rushed forward to check on him, worry etched across his face. 

"What happened?" 

Kazuko Ogata, who'd been off doing who-knows-what, joined them and peered into the room, confused. 

"Big Bro got hit by a koto!" 

Shirō Ogata blurted out in a hurry. 

"What?!" 

Kazuko gasped, clapping a hand over her mouth. Her face went pale, and for a moment, she was speechless. 

*Beep beep beep!* 

At that moment, Haruna's pager suddenly went off in her pocket. 

The shrill sound cut through the quiet room, blending with the rain outside to create an eerie, unsettling vibe. 

"Ahh—!" 

Haruna glanced at the pager's screen and let out a perfectly timed scream. 

"Hm?" 

Fujino turned to her, puzzled. 

That reaction… Wasn't it a little *too* slow? Shouldn't she have screamed earlier if she was gonna scream at all? 

"This… This is…" 

Haruna swallowed hard, staring at the pager in disbelief. "A message from Mr. Aki!" 

"A message from Mr. Aki?" 

Fujino stepped over to take a look. Sure enough, there it was on the screen: **[Haruna, I've been waiting for you for a long time.]** 

Obviously, this couldn't have come from someone who'd been dead for ages. 

Fujino figured it was probably another prank, just like before. 

"Another prank, huh?" 

He shot a quick glance at Kazuko Ogata, already forming a hunch. 

He wasn't 100% sure yet, but if anyone had the time to send a text, it'd probably be her. 

Pagers could be messaged from a phone, after all. While everyone was distracted checking on Nen, she could've easily sent it. It wasn't impossible. 

But this guy who got whacked by the koto… 

Snapping out of his thoughts, Fujino walked over to Nen and said, "Hey, you're not dead yet, right?" 

"Uh… Of course I'm not dead." 

Nen seemed to have been jolted awake by Haruna's scream. He sat up, rubbing his head and grumbling, "Geez…" 

"Bro, what the heck happened?" 

Shirō couldn't hold back and jumped in to ask. 

"How should I know?" 

Nen struggled to his feet, clutching his still-bleeding forehead. He winced from the sharp pain. "Something just came out of nowhere and knocked me out." 

"Nen, was it this koto that knocked you out?" 

Tsuneo glanced at the koto nearby, taking a guess. 

"Probably…" 

Nen looked at the koto, then shifted his gaze to Fujino, his eyes full of suspicion. "Wait a sec. The one who hit me with something hard… It wasn't one of you two, was it?" 

Fujino: "…" 

This guy didn't even die from that hit. What a pity. 

"No way!" 

Haruna quickly jumped in to explain. "Fujino was with me in my room because of that shadow prank earlier. Then we all rushed over here together." 

"Yeah, that's right." 

Everyone else nodded in agreement. 

Nen rubbed his aching head. "Then who else could it have been besides you guys…?" 

"You didn't see who hit you?" 

Fujino asked in a low voice. "Judging by your wound, it looks like they hit you from the front. You should've at least seen what they looked like…" 

"It was pitch black in here—how was I supposed to see anything?" 

Nen griped, sounding resentful. "I heard a noise, turned around, and bam—got knocked out." 

"You didn't catch a single glimpse?" 

Fujino narrowed his eyes. "If you didn't see anything, why are you so sure it was us?" 

"Who else in this house would attack me?" 

Nen's reasoning actually made some sense. At least he knew he wasn't exactly popular. 

"Hm, fair point. If I wanted to knock you out, I'd probably do it like that too… though my technique would be way cleaner," Fujino said, stroking his chin. 

Nen: "…" 

Everyone else: "…" 

So… you knock people out a lot, huh? 

And from the sound of it, you're not even impressed with the attacker's style? 

After a brief, awkward silence, Kazuko suddenly spoke up. "Since both of them have alibis, could it be… someone snuck into our house and knocked Nen out?!" 

"A thief, maybe?" 

"Could be." 

"Especially since someone's been pulling those pranks already…" 

Everyone nodded at Kazuko's suggestion. 

But Fujino wasn't buying it. 

From start to finish, he hadn't spotted a single outsider. 

The only people in this house were the Ogata family. 

And to him, this didn't feel like an attempted murder—it was more like intimidation. 

The target? Haruna. 

As for why Nen was wandering around in the middle of the night and got himself into this mess… 

Fujino had a hunch it was about those stamps. 

From what he could piece together, Nen probably snuck in here in the dark to claim the koto for himself. 

Haruna's favorite song to play on it was *Spring Has Come*, after all. 

Tying that to the music box tune, Nen must've thought the stamps were hidden in the koto. 

As for who was behind it all, Fujino couldn't say for sure yet. 

Judging by the attack, though, the culprit had zero finesse. Their technique was sloppy—no art, no soul. 

It wasn't even a proper "knockout"—more like a crude smash. 

Probably some kind of rigged trap, like the koto being hoisted up and dropped. 

The snapped string? That'd be from the mechanism. 

--- 

The Ogata family called the police, and officers from the nearby station arrived quickly. 

After poking around outside, they didn't find any useful clues. 

It was raining, and the yard was a muddy mess. Normally, a muddy yard like that would show footprints if someone had passed through. 

But there wasn't a single trace of an intruder around the perimeter. 

The idea of an outsider breaking in was ruled out fast. 

With nothing to show for their outdoor search, they shifted focus inside. 

Meanwhile, Fujino took the chance to dig into the system task that'd just popped up. 

To "solve the mystery," the system likely wanted him to figure out who was behind these pranks—or, more specifically, who smashed Nen. 

At the time, the whole Ogata family had been in Haruna's room, so it didn't seem likely any of them did it themselves. 

Fujino figured it had to be some kind of trap or device—something the culprit could trigger from Haruna's room. 

He wandered into Haruna's room, thinking it over. 

Scanning the area, he activated his eagle-eye vision again. 

Soon enough, he spotted something. 

—A hairpin scattered on the floor. 

"A hairpin?" 

Fujino crouched down, picking it up. He mulled it over for a moment, then it hit him. "Oh, so that's how it is…" 

--- 

After searching around and finding no sign of a thief, everyone regrouped in Haruna's room. 

"Excuse me, where were you and your wife in the time leading up to the incident?" a young officer asked Tsuneo Ogata as part of routine questioning. 

"My wife, our second son, and I were chatting in the kitchen," Tsuneo replied. 

"Your son—the one who got hit in the head—wasn't with you in the kitchen?" 

"No, I thought he was taking a bath," Tsuneo said with a sigh. "Who'd have thought he'd get attacked…" 

"I see." 

The officer nodded, then looked up at them. "If I may ask, what were you all talking about in the kitchen?" 

"He was scolding us old folks," Kazuko said with a light laugh. "Said it's rare for Miss Haruna to visit, and here we were grilling her with questions. He thought it was pretty rude of us." 

"Grilling her?" The officer tilted his head. 

"Yeah, I'm actually friends with the old man of the house through a pager," Haruna explained. "They were just asking about stuff we'd chatted about before." 

"Exactly!" Shirō cut in, exasperated, glaring at the older couple. "You three were ridiculous. It was like you were interrogating a suspect or something, just like Bro!" 

"It wasn't a big deal, really," Haruna said softly, brushing it off. "I got into stamp collecting because of Mr. Aki. It's nice to talk about it—it helps me understand him better. [I even asked if I could visit again back then.] So I didn't mind at all." 

*No surprise she's an art major…* 

Fujino gave her a deadpan look, then cleared his throat. "By the way, I've actually figured out who knocked out Nen Ogata." 

"Huh?" 

Everyone turned to him, startled. 

Haruna, though, didn't seem surprised. 

He *was* a famous detective, after all. 

"You already know who hit Mr. Nen?" 

The officer stepped forward, squinting at Fujino like he looked familiar. "And you are…?" 

"Fujino, at your service." 

"Fujino?!" 

The officer blinked, then grabbed his hand, shaking it excitedly. "Wait, you're *the* Detective Fujino?! I've heard so much about you!" 

"Detective…?" 

"Fujino?!" 

The rest of the room echoed in surprise. 

"Actually, this case has a bit to do with Miss Haruna too…" 

Under everyone's gaze, Fujino began his deduction. "The reason you've been questioning her like this—it's about those stamps worth 200 million yen, isn't it?" 

"Stamps worth 200 million yen?" 

The officer beside him raised an eyebrow. 

"Yup. Back when my grandpa was alive, he collected four stamps worth 200 million yen," Nen said, not daring to mess around in front of a famous detective. Thinking back to earlier, he still half-suspected Fujino had whacked him with some fancy trick. He answered honestly, "We went on a shopping spree with the money from those stamps… but when we went to check the collection later, they were gone. We tore the house apart looking for them and found nothing." 

He turned to Shirō. "The only one who didn't lose his cool was probably Grandpa's favorite grandson over there." 

"And that's why you grilled Haruna, right?" 

Fujino glanced around at them. "When the stamps went missing, you immediately suspected Mr. Aki had given them to her." 

"That's right," Nen admitted with a nod. "Honestly, I still kinda suspect it." 

The older Ogata couple lowered their heads in shame. 

"But I never got those stamps…" Haruna said helplessly. "I didn't even know they existed." 

"Who knows if you're just pretending?" Nen snapped again. "Bringing a famous detective along too… I bet you—" 

"Hm?" 

Fujino's gaze sharpened. 

"Uh…" 

Nen clammed up instantly. 

"Actually, Haruna didn't bring me here to hunt for treasure," Fujino clarified. "Before this, she asked me to find Mr. Aki and return the music box. I just came along to drop her off." 

"We've heard about that music box," Nen said, thinking it over. "Grandpa secretly gave it to her the Christmas before last, I think." 

"The Christmas before last?" Haruna frowned. "But I only got the music box last Christmas." 

"No way," Tsuneo said, his voice shaky. "My dad passed away on December 6th last year. There's no way he could've given it to you." 

"Not to mention sneaking out to meet you," Kazuko added. "He'd been hospitalized and immobile since the spring before last." 

"Hm. If that's the case, then after Mr. Aki lost his mobility, someone must've been messaging Haruna in his place…" 

Fujino turned to Shirō. "Am I right, Shirō?" 

Everyone gasped, their eyes snapping to Shirō. 

"It was Grandpa's request…" 

Shirō met Fujino's gaze, his expression wavering before he lowered his head and took a deep breath to confess. "He didn't want Haruna to end up alone like Grandma. He asked me to keep comforting her in his place after he was hospitalized…" 

Fujino: "…" 

What a saintly grandpa—sending his grandson to woo his crush for him? 

*Ahem.* 

Fujino coughed quickly to cut off the soap opera unfolding in front of him. "Anyway, Nen, the reason you went to that room earlier… It was to look for the koto, wasn't it?" 

(End of Chapter)