The Case of the Shibuya Revelation Serial Murders Pt. 1

**The Case of the Shibuya Revelation Serial Murders Pt. 1** (渋谷黙示録連続殺人事件①, *Shibuya mokushiroku renzoku satsujin jiken ①*) is the 22nd chapter of the *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga.

## Summary

At a coffee shop, Winter checks the profiles of three men through a tablet with a keyboard setup. According to Milo, all the men were given a special designation by the police, without any assistance from the M family. He told Winter to deal with *him.* Winter thinks, as they stand to leave, that they finally have a chance to bring him despair, just you wait, Ron Kamonohashi.

At the Shibuya mall park at 9am, Amamiya and Toto are at the mall roof. Amamiya tells Toto not to get the wrong idea. Toto continues the thought: he was only brought along to a murder scene because they were short-handed, right? The security personnel of the mall meet with them, introducing the security officer who first discovered a body. Also, a man nearby said he wanted to speak to Officer Isshiki.

They find Ron wearing an apron and carrying a box, saying he has the morning snacks. Amamiya blushes as she recognizes Kamoo and Ron greets her in turn. Ron says he is running a candy delivery service. For 2000 yen a month, he will make four deliveries of handmade snacks to one's workplace, he says, while Toto is surprised that it was the excuse Ron made to get into a crime scene. Amamiya meanwhile says it's not fair, and wants to have Kamoo's candies. Ron even offered to have her sign a contract, but Amamiya says she is so happy she could cry but is working. Ron continues offering, saying he has one remaining slot, as Amamiya says again she must prioritize her duty to protect the public. Ron offers to use the thirty seconds to walk to the crime scene.

As Amamiya signs the papers for the candy delivery, Ron confirms that it is a murder case. Toto meanwhile asks what he is doing there, and Ron says he had some help from Toto's phone GPS and a bug Spitz planted on him.

Suddenly all three look up in shock. A man is gagged at the mouth and blindfolded, and skewered at the abdomen by the horn of a unicorn statue. A metal plate is hung around the neck of the victim, which Ron reads from: "And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them." Amamiya asks if it is some kind of poem, Ron says it is from the Revelation of St. John. He adds and tells Toto that this murder is totally different from the ones they have seen before.

The victim's body is taken down and further examined by forensics as the police report to Toto and Amamiya. The victim's cause of death was blood loss. They think that the culprit looped a rope over the arm above and used it as a pulley to lower the victim onto the statue. But they could not figure out how the killer managed to escape after the murder. Toto asks that they mean. The police are confident that nobody was able to enter the facility last night. The first to third floors are a commercial facility, and the roof is the park. But the security officer who started his closing round on the roof reported nothing out of the ordinary. After taking thirty minutes to check all the floors, the officer finished at midnight then switched on the red-light anti-intrusion sensors and went home. The security officer found the body this morning. But when they arrived, the sensors had not detected any suspicious entries or exits all night.

Amamiya considers for a moment. If the culprit was on a lower floor with the victim while the security officer was patrolling the roof, and they took a different route up to the roof and then committed the murder while the officer was coming downstairs, then it would have been possible for them to escape before the sensors were activated at midnight. The policeman objects, though: if that were the case, then it would not line up with the victim's estimated time of death at around 2am.

Toto asks how then did the murderer do it. Ron answers that the body is quite firm. Ron has lain beside the body. He asks if the victim was gripping onto something tightly. Rigor mortis set in while the hands were gripping something, and the palms are chafed. He realizes something, and sits up, swearing he will avenge the victim. He tells Toto that they will "go talk about his next snack", then adding quietly that he does not know who the culprit is, but he found out the murder trick.

Toto returns and talks to Amamiya, saying the culprit committed the murder before closing time. Toto continues that they used a trick that cause the victim to die later on. Toto explains the sequence: the culprit suspended the victim from an arch, but they did not just hand him. The culprit made the victim support his full body weight by himself, directly over the unicorn horn. The victim therefore desperately held on so he would not fall, but eventually he could not hold out any longer. Thus the 2am estimated time of death was when his strength ran out and the victim let go of the rope. Toto adds to himself that is was such a cruel way to kill someone, it is unforgiveable. Amamiya also notes the writing on the plate, if it was intended to add insult to injury?

The policeman comes over again and says they have determined the victim's identity as Ryouji Matsunami, 32 years old, and a member of a hacking group that were suspects in the cryptocurrency theft that occurred recently. Amamiya wonders if there was some kind of dispute. But the policeman continues that they heard there was an unusual mole on the man's chest that could be used to identify him, so they took off the shirt. They discovered a scar that looks like a burn on the nape of the victim's neck.

Ron realizes something and dashes off to the victim's body again. He pulls down the shirt at the neck and finds a burn scar that looks like a digital zero but without the lines intersecting, and a digital 10:00. Toto approaches, and Ron says it's them. The passage on the plate was the same as the wound that they left on his neck: Revelation chapter 9 verse 6. And the victim has a wound in the exact same spot. This is unmistakably the M family. And moreover, it is a direct challenge to Ron. Winter does observe the events with binoculars from a distance.

## Characters in Order of Appearance

Winter Moriarty

Amamiya

Totomaru Isshiki

Ron Kamonohashi