Surfers

The two **surfers** are friends of Taku Manba.

## Physical description

One of the surfers has black hair and light eyes. The other one has fair hair, dark eyes, and tanned skin.

## Biography

### History

The surfers and their friend Taku Manba went to Natsukaze Beach to surf. There, Manba bought something from the beach hut and got a stomachache because of it. He got into a fight with the beach hut owner.

In the evening, the surfers and Manba ate and drank. At ten p.m. after he had drunk a lot, Manba decided to confront the beach hut owner again and went to the hut. He never returned.

### Midsummer Beach Hut Drowning Case

The next day, the surfers go to Summer House to talk with the beach hut owner about Taku Manba, but he refuses to hear them out and threatens to call the police if they keep bothering him. The light-haired surfer remarks that he knew it was futile.

Ron Kamonohashi overhears their conversation and drags Totomaru Isshiki to the surfers to find out what is going on. The dark-haired surfer tells them about the disappearance of their friend, and Toto advises the surfers to contact the local police. Right afterward, Mofu Usaki waves at Ron and Toto to call them to her and inform them about a corpse she found between some rocks. The surfers follow them to the corpse and confirm that it is Manba.

When the local police arrives, the surfers are questioned by an officer. After Ron notes how odd it is that Manba is wearing a dry suit for diving although he is a surfer, the surfers state that Manba does not own a dry suit and that he was wearing his own clothes when he left the night before. Ron opens the dry suit, and the surfers confirm that the flower-pattern t-shirt he is wearing underneath it is what he wore yesterday. Then, Ron asks them if they noticed anything else. The fair-haired surfer says that their surfboards were in a different order this morning than how they left them last night.

The surfers are later present when Totomaru reveals what happened: The beach hut owner killed Manba. He has no ice anymore although barely anyone is at the beach because he used all of it to build a raft. He combined the ice blocks with salt; this is the reason why the sand is so salty. The beach hut owner dressed the passed-out Manba in a dry suit so that he would not get chilblains or marks from the rope that tied him to the raft. Manba was dropped in the ocean. Eventually, the ice melted, and Manba woke up. He clung to the rest of the ice raft, getting chilblains on his hands, and drowned when the raft fully melted.

The beach hut owner protests against this accusation, and Totomaru tells him that his fingerprints were found on the surfboards outside the inn where Manba and his friends were staying. The hut owner looked through them all to find Manba's. However, he did not know which one was his, so he left without taking a surfboard—or wiping his fingerprints from the boards. The beach hut owner killed Manba because his shop already received three complaints of food poisoning. He feared Manba would report him as well, and the health bureau would finally close his shop.

The beach hut owner confesses and is arrested.

## References

1. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 28, page 15
2. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 29, page 3
3. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 28, pages 14-18
4. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 29, pages 2-5
5. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 30, pages 3-14