Clues from the Novel

Seeing Amuro-kun's lips suddenly curve into a smile beside him, even Kudo Yusaku couldn't help but have large and small question marks pop up above his head.
This...
Could a horror novel evoke such warm memories? To smile so warmly.
Moreover, wasn't Amuro-kun's expression a bit too outdated for this situation?
Kudo Yusaku cleared his throat twice, calling Furuya Rei back to his thoughts.
"Sorry." Furuya Rei snapped back, blushing slightly with embarrassment, raising a hand to cover his face a bit.
When he lowered his hand again, his complexion had returned to normal.
His emotions recovered extremely quickly, showing remarkable stability. Kudo Yusaku couldn't help but marvel at his strong self-control.
Furuya Rei pondered for a moment before speaking again: "I wonder which novel you're thinking of, Mr. Kudo. I haven't read many of Mr. Akiya's horror novels; that one was something I read when I was a child."
Kudo Yusaku nodded: "Recently, because I needed to consult Mr. Akiya, I went through all his works. After much thought, only one novel seemed to fit."
It was considered a horror novel geared towards the general public.
As an early work, the plot design and such weren't particularly scientific.
Kudo Yusaku had only skimmed through it lightly and hadn't kept it in mind.
The general content was similar to the widely circulated horror stories in Japan.
A villa built in the mountains.
Its owner was a famous group director.
For some unknown reason, this villa had been sealed by this director ten years ago and had never been managed by anyone.
It wasn't until the director passed away that his grandson inherited his estate and took ownership of the villa.
But what was strange was that, despite ten years of no management, the villa was still perfectly intact. Although the exterior walls were covered with ivy, inside the villa, both the furniture and facilities were perfectly preserved.
As if someone was using it every day.
The grandson knew nothing about this villa and thought it was his uncle's secret base.
But now that it was in his hands, he had to make use of it.
So, taking advantage of his school club members wanting to hold a gathering, the grandson offered this villa as their meeting place.
Four boys and two girls, a total of six people, had an all-night party at the villa, which resulted in all six catching colds the next day.
The gathering ended unhappily.
But after all six returned to their respective homes, strange things began to happen one after another around them.
The first to suffer was one of the two girls, who died tragically in her rental room.
Her body was discovered by her roommate three days later.
It wasn't because the girl was missing, but because the hot weather caused the body to smell. Her roommate tried calling her, but couldn't reach her, and the stench became increasingly obvious.
Only then did the roommate call her boyfriend, and they pried open the girl's room door.
Upon entering, both immediately vomited.
The overpowering stench was unbearable. The girl was naked, hanging from the ceiling fan. As the fan continuously spun, the roommate and her boyfriend saw that a layer of skin had been peeled from the girl's back.
It was covered with white maggots, and flies buzzed everywhere. Because of the blood from the girl's back, streaks were left on the pristine white wall.
No one knew what the girl had encountered; she simply died in her rental room with a ferocious expression for unknown reasons.
The second death was everyone's villa, which was the director's grandson.
Unlike the first girl, whose cause of death was unknown.
The grandson's death was clearly captured by the surveillance camera installed in his home.
At two in the morning, the grandson held a fruit knife, walked in front of the surveillance camera, then looked out the open floor-to-ceiling window. Bathed in moonlight, he continuously spoke to an unknown entity, then aimed the fruit knife forward.
But as the grandson thrust the fruit knife into the air in front of him, his own abdomen was as if ripped open by something.
Blood and internal organs spilled all over the floor.
Originally, a person injured to this extent would definitely not survive, but the grandson in the surveillance footage acted as if nothing had happened, wearing an eerie smile. Facing the surveillance camera, he inverted the fruit knife's blade, aimed it at his own abdomen, and stabbed himself several more times.
Finally, he left the camera's range, retrieved a coat rack from somewhere, and hung his large and small intestines on it like clothes, then became motionless under the camera.
And when his body was discovered, he still wore a smile on his face.
The scene... was just like Collins' cabin before their eyes.
Kudo Yusaku and Furuya Rei exchanged glances. In that novel, the third person to die was a high school teacher.
In front of his students, he went mad and suddenly jumped out of a fourth-story window during class.
The broken window and curtains tightly wrapped around his limbs, preventing him from falling, but suddenly, a broken iron railing from the rooftop, like a sharp sword, brutally pierced through the man's neck.
As the weight increased, the man's head was torn off, then fell from the fourth floor to the ground.
This also corresponded to Hakusui Koichi's death scene.
A severed head, a body hanging in mid-air, dying in front of everyone.
"Inspector Megure." Seeing the police come out after a simple autopsy inside, Kudo Yusaku called out to the unusually grim-faced Inspector Megure, pushing up his glasses, and asked, "Was the victim disemboweled after death?"
Inspector Megure shook his head, his face stern.
Furuya Rei looked over from his distance to the police, his gaze resting on Collins' serene face.
Although not to the extent of having a smile on his face like in the novel, his abdomen being opened up like this while he was alive was also very bizarre.
Sleeping pills... The situation was unclear now; it still required the police to conduct a more detailed autopsy to clarify.
Perhaps it wasn't just sleeping pills, Furuya Rei thought. Even if a heavy dose of drugs was administered, at this fatal level, a person would struggle in their sleep and show expressions of discomfort.
But Collins showed none.
So, it was more likely opium.
And coincidentally, this incident happened on this yacht, a money pit. Although the Public Security had no evidence, Furuya Rei didn't believe this was merely a gambling venue.
Most importantly, Collins, the secretary, had an accident, but where was Doug?
"May I ask if the first person to discover the situation here was the captain?" Furuya Rei looked up, meeting the captain, who had been standing beside them for a long time, seemingly too terrified to move.
"No... it wasn't me." The captain stammered, explaining, "It was another guest. He wanted to find Miss Collins, but he couldn't reach her, and Miss Collins' cabin door wouldn't open. So he contacted the staff on board to get a spare key."
"As soon as it opened, it was the scene you see now." The captain continued. Furuya Rei looked at this middle-aged man, whose psychological fortitude wasn't very good. A captain capable of commanding such a yacht should be a seasoned veteran. Even if he hadn't witnessed a murder, he should possess the necessary psychological resilience.
He shouldn't be as panicked and terrified as this captain.
What was he hiding? Because it was a money pit? Not necessarily. Even if discovered by the police, the owner of this yacht was perfectly capable of settling the matter.
So, did the other party know the details of the case?
Furuya Rei stared unblinkingly at the captain, making the already nervous middle-aged man sweat like rain.
"Where is that gentleman?" Furuya Rei asked. The person the captain mentioned should be the target of the Organization's mission this time, Doug, who had joined the CIA.
"I don't know." The captain said, "The staff on board immediately came to tell me after discovering the situation here, and then I went to find the police officers."
"When I returned, I came back with you police officers." The captain became even more flustered, instinctively categorizing Furuya Rei, who looked like a young man, into the police ranks.
What was Doug doing? Furuya Rei wondered. And what was the connection between the two victims discovered so far, Collins and Hakusui Koichi?
"Inspector Megure." On the other side, Kudo Yusaku was already telling Inspector Megure about their discovery, briefly recounting half of the plot of Akiya Wako's early horror novel. "If it's truly as Amuro-kun and I deduce, then before Miss Collins, there should have been another victim, and the death scene would be similar to the first victim in the novel."
Furuya Rei pulled his gaze from the captain and returned to the investigation team, echoing Kudo Yusaku's words: "Judging from the time of death, under the assumption that the deduction holds, the first victim should have died before boarding the yacht."
"The police can ask the yacht operating company for a list of ticket purchases and a staff registration list from before boarding." Furuya Rei suggested, "Although it's a bit troublesome, it's currently the simplest method."
"Of course, there's also the possibility that our deduction is wrong," Kudo Yusaku added.
How to proceed with the investigation was a matter for the police; Inspector Megure would make his own decision.
Evidently, Inspector Megure had great trust in the two individuals before him. After hearing their words, he didn't hesitate to call over a nearby idle police officer, whispered a few instructions, and then the officer turned and left the scene.
"According to your and Amuro-kun's deduction, my junior Kudo, is it possible that three more people could be victims?" Inspector Megure asked, a hint of anxiety in his voice.
After all, two people had already died, and possibly three.
Collins was not discovered by others, but Hakusui Koichi died in front of so many people, and his state of death was difficult to accept.
If the police didn't solve the case quickly, the consequences would be quite severe.
"I think the possibility is very high," Kudo Yusaku said. "The police can send someone to protect Mr. Akiya, just in case."
After speaking, he looked at Furuya Rei: "I want to go talk to Mr. Akiya first. What about you, Amuro-kun?"
"I'm also a bit curious, so I'll go with Mr. Kudo," Furuya Rei said.
Doug was no longer important to the Organization now. In the end, no matter the outcome, he would be a ghost of the Organization's subordinates.
As a CIA agent, Furuya Rei had no interest in saving Doug's life.
And the Organization's current goal was linked to what Furuya Rei wanted to do.
Find the real culprit.
One was to bring him to justice, the other was to get the hard drive in his hand.
Why Akiya Wako's novel was chosen was very crucial.
Furuya Rei felt that there might be a breakthrough in the case there.
As a result, as the two, along with Inspector Megure, had just turned to head towards Akiya Wako's cabin, Kudo Yusaku bumped into someone around a corner.
Kudo Shinichi sat on the ground, holding his head.
"..." Akai Shuichi was silent. The sudden encounter, although the other party didn't feel anything, he himself felt a brief embarrassment in his heart.
After the group passed, Akai Shuichi pulled out a cigarette case, lit one for himself, silently closed the cabin door, and pretended to be full of curiosity, observing the commotion on the other side.
"Mr. Akiya." Kudo Yusaku knocked on the door.
A somewhat faint voice of Akiya Wako came from inside the room.
The old man slowly approached to open the door.
"Coming, coming." As the door opened and Akiya Wako's voice sounded simultaneously, Furuya Rei's ears twitched.
The sound was unusually clear to his trained ears, unlike normal.
As abrupt as the situation in the dining room, Furuya Rei didn't have time to speak. He swiftly grabbed Kudo Shinichi beside him, pushed him into Kudo Yusaku's arms, then suddenly shoved Kudo Yusaku from behind, making the famous novelist hit the wall on the other side, letting out a groan.
'Swish swish swish', along with the sound, streaks of silver-white light appeared simultaneously the moment Akiya Wako opened the door.
Just as he opened the door, Akiya Wako hadn't even seen anything clearly when he felt a dizzying sensation. When his head cleared, he could only see the ceiling of his cabin.
A heavy weight pressed on him. Trembling, he turned his head. A bone-separating knife was plunged straight beside his head.
The silver-white blade clearly reflected his own eyes, filled with a fear he hadn't even realized.