21st Century Necromancer

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Yu Chen couldn't figure out why the wound presented such a strange pattern, but he didn't dwell on it too much, since the clues he had obtained were limited. Examining the body only through a screen, he knew there was still much information needed before any judgment could be made.

Although with the abilities of a Necromancer, he could have reconstructed the entire crime scene, Yu Chen chose not to do so. He had taken leave today specifically to assist Misumi Mikoto, intending to disengage from the consecutive major surgeries of recent days and refresh his mind. For him, deducing cases was a way to relax his brain and nerves.

Cheating with the Necromancer's powers was unappealing; he preferred to rely on his own thinking and reasoning to decipher the truth.

Of course, if neither he nor Misumi Mikoto came up with the truth in the end, Yu Chen wouldn't mind resorting to the Necromancer's methods to find the answer.

Since no further evidence could be found at the crime scene for the time being, and more professional equipment would be necessary for additional investigation, Yu Chen did not disturb Tokairin Yuko's work. He returned to the school's teaching building with Misumi Mikoto and Hiromi Jounouchi.

"Brother Yu, Dr. Misumi," the second clue is out!" Rokuro Kube, monitoring the live stream with his laptop, saw the viewer count jump to 30,000 and quickly alerted Yu Chen and Misumi Mikoto.

This was part of the earlier agreement or game rule set by Classmate Shirai, acting as Killer S, and Misumi Mikoto. Shirai was to give a total of four clues, the timing based on viewer counts. The first clue, given when there were 1,000 viewers, confirmed it was a real corpse. Now with 30,000 viewers, it was time for the second clue.

The condition set by Classmate Shirai was 100,000 viewers. If the viewership reached 100,000 without Misumi Mikoto guessing the correct cause of Classmate Yokoyama's death, a second person would be killed. Conversely, if Misumi Mikoto deduced Yokoyama's true cause of death before the count hit 100,000, it would be her victory.

On screen, Classmate Shirai moved the camera closer to the body lying on the ground, which was Classmate Yokoyama's corpse, and proceeded to unwrap his clothing.

"The corpse is stiff, which suggests that our deduction about the time of death is correct," Yu Chen commented, watching how Shirai tore open Yokoyama's clothes, which validated their previous estimation on the time of the victim's death.

While Yu Chen, Dr. Misumi, and the others looked on, Shirai took out a bloodstained knife and sliced open the back of Yokoyama's shirt.

"There are three subcutaneous hemorrhage points on the abdomen; write it down quickly!" As Yokoyama's abdomen was revealed on screen, Misumi Mikoto hurriedly instructed Rokuro Kube beside her, never taking her eyes off the screen.

Shirai's actions did not stop there; he flipped Yokoyama's corpse over, exposing a blood-covered back and three knife wounds.

"There are three wounds, all spindle-shaped puncture injuries. The fatal injury is to the liver. Judging from the blood loss, it appears the hepatic artery was damaged, leading to exsanguination, which is consistent with your assessment, Doctor Chen," Misumi Mikoto relayed, observing the wounds on screen without a hint of emotion, quickly noting the shape of the wounds and pertinent information.

She also felt a certain degree of admiration for Chen Yu's ability to deduce the cause of the victim's death just by looking at the wounds through the clothes. Even with her experience of dissecting over one thousand five hundred bodies, she had not developed such discerning eyesight.

Watching the bloodstained wounds on the screen, such a cruel image would be unbearable for most people, but for surgeons like Chen Yu and Hiromi Jounouchi and a forensic doctor like Misumi Mikoto, who were accustomed to cutting open bodies, three stab wounds were relatively minor.

However, the thought that this had once been a living person still made Misumi Mikoto and Hiromi Jounouchi feel somewhat distressed.

"The weapon is a thick, broad, and sharp knife, with one side of the blade serrated, most likely some kind of survival knife," Dr. Misumi replayed the footage of the wound and analyzed it carefully. She seemed to discover some points of doubt, causing her eyebrows to furrow slightly.

However, Kube Rokuro, who was listening to Dr. Misumi's analysis, suddenly asked, "Does the weapon conflict with the knife we saw earlier? If not, could that knife be the weapon? The cause of death was exsanguination due to stab wounds in the back, in other words, death by stabbing. Doesn't this provide us with the answer?"

Kube Rokuro's analysis seemed logical and well-founded, yet Dr. Misumi still felt that something was not right as she stared at the image of the wound in the video, finding the wound somewhat peculiar.

While Dr. Misumi was fixated on the screen, Chen Yu took a piece of paper next to her that was used to record the marks of the wounds. After frowning and pondering over the recorded subcutaneous bleeding points and the positions of the wounds for a brief moment, he had a sudden realization and said, "No wonder the wound looked so strange, it isn't a stab wound at all!"

"Not a stab wound?" Rokuro was surprised to hear Chen Yu say this and looked at him, not understanding why he would say so.

The teachers at the school, as well as Hiromi Jounouchi and Misumi Mikoto, also turned their attention to Chen Yu, curious about his reasoning.

"The positions of the subcutaneous bleeding points correspond to the positions of the wounds, which means the weapon was inserted perpendicularly into the victim's body, with the depth of penetration being exactly the same for each wound. Such an angle and depth of penetration are impossible unless the victim didn't resist at all, allowing the killer to stab freely while the body was immobilized.

Otherwise, the three stab wounds would not be identical," Chen Yu looked at the people around him who were watching him and continued, pointing to the very regular wounds on the screen: "Because if there had been any struggle, it would have caused some tearing of the wounds, but clearly, there isn't any, as if the wounds were made decisively in one go, pulling the knife out to stab twice more.

However, for a student to make such perfect wounds is impossible. Even as a surgeon, I couldn't guarantee to stab three times with identical angles and force. So these wounds were not made by stabbing, but by three knives that had been fixed in place and thrust into all at once."

"Thrust in by three fixed knives?" Everyone was startled by Chen Yu's explanation, since this would completely overturn the previous speculation about how the killer had murdered the victim.

"Most likely, three knives had been fixed onto that mat we saw earlier in the sports equipment room.

The victim fell onto it, and the three knives were simultaneously and at the same angle thrust into the victim's body, creating three identical wounds, also causing the rupture of the hepatic artery, leading to excessive bleeding and death," Chen Yu pointed to the image of Classmate Yokoyama's back wounds on the screen and explained to the crowd, continuing to play the footage until a section of Classmate Yokoyama's bruised and purplish upper back appeared: "From these purplish marks, it appears that the victim was regularly beaten at least a week before death, and it was continuous.

Coupling this with the peculiar wounds, I believe Yokoyama might have committed suicide, or rather, was willing to be killed, with Classmate Shirai as his accomplice, and the reason... it must be due to school bullying."