Bungo Stray Dogs: Gaiden

Chapter 1: The old church within the mountains.

"The culprit is inside here."

Within the quiet church, a voice that lacked emotion sounded out. People stood next to each other with pale faces. Having heard those words, they all forgot to breathe and paid attention to the one who had spoken.

An aged, old church. The walls held cracked plaster and the head of the altar, which was no longer used, had a thin layer of dust.

11 people stood together in the room.

With expressions colored with exhaustion and possibly even anxiety; those were the souvenirs left to them from the strange, outrageous murder case.

They were all paying attention to the only person who was expressing no trace of anxiety or sorrow, or any other emotion. The person who knew the entire truth.

"The culprit deliberately chose one out of 68 children, and killed that child through poisoning their breakfast. It's a culprit with clear murderous intent."

One person, with no fluctuation of emotion in his voice, stood tall in the middle of the church's room. He wore sunglasses and a newsboy cap.

Wearing fitted leather gloves, his fingers toyed around with the thin, unlit tobacco pipe. 'Death' and 'Murder' – using such a dangerous vocabulary, his voice held no emotion.

Only his eyes, behind the lens of his sunglasses, were sharp.

The name of this detective was Ayatsuji.

The audience, composed of teachers and faculty staff belonging to the outdoors school, stood in confusion regarding the murder case that had taken place here. Right now, the mysterious and bizarre murder was going to be solved at the hand of Ayatsuji.

"But detective," one of the group, with an uneasy expression, stepped forward as though he couldn't help it. It was a male teacher in a suit who spoke. Perhaps because he hadn't slept well, there were faint bags under his bloodshot eyes. "The police announced the child was poisoned, but... Instead of a meal, wasn't the cause of death from a needle? In fact, there seemed to have been a needle wound on the back of the boy's neck..."

"It's a cover-up." Ayatsuji's words cut in. "Pretending to be helping the victim suffering from poison, the culprit stabbed him with the needle he had prepared.....before the boy died. Since there were symptoms such as limb paralysis, difficulty breathing and pupil dilation, there's no doubt it was poison that targeted the nervous system. Whether or not it is via oral infection or open wound infection is difficult to distinguish, even for an expert. The criminal made use of this fact so the police would misunderstand the case." There was no emotion in his voice. He seemed as if to be reading off a transparent page of a formula.

"B-But the police also studied whether or not his meal was poisoned! However, everything was cooked in the same pot and all of the dishes used were collectively storied in the same cupboard. The same cafeteria, the same kitchen, the same cook. To poison just a single target is impossible, don't you think?"

"Impossible, you say?" Ayatsuji looked at the teacher. "Of course it's possible."

A bespectacled female teacher, standing next to him, continued on behalf of the dismayed male teacher. "Then, it can't be... After setting the table, while each student's meal was being distributed— in other words, his meal was poisoned right before they began eating?"

The detective shook his head.

"Wrong. When the victim's was eating, there were a large number of other children around to see. To deceive all the eyes of so many people, that sort of situation is impossible to imagine."