Kirigiri Novel Book 7

Chapter 2 Part 6 Transparent Black

"Then, let's have an operation meeting!"

Yukimura beckoned to us and made a gesture to let us sit nearby. We leaned our faces to each other and crouch near the ice pillar.

"From here, the game will officially start. No matter the method we use, we must get our hands on the frozen box. Of course, it must be before Yūhain and Kadomi!"

"No matter the method... how exactly?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out right now." I stared at the ice pillar.

The ice pillar is about 2 meters in diameter, and the box is in the center, so if we want to take it out, we need to remove about 1 meter of ice.

"It's a different story if we have dozens of bullets, but we don't have anything like that, and Kadomi looks the same. So we have to consider other methods, like melting, cutting, digging... Do you two have any props that can come in handy?"

I cast my eyes at Kirigiri, should I show Yukimura the contents of my backpack? I asked without words. Kirigiri nodded with no hesitation. At this stage, she seems to have decided to go along with Yukimura.

I opened the backpack and turned it over. Yukimura immediately found the lighter among the objects scattered on the floor.

"What, you brought this? That was a very smart judgment not to reveal yourself just now." Yukimura grinned. "And the only other useful thing is... this screwdriver."

She laid the two tools side by side on the floor.

The lighter is just the kind sold in convenience stores, the so- called 100-yen lighter. On the other hand, the screwdriver is only a small tool with a length of about 15cm, and the shaft is also very thin.

"This alone is not enough..."

"Did Yukimura-san bring anything?"

"I prepared my lockpicking tools, but it isn't useful this time." Yukimura shrugged. "Anyway, let's try these two first and see if we can beat that ice monster!"

Yukimura stood up with the lighter and the screwdriver. "First is this."

Yukimura held the screwdriver upside down and stabbed the tip into the ice's surface. But unsurprisingly, it was only slightly scarred, it will take a long time to dig to the center.

"How about the lighter?"

"I don't think this alone can do anything... But, let's try it first. It just so happens both Kadomi and Yūhain have shut themselves up in their rooms, so while we're at it—"

Yukimura lit the lighter and brought it near the surface of the ice. The part that came in contact with the fire was then scorched to black, with almost no melting.

"Eh? The ice burnt?"

Yukimura rubbed the burnt part with her fingers in surprise. "If you burn it directly with fire, the gas part will be scorched,"

Kirigiri said. "It's better not to burn it directly, but to melt it with heat."

"Huh, learned something new. I'll teach it to my kids."

This time, Yukimura lit the fire a little further away from the ice pillar, and the surface of the ice slowly started melting and becoming wet. But as a whole, it wasn't that much of a change.

"As I thought, it's not working. This is better kept as an igniter. Oh well, I'll give it back to you."

Yukimura handed out the lighter, I took it and put it in my coat pocket.

The ice safe seems to be stronger than it looks. It is unlikely that we will be able to break through it if we try to pry it open without a plan.

The other detectives have noticed this too, each shut in their rooms to figure something out, I think.