"Well, obviously he wanted me to suspect you, right?"
"That was a factor, of course, but there was another important reason. He wanted you to restrain me to the armchair using those handcuffs. When you believed I was the culprit, your first thought was to ensure your own safety by restraining me, correct? You tried to think of a way to use the handcuffs. Since you had just been restrained to the bed with them, you thought of securing the handcuffs to something else. The only things nearby were the table and the armchair. If you cuffed me to a table leg, I could lift the table and free myself. Therefore, the armchair was the only option."
"I see... By having you sit in the chair, he made it so I wouldn't consider it in the list of the culprit's potential hiding spots—"
"Precisely."
"If you knew from the beginning, you should have said something earlier!"
"As I said before, at first it was just one possibility. Therefore, I had you go and eliminate the other possibilities."
"I see... But if I'd just investigated inside the chair first, then it would have been over, right?"
"That may have ended terribly." Kirigiri shot Asakura a cold, sidelong glance. When I noticed the knife in Asakura's hand all over again, I went pale.
Was... Asakura's knife pointed at Kirigiri's back the whole time? In a way she wouldn't notice, of course. If things stopped going his way, he was prepared to backstab her—
But Kirigiri had had a hunch that that would happen. Or, no, maybe I should say it more like she would: she "logically determined" it. Or maybe she "heard the reaper's footsteps". She probably poured the alcohol on herself while she was still sitting in the chair because she didn't want to make any sudden movements with the knife there. Or maybe that was just her way of showing her own resolve? Probably both.
They had been waging psychological warfare against each other without my even noticing. While I was busy being clueless, I was shifting the burden of bracing for such a terrible thing onto Kirigiri.
"Um... How should I say this...? I'm really sorry, Kirigiri-chan."
"You can save that for later, Onee-sama. First and foremost, could you unfasten these handcuffs?"
"Oh, right."
I quickly unlocked the handcuffs that had been connecting Kirigiri's left hand to the armchair. She backed away from the chair, tending to her newly free wrist.
"Why in the world did you do something like this?" I asked Asakura, my voice trembling. "Was challenging me to a mystery game really enough all on its own to...?"
"You're wrong," Asakura interrupted. "I never wanted any game." He sounded as if he might continue, but he suddenly fell silent. It was the kind of silence you get when someone swallows down what they want to say.
"So that's how it is after all," Kirigiri muttered, brushing the hair out of her face, apparently having noticed something.
"What? What's how it is?"
"Asakura-san isn't the Game Master, but merely another player... is what I meant."
"Huh? There's someone else who set up this game? Who, exactly? The true true culprit? Are they one of the dead people?"
Don't tell me there's another body double?
Asakura slowly shook his head, and began to speak. "I don't really know who the people who set up the game are, either. I just went along with it. It just so happened that they'd prepared something that I was willing to risk my life to get my hands on..."
"You have the obligation to explain to us what you know." Kirigiri boldly approached Asakura. "Surely these games have been happening in secret in many more places than this. And they will continue after this as well. We need you to lend your assistance, so that no one else is victimized the way you have been."
Assistance? Victimized?
I barely knew up from down anymore.
"Yui-oneesama, on the challenge letter you received, there were numbers listed next to each item on the list, correct?" Kirigiri turned to me with her explanation. "Those were surely indicating their cost."
"Cost?"
"To put it simply—the cost of the tricks. Asakura-san bought the locations, the weapons, and the tricks that he needed to pull off this incident from the Game Master."
"Wha—he what?"
