"What do you mean you know the killer!?"

"I-I just heard the Principal and Henry talk about it."

"Well... go on, then..."

I took a deep breath and answered him. "Kazuki Akio."

"Are you absolutely sure it's him!? You can't be joking here, Yoshida."

"Of course I'm not joking! I'm only telling you what I heard. Miss Yuriko mentioned about him being the killer. She even said that other than those two, only your dad knew about the killer's identity. Apparently, they took an oath to keep it a secret from the rest of the world. Not even the TYB knows about it."

"So it was true. My father wasn't just speculating, then."

"Wait, you knew who the killer was, then?"

"I overheard him mumbling over the phone four years back. But I didn't know what he was talking about. I'm now confident that he was talking to one of those two. I have been researching about Kazuki Akio ever since then. Thus, I found out about this academy, and the Red Snow Massacre. I enrolled here to find people that could help me with this case. And so, I first found out about the Class Rep's connection to the case, and then I met you. You know the rest."

So he never intended to study or be part of the academy in the first place. His only motive was to find some clues and whereabouts of the killer.

"In addition to being a psychotic mass murderer, Kazuki was also an incredible genius. My dad still had some of his earlier books, so I tried giving it a read, secretly, of course. You wouldn't believe the kind of stuff they were experimenting on! And those were just the tip of the iceberg. His real stuff lies here---in your hands at the moment, technically."

I turned open the book, and flipped the pages. There was a very neat and elaborate index created which helped with the navigation.

"My father once told me that Kazuki's theories were so on point, that even Henry, and the then Principal forbade them from being made public, saying that it could literally change the way we would look at our powers, and even our lives."

Why become a killer then? Was he frustrated by the fact that he wasn't allowed to become famous? Is that what drove him to kill? Perhaps, somebody stole his work, and that made him go crazy...?

"Nobody knows as to why he committed such a heinous crime. There have been certain theories about it. But since most aren't aware of his identity, they haven't been able to produce anything convincing. After all, to understand a person, you need to understand his past. In this case, no one can do that, can they?"

He gave me an obvious look.

"All right, I get it. I'll keep digging. Give me a break already!" I responded.

"Thank you. Also, we're not just going to find out about our little Jack here. We're part of an actual club, remember? We're going to also indulge in research. Kazuki's notes will help us a lot. Assuming that we're somehow able to use them to become stronger, by the time the semester ends, we'll be stronger than the teachers themselves. You, of course, could even become stronger than the Principal." Utsumi said.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"That would be really cool."

"Okay, enough chatting. Let us start with our first task---knowing everything there is to know about our killer."

We started digging up things that could help us in knowing about him. There were many---rough notes, actual notes, even vintage porn magazines. Looks like they enjoyed quite a lot during their youth. They weren't kidding when they said that everything here has been kept untouched.

2 hours later

"What do we have so far?" I asked.

Utsumi wrote down all the details on a parchment.

Name: Kazuki Akio

Age: 16

Height: 171.6 cm

Weight: 59.3 kg

Blood Type: A+

Hair Type/Colour: Semi-long/Black

Favourite food: Ramen

Glasses: Yes

"How in the world did you even come up with these details? I could only come up with his age." I asked.

"I found a notebook with all the names and other details of the members. It included age, blood type, height, and weight. As for the food, I even found a slam book, with all the personal details regarding Kazuki. I have no clue as to whom this book belonged to, though. And finally, the hair and the glasses, well, I found an old photo. Here."

He handed me a photo of all the members. There were 19 in total.

"The one with the glasses and slightly long hair is our guy." Utsumi said.

"He looks innocent as hell, like a total bookworm. No wonder nobody suspected his ulterior motives."

"Well, that's about it. We'll have to get to work once Tsujihara joins us."

"By the way, what's a slam book doing here? I thought only kids use it. Actually, not even they do, anymore." I asked.

"Slam books were pretty popular even among teenagers in the 80's. In such an isolated academy, the only normal thing going on for them was probably this book. But I can't figure out as to whom it belonged to, since it's a nickname."

"Nickname?"

"Yeah. It belonged to someone named Hime-chan. Obviously, I checked the names of all the 18 members, and I couldn't find anyone having a name similar to it."

"18? Aren't there 19 in this photo?"

"No, of course not. There are 18."

Let me look at the photo aga---Damn. How could I have missed that...!?

"It's the kid." I said.

"A kid? No wait, the kid? Who?" Utsumi asked.

I showed him the photo of the club members.

"Okay, what's the deal, then? I can't see anything new here, Yoshida. Elaborate."

"Look at Kazuki one more time."

"What then? I can't see---what!? A little girl, sitting on Kazuki's shoulders!? How could I have missed that!?"

"We were so engrossed in looking at him, that we forgot the little silver-haired girl on top. I'm almost sure that she's Hime-chan." I said.

"What are you basing it on? Any other member could have used that name. Plus, I don't think a kid would be allowed anywhere near the academy."

"But the photo was taken right outside this cottage. It's clearly visible. Plus, she's wearing a paper-crown, goddammit. Don't you think that's proof enough?"

"All right, fine. You've made your point. So it did belong to the kid. But how did she enter the academy premises? Kids have never been allowed in this academy. Even a teacher's kid can't be allowed to step foot into this place. A minimum age of 13 is required. Besides, she looks no more than five." Utsumi refuted.

"But somehow, she's in this photo, with all the other members. Strange, don't you think? I mean, unless it were the kid of somebody really important, they wouldn't be allowed to enter the academy premises, right? So, we can safely assume that this was the child of someone really important to this academy, say, the Principal, or even the founder."

"If that is true, then it narrows our search down by quite a lot." Utsumi said.

"You have always been the smart one, Utsumi. Yet, you're still not able to figure out something so easy." I said.

"Okay, Conan. Go on, then. Enlighten me."

"Who is a super-important woman, having silver hair, despises TREC, and anything associated with it? Hmm?"

"You. Have. Got. To. Be. Joking. NO! It can't be!"

"Exactly."