Archer crossed his arms, his brows tightly furrowed as he watched the button in Black Swan's hand: "This thing wouldn't really be able to blow all of Penacony into the sky like she said, right?"
"Impossible." Saber denied it firmly. "To detonate the entire Penacony would require extremely complicated arrangements. Sparkle probably doesn't like such tedious and boring work…"
"Not necessarily?"
Shirou Emiya's voice came from the kitchen. "If making all of Penacony take off would satisfy her [Elation], then she would definitely do it. However, the scale of detonating the entire Penacony is indeed too large. I think it's more likely she would detonate a certain landmark building."
——
[Continuing forward, they found another plush toy that looked like Pom-Pom.]
["Regardless of why the image is of the Astral Express conductor, is this doll also related to the case?"]
[The constable solemnly explained: "You may not know, but in detective stories this is called a [Red Herring], meaning [a fake clue meant to mislead your thinking]!"]
[Black Swan nodded as if she suddenly understood: "I see. But if you say it so straightforwardly, doesn't it lose its effectiveness?"]
["Ah, this…"]
[The constable panicked and found an excuse: "T-This is because I was afraid the two of you might not notice Miss Sparkle's clever thought and mistakenly think she just threw in a useless clue… Uh…"]
[It couldn't make it up anymore.]
[Black Swan let out a "pfft" laugh: "Thank you for your kind intentions. Then we'll pretend to be misled by the [Red Herring]. Um… is this doll also related to the case?"]
[Sampo was also annoyed and curled his lips: "You don't have to give her this much face…"]
——
MYGO!!!!!
"Ah~ Miss Black Swan is really so gentle…" Anon Chihaya sank completely into the beanbag sofa in the practice room. "She's just like when Soyorin comforts people."
Soyo's hand slipped while tuning her bass, producing a harsh noise: "…Please don't use such a strange comparison next time." She looked up at the Celestial Screen where Black Swan was going along with Sparkle's absurd murder case and sighed: "But it's true. It feels like she's dealing with a spoiled child."
"Heh." Riki put down her drumsticks. "For someone acting like a terrorist from the news, I say we should treat her like a stray cat that snuck into the house—" She made a motion of grabbing the scruff of the neck. "Throw her out while she's having the most fun. Perfect timing too, since Sunday hates her as well."
"Ah, Rikki is so ruthless~"
But when stray cats were mentioned, everyone realized there was still one person in the practice room who hadn't shown up.
Riki clicked her tongue: "Don't tell me it's because of stray cats again that we can't practice properly this time?"
"It's Anon after all, what can we do? I remember that kid actually quite likes Sparkle. She's probably hiding in the shop right now, eating a parfait while waiting for Sparkle to appear on the Celestial Screen?" Soyo guessed.
"Hey hey~ Should we postpone practice today and go to the shop to find Anon?" Anon immediately moved next to Soyo.
"Hah?! Ab-so-lute-ly not!" Riki banged out a loud "thump," expressing her protest through action. "We have a live show next week. Do you think everyone is as free as you?"
Seeing this path blocked, Anon immediately turned to the short-haired girl in the corner: "What does Tomorin think?"
"Eh? I-I…" Takamatsu Tomori lowered her head, her fingers fidgeting with the hem of her clothes. "I'm also worried about Anon. Last practice already…"
Riki's expression visibly wavered and quickly softened: "Since Tomori said so too… just this once. But let's be clear first—we have to bring Anon back once we find her. We absolutely cannot delay practice because of the Celestial Screen!"
"Yay~" Anon secretly made a victory gesture. "But last time when Miss Firefly and Stelle were on the rooftop, Rikki was clearly the most engrossed! You didn't even notice your drumsticks were left in the practice room~"
"Hah?!"
"…" Soyo helplessly watched the two getting louder and louder, silently packed up her bass, and left for the shop first without looking back.
——
[After obtaining the final piece of evidence, the next step was to identify the culprit, but Sampo was completely clueless… or rather, in such a completely casual murder case, being able to reason out the real culprit would be the real miracle.]
[However, Black Swan already had an idea. After reversing her train of thought and using the process of elimination, they locked the culprit on Ayou, who had a broken leg.]
[After telling the answer to the constable, the constable said the puzzle was answered correctly. According to the game rules, they told the two the location of the next puzzle.]
["Ah? The next puzzle? This isn't what we agreed on." Sampo said discontentedly.]
["It seems the key to victory isn't in the puzzle itself. If we cannot see through the real intention behind Miss Sparkle's bizarre behavior, I'm afraid this chase will never end."]
[Sampo kindly reminded her: "That Sparkle is a Masked Fool. You plan to look for logic inside a Fool's head?"]
["That is indeed what I am considering. Even if there is no subjective pattern, behavior will always leave behind some commonality—memory does not lie. It may understand her essence better than that girl herself."]
[The two arrived at the scene of the next puzzle. Sparkle once again used the old method to "send" people back to reality, leaving only a ground full of memoria bubbles.]
[This time the Dreamjolt Troupe members were playing the roles of sheriff and deputy sheriff.]
["Oh~ Detective Black Swan~ Detective Sampo~ You've finally arrived~ Without your help, we really wouldn't know what to do!"]
[As soon as these words came out, even the usually calm and composed Black Swan couldn't help but frown deeply.]
["Uh, why are you speaking like this? Is this some art form that I, Sampo, don't understand…" Sampo felt like he had been rendered speechless countless times tonight.]
["Speaking? Is there something wrong with the way we speak? Deputy Sheriff, is the way I speak strange?"]
[The Drink Dog pinched its throat in a flattering tone: "Of course not~ Sheriff, the way you speak is as ordinary as the cat lying on the apple tree in my grandma's backyard."]
["Then let's talk about this difficult mystery! The victim of this case is a galactic tycoon named [Sparkle]…"]