Part 53: Wolves and Sheep Puzzle II

Wolves and Sheep Puzzle solution:

Both wolves take the boat to the far bank.
One wolf takes the boat to the near bank.
Both sheep take the boat to the far bank.
one wolf takes the boat to the near bank.
Both wolves take the boat to the far bank.
Transport successful.



"...Wh, what do you mean, Kanon-kun...!"
"...It's alright for now. Let us quickly carry him to the servants' room. Kumasawa, do not tell Rosa-sama yet. We will do it after we hear the situation from Kanon."
"Y, yes... hiiiiiiii..."

After appearing in this horrible state, he had said not to tell Rosa. That could only mean something very disquieting. An eerie impatience rose to their faces...

"C, come now, everyone! Let's hurry and carry him...! Quickly, quickly...!"



"...This is... horrible... It appears that he has been stabbed with something like a spear. I, If it hasn't reached the lungs, I might be able to do something... Anyways, stop the bleeding...!"



No matter how much Nanjo tried to wipe off that gushing deep-red blood, he couldn't wipe it he couldn't wipe it he couldn't wipe it all away...! And each time, the wound was aggravated, causing Kanon to cry in anguish...

"Kanon-kun, Kanon-kun Kanon-kun! Hang in there... hang in there...!!"
"Doctor Nanjo! A new towel...! How, horrible...!!"
"What is his condition...?"
"...In all honesty, it is so severe that I cannot believe he is alive... Maybe the location of the stab was fortunate... But the blood loss is too horrible...! A blood transfusion is necessary, but that's impossible until tomorrow...!"



"D, don't talk, Kanon-kun! Your wound will open...!"
"...Rosa-sama, came... t, to Milady... and me..."
"Wh, what did you say..."
"Rosa-sama... did...? Ooooooh, could that mean, could that mean..."
"...Are you certain?"

"Yes... I'm certain... it was Rosa-sama..."
"Come now, don't speak any more...! Kumasawa-san, please grab another first aid kit!"



BGM: Stupefaction

"...I do not know."

Disregarding Nanjo and Kumasawa, who were struggling hard and stained with blood as they tried to stop the bleeding, Genji and Gohda faced each other... Because if what Kanon had said was the truth, Rosa was the culprit who killed Jessica.



Kanon screamed even more hatefully... His hate-filled voice made it seem like he was seeing Jessica being harmed right before his eyes.

"...C, certainly, Rosa-sama may have had a reason to kill Milady. If everyone in the Ushiromiya family were destroyed, the inheritance would all go to Rosa-sama..."
"If so, Battler-sama and George-sama are in danger...! Not only is Rosa-sama holding a gun, but right now, they are the only ones in the lounge...! Genji-san, isn't this quite perilous...!"
"..."
"..."



...Her expression was complex and tragic, as though she didn't know what to believe...

Shannon ran. To where? The inside of the mansion had been scrupulously cleaned, so it probably wouldn't be easy to find. She might find it if she searched the rose garden, but she would probably lose it all in this wind and rain...

That's right... the boiler room isn't cleaned very often. If she went there, ...she might be able to find it... Shannon ran downstairs to find that in the underground boiler room...



...For the time being, Kanon had at least gotten over his painful gasping. Nanjo apparently didn't think of this as that great of a trend, and didn't let his eyes off Kanon for a second. Kumasawa firmly gripped Kanon's hand, and kept encouraging him so that the willpower keeping him alive didn't fall asleep. Genji and Gohda seemed bewildered at the truth that Kanon had risked his life to deliver...

"...Rosa-sama's gun surely has four or five shots loaded."
"That is no small number. But loading cartridges into a Winchester should require quite a lot of practice. She might be able to get one shot off, but if everyone attacks her at once, we should be able to take the gun from her before she shoots again..."
"...On this island, while there is a doctor, there is no medicine, and no hospital. If the location where the shot hits is bad, that person will die."
"I understand that, but... More importantly, if we don't move quickly, there is also the possibility that another crime will occur...! I get the feeling that Rosa-sama skillfully chased us out. There is a possibility that George-sama and Battler-sama are being killed right about now...!"
"..."
"...Ho... hohohohoho. If the opponent is so dangerous, wouldn't it be better if we didn't provoke them too much...?"
"But there is still much time before tomorrow comes...! We can't even imagine what strategy she will use! Genji-san, we should wage war from here. If we can at least steal the gun under some pretext, things might work out...!"
"There are four or five cartridges, are there not? That means there aren't enough to kill all of us... If we don't carelessly provoke her, surely even Rosa-sama wouldn't be unreasonable..."



Video: Kanon

BGM: Closed my Heart

Kanon, who they thought had been sleeping quietly, suddenly started talking brightly. Almost like he had been awake the whole time and had suddenly opened his mouth. He looked firm and steady, and Nanjo was slightly relieved, but thinking of the deepness of that wound, he just couldn't wipe away a certain creepy feeling. He knew because he was a doctor. It wouldn't have been unexpected if Kanon had lost consciousness after losing so much blood. And yet somehow, he had preserved his awareness so clearly. Was it youth? Or was it tenacity? Sometimes, the power of human life surpassed common knowledge...

When they had stopped the bleeding, Nanjo had groped around a bit inside the bleeding hole with tweezers, to make sure there were no foreign objects inside the affected area, and the great depth of the wound had surprised him. The wound had certainly reached as far as his lungs. And yet, and yet...

...No, on the other hand, the fact that he is alive is fortunate... But Kanon had spoken clearly. He had hatefully said that the one named Rosa had created this wound, and was repeating curses and enraged words.



"...Damn...! What a person... Genji-san, what should we do?! Are there any weapons we can..."
"...I cannot believe it so suddenly. That Rosa-sama would do something like..."
"Genji-sama, it isn't a question of whether you believe or not. That person told me. I heard it. WHY won't you believe me?"
"D, don't get up... You'll harm your wound..."

Kanon sat up on the bed, speaking to Genji, who made no effort to believe Kanon's story.

"That person will definitely kill all of us. She's surely killed all of the people in the parlor by now. If we don't kill her first, we'll definitely be killed first. Just like how I was killed first, everyone else will also be killed first. Kill or be killed. Kill or be killed kill or be killed."
"...K, Kanon-san... you... does it really not hurt...?"

"...Oh, this? It isn't a serious wound."
"Wh... what do you mean, not a serious wound... you..."
"It really isn't a big deal. Something like this won't hurt anymore, it really isn't a serious wound."



The gruesome hole in his chest was immediately exposed...

"K, Kanon-san...! You must not do something like that! Quickly, lie down...!"
"I said it's fine... Hey. See...? It is, not a serious wound, right...?"

Kanon showed off his gaping wound, which was still slowly spitting out foamy blood. Everyone averted their eyes reflexively.

"Look, I told you that it wasn't a serious wound at all..."
"S, stop... you must not play with your wound..."
"...Hey, see? It isn't, a deep wound... Look. Look."

Kanon held up two fingers, showed them to everyone, and slowly started to stick them into the gruesome wound right in the center of his chest... Plunging, slimy, squishy, wet. The finger, went in deep, to the base... *squish*, *gloop*, *bloop*...

"Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...!! K K K, Kanon-san, stop it, stop it...!!"

That finger was completely sticking into his chest, up to its base, and then he slowly pulled it out in exactly the same way... The fingers he pulled out, were stained a sticky, solid, deep-red color, and there was even a thread hanging... The finger was, up to its base, covered in deep-red...

"...Y... you... wh, wh wh, what in the world..."



At that time, the door was opened vigorously, and Shannon appeared. Even after she saw Kanon, stained with fresh blood, her impregnable expression didn't falter.

"...Hey, Nee-san. Where'd you go? I'm on the verge of death here, where'd you go?"



"...Huh... eeeh...?"

It was only natural. Everyone believed he was Kanon. So they couldn't understand the meaning of Shannon's question. When they looked, they noticed that Shannon was holding a handkerchief in her hand. It was filthy, and looked like it had wiped up some trash or dust.
And while holding that, she approached Kanon... and drew close to his legs.

"What is that...?"
"It's a handkerchief with a spider's web wiped onto it."
"...Why something like that?"



"...Hahaha, oh no. Why would I hate spiders?"
"Sorry, I'll try it."
"...Sh, Shannon-san."



When Shannon brought that handkerchief close to Kanon's thigh, ...something happened in an instant. It happened all at once. The human eye couldn't have followed it.

Kanon jumped like a wild goat, fleeing from the thing Shannon was holding. Then, from his arm, some kind of afterglow flashed purple and drew a locus.

That arc, which drew three beautiful purple trails, traced across the throats of Nanjo and Kumasawa, who had been tending to him.



The third purple locus should have traced across Shannon's throat. But Shannon wasn't there. Because Genji, who had been behind her, had wrapped his own arm around Shannon's neck and pulled her back.

This all happened in an instant.

"...!!!"

In the instant Gohda tried to think fast in an attempt to understand this scene, the frozen moment in time shattered.



BGM: Red Dread

Kanon jumped and kicked off a picture frame that had been hanging from the wall behind him, springing forward just like a cat, and aiming for Shannon's throat again. But Kanon's target once again disappeared from in front of him. Because Genji had pulled Shannon again, and the two of them had fallen onto the ground as though hiding.

"Nice reflexes, you senile old furniture!!"
"...Gohda!"
"O, ooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhh!!"

Gohda wasn't an idiot either. Even if he couldn't fully understand what was going on, he at least realized that if this 'Kanon' wasn't seized, his own life would also be in peril. He sprung at Kanon with his huge body, pushing him up against the wall with his weight and physical strength.

"Ooooooooooooooooooohhh...! Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!"
"L, et... go, you fatass!!"

Another purple trail was drawn from the tips of the fingers on Kanon's right hand. And when he raised that hand like a sword, aiming at Gohda's back, there was a loud *thunk*. Because Kanon's raised hand had been pinned in the wall. He couldn't tear his palm away from the wall.



Under normal circumstances, it should have been surprising to see someone as old as Genji handle a knife so skillfully, but in this abnormal space, no one payed it much mind.

"Genji-sama, here...!"
"...Yes."

Genji took the handkerchief with the spiderweb stuck to it from Shannon. And he approached Kanon, who was pinned to the wall by Gohda's massive body and the knife.

"St...op it...!! Don't bri, bring that close...!! Stop it, st, op!! Gyaooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!"

When Genji pushed the handkerchief up to Kanon's face, there was a sound just like the one you hear when you set meat on a red-hot iron plate. Of course, the smell was the same too.

As he was burned and inflamed, festering in filthy red and black, and cried out in his death throes, Kanon's body burst open and scattered.



Those butterflies began to softly fade into nothingness, as though water, no, as though the air itself was evaporating... and afterwards, all that was left was the three of them sitting on their butts, stained with blood.

However, not everyone was just stained with blood. Some of them were lying on the ground, vomiting blood themselves.



A slit so sharp that it looked like it could cut your finger if you touched it opened wide, causing large amounts of blood to keep pouring out...

"What was that, j, just now..."
"..."
"...Gohda. Have you been injured?"
"I, I am alright... But, what did we see?! What happened?! E, ev- ev-, even though I definitely pushed that against this wall with this hand! I cannot understand what happened...!!"

Gohda looked at his own hand. The bright-red blood left from his scuffle with Kanon, definitely remained. And yet, Kanon was nowhere to be seen. Because he had disappeared. He had turned into gold butterflies and scattered.

Gohda kept screaming alone, without a clue about what was going on.