Lin Xinyi chased after Kudo and the others across the road.
Shiho Miyano gazed at his retreating figure thoughtfully, eventually slowly following after them.
Soon, following the direction from which the sound had come, they arrived at the alley next to the department store building.
Ishikawa, Aoki, Shinichi Kudo, and Ran Mouri, who had gone ahead, were all standing at the entrance of this alley.
Looking carefully inside:
This alley was narrow and was a dead end.
It was empty inside; apart from a metal fire escape ladder welded to the outside of the department store building's wall, leading straight from the ground to the fourth floor, there was nothing else in the alley.
And that fire escape ladder leading to the fourth floor looked extremely dilapidated.
The steps were covered in mottled rust, and the guardrail was incredibly decayed by time.
Even the iron door on the fourth-floor exterior wall of the department store building, the only thing the fire escape ladder connected to, was completely covered in rust, likely having been completely rusted shut long ago and unable to open.
Clearly, this long-neglected fire escape ladder hadn't been used in a long time.
And this dead-end alley, which offered no other way out besides the fire escape ladder, was obviously not a place where passersby would enter.
Compared to the bustling main road outside, this dead silent, unmanned alley was practically another world.
And now, in this unmanned alley, isolated from the world despite being in a busy area,
the high school student named Uchida, who had just been standing on the rooftop, was lying motionless on the ground.
"Uchida!"
"Hey, hey, Uchida!"
Ishikawa and Aoki shouted out in panic.
It seemed they finally realized the terrible consequences of their bullying behavior, and they appeared very nervous.
They stood there stiffly, looking at Uchida's corpse with grim expressions, silently wondering what to think.
At this moment, Lin Xinyi made a move.
As if by instinct, he ran at top speed to the side of the prone Uchida.
Immediately after, Lin Xinyi quickly squatted down and carefully turned the motionless, unfamiliar teenager over from the ground.
Uchida's face was thus exposed to everyone.
His face was covered in large abrasions and contusions, and there was a large, shocking depression from a bone fracture on his forehead.
The youthful face no longer showed the young man's former smile; there was only decaying flesh, gruesome injuries, and eternal silence.
"His skull is completely deformed..."
Lin Xinyi's heart sank; he knew such injuries were certainly fatal.
Ignoring the fact that he wasn't wearing gloves, he immediately extended his hand to check Uchida's breath and then flipped open his eyelids to examine his pupils.
His breath had long stopped, both pupils were dilated, and there was no light in his eyes.
Touching his wrist, there was no pulse, and the muscles in his arm had already relaxed.
"How is it?" Shinichi Kudo also slowly approached.
"He's dead," Lin Xinyi frowned tightly, his tone somewhat complex.
He had certainly seen many dead people, but never before had he encountered someone dying just while walking down the street.
Being notified in advance to examine a corpse at a scene is completely different from unexpectedly witnessing death in daily life.
Lin Xinyi couldn't help but feel a bit emotional.
In contrast, Shinichi Kudo's demeanor was much calmer and composed.
Seeing someone die in front of him, the high school student appeared calmer than the former Forensic Doctor.
It was as if he was already accustomed to such situations.
And upon hearing that Uchida was confirmed deceased, Shinichi Kudo immediately entered that focused Famous Detective Mode.
He was observing, thinking, completely absorbed, like an actor stepping onto a stage or an examinee sitting for a test.
"Suicide by jumping? This alley is a dead end, and the fire escape ladder is rusted like that; probably no one comes here normally."
"In that case, most of the objects on the ground should be related to the deceased who fell today."
Thinking this, Shinichi Kudo began to Observe Carefully the ground near the corpse.
First, he saw a brown Baseball cap.
This was the baseball cap they had seen Uchida wearing earlier.
However, this baseball cap was not on the deceased's head now but was scattered next to the corpse, likely having fallen off during the fall.
Then, Shinichi Kudo spotted a few ordinary broken bricks on the ground.
Other than that, the only thing that could be found was
a section of a rusted iron guardrail.
"Did this guardrail fall off the fire escape ladder?"
Shinichi Kudo looked up toward the fire escape ladder welded to the exterior wall of the department store building:
Indeed, at the very top of that fire escape ladder, in front of the iron door on the fourth floor, a large section of the iron guardrail was missing.
"The fire escape ladder is old and in disrepair, so a section of the guardrail fell off?"
"Or did the deceased knock off this section of the guardrail while falling?"
Shinichi Kudo frowned slightly.
A baseball cap, a few broken bricks, the iron ladder leading to the fourth floor outside the building wall, the broken guardrail at the top of the ladder—
All the Clues at the Scene gathered in his mind.
"Could it be..."
"Is it that kind of situation?"
Shinichi Kudo's eyes lit up; he understood something.
Immediately after, he suddenly turned his head, his Sharp Gaze fixed on the two delinquent boys who had been silent:
"Ishikawa, Aoki."
"Is it alright to call you that?"
Ishikawa and Aoki did not answer; they remained standing silently to the side.
"The deceased Uchida, who died from jumping off the building, was the classmate you were bullying, right?"
"When did you separate from him? And where exactly did you hit him just now?"
Shinichi Kudo asked directly and bluntly.
"Uh..."
Ishikawa was slightly stunned, and a hint of Hostility immediately appeared in his eyes:
"W-Why are you asking me these things?"
"Are you the Police? Why should I tell you?"
"Besides, besides..."
He swallowed, stuck out his neck, and roared in a Blustering and Threatening manner:
"So what if we hit Uchida?"
"We didn't hit him hard, and we certainly didn't kill him."
"He ran off and jumped off the building himself; you all, and those passersby, saw that."
"So, his death has nothing to do with us!"
"At most, it was just Bullying Behavior; we'll be fine after a few lectures from the Police."
The more Ishikawa spoke, the more Confidence he gained, as if his Bullying Behavior was just an insignificant Small matter.
He even righteously addressed Lin Xinyi, Kudo, and the later-arriving Ran Mouri and Shiho Miyano:
"That's Right, you guys shouldn't leave in a hurry."
"You are eyewitnesses; you all saw Uchida jump down from upstairs by himself."
"Uchida's death has nothing to do with us; when the Police arrive, you must explain these things clearly to them."
"..."
A brief silence followed.
Lin Xinyi quietly looked at the corpse, paying them no mind at all.
A Smile appeared on Kudo's lips, very meaningful.
As for Shiho Miyano, who arrived later, she couldn't be bothered to speak, as she had no interest in the matter.
Compared to the Murder case, Lin Xinyi, who was observing the corpse with a serious expression, was more captivating to her gaze.
Finally, the only one to break the Silence was Miss Ran Mouri:
"You—you two bastards!"
She clenched her Fists until her knuckles turned white; the accumulated sense of injustice burst forth completely at this moment:
"You two forced this classmate Uchida to jump off the building."
"Don't you two feel even the slightest bit of guilt?"
The high school student named Aoki looked away evasively and lowered his head, not daring to meet Ran Mouri's gaze.
But Ishikawa was the exact opposite; not only did he show no remorse, but he also retorted fiercely:
"What do you mean, forced to jump off the building?"
"His own mentality was bad, and he ran off to commit suicide; can—can you blame us for that?"
"If you have the guts, go tell the Police!"
"See if they'll arrest us for this!"
"You?!" Uncharacteristically, Ran Mouri was angry.
She saw Uchida's lifeless corpse and Ishikawa's expression, which showed no guilt at all.
The Clear contrast between the deceased and the living made her Anger almost uncontrollable.
"Don't get excited, Ran!"
At the critical moment, Shinichi Kudo once again Timely stopped his Childhood Sweetheart.
"Shinichi!"
Ran Mouri clearly didn't want to just stand by and watch the two bullies continue to act arrogantly in front of the Victim's corpse.
But Shinichi Kudo's Attitude was very Firm: "Dealing with criminals should be left to the Police."
Ran Mouri slowly lowered her Fist; she knew Shinichi was right, she shouldn't use violence to stop violence.
However, she still felt completely unable to accept it:
"The Police won't handle things like this..."
"No one ever deals with campus bullying."
Ran Mouri's expression was somewhat downcast; she felt sorrow for the injustice the deceased had suffered.
"No, this time is different."
Shinichi Kudo said very seriously into Ran Mouri's ear:
"Didn't you notice?"
"Mr. Lin Xinyi has been observing the corpse since just now; his gaze is just like it was back then."
"Huh?" Ran Mouri was slightly stunned, suddenly realizing something: "Are you saying..."
"That's right."
"Mr. Lin must have seen it too."
Shinichi Kudo nodded slightly, his eyes extremely sharp:
"No one deals with bullying, but murder is different."