Copyright Notice:This story is an original work by Muntasib_Ihshan789. All rights reserved. Do not copy or redistribute without permission.
The wind felt dry and cold as it hit Shuhi's eyes, making her eyes sting a little. She stood on her balcony, arms on the railing and scarf crossed under her chin. She was doing her old hobby. Looking at the sky. The sky was a dull gray, cloudy, and quiet. It was a strange calm feeling.
"Will I ever see this view the same way again?"
She let the thought sit.
Back in day 1... it all began here. Same wind, same view. Only I was a different person then. Clueless and powerless. Now She has many intel's and a professional detective with her.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket. She sighed and pulled it out. A message. From Utaro.
No, not a message.A screenshot.
Her brows furrowed.It was a chat between the victim and someone labeled as "unknown."
unknown: You know what happens on the 20th. No point in pretending.
Sherley Hirako-san: How did u know about my bday?
(Message unsent)
unknown: U like this doll?
Sherley Hirako-san: Eww creepy!!!
unknown: Just forget me. Pretend that u know nothing. If you ever can, go to the fourth house and put the doll there. It looks pretty.
Sherley Hirako-san: xcuse me? What do u mean by all? What is the first house?
Hello?
hello?
Taking eyes out from the screen was constantly getting harder for her as she sunk into thoughts again.
"Fourth house? Put the doll there?"
And then—Another buzz.
An image. A doll.
She almost dropped her phone.
Its eyes had rusted screws jammed in, with red paint representing blood, or was it real? bleeding out from the sockets. Its mouth was stitched into a crooked, bloody smile, exposing jagged little teeth which looked like would come out from screen and bite.
"Gross..." she muttered under her breath. But inside, she was shaking.
"What kind of person gives someone this and calls it 'pretty'? Even gifting this in halloween will make people think twice"
She lay back on her bed, eyes completely fixed at the ceiling and thoughts running in her head. She had many questions but having no answerer, she made questions and solved herself.
"There's something more to this…"
"The victim—did she know the sender? Looking at the message, I can think of only one thing. The victim had an affair. The man wanted to gift her a creepy doll and later.... he wanted her to forget about him. Maybe he couldn't hold the relationship any longer. The fact that he knew her birthday means he knew her for a long time. Maybe a month or longer?"
The doll was a gift. But also a piece of the murder puzzle. That's why Utaro thought of sending a picture to Shuhi.
The clues started coming back to her in waves.
The first house led to the second.
The second gave two pieces of info: location and time of the third.
The third house gave three clues: fourth spot's location, the chat screenshots, and the murder pattern.
So naturally... the fourth house must have four clues.
But so far, they only found:
A riddle taking them to the gambling bar.
Marked page numbers.
"Only two. What are the other two?" She thought.
She sat up, rubbing her forehead. A line of a riddle still echoed in her mind.
Connect 3 with 4…
Then her eyes landed on her wall clock.Round with twelve numbers.
Wait—twelve numbers!Just like the twelve page numbers they found.
11, 42, 58, 72, 112, 123, 116, 222, 234, 240, 289, 333.
"What if I map them to the clock?"
She took a notepad and started drawing an analog clock. One by one, she wrote each page number instead of a clock number—11 at 1 o'clock, 42 at 2 o'clock, and so on.
But halfway through, she stopped.
"What now? This doesn't make sense…" She thought.
She bit her lip, thinking hard.
"Wait… maybe it's not about positions. Maybe it's about the pages themselves."
She opened the book, flipping to each marked page. On every one, she scanned the first letters.
One by one, she noted them down.
But it was not making any sense. So she wrote the last letters of the pages.
G
O
T
O
1
D
O
I
T
N
She arranged them.
"GO TO 1 DO IT N"
"Go to 1... Do it N?" she muttered."No, wait... maybe it's saying: Go to 1. Do it. N? What does N mean here? North?"
She sat in silence.
And then—her eyes widened.
"It's telling me to go to the first house. That's where the final piece is. But…"
She thought back to the screenshot.
The message said: "Put the doll in the fourth house."
So she decided to visit the 4th house again. But why 4th house? Isn't the 1st house closer?
Most people would choose the closer house first which is the first one. But her instincts were screaming the opposite.
"No. This isn't just a game. I have to consider that the killer is clever. If I go to the first house first, maybe.... maybe I'll miss something. The messages was pointing towards the fourth house. There is a sequence The sequence must matters. Clues connect like puzzle pieces. If I mess up the order, and nothing fits."
She thought deeper. She had total three reasons to go to the 4th house first.
First reason: It's a trap to confuse investigators. Start with the closest, miss the context.
Second: House 3 led to House 4. Logically, 4 must then lead to 1.
Third: That riddle. "The answer is here." The first house will have the final piece.
Everything suddenly clicked.
She smiled faintly. She had figured it out.
The next morning wasn't as cold. The sky had cleared, and for the first time in days, sunlight was dropped in her forehead.
Shuhi wrapped a new red scarf around her neck, grabbed her shoulder bag, and headed out. She felt… prepared.
"Today, I'm gonna disturb the peace of the Danao household once more. How many times? It's the 3rd time right?" She thought
At the train station, she spotted someone familiar.
Utaro.
He was already there early. It looked like Shuhi was late this time but from Utaro's perspective.
"You won't believe what I found," he said as soon as she approached.
Shuhi stood there while Utaro approached to her.
She also had thing to say but she would hear Utaro's first.
Dead Logic © 2025 by Muntasib_Ihshan789 is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International