Chapter 10: Shikamaru Isn't Omnipotent After All

'How Troublesome' thought Shikamaru while looking at Nanae-san's daughter, Ayano Tsukumo was crying because her mother didn't accompany her for a walk.

"How about if I take you? I'll help you find a beautiful outfit to wear"

"OKAY!" Ayano said happily.

"Thank you Mako-san," Nanae said as she watched her daughter and Mako come out of the mansion.

….

As Shikamaru roam around the basement "So, what exactly is this room for?"

"It was for the exclusive use of my husband. He'd hole away in here and develop new magic tricks. Recently the apprentices have occasionally used the room, too"

So to become a Magician requires a lot of books too, Shikamaru thought.

"So this is where your husband ingested poison and die," said Tooru as he look at the table.

"Yes. I haven't touched anything. So you could see the room as it was"

"The cards in question were among the pile of cards on his desk. You'll find the glue to stick them together too" said Nanae

Knock~ Knock~

'This wall is unusually thick' Shikamaru thought as he tapped the wall with his finger.

It seems that Motoyasu-san likes classical music in this room because there are some musical instruments too and a classical music player in this room. So it can be concluded that this room had a sound-proof system.

In other words, even if Motoyasu-san wanted to yell no one would be able to hear him.

And also is this Motoyasu-san?

Shikamaru thought when he was in front of a framed photo. In the picture, an old man with a mustache on his face is wearing 10 rings on his fingers.

Unexpectedly, it turns out that Motoyasu-san is a fat person. Whereas if you look at other magicians like the three apprentices and his wife, it can be seen that they are the fit type.

I thought before that a magician had to have a fit body if he wanted to do magic tricks.

Wait a minute!

Rings?!

Shikamaru pointed at the photo and said: "Nanae-san, did Motoyasu-san use these rings when he died?"

After thinking about it, she said: "Yes… my husband's specialty was a trick where he'd manipulate inanimate objects with invisible strings, making them look alive. We think that was the routine he was practicing when he died"

She hesitated and finally said: "I remembered that we found the phone was buried in the piles of cards. When we found his body we didn't see where it was so we hurried upstairs and called the ambulance from the phone in the front entryway"

'It was buried?'

Shikamaru then walked towards the phone which until now the piles of cards had not been moved away.

He moved the piles of cards and saw that there was an interesting button on the phone.

"It's the same shape as the cards!" said Tooru who for some unknown time followed Shikamaru's movements.

"AH! Could it be your husband's dying message and it means 'PRESS THE REDIAL BUTTON!" after saying that Tooru immediately pressed the button.

"TOOT-TOOT-TOOT- The number you have reached is not in service…."

'Ah, it's wrong' but indeed it would be very impossible if such an easy thing happened. Because if he did, the killer would have erased his tracks.

This is all assuming that the killer is still in the mansion.

126871*32489*13548*1397

Tooru was disappointed when he know that he reasoned wrongly: "What is that? A code?"

Shikamaru also noticed the numbers that had appeared on the phone earlier.

"….DC MAKO" said Shikamaru after thinking for so long.

"…DA CAPO MAKO" Shikamaru then immediately looked at Nanae-san after saying that.

And with a face as if he had just remembered something he immediately said: "Mako is out with your daughter now, right? Can you call her now?"

"Y-yes they went clothes shopping, and Mako carries a pager with her," said Nanae-san.

….

BEEP.BEEP.BEEP.BEEP.BEEP

"Oh… your mother paging me, Ayano-chan. I wonder if she wants us to come home" said Mako.

"NOOO! I want to stay out longer with you! You promised to take me somewhere super FUN!" said Ayano.

"Don't worry, I'll take you there"

"I'll take you to a very special place," said Mako with a cold aura covering her body.

…

"WHAT?!" There were screams from Tooru and Nanae from inside the mansion.

"M-mako may harm Ayano?" said Nanae with her hand had been trembling.

"She probably intends to kill her. I already decode your husband's message 'DC MAKO' means 'MAKO WILL KILL ONCE AGAIN' !!!"

"Get the other two apprentices here now! We'll split up and search for her" Said Shikamaru as he walked out of the mansion.

….

Shikamaru and Tooru ran to look for Ayano anxiously and hoped the worst didn't happen.

Soul fragments will only attach to someone's body who has a fairly deep emotional line to the soul.

Or he/she is the killer of the soul that resulted in resentment towards the murderer.

So if there were two soul fragments attached to a person's body then there were only three possibilities.

First, he/she was the beloved of the two soul fragments.

Second, he/she was the killer of the two soul fragments.

Third, the rarest. He/she was the beloved of one soul fragment but also a murderer of another soul fragment.

So that Shikamaru who knew this fact could only help as best he could and hoped that Ayano was fine.

Because no matter how high Shikamaru's IQ is, he can't determine who the real killer is without seeing the location of the murder case and the evidence.

He's just a ninja with supernatural powers in a world full of ordinary humans!

…

"Any luck?" Asked Tooru to the others after they met back in front of the mansion.

Tooru now actually has confidence in Shikamaru's investigation abilities. it's just that this kid is outrageously lazy!

"Didn't see her anywhere" said Yuji.

"Looks like we'd better get the police on a missing person's search," said Tooru.

"B-but why would Mako kill my husband?" said Nanae-san as she still couldn't understand the reason behind Mako's action.

"I bet it has something to do with him. The guy whose photo was in the basement. The one with the blacktop hat" said Shikamaru as he sat on the road.

Looks like he'll have to start training his physique again. How could he be exhausted just from running like this!

"So this has to do with Yoshiro Kinoshita, after all," said Kazumi

Yuji gasped hearing that: "K-Kinoshita? The genius magician who died 14 years ago?!"

"Yeah, I saw her late at night once… down in the basement"

"She was hugging that picture to her chest. I thought something was odd, but I never imagined murder"

"Man… I'm pretty pathetic. I was indeed flustered by the discovery of the body but still…. I can't believe I didn't notice Mako cutting the strings off his rings and re-inserting the phone cord right in front of ME!"

"Heh.. You'd found me out, hm?" Mako said as she was carrying Ayano on her back.

"Ayano!" shouted Nanae who saw her daughter seemed to have closed her eyes.

She looks very nervous and anxious about her daughter's condition.