Just wanted to check if anyone on here has read the 5th volume “Psycho Logical Part 2: Sour Little Song” and can help clear up some stuff I’ve been pondering over. I feel like up to now all the previous volumes handled the “reveal” really well and left me with no questions about how the crime could have taken place and be carried out etc. However, for the current volume there are a couple of things (well mostly one after I just read the last chapter again) I just can’t seem to wrap my head around. As it involves major spoilers from the last chapter, and about the reveal, I’ll continue under the spoiler tab.
So in the end it turns out that Utsurigi Gaisuke and Hinayoshi Koutari switched places and Koutari was actually the one to be murdered and crucified, in my interpretation all part of a scheme for Utsurigi to get out of Professor Shadou’s grasp without having to be afraid of the blackmail material about Kunagisa etc. being exposed. However, when exactly did they switch? Did Utsurigi go to Koutari’s ward and then drag him all the way to the 7th ward to crucify him there, create the crime scene, etc., or did Koutari somehow have a reason to be in the 7th ward and was then targeted as he was there? Or, since Aikawa mentioned the case being similar to the Wet Crow’s Feather Island one and all this stuff about using the eyes and fingerprints and hair to switch and trick people, did the switching happen a lot earlier? For example when they talked to Utsurigi the day before was it already Koutari, and, like Boku said, Kunagisa was aware but just never said anything? However that last point seems weird to me as he did call her “Death Blue” which was explicitly stated was only something that the real Utsurigi called her… Anyways, I feel like this wasn’t explicitly explained, which really left me wondering, but I may have just missed it?
Another point I wondered about was Boku’s (i.e. I’s) whole theory about the rooftop route, and Koutari’s hair + arms being used to overcome the 7th back to 6th ward height hurdle. Am I correct to assume that, interpreted from the conversation with Aikawa Jun in the final chapter, this theory mostly served to convince the Professor of Kunagisa’s innocence and to get out of the predicament (i.e. “replace the truth with confusion”), whilst in reality none of that ever occurred as Utsurigi, the murderer, is a genius on somewhat of the same level as Kunagisa so he could have gone in and out of the facilities unnoticed by altering the log etc. (or more like Boku thought of, Kunagisa told him how to do that and he carried it out) and he solely cut off the arms to remove the fingerprints by which it could become clear the one murdered was Koutari instead of Utsurigi?
The latter part I wondered about for a bit until settling for the answer above, which could also make it more plausible if Utsurigi had to take Koutari’s body to the 7th to display it there, because I doubt he could have taken it whilst taking the rooftop route… Basically the biggest question that remains for me is when exactly did they switch, and whether or not the real Koutari was actually in on it or not? So anyways I was hoping anyone else had similar thoughts or maybe even explanations.
I can''t explicitly answer all your questions but to ''whether or not the real Koutari was actually in on it or not?'', it was mentioned that ''the detective (the mc), the culprit (utsurugi) and the victim (koutari) '' were working together and probably aikawa and neo as well - with aikawa helping utsurugi basically everything was possible. In fact, in one of the mc's monologues it was mentioned that the professor knew all along as well but was too scared of dead blue and utsurugi
''In the end – even though it was unnecessary, even though it was obvious
Utsurigi would never escape for as long as the Professor used Kunagisa as a
shield – even so for Professor Kyouichirou to have locked up Utusrigi in the
seventh ward – why he was forced to lock him up.
Fear toward Utsurigi Gaisuke.
Fright toward Utsurigi Gaisuke.
Fear and the same toward Kunagisa Tomo.
“That Professor knew all along, too…..”
Ahh, I see, I finally realized.
The Professor found out that I had escaped from the cage not because of
any reason like foresight, but rather because he had been passed the word. I
see. He was annoyed because I was unable to solve the mystery – that I was
unable to reach the conclusion that he had already prepared.''
But ye the roof jumping theory was basically a bunch of nonsense the mc prepared and even his final deduction ''“If I am largely correct, then on one of your arms
there should be a hand-print left by Utsurigi-san due to his cadaveric spasm.” was probably all nonsense since he never actually showed it.