After half a year of waiting I finally give it to you! It's the fifth Brain-Frying Riddle, ladies and gentlemen! It's also the first one that doesn't require any knowledge from the previous BFRs and is therefore a great starting point for newcomers and/or the lazy ones ― but don't expect the difficulty level to have dropped! It's still 100% packed with eworm's Brain-Fryingness!
But first... Well... It's number five. Not much, I know, but to me it seems like I gained a lot of experience... It's been a lot of fun of course, too. Oh, I'm feeling sentimental already. Imagine what will happen when the BFR #10 comes out! Anyway ― shall we take a brief look at the history of the Brain-Frying Riddles?
The first one was ― compared to the more recent ones ― ridiculously easy. Just a simple
murder case based around a dying message trick. Back then the in-universe detective was
Detective Conan's detective Takagi.
He also solved the second BFR's mystery ―
an assault. For the second case I lowered the difficulty level even more, which led to it becoming the only one solved by a contestant so far. A bunch of characters were introduced back then too, ones that played very important roles in the third and the fourth BFR.
With the third Brain-Frying Riddle I decided not to hold back and fry your brains with an awesome
Kaitou KID case! It was probably harder to figure out than both the previous BFRs combined, but what a mystery it was! Maybe Kaitou KID will return someday... What do you think? With that case I removed detective Takagi and decided to let a certain character shine...
A lot of time passed between the third and fourth Brain-Frying Riddle, but it wasn't for naught. The 1000th post of the thread was celebrated by the most awesome and difficult case I myself had ever seen. I surprised you back then by making an unusual type of case ― a
Prevent The Murder mystery! It also seemed to have attracted a bit more of promising competitors.
And so it's been a murder case, an assault, a Kaitou KID case and a PTM mystery. What, you may ask, am I going to surprise you with this time? Well, prepare to experience something special!
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BRAIN-FRYING RIDDLE #5
There Is Always Only One Truth!
Mizusawa Tatsumi was a hopeless romanticist and a bit too naive but intelligent anyway. One day, however, he died. He was lying on the floor in his house's hallway near the front door, his head shot through. He was dressed elegantly. In his pocket he had a clicked-on pen with purple ink. The only things on the floor around were a gun (his late father's memento), a piece of paper with a written message, a clicked-off pen with black ink, a cellphone which had been shot with a bullet too and... a single red rose petal. The rest of the red roses bouquet was later found in a trash bin outside.
The note has definitely been written by Tatsumi himself, using a black-inked pen. Here's the text:
"After A Man Is given Hope, He shall cling To It With All His Might. When The Hope Is crushed With cruelty beyond reason Though, There Is nothing remaining but grief And despair".
Two of Tatsumi's friends happened to find him after visiting his house. One is
Hitomi Wataru, a private detective, and the other is
Kagami Nanase, a policewoman. After entering through the front door which was open but had no traces of being forced open, they both investigated the scene. The results they reached were quite different though ― Hitomi states it was a suicide while Nanase accuses Hitomi of murdering Tatsumi. How did both of them arrive at their conclusions? And what is The One And Only Truth?
Characters' Hints!
Hitomi: I know why Tatsumi killed himself and what the true message hidden in that note is... But I shall not speak about it.
Nanase: I'm sure Tatsumi'd hate to see how much of a mess he made. He was always an incredibly tidy person.
Tatsumi's diary: Nanase and Hitomi both know they're the only people I ever told about my father's memento.
What is your task this time? Expect nothing easy ― this time there are more detectives on the scene! What was Wataru's deduction? Was he right? If not, why? What was Nanase's deduction? Was she right? If not, why? What is the meaning of the note and the other clues? And how did Tatsumi die after all?
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IMPORTANT RULES!
1. A motive is something you only need to provide for a "suicide" theory. When considering "murder", you don't need to provide the culprit's reasons.
2. After sending me your first deduction (out of three, no more), you'll be replied with a special analysis from me. I'll point out some mistakes if there are any and I'll try to show you some things to consider. In short, there will be help after the first try. If you wish so, I could also reveal who of the two characters is wrong and/or who is right, but that's only after your second deduction.
3. This Brain-Frying Riddle is going to last a month or two, in order to give all the busy people and the people arriving late enough time to solve it.
4. I might provide the competitors some special hints on Christmas, so be sure to send me at least one deduction before that time or you'll miss it!
5. Teaming up is allowed.
6. Letting other people know about the Brain-Frying Riddle#5 and persuading them to try is encouraged.
7. Having fun while solving the mystery is a must.
8. Asking me anything or posting a deduction here is forbidden. Everything goes to my PM box and I'll try answering ASAP.
I expect to be hearing from you soon! Try your best!
Formatting and stuff like that.