That was why she had rushed to their side the moment she got the news.
But now they were actually fine with it?
Kitagawa laughed as well. "To come up with so many ideas in such a short time, of course he'd be exhausted. It's only natural to rest a little."
Yukawa nodded. "It's just a short break. Nothing worth making a fuss over."
"???"
Kanae was completely dumbfounded.
This was not how she thought this would go.
At all.
"Kanae-san, let's check on the other contestants instead."
"O-Oh right."
She snapped back to reality and quickly nodded.
Two Hours Later
"Ahhh"
Akifumi stretched lazily as he sat up from the couch.
Honestly? The couch was surprisingly comfortable. After two hours of sleep, his body felt light and refreshed.
After stretching out his limbs, he grabbed a bottle of water and some snacks from a nearby box and started eating.
As soon as he moved, the livestream chat exploded.
Even though they knew he couldn't see the messages, fans couldn't help but spam the screen with comments:
"BREAKING NEWS: Contestant takes a nap mid-competitiononly 100,000 people witnessed the crime!"
"SHOCKING: A contestant pulls an unheard-of move during the finals!"
"WHAT HAPPENED?! Judges were left in utter disbelief!"
"LMAO, you guys need to stop making me laugh! Bastards!!"
"Are you all not worried?! It's been THREE hours! Other contestants have already surpassed him!"
"If he's not panicking, why should we be?"
"Wait does this mean he's actually 3x faster than everyone else?! One hour of his work equals three hours of theirs?!"
"Worst case scenario, he gets eliminated and just goes back to making manga. It's not like he has anything to lose."
""
After finishing his snack, Akifumi stared at the blackboard in front of him for a brief moment.
Just as the audience thought they'd have to wait even longer, he finally picked up a pen
And wrote:
"Episode 1: The Nameless Poison"
It was an ordinary day at the Institute for Unnatural Deathsno different from any other.
A grieving couple, unable to accept the cause of their child's death, was referred to the institute by a funeral home.
The hospital had ruled the death as 'sudden cardiac arrest.'
But the parents refused to believe it. Their child had always been healthy.
Desperate for answers, they sought the institute's help for an autopsy, hoping to uncover the truth.
The deceased: Wataru Takanojima, male, 35 years old. He was found dead in his apartment.
His body was discovered by his girlfriend, who had grown worried after he stopped responding to her calls.
There were no signs of struggle. No external wounds. No evidence of foul play.
With nothing suspicious at the scene, authorities ruled it as 'ischemic heart disease.'
The case was closed almost immediately.
Annoyed yet resigned, the forensic team conducted the autopsy
Only to discover he had been poisoned.
As they scrambled to analyze the results, the institute's director received another chilling report
Wataru's colleague, Sayaka, had been found dead.
Less than 24 hours after him.
Akifumi paused his writing.
The chat fell into a deep silence.
"Wait is he seriously handwriting the entire series plotline live?!"
[236] A Shocking Script!
Seeing the lines of text appearing one after another on Akifumi's blackboard, the viewers in the livestream were first stunned.
Then, they completely exploded with excitement!
"Wait, is this how scripts are usually written for a story creation competition? Someone tell me I'm not being tricked!"
"Scripts are indeed written like this, but whether they are done this way in competitions, I have no idea!"
"As someone who has watched this competition for three years straight, I can confidently sayno one has ever done this before!"
"This isn't just writing a storyhe's literally drafting an entire episodic plot by hand!"
"No wonder he had the confidence to just take a nap! If I were this prepared, I'd sleep too!"
"Wait, what's the difference between the two methods?"
Judging by the chat reactions, it was clear just how much of an impact this scene had on the audience.
While new viewers joined the competition each year, the majority were loyal fans from previous seasons.
They knew the typical process of writing a story inside out: spend half the time designing characters, devote most of the remaining time crafting a compelling plot or a few key highlights, and then add in some dialogue at the end.
That was the usual eight-hour competition workflow.
The best contestants might go a step further and sketch out a few rough storyboard frames.
But writing out an entire episodic script from the very beginning?
Unheard of.
With more time, anyone could create a story full of tension and dramatic highs.
But in a time-constrained competition, there simply wasn't room to meticulously refine every detail. That often resulted in generic or underwhelming openings.
Most contestants avoided that issue by skipping directly to the most dramatic moments of their story and polishing that scene to perfection.
Akifumi, however, wasn't following any conventional approach.
His bold move was shocking, but if his story wasn't compelling, this stunt would be nothing more than attention-seeking.
Yet, his first episode was so solid that no one could find fault with it.
"Nameless Poison." What kind of poison is it?
Why did another person who worked with Takanojima die right after him?
Was it really an accident, or is this a carefully orchestrated murder?
With just an opening, the audience was already hooked.
After a brief pause, Akifumi continued writing.
"Could this be a case of serial poisoning?"
This thought crossed the minds of the investigators at the Unnatural Death Investigation Office, prompting them to launch a deeper probe.
Unfortunately, by the time they reached out to examine the latest victim's body, it had already been cremated.
Without a body, an autopsy was impossible.
Meanwhile, due to her work, Mikoto Misumi once again had to postpone a date with her boyfriend.
By the time she arrived at their meeting place, the sky had long since turned dark, and her boyfriend had already fallen asleep at the table while waiting.
Later, at a yakiniku restaurant, he used this opportunity to bring up the idea of introducing their parents and discussing engagement.
Back at her foster parents' home, Mikoto appeared visibly conflicted.
Though she loved him, her past made the idea of starting a family feel daunting.
Still, she shared the news with her family, and her foster mother, Natsuyo Misumi, was moved to tears of joy.
On the other hand, Rokuro met with a tabloid journalist at a bar, where a young and nave boy voiced his outrage.
He accused the investigators of leaving a grieving family's home laughing and chatting as if they didn't care about the dead.
The next day, the toxicology report for Takanojima came out.
However, rather than confirming poisoning, the report stated that no toxic substances had been detected.
The reason? The testing machine could only identify 200 known toxins. There were countless other unknown poisons that wouldn't show up in the results.
The only way to confirm the cause of death was to conduct individual, painstaking tests for every possible toxin.
As the audience read this, an eerie realization crept over them.
A poison that couldn't be named, that required exhaustive testing to even identify
Could this be the 'Nameless Poison'?
The revelation sent chills down their spines.
The title suddenly made perfect sense.
But that wasn't what shocked them the most.
The real shock was that, in such a short amount of time, Akifumi had crafted a story with such an impressive level of completeness!
The title wasn't randomly chosen, it carried deep meaning that tied directly to the plot.
So was this really a case of serial poisoning?
The audience was desperate to know what happened next.
And right on cue, Akifumi introduced the core concept of the 'Nameless Poison.'
The most terrifying poison in the worldan Nameless poison.
By definition, poisons are only identifiable when compared against known substances.
In other words, if a poison with completely new components were created, no one would ever be able to detect it.
If someone could successfully create such a poison they could kill anyone, anywhere, without leaving a trace.
A horrifying image surfaced in the audience's minds: a shadowy figure, face obscured, carefully dripping an unknown liquid into a drink or a meal.
Days later, the victim would suddenly collapse and die at home.
Shiver.
A wave of unease washed over the viewers. Their backs felt cold with sweat.
How did a medical drama suddenly turn into a horror story!?
This is terrifying!!
The parents of Takanojima provided the investigators with a key to his residence.
The team at the Unnatural Death Investigation Office returned to the scene to collect more samples.
While they were gathering evidence, Takanojima's girlfriend, Baba, suddenly arrived.
According to her, he had been absent from work for two consecutive days without explanation.
Concerned, she had used her spare key to check on himonly to discover his lifeless body.
At this moment, the livestream chat exploded again.
"Wait a minute is Baba the killer?"
"I don't know"
"This is just a script, isn't it? Can't Akifumi take the story in any direction he wants?"
"I think she's suspicious! Why else would she be mentioned out of nowhere!?"
While the audience debated wildly, Akifumi remained focused, his pen never pausing for a moment.
Feeling that something was off, Rokuro couldn't help but question Baba, asking where she had been during the time of the incident and why she had chosen that specific moment to visit.
Though Mikoto quickly intervened to stop him, the tension in the room became palpable.
The next day, the team visited Takanojima's workplace to sift through his belongings, hoping to find clues that would shed light on the mystery.
But little did they know the real horror was yet to unfold.
[237] Thirty Minutes to a Syndrome
Baba boyfriend had just died, yet she remained eerily calm. It was strange, and Rokuro's suspicion wasn't entirely unfounded.
However, Mikoto, understanding her duty as a forensic doctor, argued that perhaps she was simply someone with a naturally composed temperament. She then advised him not to make any more inappropriate remarks.
Akifumi paused for a moment before putting pen to paper.
"A forensic doctor's duty is to determine the cause of death through autopsy, not to conduct investigations like the police."
"They do not have that authority, nor should they recklessly suspect others."
"The moment they overstep this boundary, the impartiality of their profession is compromised, and their judgments become skewed by personal bias."
"Mikoto, having worked in forensics for years, understood this deeply."
"But for Rokuro, who was just starting his internship, the gravity of the profession had yet to sink in. This scene highlights their ideological clash."
As the audience read this passage, many felt as though they had gained a deeper understanding of forensic science.
"Forensics is such an amazing profession!"
"Rokuro was a bit too reckless. If she's not the killer, wouldn't it be too cruel to suspect Miss Baba just because she's the victim's girlfriend?"
"But it also shows that Rokuro has a strong sense of justice, doesn't it?"
"It's clear that Rokuro represents the general public's perception of forensics. Seeing forensic doctors interacting with the deceased's families in such a calm manner might seem cold and heartless."
"But in reality, it's because they respect life that they remain so composed. They've seen too much death. If they let themselves be overwhelmed by emotion, how could they continue their work?"
With a greater understanding of Akifumi's world-building, the audience realized that the forensic team's emotions were not as simple as they seemed.
After all, no amount of empathy could truly ease the pain of a grieving family. At best, it would be nothing more than self-indulgent sentimentality.
While the audience pondered over this, Akifumi continued writing.
"On one hand, Mikoto and her team were organizing Mr. Takanojima's belongings when they overheard rumors about his alleged affair with the deceased Miss Shikishima."
"On the other hand, Rokuro discovered from a colleague that Takanojima had been planning to marry Miss Baba. However, due to her busy work schedule, their plans had yet to progress."
"Coincidentally, Miss Baba's research involved polyester experiments, and one of the chemicals used in the process was ethylene glycol."
"When ingested, this chemical causes abnormalities in the digestive and nervous systems within 30 minutes, breathing difficulties within 12 hours, and kidney failure within 24 hours."
"The symptoms matched those of both victims, Shikishima exhibited the early-stage symptoms, while Takanojima showed signs of the later-stage complications."
Everything seemed to point to a single undeniable truth."
"Ethylene glycol has a sweet taste, and both victims had eaten the same brand of horse-shaped biscuits. This immediately raised suspicion..."
The sudden twist left the audience in stunned silence.
"Wait Could it really be?"
"That would be way too predictable, wouldn't it?"
"With Warrior of Love and Hope-sensei level of storytelling, there's no way he'd settle for such a straightforward plot twist!"
And indeed, he did not disappoint.
After conducting tests, no traces of ethylene glycol were found in the biscuits. Furthermore, Takanojima's autopsy showed no presence of the toxin, nor was it found in any samples collected from his office or home.
It was clearMiss Baba was not the killer.
Faced with this conclusion, Kamikura speculated that both deaths were nothing more than unfortunate accidents and instructed Mikoto to finalize her report.
However, Mikoto wasn't convinced. One isolated case might be an accident, but two occurring simultaneously? The odds were far too slim.
Could the 'Unknown Poison' truly exist? This question began to haunt both her and Rokuro.
That evening, while working overtime, Mikoto sought advice from Nakado, a far more experienced forensic expert.
'If you want answers, just ask. The knowledge of the world is at your disposal.'
