Chapter 3 Section 3

On the third day after the strange incident, Kusanagi went to the Thirteenth Laboratory of the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Teito University. He graduated from the sociology department of the school, so he never stepped into the polytechnic when he was studying.He himself felt strange to go to such a place more than ten years after graduation. A gray four-story building is the teaching building where the School of Physics is located.Even looking up at the teaching building from the bottom up, Kusanagi felt that the building was lacking in energy.He self-analyzed the reasons and felt that he was born to be a science idiot!

The room I was going to was on the third floor. There was a paper with the names of the teacher and students pasted in front of the door, and a magnetic pin board indicating the route was pasted next to the paper.It looked like the students were in full attendance.The name Yukawa was found, and it said "in the office".Kusanagi glanced at his watch, the appointed time was two o'clock, just a little after.After confirming, he raised his hand and knocked on the door, and when he heard the voice of "please come in" from inside, he pushed the door open, and the moment he entered the room, his feet flinched back again.

There were no lights on in the room, and it was pitch black.No, because it was daytime, it should be very bright even if the lights were not turned on. That might be because the blackout curtains were drawn. "Yu Chuan, where are you?" While Kusanagi was shouting, suddenly there was the sound of a machine turning from beside him.The sound was very similar to the sound of a motorcycle, and it was a sound that Kusanagi was familiar with. Just as he realized that the sound came from a microwave oven, flames suddenly appeared in front of his eyes.After a closer look, it turned out that there was a small microwave oven on the table, and the light bulb inside it was glowing, but the way this light bulb glowed was different from ordinary light bulbs, and the wick inside it was shaking all the time.

The light gradually faded and finally disappeared.As if waiting for this moment to come, the curtains were pulled open immediately. "Using such a gloomy light to entertain Sergeant Kusanagi, who works day and night to maintain social order, is really unreasonable!" A man in a white coat was pulling the curtains by the window.He was tall and tall, with black-rimmed glasses, and his eyes sparkled with wisdom.He is almost the same as when he was a student, even the hairstyle with bangs cut to the top of the eyebrows is exactly the same as before. Kusanagi sighed, and finally gave a wry smile.

"Scare me again, how old are you, and you still play pranks!" "It's so regrettable that you want to say what I said! I just want to express my painstaking efforts to help you in the way I just said." Yukawa fully opened the curtains, rolled up the sleeves of the white coat, walked towards Kusanagi, and then rushed out with his right hand. "How are you?" "It's okay!" Kusanagi held Yukawa's hand.On the outside, Yu Chuan is a gentle and elegant man, but in fact, he used to be the ace of the badminton team. Kusanagi used to practice sparring with him, and each time it was a hard fight.The strength of his handshake with Kusanagi today brought back Kusanagi's memories of the past.

"When will it still be?" Kusanagi asked after shaking hands, meaning how long it had been since the two met. "The last time we met was on October 10 three years ago." Tang Chuan replied, his tone was extremely confident. "yes?" "It was at Kawamoto's wedding banquet! That was the last time we met. Everyone else was wearing black dresses, except Kusanagi, you were wearing a gray suit." "Ah!" Kusanagi nodded as he recalled that incident.Indeed, he looked at Tang Chuan's face and thought that his memory was still as good. "How's it going in the university? As an associate professor, the work must be very hard!" Kusanagi asked, looking at his friend's white coat.

"There hasn't been a big change, and I've even become accustomed to the current situation of the decline in the quality of students year after year." Tang Chuan's expression was very sincere, and it seemed that he was not joking. "It's amazing!" "Compared to me," Tang Chuan said, "you are the real busy person, especially in the last two or three days..." "What do you mean by that?" "After guessing your purpose of coming, I specially prepared the things just now to wait for you!" Tang Chuan pointed to the microwave oven just now.

"What do you mean by that? Help means... Kusanagi touched the microwave while talking. "Stop! Its power supply is still exposed!" Yu Chuan hastily pulled out the plug from the nearby socket.The back panel of the microwave was removed, and something that Kusanagi didn't know was installed. Yukawa opened the door of the microwave oven and took out something from it.It was a light bulb in a metal ashtray. "Is this the original form of the magic trick just now?" Kusanagi looked at the thing in Yukawa's hand seriously, "It looks like an ordinary light bulb!"

"Yeah, it's just a light bulb." Yu Chuan put it on the table next to him. "Using the induced current generated by the electromagnetic wave of the microwave oven, the argon gas inside the bulb is plasmaized, and finally emits light. There is not only purple light, but also green light, which may be copper ions on the copper seat used to support the filament It must have been mixed in too!" "Plasma? Is this plasma?" Kusanagi asked.Although he didn't understand the meaning of what Yu Chuan said before, but now he is very familiar with the word plasma. "That's right!" Tang Chuan sat on the chair next to him, leaned back hard, "Now you should understand what I just said, right? Kusanagi, you probably came here because you wanted to understand the plasma problem. Come on!"

"I convinced you." Kusanagi touched the back of his head and sat on the chair on the other side of the table with Yukawa, "How did you know?" "This doesn't need any reasoning!" "The incident of burning people to death has caused a lot of repercussions among the public. Because of the death of a person, it is very likely that Officer Kusanagi from the Police Agency's Search Section will be called. At this time, Kusanagi will sneak away in order to catch up with me. Did you come here?" Kusanagi could only see through his intentions so easily, and could only smile wryly.

"Well..." Kusanagi scratched his face mischievously. "Let's have a cup of coffee first. But there are only instant ones." Tang Chuan stood up and began to boil water with a small stove. While he was making coffee, Kusanagi took out his notebook again and re-read the summary of the case. In fact, the police have not yet determined whether this incident can be called a case, perhaps it was just an accident. Based on what we know so far, the results are as follows: A localized fire broke out on the side of a road called Huadian Road. Among the five young casualties near this place, one died, and the rest were separated. He was slightly injured.The scene of the accident was filled with the smell of gasoline, and a red plastic barrel believed to be used to hold gasoline was found from the scene of the fire.Based on this, the Tai family felt that the gasoline in it must have been ignited by something.But why there is such a thing there, the reason is unknown.The young people all claimed that they definitely did not set the fire on their own, and they knew nothing about the plastic bucket. So why did the fire happen? Plasma theory has been reported by some media.It says that when meteorological conditions permit, accompanied by strong light and high temperature, the flow of induced current generated by the gaseous substances in the air can generate a fireball-like plasma.This accident may also be caused by the plasma igniting the gasoline in the plastic barrel.The reason for this inference is that there are indeed many abnormal phenomena explained by the plasma theory.These strange phenomena are not so much caused by ghosts or superpowers, and the police seem to be more receptive to the plasma theory.Therefore, Kusanagi, who wanted to investigate the plasma problem himself, specially visited Yukawa, a good friend from college days. Yu Chuan came back with two cups of coffee.The two cups are not very delicate, like a gift from something.It can be seen at a glance that the cup has not been washed.Even so, Kusanagi said "thank you" and took a sip of coffee as if enjoying the delicious food. "What do you think?" Kusanagi asked as he put the cup on the table. "What do you think?" "It's about that case—the fire on Flower Shop Road. What do you think? Judging from the experiment you demonstrated to me, do you also think it was plasma?" "The reason why I did this experiment is because the plasma theory was recorded in the newspaper, and I think you must be very interested in it, Kusanagi brother. Personally, I don't have any opinions and opinions at the moment. It may be plasma, or it may be No, after all, there is no data now, so no assumptions can be made." "So how much do you know about this case?" Kusanagi asked. "It's about the level recorded in the newspaper. That is," Tang Chuan took a sip of coffee, and continued, "A gasoline tank was placed on the side of the road, and it suddenly caught fire, and the young people next to it were burned—that's all. .” "Based on this knowledge, can you make an inference?" Hearing Kusanagi's words, Yukawa couldn't help laughing. "Stop talking nonsense. The key to the problem is what was found at the scene of the fire. If you don't investigate the scene carefully, you can't guess the cause at all. Even those in the fire brigade will say so." "Only one plastic bucket was found at the scene of the fire, which is really the only physical evidence." "Is there no special device in the barrel? The reporter also asked the same question." "Do you think we didn't think of the things the firemen said? After extremely careful analysis and identification, we really didn't find any internal devices." "My sympathy!" "Stop ridiculing me, I really want to learn some scriptures from you!" Seeing Kusanagi's sincere expression, Yukawa shrugged slightly, and then showed a bright smile. "Let me tell you something interesting. The United States once conducted a thorough analysis of the witnesses who discovered UF0, and found that more than 90% of them mistook other objects for UF0, and many of them took Venus , even the moon as a UFO." "What do you want to say?" "The true face of a ghost is often unexpected. There is a plastic barrel full of gasoline, and there are several teenagers nearby who do not have the ability to distinguish as adults. It is not reasonable to say that some of them set fire to the plastic barrel. guess?" Kusanagi widened his eyes. "Those guys lied, maybe they were the ones who lit the gasoline! Maybe they were prepared to be burned badly." "It's not clear whether it was intentional arson, and there may be someone else who placed the plastic bucket. The young people may not know that there is gasoline in it, but there is no evidence to prove that they did not do it. They may all smoke, so they There should be a lighter." Hearing what Yukawa said, Kusanagi couldn't help frowning. "Don't say anything that discourages me. I can't bear it. You are just like our section chief." "Oh? That's what the chief of the first search department said?" "He said it was the rascals who set the fire on fire, and maybe that was the real cause of the accident." "That's right, this is indeed reasonable and reasonable, beyond reproach!" "If you still insist on this conservative opinion, I will reveal some new information to you." Kusanagi said while taking something out of his coat pocket. "It's not conservative, it's common sense. What's that? It looks like a small tape recorder." "This is a recording of one of the young men's interrogation. Because he was burned by the fire, it was difficult for him to open his mouth to speak. But he is still very clear-headed. Listen to it!" Kusanagi then pressed the switch, and a weak voice came from the tape recorder, and he turned up the volume casually. It starts with simple identity verification.The young man's name is Kazuhiko Mukai, and he is nineteen years old.Then it got to the point, and Kusanagi began to ask questions. "I want to know what happened when it was on fire. Before the fire, was there any abnormal change around?" "abnormal?" "Anything can be like what have you done?" "I, I, I seem to be smoking and listening to Ryosuke." "Where are the rest of the partners? What are they doing?" "It's nothing special. Of course, I heard what Ryosuke said. Then it suddenly caught fire. It was terrible, but it scared me to death." "Is the plastic bucket on fire?" "No... it's Ryosuke... it's Ryosuke's head." "head?" "Hair, flames shot out from the hair at the back of his head. Then he fell to the ground... We were all dumbfounded. In a moment, in a moment, we were all engulfed in flames... and then I just lost consciousness." "Wait a minute, did you get it wrong, didn't you get surrounded by fire first, and then your friend's head started to catch fire?" "No, no, it was his head that caught fire first, it was Ryosuke's head that caught fire first." Hearing this, Kusanagi pressed the start button of the recorder. "How is it?" He glanced at Tang Chuan. I don't know when Tang Chuan has already supported his cheeks with his hands, but this action does not mean that he finds listening to these boring.The deep eyes behind the glasses already hinted at everything. "It's head on fire!" "That's what it sounds like." Kusanagi found that Yukawa was interested in this case again, secretly happy in his heart, and reached out his hand to take out the cigarette case.But just as he was about to take out the cigarettes, Tang Chuan silently pointed to the warning sign posted on the wall, which read "No smoking, don't make your brain's blood circulation worse."Kusanagi put away the cigarette case in disappointment and put it in his pocket. "Head? Fire first?!" Tang Chuan folded his arms. "It's like a match, but the head catches fire first." He muttered in a low voice, "There's no such thing as a fire in magic, even street performers who blow fire can't catch fire head first." "But it is true that the head is on fire," Kusanagi said, raising his fist. "It was the head that started to burn first." "What was the state of the body? Was only the head burned?" "Unfortunately, he seems to have been engulfed by flames after he fell, and his whole body was scorched. It is impossible to tell where the fire started first." Tang Chuan muttered something again, and suddenly looked at Kusanagi as if remembering something "So what does your logical section chief think about this?" "He said that this might be the witness's illusion. It was due to the confusion of memory caused by panic and nonsense. However, I asked other young people later, and found that they all said in unison that the man named Ryosuke was indeed the first to hit the head. Fire." "So that's the case," Tang Chuan nodded, then stood up from the chair, "Then let's go and have a look!" "Where are you going?" "Of course I'm going to the scene where the strange thing happened!" Kusanagi stared at Yukawa's face, stood up excitedly: "OK, I will lead the way."