When the Detective Work is Done, I'll Die

Chapter 0

The girl who should have died is still spinning new words from the other side of the smartphone. Dead, yet alive.

A pitch-black underground passage where the lights have gone out. The stench of the gutter makes my nose wrinkle. To top it off, the air is so sickening that my heartbeat echoes until I can't stand it.

Terror, grief, rage, joy, hope. Every emotion floods my heart at once, threatening to break my brain.

Naturally, I can't control any of those feelings. Tears run even when I don't want to cry, and laughter spills out though I have no wish to laugh.

"Ahahaha......uggh! Ugh! Ugaahh!"

I keep sobbing, on the verge of vomiting up whatever's in my chest.

Frantically I clamp a hand over my mouth and dam the emotions. If I didn't, my organs might burst out of my body.

The smartphone's gentle light pools around my shoes. From beyond it comes the voice of the dead. And the words of my precious best friend.

"I really did die, okay? But please, don't cry! I can't stand to hear you sobbing!"

On the screen, a girl is smiling.

Black hair reaching to her waist frames a gallant face. A mysterious aura clings to her, yet she looks so lively and cute.

Her name is Ishii Miiko. The girl—more precisely, the being that looks exactly like her—is speaking cheerfully on the other side of the screen.

She is not human. This fabricated version claims to be a fictional existence modeled after the real Miiko.

Even told that, I can't accept it. The voice flowing out is unmistakably hers—gentle yet resolute. Watching her lips move smoothly, I simply cannot believe she is dead.

It feels like she's been kidnapped, allowed to speak only through conversation. I can cling to the answer my senses lead me to, but I have no way to prove the survival theory is true.

If she really is dead, then the moment I let myself hope, it's over. The instant I learn the truth, a despair more terrifying than death will be waiting.

"Miiko... you really are dead, right?"

"That's right. You should give up on me. But hey, the fact we can talk like this is a miracle, isn't it? Ah... sorry. I want to keep talking forever, but... no good. We're out of time for today..."

"Ah, Miiko!? Miiko!? Wait!"

The image of her flickered once and vanished.

8:00 p.m. The time she can talk with me has ended. The schedule shows the next broadcast from three to four tomorrow afternoon.

Why? Why do I need restricted hours just to talk to my friend? And why did she have to die in the first place?

The cause is obvious. It's their fault.

I channel every emotion surging through me into pure rage. My whole body burns, and resolve takes root in my chest.

"I'll wipe every last detective from this world! I'll take everything from them! I won't let them do as they please at crime scenes or anywhere else anymore! Get ready, you damn detectives!"

My precious girl has become a ghost living in the cyber world.

The tragedy began four hours ago. Without even realizing it, we had stepped on a landmine.