When the Detective Work is Done, I'll Die

Chapter 1

As the day was fading, beneath the scarlet sky. I was running while clutching my side through a residential district where the smells of what might be curry and sukiyaki mingled.

"Miiko! hah... wait..."

"Kyaaah! Help! A creep is chasing me!"

"Hey!"

"Nooo!"

"Hey! Wait a minute! That way of saying it makes everyone who hears it misunderstand! No, the wording itself is wrong!"

Miiko's long black hair swayed, reflecting the sunset. When she turned back she stopped dead in her tracks and smiled innocently.

It isn't that I'm chasing her for any indecent reason. She keeps moving on ahead without me, that's why I said "wait."

"Honestly, don't tease me..."

"Sorry. For some reason, Hyoga, you're someone I just can't help teasing. When it comes to reacting you're even better than a comedian!"

"Well after ten straight years of being teased of course!"

Miiko flashes that smile again. It's unfair. When she shows me a cute face like that I can't stay mad.

When I sigh, "Why do I get teased every single time," she steps forward without answering. This time I walk quickly beside her so she won't leave me behind.

Our destination is the mansion where one old man lives. The situation is simple. Miiko and I need to raise money for the high-school club we ended up joining, the "Vtuber Research Society." We're planning to stream 3-D idols who perform on video sites, but we don't have enough money. We have no one who can even design the original face of the idol, so we have to beg an online illustrator. To make that move inside the video we have to make it virtual. That means we have to ask professionals.

Even if Miiko herself voices the 3-D idol, the amount that will fly out of the club budget is unthinkable for high-schoolers. Even if we pinch every penny we're talking twenty or thirty thousand yen at least. A rich person might find that cheap, but we hardly have any club budget so we can't pay it.

The school won't give money to a club that hasn't produced any results. I was actually wondering whether to call in a bomb threat to make the school cough up the cash when some good news came along.

An acquaintance of the club president is interested in our story. He might be willing to provide us with funds, so Miiko and I decided to visit the man's house. Incidentally, the club president isn't here because he's stuck in after-school make-up classes as punishment for failing.

"Well, we're almost there! Look, that house! The Japanese-style gate! That was definitely the landmark, right?"

I checked the spot she pointed to and nodded. It was the same one the club president had told us about. From the garden, pines and persimmon trees spread wide, asserting their Japanese character.

"With a place this fancy... I wonder if there's a dry landscape garden inside..."

"Maybe there is! C'mon, let's go!"

Was she only thinking about getting the money? Even though she made me carry the presentation materials she just marched straight onto the grounds by herself. Without caring that there was an intercom on the gate she pressed on just because the gate was open.

What if there's a guard dog with no owner around? If it eats her don't blame me. While thinking that I hurried toward the gate.

"Kyaa!"

A scream rang out. My body shook and I dashed through the gate.

"Miiko!"

Don't tell me she's being attacked by a ferocious dog, turned into prey for its fangs. The thought that her soft white skin might be wounded piled up anxiety in my heart.

I was worrying about her like that, but—

Miiko was simply being played with by a slightly yellowish Labrador retriever. The dog licked her face all over with its tongue. Miiko had her head on the ground and laughed uproariously.

"Hey! That tickles! Ah, Hyoga! This kid seems super friendly!"

"Did I get teased again..."

"This time I wasn't seriously trying to tease you! It's just that this kid suddenly jumped on me."

"Sure, sure... that's what you say. There's no leash either, so I guess it's true."

"Really— huh?"

The moment Miiko said, "huh," I felt a terrible sense of unease. A strange feeling like heartburn.

What is it? My heart is restless. A foreboding worse than anything I've ever felt. Suddenly the image of an old man stretching out his hand powerlessly came to mind.

I wanted to erase this weird feeling quickly, so I asked her to confirm the reason for my unease.

"It was open, wasn't it... that gate over there."

"So he lets the dog run free? Huh, huhhh?"

"This dog... was it trained?"

I tried to come up with ideas, but I couldn't sweep away the haze hanging over my head. While stroking the dog's chin Miiko explained something that couldn't be solved by training alone.

"First, point one. You might not know this, Hyoga, but retrievers were originally hunting dogs. They can't help chasing anything that catches their interest. If it had been raised to guide-dog level it wouldn't leave the house so easily, but we can tell this kid hasn't been, right?"

Thanks to her explanation I finally managed to dispel my unease.

"Which means, second point, it's about the dog's personality, right? If it were a guide dog it wouldn't jump on people like this. This dog would definitely jump on anyone walking down that path."

"Which means," I started to connect the dots, and a nasty premonition flashed through my head again. A chill down my spine.

Please, anything but that result. While wishing that, I chewed over Miiko's words.

"Which means it's an emergency situation where they left the gate wide open."

"M-maybe a visitor came, opened the gate, and then left? Just walked right out through the gate... th-that's possible, right? Right, Miiko...?"

I was voicing a negative opinion. I wanted her to say, "Yeah. If a guest left through the gate it makes sense." If she rejected my idea...

A cruel conjecture would become possible. In all my experiences so far, there was only one possibility.

"No. That possibility is low. After all, a dog getting this friendly with a stranger proves it was raised with care. See, its coat is beautiful too. They must have taken meticulous care to keep it from running off. A dog that suddenly bursts out of the gate could get hit by a car, or even unintentionally hurt someone. Besides—"

"B-besides?"

"If it was a guest they would have seen the dog off. At that time they would have noticed whether the gate was closed or not."

"Ugh... s-so..."

I prayed the words I didn't want spoken wouldn't come out, but it was useless.

"A situation where he couldn't get out. Maybe he collapsed inside."

"B-but don't they always say that? Stories of pet dogs finding their owners collapsed and getting help. If something serious happened the dog would act even more strangely..."

"That only happens in TV dramas!"

"...Got it! Let's hurry!"

There's no way.

There's no way the owner collapsed inside. To confirm the truth I opened the door. It wasn't locked!

The reason he couldn't see the guest off... No, that's impossible.

The more I screamed inside, the more the elements of anxiety grew. I suddenly remembered the club president's words.

"Ah, right. That old man, I heard he once collapsed from a subarachnoid hemorrhage. Don't say anything that'll make him mad... I'm not the one saying it, okay?"

There was a reason. A proper reason for collapsing and losing something precious.

No good. I can't let myself think that and get weak. It has to be our imagination.

The door to the drawing room was open. Just as I was about to enter Miiko overtook me. In the center of the room full of antiques—

"Eh..."

She rushed over and rubbed her eyes again and again. I didn't want to believe this situation either. I kept making strangled noises, trying to deny what was happening.

"Miiko? Eh? Why? Why? What's going on? He... he can still be saved, right!? He can still be saved, right!?"

"I can't tell just by looking... wait a second, okay?"

"...Yeah."

She took the arm that lay in the center of the room with practiced hands and shook her head. The worst possible answer to my question came back, stabbing my heart.

"It's no good. It's too late. He's still faintly warm, but he's already gone... but why..."

Why. How. First there's the fact that a person has died right in front of us, and I'm so scared I don't know what to do. Faced with a death I never imagined. I felt tears threatening to fall.

Yet even though this is the worst possible situation, no scream comes out.

That's because something even more absurd was happening.

While I stood dumbfounded at the bizarre situation Miiko shouted.

"Wh-why... why are there huge piles of ten-thousand-yen bills scattered on top of the corpse!? Why is the corpse buried in money!?"