B.A.D.

Mayuzumi Azaka.

Although she is only a fourteen year-old girl, she is a detective and my superior. However, she usually never took on cases befitting of a detective. Although there were often some very similar jobs, considering the sign on the door it’s quite normal.

Mayuzumi isn’t even an official detective. She never applied for a license as a detective. So it should be normal for her not to receive any cases. It would actually be strange for her to even receive any cases.

But somehow, for some reason she would always receive cases on a regular basis. And each one of them would always end up being a mysterious case like the current one.

“She wants to find her near-dead sister, so she can kill her.”

Just thinking about the contents of the current case made my head hurt.

I once again cursed the trapped me who was forced to work alongside Mayuzumi. I heaved a deep sigh as I sat on the train’s seat. A long time ago, back when I had no relation to her. If that incident hadn’t occurred, I probably would’ve entered college already. For a moment, my vision suddenly went dark. I wanted to throw up and I quickly covered my mouth. It seems I still can’t think about the incident that occurred back then. I shook my head, trying to clear my mind. I have to stop reminiscing about the past.
I can’t change what happened.

So I tried suppressing my stomach spasms, and lowered my gaze. I still have to switch to a different train before I can reach my destination. Although taking a taxi would be quicker, I have to pay more. My salary is very small, so under these circ.u.mstances I can only resist such luxuries. Thus after wasting quite a bit of time, I finally reached my destination. The area where the house I was visiting was gave off a foul stench for some reason.

Over there, a female with long hair wearing a dress waved at me.
The dress was pure white.
Her figure looked like something out of a movie or painting.
As I approached, the woman smiled brightly. Although she was very pretty and had flawless skin, there was a certain craziness surrounding her. In response to her gaze towards me, I began raising my vigilance towards her. Deceivingly gentle looking women like Mayuzumi for example cannot be trusted. This was a lesson I learned the hard way.

“I’m really sorry, the conversation with my superior turned out longer than expected……did I make you wait?”

“No, you’re right on time. Also I would like to thank you once again for accepting my case. If you hadn’t accepted it, I don’t know what I would do.”

The woman’s eyes became teary. I silently reviewed her case within my mind.

Yamas.h.i.ta Kazue, 25 years old. Both her parents died in a car accident about five years ago. She lived together with her sister. And worked in the flower shop she had inherited from her parents. Her sister use to work for a large insurance company, but committed suicide a month ago.
However, before she could be officially declared dead she had disappeared from the hospital. She claims the recent occurrence of organs dropping down from the sky belong to her sister. The content of the case: Find her near-dead sister, so she can kill her.
After accepting her case over the phone, she sounded very happy and insisted I come over to her house.
Apparently to show me some photos.

I looked behind Kazue and unconsciously held my breath. Piles of garbage were stacked up beside the entrance. Perhaps a crow had been rummaging through it or something, but the semi-liquidated waste inside were spilled out. And under the sweltering hot sunlight, the unfiltered waste products were rotting at an alarming rate. It seems this was the source of the putrid odor. From the side it appears the yard is also in a similar state, the weeds were also thriving and already waist-high. It was practically impossible to tell that someone lived here.

It seems she completely gave up on daily life after her sister committed suicide.
Or technically speaking, she became mentally unbalanced after the death of her sister.
Is there perhaps some sort of abnormal warping occurring in the depths of her heart somewhere?
I glanced back towards Kazue and she gave a smile. There wasn’t a single trace of unsettlement on her face.

But because of this uncanny perfection, she appeared even more warped.

“Please come inside.”

“Ah…..ah, yes. Excuse me.”

Kazue began walking inside without showing any signs of shame regarding the deprived state of her house. Her slender legs brushed up against the mounds of garbage sending them flying. Completely disregarding the fatally infectious waste products smeared all over her white sandals, she pulled open the door.

“I’m sorry, the house is a bit messy.”

An utterly foul stench a.s.saulted my nose. Glancing down, I saw numerous shoes piling up the entire entrance. Since I’ve been taking care of Mayuzumi who has the habit of kicking off her shoes for so long, I had an urge of wanting to clean everything up. But I resisted this impulse and quickly stepped past.

At that moment, I felt a sudden gaze behind my back.
I turned around but there was no one in sight. After glancing around for a bit, Kazue then hurriedly pushed me towards the inside of the house. But inadvertently I had realized something; all the shoes had two pairs, as if there were two people wearing the exact same things.