1.46: Commiseration“I’m ready.”

  Rui studied me with a sharpness that made my back straighten on instinct. Her eyes were focused, too focused, like she was dissecting my soul with a scalpel and forceps.

  “Are you sure, Susu?” she asked. “You cried yourself dehydrated today. Don’t pretend you didn’t.”

  I drew in a breath and nodded once. “Yeah. I don’t know what you want to talk about, or what it means for me, but… I promised I’d repay you somehow for everything you’ve done. And I can tell this is serious. I’ll do my best.”

  “That’s already more than I expected,” Rui said. Her smile was small, but strangely bright. “You’re not a noh-face anymore, so obviously you’re a lot less useful. At least you’ve got the strength of a man, and we’re two cute girls, so we can’t just use you for opening jars… though honestly, that’s probably the peak of your physical skill set right now.”

  “W-well… if a dangerous lid threatens your lives,” I muttered, “I’ll throw myself into battle.”

  “BAKA!” Rui hopped up and smacked the back of my head. “I know you’re useless like this. But I’m serious. You’re still important… more than you think. You have Reiko-chan’s face, Susu. Even if you’re not strong or brave or smart… at the very least, you make perfect bait.”

  “AGAIN!?” I yelped. “I was bait for a noh-face yesterday… now I’m bait for what!? A wild boar? Another yokai?!”

  “The attention of a man,” Rui decred, giving me a big thumbs-up. “Rare, bottom-feeding Cold Gaze Carps.”

  “NO!! ABSOLUTELY NOT!!” I croaked.

  “Calm down.” Her joking tone melted away. “Listen before you scream any more. What I’m about to say is no joke.”

  The shift in her voice made my stomach tighten.

  Rui gnced aside, jaw clenched. “…This man that I’m looking for killed Reiko-chan.”

  The room froze.

  Ume gasped softly, covering her mouth with delicate fingers.

  My pulse spiked, racing toward becoming full-blown panic. “A-are you serious? That wasn’t… you said… Noh-face—”

  “Was his creation,” Rui said quietly. “A puppet of sorts. It wasn’t behind everything.”

  Something cracked in my chest.

  Then something else surfaced… an awful memory like a thorn ripping upward.

  The man with the immacute hair.His pale smile.An expensive watch gleaming under the amusement-park lights.His hand on Reiko’s arm.

  Her strained smile.

  “Oh… kami…” I whispered. “It was him…”

  Rui blinked. “You recognized someone?”

  I swallowed hard. “Reiko was on a date with one of our targets at the amusement park I used to work at. The day I st saw her. He looked like he owned her. His eyes were… cold.”

  Rui inhaled sharply. “Cold eyes. Polished. Smug. An aura raising up all kinds of red fgs?”

  “That’s him,” I said miserably. “If Reiko hadn’t stepped between us, I think he would’ve hit me.”

  “Yes…” Rui whispered. “That description matches one of my suspects to a tee.”

  “Suspects?” I blinked, thrown.

  Rui nodded stiffly. “I never confirmed him… not fully. I only knew the killer had to be one of several men she was investigating. I didn’t know which one. But if you saw that man with her at that time…”

  Her expression darkened.

  “He’s the most likely one.”

  Ume leaned forward. “Rui… you kept all of this to yourself?”

  Rui looked away. “I didn’t have enough proof. And because of… my body…” Her words trembled. “I can’t pull information out of men easily. Half of them stare at me like I’m a middle-schooler. The other half give off kidnapping vibes.”

  She sniffled and rubbed her eyes with her sleeve, her posture very small.

  I sat forward. “Then how did Reiko get wrapped up in all this?”

  Rui swallowed. “She wasn’t my partner. Not officially. But… she volunteered herself into the case. She wanted to prove herself as a reporter. She had guts—more than me, honestly. She walked blithely into danger because she thought she could crack the story.”

  My chest constricted so hard it hurt.

  Reiko.Why didn’t you tell me any of this?

  “She dated several men,” Rui continued, voice hoarse. “Not because she liked them. They all had suspicious spikes in wealth the past two years. All connected to corporate mergers… the same ones where the executives died and the computers vanished.”

  “And you didn’t know which one was the killer,” I whispered.

  “No,” Rui admitted. “I had a small list of suspects. But she was the one infiltrating. She told me very little… she didn’t want me to get hurt.”

  I felt sick.

  “So… she took all the risks,” I said quietly. “For you.”

  “And for the case,” Rui murmured. “…But yes. She protected me.”

  Something twisted violently in my gut.

  Reiko…You stubborn idiot…

  And yet…

  She didn’t reject me because she hated me.She didn’t reject me because I was worthless.She didn’t reject me because she’d found a man.

  She rejected me because… she just didn’t love men.

  It hurt. Kami, it hurt… but the pain felt cleaner than the comfortable lies I’d believed.

  I shut my eyes.

  “Rui…” I said softly, “keep going.”

  She nodded.

  “When I cross-checked every clue, I narrowed the case down to three men,” Rui said. “I still have the list. But only one of them matches your description.”

  Her eyes hardened.

  “And if that’s true… then the man you saw that day… was the one who took her from us.”

  Something inside me knotted up… tight and ugly.

  I exhaled hard through my nose, checking the anger curling under my ribs. “…Fine. Then tell me how you met her.”

  “Reiko-chan appeared.” Rui’s voice softened, trembling. “She was an angel. She had every strength I cked. Martial arts skills, guts, sharp instincts… She had everything needed to become the partner I’d always hoped for. When she learned what I do for a living… she insisted on getting involved.”

  I gred. “How? She was a normal girl. Strong, yeah, but not a yokai. You’re the spiritual detective… so why did she end up doing all the dangerous work? Did you dump it on her because you were scared?”

  “No!” Rui’s voice cracked. “Don’t judge me like that, Susu… I didn’t even get the chance to push her away. She was investigating the murders and the thefts on her own. She’d gotten a small position as an auxiliary reporter… her first step into the world of journalism. She didn’t tell you?” Rui shrugged tightly. “She wanted her first big case to be something that shook the world. She approached it like a detective. Brave, sharp, reckless… She had enough resolve for the both of us.”

  My heart twisted.I had never asked her about her dreams.Never asked her where she wanted to go in life.I only thought about my own feelings.

  “I’d nearly quit being a spiritual detective altogether,” Rui continued quietly. “Living off my inheritance, watching anime forever… I thought that was my future. But one day, while I was trying to scope out a suspect, she found me skulking around in a trench coat.”

  Ume blinked. Her expression slowly melted into horrified amusement. “You wore… a trench coat… outside?”

  Rui blushed furiously. “Shut up! I thought I looked inconspicuous! But Reiko-chan said I looked like a middle schooler stalker.” She huffed. “We fought right away. She was way stronger than me. Ripped the coat right off and demanded I expin myself. She even asked where my parents were!”

  The image hit me so clearly I almost ughed through my grief… Reiko stomping up to little Rui, grabbing her coat’s colr, shaking answers out of her like a delinquent.

  “Anyway,” Rui continued, wiping her eyes, “once she realized I wasn’t what she thought, she demanded to know what I was doing. I told her everything. And she told me I was suspicious. We ended up trading notes.”

  “And she kept following you?” Ume giggled behind her hand.

  Rui shot her a death gre. “...At first, she thought I might be the murderer. She wasn’t the type to judge books by their covers. She told me that a long time ago she’d done that and regretted doing it ever since.”

  I imagined Reiko standing triumphantly over Rui’s tiny limp oni body, announcing justice had been served.

  “Once she realized I was investigating too, she opened up. We shared everything. And that’s when I learned she had already narrowed the suspects to the same group of men.”

  A cold shiver ran through me.

  “That’s police work,” Rui murmured. “I told her to leave it to actual professionals. But…”

  I heard her whisper even before she said it.

  “…She said no,” Rui whispered.

  Rui nodded. “She said no. She refused to back off. She told me she had exactly what I needed for the infiltration pn. She used her courage, her charisma… She even had already dated a few suspects and crossed them off my list.”

  My breath stopped.

  Rui’s cheeks turned bright red. “And then she… somehow figured out my preferences before I figured them out myself. She didn’t care about my body or… or looking so young. She saw me. Really saw me for who I am.”

  I blinked. My throat tightened.

  Rui’s voice softened to a whisper.

  “One day, while we were going over case details… she kissed me.”

  My heart jammed in my throat.

  “I didn’t breathe for a minute,” Rui said, eyes gssy. “That was when I realized I loved girls. That I loved her. She woke me up more ways than one. And that night… I fell for her completely.”

  The jealousy hit me so suddenly I felt nauseous.

  She had touched Reiko.Held her.Loved her.Shared nights and secrets and warmth I never could.

  The coffin lid on my childhood love smmed shut.

  Rui wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “I know I sound excited talking about it… but it hurts too. Don’t act like you’re the only one grieving, Susumu. I loved her. I loved her so much.”

  Ume’s expression softened deeply. She pressed both hands to her chest. “RuiRui… oh my… I knew you had someone who broke your heart, but… I didn’t realize she…” She swallowed. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

  Rui looked away, flinching.

  I drew in a shaky breath and straightened. “You’re right. I’m nothing special.”

  “Oh… but I think you are,” Ume whispered gently. Her eyes half-lidded, warm. “Your blood has depth to its scent. Potential. It was faint when we met. But since yesterday… it’s grown.”

  She smiled… her words genuine. She conveyed a soft curiosity.

  I was touched.

  “I want to see what you become.”

  Ume’s words wrapped around me, warm and gentle, cutting through the st yer of fog in my chest.

  “Thank you, Ume-chan,” I whispered. “I don’t totally get what you mean, but… I’m done drowning. I still love her. I always will. But it’s time to move. It’s time to act. You too, Rui-chan.”

  Rui blinked at me… surprised and softened. She nodded. “Good. Because this is where things get difficult.”She reached into her purse and pulled out a folded sheet, edges worn from being handled too many times. “Reiko-chan cleared almost everyone on my suspect list. I still don’t know which file she looked at st, and I don’t know which connection she died chasing. That leaves us with three men.”

  She set the paper on the table.

  “I don’t know which to target first,” she continued, “but with that face of yours… we might be able to—”

  “Let me be clear, Rui-chan. I AM NOT DATING THEM!” I roared before she could finish.

  Rui smmed her hands on her hips. “Why NOT?! How could you look at your reflection… Reiko-chan’s face… and say that? How can you look at yourself in the mirror, especially knowing how she died, knowing that one of these men was behind it… Do you really want to leave it like this?!”

  My whole body flinched. “W-well… how about asking Ume-chan?! She has way more sex appeal! Way more experience! And she’s the only one here who has the bo—”

  Rui flew across the space and smacked me so hard my vision pixeted.

  “You. ABSOLUTE. COWARD! You’d send Ume-chan in your pce?!”

  “I don’t mind helping out actually,” Ume said cheerfully, raising a hand like she was volunteering for dodgeball. “But I’m a very busy girl~ And this sort of infiltration work takes a loooot of hours. Anyway… are they handsome?” She twirled a ribbon through her fingers.

  Rui puffed her cheeks so hard she looked ready to blow fire. “YES, they’re handsome—BUT THAT’S NOT THE POINT! I’m not risking you, Ume-chan! I’m not repeating what happened to her!”

  “And that means you’re willing to sacrifice me?” I whimpered dramatically. “Cold…”

  Rui froze. Shuddered. Shook her head hard. “You couldn’t be… no… I—just—dammit!”She dragged both hands down her face. “I don’t know what else to do, okay?!”

  She spped the file open on the table.

  Three pictures stared back at us.

  Three polished men with perfect hair, expensive smiles, eyes that hid something rotten deep inside them that leapt out if you stared too long.

  A stillness fell over the apartment.

  “What do we do?” Rui whispered. “Which one of us… do we sacrifice?”

  She peeked sideways at me… her cheeks pink, her jaw tense, her expression torn between fear and vulnerability.

  Ume sat perfectly still, her eyes flicking between us like she already knew what I would choose.

  Something inside me clicked into pce.

  A determination I didn’t know I had.

  I straightened, drawing myself up, and both girls lifted their gazes to me… hopeful, nervous, bracing themselves.

  I raised my hand…

  And smmed my fist down on the table.

  Both girls jumped.

  Ume’s eyes went wide. “What? Are you breaking up with us, just like that?”

  “Susumu…” Rui whispered, voice trembling as she leaned forward. “Please don’t. I—I really care about you… D-Don’t say that you…”

  Her shoulders shook. She looked like she might cry again.

  Relwing