“Are you in, Kanako! Koyomi! It’s me!”
A woman with jagged teeth and sharp eyes, wearing a jacket with a token attempt at formality but unable to hide her overflowing “delinquent flavor,” appeared.
“N-Naomi-san!?”
“Yo, how’ve you been! Nahaha!”
Police Superintendent Terabayashi Naomi.
The Metropolitan Police’s nuclear warhead. Despite being part of the career track, she’s famous as a heroine who’s achieved numerous accomplishments through her hands-on action and reckless fearlessness.
And she’s also the second person I can feel at ease with, after Koyomin.
The reason I can feel at ease with her is…
[“Yo Kanako! Let me use your ability for my promotion again!”]
(This is exactly it.)
Because she’s a completely honest person with no front or back… or rather, she’s a dangerous person who blurts out whatever she thinks as a spinal reflex.
Her nickname at the Metropolitan Police is the lovely “TeraYabashi” (Super Dangerous). Even that gorilla police inspector can’t stand up to her unrestrained behavior.
TLNOTE: the nickname can be localized to something like Terrafying, but nah…
For me, rather than “being able to interact without reservations,” honestly it’s more like “it feels stupid to be considerate around this person.”
However, thanks to her spinal-reflex like action, I was rescued within hours of being kidnapped. “I can’t be bothered getting permission from above,” she said. I guess it’s a double-edged sword.
Anyway, she’s my lifesaver… and to repay that debt, I’ve been dragged into numerous difficult cases as a detective, sometimes bluffing my way through case resolutions—it’s pure torture.
(Even after finding the culprit, I don’t know the evidence, so my stomach churns every single time. This person brings cases like souvenirs every time, completely oblivious to my distress.)
While I suffer internally, Naomi-san crosses her legs and leans back on the sofa as if she owns the place.
Koyomin, accustomed to her storm-like entrances, brought coffee. What a thoughtful little sister.
“Here you go.”
“Thanks, Koyomi. Still expressionless as ever. Is it from the modification surgery?”
“No, I was like this originally.”
“Oh right, my bad my bad.”
This kind of outburst is daily routine now, so I’m used to it.
“So, what can we do for you?”
I ask nervously, but she pays no attention to my attitude. Without any shame, Naomi-san puts her arm around my shoulder.
“You know what it is, Kanako! A case! A case!”
“Agaain, what kind is it?”
I make an obviously disgusted face, but she doesn’t care about such things. She downs her coffee in one gulp and shows a childlike, innocent smile. Honestly, I have nothing but bad feelings about this.
“Puhaah… What kind do you think it is?”
“Ah, I can tell without reading your mind—it’s a troublesome case… so what are we doing?”
I ask TeraYabashi… oops, Terabayashi Naomi-san fearfully.
She grabs my arm with an “it’s fine, it’s fine” and stands up.
“I’ll explain at the scene, so let’s get going, great detective [O]ba Kanako-chan.”
“Don’t emphasize the ‘Oo’! It sounds like [O bakana ko] (big stupid child)!”
“What’s wrong with stating facts! Oh, Koyomi, you come too! This one’s unreliable by herself.”
“Haah… understood.”
With a sigh, Koyomin follows from behind too.
“As expected, Koyomin doesn’t want to be separated from me!”
“……”
Koyomin responds with silence. Oh, she’s just shy.
Ignoring our sisterly banter, Naomi-san kept pulling my arm forcefully.
“Well whatever, just follow me! I won’t… treat you badly. Nahaha.”
“Ow ow… I’ll come so please don’t pull me.”
And so, realizing resistance was futile, I was dragged off to another troublesome scene.
We were brought to an incredibly huge office building.
It must be quite a large company, as you could tell from the size of the entrance.
(It’s kind of like a high-class business hotel, you know? The receptionist has a cabin attendant-style scarf around her neck, and there’s an elegance that suggests they eat pasta twirled on forks for lunch.)
Feeling out of place and intimidated, I voiced my simple impression.
“This is quite an impressive place. The receptionist consultant person is also dressed very properly.”
“The receptionist is a concierge. A consultant is an occupation that advises on company management and such.”
Koyomin immediately corrected me, quickly covering my mistake. Such a good little sister.
“Oh, is that so? Advising companies—does that pay well?”
“At the worst places, they just meddle a bit and skim some pocket change.”
At my sister’s merciless sharp tongue, Naomi-san burst out laughing.
“That’s no good, Koyomi. That’s the crime of stating facts. All consultants do is say ’employee education’ and just increase the work and burden on the lower-level people.”
“…I didn’t go that far.”
I wonder if Naomi-san has some grudge against the consulting industry.
Being able to read the room, I decided to change the topic that had gone off on a tangent.
“By the way, Naomi-san. Is the work request from someone in this building?”
“Yeah yeah, this whole building is the client’s company.”
“Seriously?”
To be able to build such a building in a prime location in the business district—what kind of industry could it be?
Koyomin seemed curious too, asking Naomi-san eagerly.
“The whole building… what exactly do they do?”
“Ah, it’s a major consulting company.”
“……”
Kanako and I could only fall silent at the unexpected industry.
“We were boldly bad-mouthing consulting businesses in the entrance of a major consulting company…”
“Truly [TeraYabashi] indeed.”
Usually expressionless Koyomin was furrowing her brow. This is quite a rare sight.
Completely unconcerned with our worries, saying things like “let’s have a strategy meeting over there,” I found myself impressed by Naomi-san in a full-circle way.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.PAGES.DEV
Logic Consulting.
Apparently it’s such a famous company that there’s no one in this industry who doesn’t know the name.
Their slogan is “Logic—the company that helps with sound profitable management”… Yeah, it’s a company that has nothing to do with a general supernatural detective like me.
The industries that rely on them apparently span a wide range—not just retail and restaurants, but also advising politicians, and they even Consulting consulting companies. Like being a teacher’s teacher? Then this size makes sense too.
“But what would such a company want with me? I hope it’s not a murder case.”
Because I can read minds, I end up reading the sadness of the victim’s family, and even if I know the culprit, investigating evidence and tricks is a pain… Well, this time I have reliable companions, so I feel more at ease.
Especially Naomi-san—being a capable police officer, she’s good with words. Unlike the Ichiwada-san incident the other day, I probably won’t be flustered.
Such Naomi-san teaches us about this request in a corner of the hallway away from prying eyes.
“The client is the company president here. The content will be discussed when we meet, they said.”
“Ugh, that’s definitely going to be a troublesome request.”
To my dismay, there was even more of a blow.
“By the way, I’m not accompanying you this time. You two work hard.”
“Eh!? Seriously!?”
My reliable companion number one… I felt confused, as if a ladder had suddenly been pulled out from under me.
Naomi-san put her hand on my shoulder with a “well, calm down.”
“Seriously seriously. Can’t be helped, right? The client specified Kanako, not me. Rather, I think they don’t want me to come.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well, it’s probably a request that would be inconvenient if police like me heard it, right? I mean, they were vague about the request content and just said [introduce me to a skilled detective]. It’s definitely something bad.”
Grinning, Naomi-san seemed to be working her mental abacus.
“If I expose it, it’s definitely material for a promotion. Probably thanks to that incident—no, Ichiwada-san’s introduction, I was able to send Kanako in smoothly. Hehehe.”
A truly evil face—the face of a corrupt official presented with golden confections.
After finishing her grinning in the sparsely populated corridor corner, she returned to a serious expression and began giving us instructions.
“Alright Koyomi, first tune this earpiece to the [frequency].”
“The usual one?”
“That’s right, the usual.”
Saying that, Koyomin took out a lip balm from her pocket.
It was a really simple lip balm that looked like it could be sold in baskets at a pharmacy, but it was actually a high-performance directional microphone. Apparently, it could connect to Naomi-san’s earphone even from quite a distance.
It’s cool like 007! When I asked if I could try using it too, I was flatly rejected with “You don’t seem like you’d take care of your lips, so no.” Well, I guess she actually stopped me because I’d probably break it.
After confirming the sync, Naomi-san gave a big smile and thumbs up.
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