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The brunet says, “But why would he have gone to check on the noise? Didn’t he have common sense?”
Karma, irked, says, “Because I live here, idiot.”
Another, the man with glasses, laughs. “Let me just investigate a spooky noise in the middle of the night. Top ten ways to get murdered.”
“Why would I think that? I live here!” Karma yells. They all speak over him, except for the blond man who was staring in his direction. When Karma makes eye contact, he quickly looks away.
“Dude,” Karma wheedles.
The blond man flicks a quick glance at him. “Because it’s his house. You’d check out a stray noise in yours, too, Koyama.” He folds his arms. “You could have thought you left a window open and let in a gust of wind. Besides, there’s a cat. A noise probably seems ordinary.”
Karma says, “She’s a stray.”
“I guess so,” one of the men (possibly Koyama) says. “I don’t see the cat anywhere.”
The blond man says, “Might be a stray. There’s a food and water bowl but not much else.”
“Bleeding heart, eh?” Says another.
“Enough dawdling, you four.” The blond man folds his arms. “Start doing your jobs. Leave this room to me. Araki, I want you on perimeter. Ren, backyard, Koyama, kitchen, Seo, guest bedroom.” The four chorus agreement and duck out of the room. The man stares at the door after them, then does a slow walkaround of the master bedroom without once glancing in Karma’s direction, an action so coincidental that must only be deliberate.
“So… you can see me, right?”
The man huffs and finally looks him in the eyes. “Yeah. Asano Gakushuu, lead detective for your case.” He doesn’t extend a hand to shake.
“Cool, cool. Akabane Karma, the deceased. You’re a ghost whisperer, or something?”
Asano says, “Ghosts don’t exist.”
“That hurt my feelings.”
“No offense intended. Ghosts are a metaphysical concept that implies a shared realm in the afterlife. You’re just my manifestation of the reality that I am able to perceive.”
Karma snorts. “A bit rich, denying the existence of an afterlife given that you can literally speak to the dead. ”
A smile flickers on Asano’s lips. “You’re not the first, ‘ghost’ I’ve met.” Karma can hear the air quotes in his words. “Nor would you be the last. If there’s evidence for any space that awaits you in the beyond, I haven't found it.”
“Have you considered it’s because every ghost you’ve ever met just hasn’t gone there?” Karma says. “Hurtful for you to keep denying my existence when I’m standing right here.”
“I can call you a ghost if it makes you feel better,” Asano says. “But if you excuse me, I have a job to do.”
“Ah, right. Solving my murder.” Karma claps his hands together, “Let’s get down to business, then. If you have a sketch artist I can describe him to you.”
“...Thanks, but no need,” Asano says, and proceeds to resume ignoring Karma.
Karma allows himself to be flabbergasted for a moment before going to kick Asano in the shin. His leg goes right through it. Asano levels him with an unimpressed expression, so Karma capitalises on the attention. “Hello? I’m literally giving you the answer on a plate here.”
“And what makes you think I want that?” Asano is annoyed. Ungrateful. “You think that evidence is permissible in court? Your Honor, the ghost told me who the killer is?”
Karma flushes. “Well, I guess not, but it’d give you a head start, wouldn’t it? You’re young, but you’re a lead detective. I’m sure you got a lot of cases solved with a bit of ghostly assistance, huh?”
“Actually, no.” Asano clicks his tongue. “And I don’t appreciate the insinuation that I’m incompetent.”
Karma holds his hands up placatingly. “Geez, it was just a-”
“Furthermore, your offer for this head start may have good intentions, but it may prove to be ultimately detrimental if it leads to undue assumptions in order to arrive at the answer. Remember, if there are any holes in the prosecutor’s story, the defense can exploit it.”
“...Alright, I get it.” Karma waves a hand around. “Do ya thing then, Ace detective.”
“You can help me reconstruct the scene, if you’re itching for something to do,” Asano says. “It’s something I’m sure we’ll figure out regardless, since you left a lot of carnage in your valiant fight to the death, so you can just speed up the process.”
“You’re welcome ,” Karma huffs. “Alright, I did leave the window open, since Mauve - that’s kitty - comes and goes. Don’t have to tell me not to do that again.”
Asano says evenly, “I was going to reserve judgement.”
“That’s how he broke in. I got a good look at the guy’s face before he shot me.”
Asano nods. “Did you know him? What was the motive?”
“I thought I wasn’t supposed to give you any hints,” Karma snarks. “Well actually, I can’t help you very much there. I never met him.”
“So it was a targeted murder. Nothing else was touched, right?”
Karma scans the room. “Apart from all the stuff I broke with my falling corpse? No.”
“Hm.” Asano rubs his chin. “No enemies?”
“Wh- i mean, no…?” Karma tries to think. “I work for the Ministry of Economics, Trade and Investment, so maybe I declined someone’s proposal…” He blanches, “Was it a political assassination?”
“You’re clear on that front. You’re not important enough to be used as leverage, and your death is not significant enough to shake the political sphere.”
“Hey!”
“Nor has any political group or terrorist organisation taken responsibility for the crime.”
“Should've led with that,” Karma mutters.
Asano continues, “Most likely your husband’s enemies, then.”
“My husband is a school teacher,” Karma says thinly. “He doesn’t have enemies.”
“Hmm,” Asano says. “I’m sure.”
“That’s not a very convincing agreement,” Karma says warily. “Do you know something about my husband that I don’t, lead detective Asano?”
“A bit of a moot point for me to suggest keeping such a discussion between the couple, given your demise,” Asano muses. “I’ll be meeting him shortly. I suppose you can come along.”
“Great,” Karma says.
He watches Asano bend down to pick up an object from the corner of the floor. It’s his bloodstained wedding ring. He drops it in a ziploc bag and puts it in his pocket.
“Are you going to return that to Nagisa?”
“No. It’s evidence. He can have it back later if he still wants it.”
Karma is miffed. “What do you mean, if he still-”
Asano strides out of the room without looking back. Karma, without much other choice, follows him.
Nagisa is the picture of composed, although he’s red around the eyes. He shakes Asano’s hand. There’s a white desk between them. Karma hovers nervously over Nagisa’s shoulder. Asano doesn’t glance at him once - truly a professional. Karma hopes that means he knows how to be delicate with a grieving widower.
Asano goes straight out of the gate. “Do you know who killed your husband?”
So much for bedside manner. Karma says, “Hey!” The two (obviously) ignore him. He still does his best to glare at Asano.
Nagisa hiccups. He wrings a piece of tissue. Karma’s hands go through his shoulder, then the chair, so he thinks about levitating the table with his mind instead.
But then Nagisa says, “I have some hunches.” His voice is sharp and clear.
Asano says, “He doesn’t know about your secondary career, does he?”
Nagisa shakes his head. Nagisa, what? “I’ve done my best to keep it from him. He worries too much. He doesn’t deserve to get caught up in all of… it…”
“Nagisa?” Karma says.
Asano says, “I’m sure he knows, now.” He looks up over Nagisa’s shoulder. There’s no discernible change in his expression as he meets Karma’s eyes. He looks back down at Nagisa.
“Yeah. So much for protecting him.” Nagisa takes a deep breath and he meets Asano’s eyes. Karma switches his side to see his burning gaze. “I have no doubt you’ll find who did it, Gakushuu. But if you’re angling for a fair trial - or any trial in court at all, then you better hope I don’t find him first.”
Asano snorts. “You think I can let you walk out of here with that statement?”
“You will.” Nagisa stands and shakes his hand. “Say hello to the boys at the precinct for me.”
“Don’t get yourself killed. I don’t want to investigate two murders.”
“So you’re telling me, my husband is a… what? Contract killer? For the government?”
“Of a sort,” Asano says. He has his finger held up to his earpiece like he’s making a call, as he walks down the hallways of the office building. Many people nod at him as they walk past - and through - Karma. It’s a little disorienting.
“And he never told me?” Karma says. “He’s… he’s a middle school teacher!”
“I’m not unpacking the psychology of your relationship. Please ask him yourself.” He turns a corner and throws open a door. It must be his office.
“How am I supposed to do that?!” Karma wails.
Asano releases a hand from his earpiece and addresses the room at large, “Everyone, we have a new one. Don’t be alarmed.”
Karma is alarmed. He frantically glances around, left, right. He sees no-one. “Are there… other ghosts?”
“Yes.” Asano begins rifling through his cabinets. “I work on multiple cases at once.”
“I can’t see them.”
“As I’ve previously explained, you are not a ghost. There is no shared afterlife, and you are not connected to one another through any metaphysical property. You are a sensation that is perceived and interpreted by me. If you think of it as an additional sense that I have, then you can understand that you are unable to perceive the other, ‘sensations’, because you do not possess that same sense. Hence my announcement. None of them can sense each other, or you. I hear it's far less disconcerting when I start speaking aloud to a new individual.”
Karma mumbles, “Sounds lonely.”
“If it makes you feel better, you will cease to be detected by me - or as I hypothesise, exist at all - once I solve your case.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better. What if you never solve it?”
“I always do.” Asano cracks open a file. “Either that, or Shiota will.”
“Why are you on a first name basis with my husband?”
“We’ve worked together before.”
Karma says, “I’ve never met you.”
“He prefers to keep his private life separate from his professional one. I respected it.”
“...What’s he like?”
“Efficient. Paranoid. His schedule is not very available, given the double-life. Looks like he got complacent, and slipped up on his recent case.”
“Don’t talk about him like that.”
“It followed him home. Just a fact.”
Karma scowls. He goes to sit on a vacant chair, but then feeling a little self conscious about the potential other ghosts, remains standing. Asano notices and doesn’t say a word.
Karma attempts to pick up a book from Asano’s collection. He fails, and coughs. “...So, what about you? What’s your deal?”
Asano looks up from his file. “I’m a detective.”
“I meant the whole…” He waves a hand. “Ghost-seeing thing.”
“Oh. It’s no big deal.”
“No big deal?!”
“My childhood ghost has been around since I was four.” Asano suddenly looks to the left. “Bugger off. Yeah, I’m talking about you.”
Karma shrieks, “It’s still here?!”
“He’s hard to get rid of. He died by suicide, and it’s partially my fault.”
“Didn’t you just say you were four-”
“It’s easier to send you lot out of my life by pinning down the culprit with a clear motive. Hence the profession. Yes, I was four. It’s mostly a matter of perception at this point, since this is my subjective interpretation of his existence. I’m working through it.”
Karma has nothing to say. He takes a metaphorical seat on the physical chair and hopes he’s not sharing it with any metaphysical partners.
Abruptly, Asano stands up. Karma stands up too.
Asano says to the room, “This call is for Sugaya. Let’s head out.”
Karma says, “wait, what am I gonna do?”
Asano shrugs. “Daydream. Eavesdrop. Follow people around. You’re a ghost, do whatever you want.” And then he leaves, supposedly with another non-corporeal companion in tow. Karma stares at the closed door with abject betrayal.
There are no closed doors in Karma’s new world.
Unfortunately there are no open windows, either. A day of following Nagisa around makes Karma feel exceedingly lonely. He’s sorting out the paperwork for his funeral, in between taking one-sided calls that grow increasingly menacing over time. After three days, he returns to Asano’s office in a foul mood.
“Have you made zero leads on my case?!”
“Of course I have. You just weren’t here.” He doesn’t elaborate. “How have you been?”
“Nagisa’s planning my funeral.”
“My condolences.”
“Thanks."
“Don’t you want to be with him at this time?”
“...Of course I do. But as myself, not as…” He gestures to his body.
Asano’s gaze seems to soften. “If it helps to put your words to paper, you can always dictate a message for me.”
Karma almost says, You’ll do that? He stops himself, because Asano had been curt, but mostly pleasant, and there’s no reason to doubt his morality. Instead he asks, “How would that even work? Does Nagisa know about this… sense of yours?”
“A select few do. Nagisa is, indeed, one of them.”
Karma is hurt, now. “He didn’t ask you about me?”
“Not everyone wants to know. Especially when nothing else can be done about it. Even more so when you are, at best, a translation of my interpretation.”
“Stop that,” Karma snaps. “I’m my own person.”
“Apologies,” Asano mutters quickly. “I’ve established the terms with him when he asked me to work on your case. He’s open to the option, at least. But perhaps he didn’t want it to be this game of telephone.”
Karma says, “I could have just told him who did it.”
Asano smiles at him. “I’m sure he didn’t ask because he already knows.”
Nagisa shows up a week later to invite Asano to Karma’s funeral. Asano asks rather bluntly, “Do I still have a lead to chase?”
“That question’s subjective,” Nagisa says. “You still have a case to solve. A man to catch? No, probably not.”
Asano nods. “He left you a letter.”
Nagisa’s voice wavers. “Before, or after?”
Asano just smiles. Karma watches Nagisa take the envelope from him with trembling hands.
“Thank you for taking care of him,” Nagisa says. Pauses. “If you did.”
“Hey,” Karma says. “You should be thanking me! Your friend’s customer service is awful.”
“How long, usually,” Nagisa asks, “Before they…”
“It usually depends,” Asano says. “If you’re ready to accept it. They’re always tied to sentiment.” He opens his palm, and on it rests Karma’s wedding ring. Nagisa hesitates to take it.
Asano says, “He’s not going to vanish immediately if you grab it.”
Nagisa snatches it quickly.
He continues, “The point is that they stay forever, no?”
Nagisa asks quietly, “Are you lying to me?”
Asano says, “Whatever makes you feel better.”
“Then I’d like to believe he is still here.”
“He’s smiling at you right now. He’s trying to lean on your head.”
“He’s tall enough to do that.” Nagisa huffs a laugh. “Looks like you must have met him at least once. You have a good enough image of him. What’s he doing now?”
Asano says, “What do you think?”
Nagisa looks down at the ring, clenched in his palm, then back up at Asano. “He probably thinks you’re a little insufferable with how smart you think you’re being sometimes.”
Asano laughs. “Yes. I sense that’s what he’s saying, too.”