Chapter Text
☆Star Detective Suika☆ (by Kotori)
Hello! My name is Suika, I'm 12 years old and a completely ordinary girl (so far)! I go to the KoS School of Reading and can be a bit clumsy sometimes, but otherwise I'm a completely ordinary girl (so far)!
"Suika! A totally ordinary girl ^_−☆!" I look at my reflection in the water bowl and strike a cute pose making a 'v' with my fingers right before my eye. "Yeah! That totally works! Don't you think so, too?" Next to me, Chalk lets out some supporting dog noises. I scritch his head and give him a little treat. He and Sagara are my best friends after all.
I put on my melon and the world unblurs itself before my eyes.
The melon-head might make Suika look a bit odd, but it's in fact a science thing! Made by super scientist Senku to power up Suika's work skill! Even an ordinary girl (so far!) like Suika can become helpful with this!
Outside my hut, I get rammed and almost thrown over by Sagara. He grows bigger by the day… Way faster than I do.
Suika has her two pets best friends always by her side — ready for any adventures! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ (And treats.) Her trusted friend Chalk, a friendly dog Suika found in the woods as a lost puppy, and Sagara, the boar who helped discover the oil fields. The three of them together form an unbeatable trio!
The others are already busy with their own work. As I make my way through the village, I run into Chrome. "Oi, Suika? Off into the woods today again? Don't wander too far, I could use your help later this afternoon for some baaaaaaaad science crafts!" He has dirt on his fingernails. Did he dig for rocks without any tools?
Just like Chrome, Suika might be a hidden science genius. That's why she tries her hand at science at every chance she gets. Science is awesome!
"Suika-chan?" Gen's head pops into my view. There is a leaf stuck in his hair.“You’re headed for the woods, right? Could you bring me some flowers? I'm all out… pwetty pweaaaassse?" With that leaf, Gen looks like he just came out of the woods. Why didn't he bring any flowers for himself?
Suika had been wary about Gen at first, but after he got murdered by Magma, he turned out to be a good guy. Suika loves spending time with Gen, hearing his stories, and she even learnt some magic tricks from him! Maybe she won't become a scientist, but a magician?
In front of the bridge, Kinrou and Ginrou are on their watch. They let me through with just a small nod, as they're busy discussing something. I only hear snippets as I walk by.
"Ginrou, I told you not to leave your post! What if somebody sneaked in?"
"But I had to peeeeeeeee! You can't stop nature calling!"
"Ginrou, rules are rules! When you're on watch duty, you stay on watch duty. No matter what. If you need to pee, just…"
But I don't hear the last words anymore as I already crossed the bridge to enter the forest. Magma and Yo walk out of it and into my direction, shoving each other out of the way. "What were you sneaking off into the woods for? I'm the one who will get the drago prize for the most wood chopped! I'm the strongest man in the entire village!"
"If I were to shoot off some branches with my gun, I'm sure I could chop wood so much faster than you! Pew, pew, PEW! And then all the women will love me! Everybody loves a guy who looks cool with a gun!" Yo makes finger guns at Magma, and they both start another fight.
The woods had always been Suika's home! She spent her entire childhood playing in there, and she knows every secret and hidden corner, all the plants, and EVERYTHING that one could possibly know! Maybe today she will find something that will prove her usefulness to the rest, and she will be taken on the big adventure to America!
The smell of dead leaves is wafting around me; it will be autumn soon. And Sagara gets a bit uneasy; he must smell some nice truffles or other mushrooms. Maybe I should bring some home with me later? On top of the flowers for Gen?
As Suika entered the woods, she didn't know it yet, but this day would become the day her life was going to change forever as her true destiny would unveil itself! And she would finally stop being an ordinary, clumsy girl and become something special.
Suddenly, Chalk starts to whine, and Sagara looks like she wants to run away. I pet her. Poor thing is so brave for fighting her urge to run.
Her trusty friends sensed a signal! Suika's experience gaze runs through the forest. What did they spot? A lion? Suika could totally outsmart a lion! Maybe bringing the pelt home would finally convince the others she was helpful?
"Chalk, what did you spot? Bring us there!" I carry the shivering Sagara on my arm as I follow Chalk quietly. He stops at a freshly dug heap of earth. It looks human-made… but who did it? And why?
Just by looking at the heap of dirt, Suika was able to tell a few things! Either brute force or a tool were used to dig it. It wasn't made to blend in, OR it was made by somebody who is bad at hiding things from Suika's super-observant observer skills!
But what lies beneath the dirt? Something somebody wanted to hide? A dark secret? Only one way for Suika to find out! Of course, she got to take a look! A secret can't be left unsolved!
"Chalk, Sagara, it's digging time!" I say, and already improvised a shovel from the tools I had with me.
Just like Senku, Suika might grow up to become an amazing scientist! But what Suika found was beyond her imagination! Was her life about to take a turn?
"A corpse?!" I stare at the body I found beneath the earth. A face I've never seen before, still pristine.
Suika knows EVERY face in the entire Kingdom, and this wasn't one of them. A stranger? Where did they come from? Who killed them? Who buried them in secret?
"Oh, hey! I'm Flute. Thanks for digging me up!"
Suika turns away from the corpse. She's only an ordinary 12-year-old girl after all. She has never seen a corpse, unless you'd count icicle Tsukasa.
I clench my fist and talk to the empty air in front of me. "Who in this village would murder an unknown person?"
"Uhm, I'm not dead? I think you might've saved me just in time? Thanks! And, uhm… I really dig your melon look!"
This is the THE chance for Suika to finally prove herself helpful! Solve the murder mystery!
"Who murdered Flute?" I shake my fist and Chalk chimes in with a howl.
"So you can hear me? I was kinda worried I might've turned into a ghost without realizing it…"
"Who even is this flute?" Even Sagara makes angry pig sounds over this unfair murder of the mystery person.
The mysteries pile up more and more! An unknown, dead person? Who could've buried them?
I spin around, throwing some petals the way I learned from Gen and ignore the weird voice in the back of my head that says "Woah? That's like really cool, twin?"
When I stop spinning, I switched my clothes for detective ones, even the hat and the magnifying glass.
"Call me ☆Star Detective Suika☆! Ready to solve the case of Flute's murder! ^_−☆"
"I'm not dead, twin?"
Krck!
"What was that sound?" I look at the corpse who has a surprised look on their face and stares at a little object made from metal. It must be something modern?
"Uh? That's not mine? I don't even know where I got it from? Holy shit, run ☆Star Detective Suika☆!"
The metal thing starts to glow green and Flute’s corpse turns into a statue.
Which leaves ☆Star Detective Suika☆ with even more questions. Who is Flute? Who murdered and buried them? What is that green-flashy object? Why did it turn Flute into a stone statue? To cover up an even more serious crime maybe? Were they murdered because they knew too much?
This was only the beginning of ☆Star Detective Suika☆'s adventure! I'm sure she'll figure everything out in the end!
I take the metal thing out of Flute’s dead, stony hands. And together with Chalk and Sagara I walk back to the village.
☆Star Detective Suika☆'s first case starts now! Let's get excited!