Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 28 - Chapter SS

Bonus Short Story

Ace Detective Sanae, Part One

The following incident took place right after Sanae finished watching the anime Ace Detective Gavan.

“Nooooo! My hot spring manju is gone!”

Sanae’s manju, which she had so been looking forward to eating after her show, had vanished from the kitchen.

“Koutarou, Koutarou! My hot spring manju disappeared!”

“Well, that’s too bad. Want some of my candy instead?”

“Yes, please! But once I’m done with this, I’m going to catch the culprit behind the manju-napping for sure!”

While Sanae jumped at Koutarou’s candy offer, she had far from forgotten the crime at hand. That was just how much she’d been looking forward to her hot spring manju.

“B-But you know a lot of people come through here, right?! I-It was only inevitable something would happen to it!”

Yurika, who’d been watching anime with Sanae, sounded particularly flustered. There were beads of cold sweat on her forehead and she looked like she was about to panic. The traces of manju filling around her mouth were a dead giveaway, really, but it seemed neither Sanae nor Koutarou had noticed just yet.

“You can’t brush off crime as an inevitability! The culprit must be brought to justice, and justice never wavers! With the body of a high school girl, but the brains of a child... Ace Detective Sanae is on the case!”

Dashing Yurika’s hopes, Sanae gave a stock gallant reply. Hearing it, Koutarou sighed a little.

“Sanae, you watch too much anime...”

“Who cares? I’m gonna use my brainpower to get to the bottom of this case no matter what!”

“Well, if you say so...”

All worked up after watching her favorite detective show, Sanae was dead set on finding the culprit who had stolen her manju. She was treating the case more like a murder than a petty theft. But since there was still some time yet until dinner, Koutarou didn’t really see the harm in it.

“L-Let’s not, okay?! The next show’s already starting!”

On the other hand, Yurika—who still had manju filling on her face—was staunchly opposed to the investigation. She was frantically pointing to the TV, trying to distract Sanae with the next show coming on.

“I’m recording it, so it’s fine! More importantly, you’re going to help me out with the investigation, my dear Hudson!”

“Whaaat?!”

Every ace detective had a reliable partner, and Ace Detective Gavan had Hudson. Since Yurika was Sanae’s dedicated anime-watching buddy, she always was Sanae’s go-to when she needed a partner. And since she’d just been watching Ace Detective Gavan with Sanae, it was hard to imagine that she was the culprit. As far as Sanae was concerned, she’d been planning on splitting her manju with Yurika—meaning they both had a strong motivation to track down the thief.

“Say, couldn’t you just find the culprit with your spirit sight?”

“That would take all the fun out of it!”

“I guess we are doing this for fun, huh?”

With her psychic powers, Sanae would easily be able to pinpoint the culprit—which was exactly why she chose not to use them. She was far more invested in the act of searching out the culprit than delivering justice. Essentially, she just wanted to play detective. And Koutarou, who’d taken an interest in the deductions she’d make, was willing to play along.

“So, what will you do first, ace detective?”

“Well, you see, inspector...”

“Hold up. I’m the inspector?”

“Yeah. You’re the guy who gets to see our splendid detective work up close.”

“Okay, okay. So, what’s it going to be, detective?”

“First we’ll look for clues in the kitchen!”

“You’re not going to interrogate me?”

“Nah. It’s not like you ate it, right?”

“I didn’t, but it’s not like an ace detective to be so trusting. You gotta... What’s it called again? Eliminate suspects?”

“Hmm, I guess you’re right.”

Sanae was already on her way to the kitchen, but Koutarou convinced her to come back over to the tea table where she sat down across from him.

“Now, let’s see...”

Sanae stared intently at Koutarou, observing him as she tried to remember what he’d been doing while she was watching anime.

“If I recall correctly, you went to get some candy during the commercial break and ate it during the second half.”

“I did, but I didn’t eat all of it. I gave you some of it just a minute ago, remember?”

“Then you really weren’t the culprit. You were already eating candy. And besides, whenever you eat confections, you always want tea with them.”

“Wow, that does sound like an ace detective’s deduction.”

“I know, right?!”

Sanae had made a reasonable inference. It was hard to imagine Koutarou had eaten both his candy and Sanae’s manju. Additionally, it was true that he always liked tea to go with his baked sweets, but there was none present on the tea table currently. He only had a cup of water. And while this was all circumstantial evidence, there was merit to Sanae’s deduction.

“All right! Now that the inspector’s been cleared, let’s get down to business!”

“Hnnnngh...”

And so Ace Detective Sanae’s investigation began in earnest. Contrary to her enthusiasm, however, her faithful partner was dragging her feet. Will the culprit be able to elude the ace detective? Tune in next time to find out!

–To be continued–