Inside A Novel

When she opened her eyes again, she was no longer in the empty stone-walled room, but in a rather large gorgeous lounge with extravagant carpets, curtains, and ornaments with some oil paintings decorating the walls. It was also dimly lit. 

Kath ran to the nearest window and pulled away the curtain. Through the golden swirls of the frame, it wasn't the sight of Yokohama that she glimpsed, but the extreme darkness of the night, interrupted only by the white snowflakes dancing brutally with the wailing wind.

Kath took a step back. They were inside the book. That was the mansion Poe was talking about.

Her eyes caught her reflection on the glass and her hands reached up to her face as though to make sure it was really her. Her hair was curly, half held up in buns with red ribbons. Her black cap was gone, and her shorts, t-shirt, and vest were replaced with a red and white dress with a white collar and puffed sleeves, black leggings underneath it. To top it off, she was wearing doll dress shoes.

Before she could mourn her appearance and curse at the sky, demanding Poe to return her clothes, a rush of footsteps caught her attention. From the other end of the lounge came Yosano, running.

" Kath!"

" You too!" Yosano's outfit at least didn't seem to differ much from her original. White yellowish shirt, long skirt, grey not black though. She was wearing a white lab coat and sported metal-framed glasses.

" Let's not dawdle here. Let's find Rampo!" Yosano grabbed Kath's wrist and pulled her through the lounge. It was that swift movement that allowed Kath to realize the difference in her weight.

" Bloody hell! My backpack!"

They were trapped inside a detective novel with a murderer, and with no defense seeing as how Yosano wasn't hauling her bag full of saws and hatchets.

Before them, they could see a gathering of people in front of a widely open double door. Yosano, being the doctor she is, quickly shouldered through them and made for the fallen victim.

That was no real man there, he was only a character from a story. A set of words and sentences. Yosano should have known, but still, she hurried to him.

The man pointed at a side door and then went cold. Rampo quickly ran to it and pulled it open, but it was bricked up, with the words ' welcome to locked room' painted in a dark color akin to blood along with a doodle of what Kath thought was a single-eyed cat.

" He said it was a serial killer. Which means we need to find the murderer, or we'll be killed, too." Rampo was the most serious Kath had ever heard him.

✦ -─────────- ✦

The storm continued to rage on outside, the wind wailing through the creeves of the windows. Kath sat down on the couch, looking down at her hand. Her ability was gone. She could by no means conjure the smallest wisp, let alone a thread. It felt as though she had lost a sixth sense, but it didn't feel that much of a loss. One doesn't need a sixth sense to survive. It didn't hit hard as if not being able to see or hear.

On the other hand, there was someone who wasn't faring well with the loss of his gift, or precisely his glasses. Rampo sulked on the sofa, busying himself with studying the room and lights just as Yosano sat down beside her. She leaned tiredly back on the sofa.

" The victim is the caretaker of this mansion. Cause of death is the hemorrhagic shock."

" The weapon is the knife impaled in him. The way it was positioned, we definitely can roll out suicide. So it's clearly a murder, which by extension means we have a culprit. But I doubt a serial killer would leave fingerprints on the weapon." Kath tapped her chin.

" It's a textbook impossible murder. A locked room no way out. How did the killer leave the room?"

" You're having a surprisingly hard time with this. Aren't you going to do your usual thing?"

" I don't have my glasses."

Kath facepalmed hard.

" They were special glasses that the president gave me. I need them to start my special ability. Also, neither your healing nor Kath's ability would work. In other words, in this world, my Ultra Deduction won't work either."

" So that's how it's going to be."

" Seriously! You still don't want to acknowledge it!"

" I'm acknowledging nothing!" He said crossly.

" Then, how about we investigate carefully and reason our way out?" Yosano suggested. It was her attempt to get Rampo to place the pieces together and solve the mystery without him using his so-called ability. But the man was dead set against it.

So it was left in their hands now. It took a while to drag Rampo so he at least could sit down with them and listen as they did the investigation, still not giving up on him yet.

Before them sat the other four visitors, every one of them denied having anything to do with the murder. Rampo seemed to fall asleep, Yosano was bored from trying to make them cooperate, and Kath was all in about beating the truth out of them.

" Why are you excluding yourselves here? This detective could have done it. Or even you or your daughter." A woman complained

Ho? So she was Yosano's daughter in that setting. Didn't sound bad. She liked it in fact.

Yosano then stabbed the table with a scalpel, scaring the colors out of the other woman with her sadistic smirk.

" This is a trick involving strings." One of them proceeded to explain. " The key to the locked room was inside the victim's clothes. The single matching key was never used until right before. So the suspect killed the caretaker, took the key, and locked the room from outside. Later, they used a string to return the key to the pocket under the door. Then cut the string, collected it, and disposed of it. How's that, detective?"

" What are you, stupid? No, rhetorical questions are rude. You're stupid."

" And you think that was any less rude!" Kath exclaimed.

" The key is too thick to fit under the door. The corpse was on its back and the key was in his hip pocket. You could have figured that out right away."

Oh, he's making an effort.

The man made another explanation but was shot down again by Rampo who didn't spare a single flaw in his explanation.

" You're killing it, Rampo-san."

A fist was slammed angrily on the table. Rampo's fist. " No! I just..."...

✦ -─────────- ✦

Tick tock tick tock

Kath's eyes tore from Rampo curling on the sofa and to the clock. 12 hours, exactly 12 hours had passed since they were trapped in the novel. 12 hours of questioning and investigating the crime scene, but their efforts yielded no results.

There was no way of telling if time moved at the same pace in the novel world or not. Whether it had been half a day for real or just a few seconds. But she had to consider the worst case.

The Guild were still out there, targeting their agency. The threat of another Zombie epidemic breaking. The president going to face the boss of the Port Mafia. She couldn't bear being trapped in the novel world while the whole of the agency was on the line.

One last attempt.

" You must have had suspicions. Your ability as a detective..."

" Don't bother, Yosano-san, he already knows it. There is no way the great Rampo doesn't know."

" I'm gifted."

" But for what reason he's trying so hard to deny it. I really don't know."

" I'm gifted! But my gift has no value in this world."

" So it that all! Is the great detective gonna fall down now?! You want to tell me you don't even want to try! Get over it already! We need to get out! You need glasses to solve it, then take Yosano-san's!" Kath pointed.

Rampo rolled and sat up, facing her. " It was the president who gave me those glasses! Do you mean to tell me that the president is lying to me!"

" For bloody hell's sake, how old were you when he told you that?! Now is all different! You know! You know it but just..." Kath gritted her teeth. He just didn't want the president to appear as a liar, not even for him. That's why he was acting that way. That's why he was dead set against solving the case without his glasses. Even though...

" Are you going to let everything we've done go to waste just because of that?! Would the president like it that way!"

Rampo said nothing, he just laid down again. Kath ground her teeth and stormed out of the room.

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This story now has a character song and ending, please check them:Ending: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDH95PzIpIc

Character Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW4TBQR9FxY