Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 335: Arc 5, - 29: Detached

The paper opened up with a crinkle and some rustling. The scent of jasmine tea slowly drifted up from the teacup beside her. With her legs crossed one over the other, Hotaru relaxed on the sofa with the morning newspaper.

With a little fiery plume at the corner, letters in bold were underlined as ’Phoenix News’ was written in very lively fashion—being the only coloured text in an otherwise black and white newspaper.

Hotaru sipped her jasmine tea and scanned the first page. Straightaway, her crimson brows creased together. In a little text box at the bottom of the front page her eyes paused at.

’Many citizens are now in worry of current weather. At 2300 hours last night, a booming thunder echoed throughout Dolpool. The thunder was loudest at Narcissus Borough, according to resident accounts.

Are there thunderstorms in the upcoming forecasts? Will there be an electrical blackout in the coming days? Should your power provider be held accountable if it does? Are personal home generators a good investment? More on page 5.’ The excerpt read.

Hotaru’s ears folded and she blew over the teacup and took a sip. The Sun beamed into the house and Kazuo was out for work. The wolf-girl glanced around for a certain little one... Her ears pricked.

Finding no sign of her, Hotaru closed the paper and set her tea down on the saucer. She stood whilst her ears twitched for a sound; her head tilted up to the ceiling.

Up the steps she went, till the third floor. The noise seemingly came from Fumeko’s room. With cautious steps, she leaned against the door and pressed her ear up to it to eavesdrop.

"Creak..."

The door was not closed... Hotaru jolted herself up and placed a hand on the door, to act as if she was just opening it. The chatter came to an end.

"Aunty Wred-Wolf! We’re doing sewious business," Kineko grabbed Hotaru’s hand and dragged her in.

Jotou and Fumeko gave a look to the redhead, while Hotaru cocked her head... In front of Jotou and Fumeko was a pinboard with red string, connecting several papers of text and rough sketches of faces.

"Whaa...t are you two doing...?" she scanned the board with Kineko still holding her.

"What does it look like wolfy, figuring out a case," Fumeko took a streak of bacon from a plate on her nightstand and munched on it.

Kineko rushed over to the plate and took a streak of bacon to eat. Fumeko chewed and swallowed quickly, "Hey! Dad made a bunch and you already ate yours!" Fumeko took the plate away.

"Meko..." Hotaru faced.

"What!?" Fumeko furrowed her brows. "It’s cause you’re here she’s gained confidence you know! She didn’t get her grubby little hands on it till you showed up!"

Kineko tried to put back the half-eaten piece back on the plate. Hotaru crossed her arms and tapped her foot against the wood whilst her tail swayed from side-to-side.

"Ugh, fine! Don’t put that back!" Fumeko moved the plate away more. She groaned as she set the plate back on her nightstand, "You get one more; touch anything else and you’re out the window."

Kineko nodded with a bacon slice hanging out of her mouth. Jotou’s eyes rolled, "Be thankful I convinced her not to shove Kineko out of the room."

"And what case are you two exactly figuring out...?" Hotaru walked closer and examined the board. It contained rough sketches of the ones they fought last night and multiple written notes.

"The Deuctus Cult one," Jotou answered with her eyes glued to the board. "Good timing, what do you think that four-armed stone-woman’s affinity was?"

"What... I..." Hotaru muttered and shook her head. "I don’t know, I only saw her briefly while you were fighting, but..."

"It has to be some sort of summoning, manipulation or manifestation," Fumeko theorized. "I barely heard something about her name... Fo...-something."

"Lady F," Jotou wrote on a strip of paper and stuck it under the pencil sketch of the four-armed woman.

"Aru, do you remember what the spirit-mage said when I dragged you away from the ape? Beauregard, right? Something about cleaning up? That slime was mopping up bodies, do you think that’s her name?" Fumeko questioned.

"I... I think," Hotaru shifted her head between the two in concern.

Jotou did the same and pinned the name under the sketch of a blob. "We keep going around it, but I think your guess might be right."

"Well, these could still be the higher ranking members... we wouldn’t be experts in knowing."

"I think it’s more likely these were the ’new gods’ your dad told us about."

"But then why would the heads of the cult, seemingly four, be at that location doing the grunt work? It seems beneath someone who’d called themselves a ’new god’," Fumeko added.

"Well, we’re assuming that. The way they spoke should be taken into account too," Jotou replied.

"That Lady F definitely got pissed I called her a member..."

"I..." Hotaru still stood behind the two. Her brilliant blue eyes were squinting constantly between the two. Her mouth was agape as she stood, dumbfounded, "I, I’m going to go, finish my tea," she backed out and slowly turned with her hands raised.

Jotou knitted her brows and turned, "Hotaru? What’s wrong?"

"Nothing," Hotaru shook her head in a whisper and didn’t make eye contact. Her footsteps paused, "You two," her hand raised to them, "Do... whatever you want, I..." she blinked a few times, "I’m, I’m gonna go finish my tea," she breathed out and left the room...

Last Night­_

They reported on everything they could about what they saw and gathered, without leaving out a single detail.

Whether or not Kazuo or Morgana knew about anything they were talking about, none of them could tell—as if the two wore iron masks.

The body they found pinned in the apartment would be investigated immediately. Jotou gave away her notes of the case and the drawing of the runes with a sparking glare in her eyes.

While Marksman’s Wholefoods was under suspicion, until they got a chance to investigate the warehouse, there was no direct action to be taken beyond acknowledging suspicion.

Their work for the night would go unnoticed and kept under wraps; for a discovery such as that, might land the four in deep trouble with the authorities and the company itself might face consequences...

Hotaru was more than willing to comply, whilst Asobi followed along. Jotou kept her glare all night and Fumeko could barely lift her gaze off the floor. With all of that, they were asked to leave the premises soon.

"I have to go use the restroom, I’ll be back," Hotaru said to the others by the entrance.

"Me too," Asobi followed right behind.

Two were left standing there; the blonde’s face in contemplation while the brunette was in solemn silence.

Jotou looked to her. Fumeko’s shoulders were slumped and she sniffled quietly. "Hey, stop it," Jotou placed a finger under Fumeko’s chin and tipped it up.

The brunette’s gaze immediately averted to the right; her slouched posture she didn’t care to fix. Fumeko took a deep shaky breath and let it out... "I really screwed up... I should’ve listened to Hotaru," her voice had gone soft and meek.

"We made mistakes, we didn’t screw up. We didn’t underestimate the cult, in fact, overestimating them is how we even found their operation in the first place," Jotou retorted.

"We got that much, we should’ve got back and reported in like Mrs Aetherton said," Fumeko’s voice barely put up a fight.

Jotou went silent for a moment and took her hand away from Fumeko’s chin... Her eyes closed; then a faint smile grew on the blonde.

The brunette’s eyes darted up, "What’re you smiling about?"

"Nothing," Jotou shook her head and faced her. "What Mrs Aetherton said... it reminded of me of what my master once said to me. That I gave my body no care; treating myself like a vessel rather than myself while fighting.

I didn’t really care about getting injured, I never considered this body as myself quite yet back then. So, when she said I just threw my body at the challenge, I knew she was wrong," Jotou hummed.

Fumeko sighed, "Is this really the time for you to be petty?"

"We didn’t do that detective—we didn’t throw caution into the wind. We made errors and wrong judgements, sure, but we didn’t do it half-assedly.

We believed we were capable of doing it and went in with the plan to get out. That’s when we made our mistake in underestimating the cult, because we got found out by a jump-scare of all things.

Every step of the way, we decided our options," Jotou grabbed Fumeko by the shoulders and pushed her to stand upright. "There’s no way we could’ve known what would’ve happened, so no need to live in what-ifs.

We chose to risk it. They had half a year to figure anything out and we did more in a single night than they ever did. They’re stuck behind procedure and legalities, we’re not."

"Yeah, but they already had all the groundwork done," Fumeko took Jotou’s hands off of her shoulders. "Besides, you heard my dad, we’re off the case."

"You’re not wrong on either account," Jotou giggled. "But we’ve already been over this. You said it yourself; the police and even the company goes through proper procedure which could’ve taken who knows how long.

By that time, if there was anything in that warehouse, it would be gone without a trace. We didn’t go against logic, we made our own assumptions. Mrs Aetherton scolded us based on the aftermath.

If you knew what was gonna happen tonight, would we have gone through with it?"

"Well... no," Fumeko was forced to admit.

"Exactly. She has the benefit of hindsight. And we have the benefit from taking that risk. We know what we saw; we know what we need to face in order to take the cult down.

When eventually the cult’s operations come to light, who do you think has the best chance of stopping them if they choose to use force?"

Fumeko pouted to the side, "I’d have to say us... But we got our asses handed to us you know."

"I, know..." Jotou sighed. "The only reason I’m alive is because of their emotions."

"Emotions?"

"They... well, that four-armed woman basically wanted to be the one who ended me and wanted to savour killing me... If it hadn’t been for that time, well, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now," she gave an awkward chuckle.

"How did you get out of that mess?" Fumeko furrowed her brows.

Jotou smiled, "Thanks to you detective. I remembered I could cast Rejuvenate and got myself some energy and felt like I could do more spells."

"You did?" her brows furrowed upwards.

The blonde examined her fingers, "I’ve seen it cast a hundred times and felt that spell more than enough. It’s an intermediate spell, right? Thought I could do it and, I did. Though, it felt different than Hotaru’s."

"Well, congratulations," Fumeko crossed her arms. "I guess you’re right... Us investigating wasn’t a mistake, we just made mistakes along the way.

The cult’s gonna be on edge after our little stunt tonight. But I don’t think my dad or the company’s gonna be giving us another chance at this."

"We don’t need them, do we?" Jotou tilted her head.

"Now that sounds cocky..." Fumeko narrowed her gaze.

"What I mean is, we can try doing it ourselves. You have nothing to prove-"

"You’re wrong," Fumeko interrupted and looked away. "Can’t you let me be depressed for one night?" back to her usual tone, she hissed. Her eyes softened, "You don’t get it at all... I want my dad, to see me as a detective...

I want to prove to him that I can be one. And what he saw today, was a kid who dove straight into danger and nearly died alongside her friends..."

...

The blonde went silent and took a step back. She faced the wall in a bit of guilt, "Meko, sorry-"

"That being said," Fumeko interrupted once more as she faced Jotou. "I’ll only be proving him right if I stand around and do nothing about it."

Jotou let out a breath and shuddered. She talked to her softly, "So, what do you wanna do?"

"What I told my dad already—the best that I can. I know what I’ve done with you guys and I know my dad said he was proud of what I’ve done.

But I still want to prove to him, that no matter how deadly the case, I can handle it. I’m not giving up," Fumeko stood firm. "And after seeing what the cult can do and knowing what they’ve done, I can’t just stand by and do nothing."

Jotou giggled, "I hear you loud and clear."

Fumeko eyed her with a subtle smile of her own, "But we need to think carefully. I don’t wanna mess up again; I don’t wanna make another mistake this time."

"That, we can do. I’ll be right by your side detective."

The brunette took a deep breath, "You never give up on me do you."

With a faint smile, Jotou shook her head.

Purplish-black shadows glimmered in Fumeko’s eyes and she lowered her head to smile at the floor. She noticed the other two returning in the corner of her eye.

Before the other two got closer, Fumeko looked to the blonde, "We can try to do what we can about the case—tomorrow. For tonight, can I please just be sad...?" she hushed and glanced down with a heavy sigh. "I don’t feel so great."

"Of course."

The other two made it back. "Shall we be off?" Hotaru queried in a gentle tone.

"Yeah, we’re done for tonight," Fumeko answered.

"Meko-"

"I’ll, be okay... Don’t worry," Fumeko replied before the redhead even asked.

The wolf-girl’s saddened face already gave away the question. "Alright," Hotaru laid a hand on Fumeko’s shoulder as they walked out.

"The bathrooms here smell like coffee and candles, it was nice," Asobi uttered with a little cheer.

"Speaking of nice. Aru, I casted Rejuvenate today," Jotou opened the door into the cold night winds that gusted in.

"What?" the redhead turned in shock.

Back to now_

Hotaru left the room and closed her eyes. Her head was starting to ache from the front... Weren’t they told they were done? Why- What was-?

The redhead’s breath grew shakier out her lips and she stood stunned in place. She held onto the railing and gripped it... She gulped and stabilized her breathing... somewhat.