01x04 - Idol Dies by Steel Beam

[bunniefuu]

Well, talk about a lackof personality.

So how old are you?I just turned .

And at present I'mgoing to the same

university that youand Curro both attended.

I met you once, a long time

ago when you wereat the University Hospital.

The University Hospital? I guessI can't blame you for notremembering.

It was over four years ago.

What you said earlier was a lie,right? That your Kuro'sgirlfriend.

I mean, you're not kuro'stype in the slightest..

Since someone who was histype dumped him so cruelly.

It makes sensethat he might seek

out the complete opposite. Oh.Oh.

I heard that Curro's cousinin the hospital had passed away.

So maybe he talked to thisgirl in desperation,

and now he just can'tget rid of her.

Hey, you think youreally know it all?

But behold how happy we lookas a couple in this photo.

Curro clearly isn't happyin this picture. He looks bored.

It's just because he's shy.That lie

won't work on someone whodated him as long as I did.

Oh. So how is Curro, anyway?

He's still studyingat the university. Since

he's not getting married to you,

there really isn'ta need for him

He had always talked aboutheading on to graduate school.

Our plans for marriagewere included in that.

And yet the twoof you didn't get married.

You did run awayfrom your fiance after all.

Well, what could I do?The possibility

of him not being humanhad never crossed my mind.

It was all too much.

Of course you're notwrong in your appraisal.

Curro seems perfectly humanto the untrained eye,

but likely cannotbe classified that way.

But I'min a similar situation too,

so that makes us the perfectmatch, don't you think?

Similar, you say.So what are you..

Yokai, Ayakashi and Specters.They all look

to me as theirgoddess of wisdom.

Think of me as a priestess who

mediates their conflicts andworks on solutions to theirproblems.

I don't think a priestesscan be deflowered.

More importantly still, LadyNancy, is the issue at hand?

Has the police departmentalready started aninvestigation?

One of our detectivesnoticed something strange

going on in the city.So he's looking into it.

Are there any damage reports?It's only

a matter of time until we seethem. That steel lady Nancy

was far more violentthan I'd heard about.

If we don't do anything,she might commit a m*rder soon.

Yes, I have to say,I'm afraid of that, too.

We need to deal with herthreat immediately.

Whether it's a yokaior urban legend.

Has there ever beenan incident serious

enough to callfor police action?

Hard to believethat something so uncertain,

so vague could actuallycause an incident.

But still,Lady Nancy is different.

A quite astute observation.Proper monsters tend

to be rathermodest in public and

try not to draw any attention.

But there's nothingproper about her. That's

why the respectable ghostsand monsters that have resided

in the area for quite some time

have been living in fearand came to ask me for my help,

even if it meant travelinghundreds of kilometers.

By the way, why didn't Kuromake the trip with you?

Since the Yokaiare afraid of him,

he'd be pretty useful right now.

And besides,he's not the type of person

to let someone he cares aboutgo yokai hunting on their own.

I plan to finish quicklyand head straight home,

so I didn't seethe need to invite him.

But the way you are, you'dinvite him like it was avacation?

Yes. Well, that's becausehe contracted a highly

infectious disease. Why do you..

Look away when you say that?

May I have some more coffee?Answer me first.

Yeah. Okay. The truth is,Curro disappeared last week,

and I can't get Ahold of him.

He hasn't replied to thevoicemails. I left him here.

This was the lastmessage he sent me. Mm.

No, seriously,Kuro does not like you.

Like I said, Kuro just isn'tvery good at expressing hisfeelings.

I told you lies likethat wouldn't work with me.

Oh,I'm the only one fit to be with

that big idiot. Why is he..

Acting like this? Back whenKuro and I were dating,

he never evenonce ignored any of

my phone calls or text messages.

He was alwaysright there by my side

whenever I needed him to be.

You have some nervebragging when all

it took was a little copperto scare you off. What?

I'm just worried about Kurobecause you're clearly some kindof stalker.

There's no reasonfor a woman who severed

all ties to Kuro to be worriedabout him. That's right.

This has nothingto do with me now.

But it's unlike him to go a

week without contacting you.Definitely weird.

Well, yeah.Still, though, it's not like

I don't have any leads at all.

Besides, he won't actually die.Even if you k*ll him,

it's likely that whoevertries to k*ll

him will be in fora really big disappointment,

barring something awful.He'll just come back to life.

So she knows aboutKuro's condition too.

And she stays withhim despite that fact.

She's doing what I couldn't do.

I guess she really doesdeeply care about him.

I promise to do whatever I can

to solve the SteelLady Nancy situation.

But if you bump into her again,

I suggest you run awaywhile it's still an option.

That monster is ferocious.It's risky to

take it on in your state. Imean, your eye. It's fake,right?

Ah, so you did noticethat one eye and one leg.

This is what makes me so close

to the gods as wellas the Ayakashi.

Which is also the reasonthat I'll be perfectly fine.

Well, then,thanks for the cup of coffee.

Oh, if you would like me to,

I'm happy to sendyou an invitation

whenever Curro and I tiethe knot. Don't bother.

Huh? I never would have imaginedI'd run into Saki. How random.

But I doubt I'llever see her again.

Oh, my. Such a lovely view.Shall we go now?

I wonder where will steal LadyNancy appear next? AndMakurazaki city.

Kari Nanase The Idol real nameHaruko Nanase wasn'tparticularly famous,

though her fame grewbecause of how she d*ed.

Most people didn'tknow about her before

she was discovered in Juneat the age of .

Most melons are superb.The glory can't go unnoticed.

Sir, please stop.You can't blurt that out.

You're a foolif you think my chest

is all I've got going for me.Oh, so vivacious. The total..

Package. She was scouted by thepresident of a talent agency.

She struggled in the beginning,but a year after her debut.

Hey, I landed you a new job.

It's a main role in a latenight drama. What?

g*ns. Mitchell Shire.

La la la Boheme. She literallysaid, No, thank you.

That's the endof the Fukaku Kimi.

Does its own thingabout the shovel. Go.

Archie. Archie.But the karma Stenby.

Tiny honoredto know you. Denver Yaki.

Let it go.They did things to me.

You.

Every little she-bear.

Habash a key figure. See other.

Offers to be on TVand radio started pouring in.

She was praised for her beauty,quick wit and skilled speech.

She passed the entranceexam to a renowned

university in a single try,which also made headlines.

Looking only at her history, youcould consider her life asuccess,

but she neveramounted to more than

an idol with a cult following.

But her luck alsobrought misfortune. Some held

a grudge againsther so were left

to ask what were the eventsthat led to Kareen,

Nancy's untimely death andbrought the Steel Lady into thisworld?

There's a whole site about her.

What?In June of the year. She turned

when her Idolcareer was on the rise.

Karin's father d*ed. He felldown the steps to his apartment.

It was ruledan accident and nothing

about it seemedsuspicious at the time.

In honor of my father.I'm going to keep working hard.

However, near the endof November, that same year,

suspicion suddenly beganto arise about his death.

There were rumorsKoreans resented her father

because he quit workwhen she got famous,

so she k*lled him and madeit look like an accident.

There was also a large lifeinsurance policy covering him.

Her father hadbegun complaining to his

friend a month before hisfall down the stairs.

The hot girls madea damn fool of me.

She's always rubbed howsmart she is in my face.

A note hinting at hissuspicion that his

daughter was tryingto k*ll him was

discovered five monthsafter his demise.

That story madethe rounds online, and it wasn't

long before the tabloidsand gossip papers picked it up.

How dare they publishthis ludicrous article.

Some other agencymust have spread these rumors.

I'll sue their asses for libel.

Wait. But, sir, a lawsuitonly exacerbates things.

The wise move is to letit quiet down.

You should go restsomewhere far away.

I know you have what it takes

to getthrough a trial like this.

You don't need to tellme what I already know.

I will be back soon enough.So just

do your job and findme my next one.

And so Carinanos went on hiatus,jumping from one hotel toanother,

staying one stepahead of the paparazzi.

In late January,she found herself in Makurazaki

City with no ideathat she'd die.

A few days later,not far from her hotel.

Detective Terada,whom do you think it's

completely unfathomablethat steal Lady Nanase could

actually be a ghost?And here we go again.

After taking a lookat Nana's history,

it could make sense forher to reappear as a ghost.

Suspicions that she was behindher father's death were nevercleared up,

and those who spread the rumorsrefused to take responsibility,I'm sure.

Carinanos was doing whatever shecould to get her name out there.

I think I get it. How she'd

come backas a vengeful spirit just

to att*ck society as a whole.

I think I can believe that much.

Yes, of course. I realize theexistence of ghosts seems farfetched.

I don't deny they exist.Things like spirits.

I believe in themenough to go visit

my relatives gravesites at least once

a year. But her.Something's just different.

Like she's. She seemsartificial. People saying

she's wearing a miniskirtor is missing

part of her faceor swinging a steel beam.

That all just sounds like stuff.The society

that drove CarrieNanasi to an early

death would be excitedto hear about.

If she truly came backto become a vengeful spirit.

It seemed strange that she'dbe dressed that way.

That means theremust be something else.

Something hiding in the shadowsother than an idol's will.

He's right. If the Steel Lady is

supposed to bea vengeful spirit,

logically, she probably wouldn'tbe pandering to the masses.

But still,Lady Nancy is a vengeful spirit.

But sadly, at this point,it's nearly

impossible to convince DetectiveTerada of that. That's not all.

The possibility doesexist that her accidental

death may haveactually been a m*rder.

And that's what caused the SteelLady Nancy incidents to begin.

Right. Yes, of course.The investigation files.

If you'd look throughthem for me and just

explain the importantparts to me later,

that would be extremely helpful.Right?

I'm completely lostabout what to do.

Normally, I'd just be ableto talk to the ghosts.

Even if they didn't have a face,we could still communicate.

It goes without sayingThose who are

powerful enoughto k*ll people have to

possess a certainamount of intelligence.

But that's not the casewith Steel Lady Nancy.

She's supposed to be a ghost.But I sensed

no will or ability to think.

And she didn'trespond to my voice.

A grudge. Evil thoughts.Vindictive feelings. Thoseshould power her existence.

But I don't sensethem in her either.

It's almost as if she'san empty puppet.

Her very existenceis enough to terrify

all of the yokaiin Makurazaki City

out of ever going near her.

I really wish I had moreuseful information to work with.

This illustration looksexactly like what I encountered

yesterday between allthe eyewitnesses and knowing

what the livingcarinanos looked like.

I'm sure something similarcould be drawn.

But is it possibleto draw something this accurate?

This illustration lookslike it was done

by someone who sawstill Lady Nancy personally.

Except it's actuallythe opposite. If that's true,

it's going to be muchmore difficult to defeat her.

First things first.I need more info.

All the information they haveonline is a jumbled mess.

I want accurate references,everything regarding Karin,

Nancy's death from a reliablesource. Which means the police.

Hmm. The last thing I wantis to ask Saki for a favor.

The body of Karin Nanasi wasfound on Saturday, January th.

The location was a constructionsite that was near her hotel.

She was found by an old man

who livedbetween the hotel she was

staying atand the construction site.

The night before I discoveredthe young lady's body,

I thought I heard somethinglike a steel beam falling.

It was really raininghard that day,

so I thought that might havecaused something to fall apart.

I went to checkthe next morning.

Oh, and as I figured,some steel beams had fallen.

The steel beam that had killedher was about to m long,

and the body's face and headhad been shattered.

Her face was unrecognizable anddental records wouldn't help.

Everything was crushedfrom the neck up.

The police found her cell phone,wallet and university ID,

which led them to believethat it was Haruko Nanase.

Her fingerprints from the hotelroom matched those on herpersonal belongings.

They declared the body was,in fact, Kaori Nanase.

The estimated timeof death was between

midnight and a.m. on the th,

which also matches the timethe old man heard the noise.

The police continued theirinvestigation with thepossibilities

of an accident,m*rder or su1c1de.

But officially it was ruledan accident.

Normally they would have cometo a conclusion much faster.

Perhaps it's because this wasthe bizarre death of an idol.

But they're takingtheir time and putting

a lot of workinto the investigation.

Probably because thedepartment's reputations on theline.

But there's one part,one thing that's bugging me.

Karin's older sisterand the statement she made. She.

Ha.

Yo, Kai.

I'm terribly sorryto disturb you so late.

Oh, I cannot blame your Ladyshipfor being surprised by my visit.

Allow me to introduce myself.I'm the tree spirit known asKenshiro.

I have come before youtonight on orders

from Our Lady of oneeye and one leg.

Our Lady of one eye and one leg.It must be..

Her. I beg of you, please donot be violent with me.

I come to you in peace.And besides,

I am nothing more than an oldand frail tree. Please stop it.

There's no reasonfor a spirit to fear me.

And could youplease keep it down?

Oh,but my lady told me that you had

rather violent and brutaltendencies and that I should

be careful and mind my manners.

I'm punching that bratthe next time I see her.

Okay,so what does she want with me?

It's in regards to the SteelLady Nancy situation.

She wanted to humbly requestyour assistance in the matter.

She needs my help. If youcannot offer any assistance,

then from now on,prepare for every

night to be just like this.

The tree spirits genjiro,genzaburo, ginshiro. And so

on will come askingfor your assistance,

just as I have tonight.How many of..

You are there? Thisis basically just bullying me.

Well, according to my lady,she wants

to learn everything thereis to know

about the lifeand especially the death

of the humanentertainer known as

Nanase. So she can figure outhow to defeat steal Lady Nancy.

As for why she wanted to know,

she'd like to meet withyou and tell you herself.

She's also wondering aboutwhat led to Carinanos death.

All right, then where do I go?

Thank you for waiting.Here's your seafood Yakisoba.

I wonder if Sakiwill actually show up

even if she were to help me out.

I wonder if she'll be ableto provide me with any files.

Not bad at all.

My lady. Steel lady Nana said,just showed up.

We're at the.. Three tillMay bus stop and mocha Asaka.

She's close.When Saki gets here, please

tell her to either waitfor my return

here or go to where? Steel lady.

Nana Osei has appeared.But make sure

that she gives it a little time,okay?

Oh, and Saki just adoreschildren. She'd love to dote onyou.

Plus, I'm sure shewouldn't mind if you touched

her butt or squished a boobor two. All right.

Her face will be priceless.But most importantly,

we can't letany civilians get att*cked.

It's impossible for me to trycovering the whole city.

But since she appeared close by,I need to do something.

It's her.

Oh, no, She's attacking someone.

Is that cruel?

Kuro sakuragawa is having

trouble with steal LadyNanase's fierce att*cks.

She is no normal specterafter Kairi Nanase's death,

why did she manifest as amonster and gained such powers?

Next time,a monster of the imagination.