01x09 - The Committee to Conquer Steel Lady Nanase

[bunniefuu]

I will stop at nothing to win

this battle and I will poureverything I have into theselies.

The Committee to Conquer Steal.Lady Nancy is now in session.

Dusty Lady Nancy truly existor is she

a fictional being mererumour who was created

by someonefor a specific reason?

Isn't she? Nothing morethan an urban legend.

Ha ha. Saki Ha. If you notice

a significant change with Kuro,please let me know.

Yeah. All right.He's defended himself against

Still Lady Nanasewithout getting k*lled so far.

Until yesterday,all the talk about steel

Lady Nanase wasSomeone said they saw

her or someone saidthey'd been att*cked.

Always second hand accounts.But as of

today, there's beena significant change.

There was a recentincident where a detective

named Hiroto was k*lled bysomeone believed to be SteelLady Nancy.

The place Makurazaki City time,the middle of the night.

Despite getting killedby having his face smashed in,

there were no signsthat the detective resisted.

The cause of death was announcedas a blow to his face.

And so unlesssomething like Steel Lady

Nancy hit Teradain the face with a steel beam,

it's hard to believeanyone would die like that.

Huh? No, that's just whatthe k*ller wants you to believe.

That sortof thinking is exactly why

the k*ller needed steel.Lady Nancy

in order to murderDetective Terada. The k*ller

created an urban legendand called her steel lady Nancy.

They made a ghost that hasno way of existing a suspect.

Now let's see howmany will latch on.

Detective Terada wasvery good at his job.

He always kept an eyeon changes within the city.

He could almostsense when a crime

was going to happenand he wanted

to take action beforethe incident got out of hand.

He was an excellent detective.That's what

the k*ller triedto take advantage of.

A small communityon the Internet was talking

about an urban legendfrom Makurazaki City.

By taking advantageof that legend, they committed

real crimes and attempted evenmore one crime right after theother.

The k*ller dressedup the way Steel

Lady Nanase had been perceivedand att*cked people night afternight.

They made their steelbeam from either wood

or Styrofoam and paddedtheir chest to help

attract attention with blackpaint on part of their face.

It would probably looksmashed in when seen at night.

Top it offwith a large hair bow.

Witnesses wouldn't havetime to think it through,

so they just assume herface had been smashed in.

But is that even plausible?Maybe not %.

I mean, it is a lie, you know.

The k*ller waited forstatements like I was att*cked

by Steel Lady Nancy to spreadnot just as an online rumor,

but in real reports takento the police.

But the police didn't initiallytake these stories seriously.

I'm sure many victims had secondthoughts about filing a report.

But if incidents like that beganoccurring all over the city,

wouldn't a good detective thinksomething was going on and takeaction?

Someone could be actinglike a monster

from an urban legend as partof a much larger plot,

and with the workthey're putting in,

it can't be dismissedas a mere prank.

They might actuallybe planning some crime.

That thought crossed his mind.So he began investigating on hisown.

This is the exact responsethat the k*ller wanted.

If Detective Terada startedinvestigating Steel Lady Nancyby himself,

they'd easily be ableto get the detective alone.

Thus,the k*ller was able to create

a time frame where theaccomplished detective would beon his own.

Too long. Didn't read this.What are you basing this on?

But Steel Lady Nancy is real.The only

logical explanationis that it really was a ghost.

I say let's hear them out. I'm

sure there's gotto be some people

here who don'tbelieve in ghosts.

The k*ller at that pointmade contact with the detective.

This is Strata, Detective. I wasjust att*cked by Lady Nancy.

She ended up running off, butshe dropped her w*apon and bow.

I think they leftsome footprints behind.

You may want to check out,but if I'm wrong,

I don't want to look likea fool, so please come alone.

That could be all it took for

Detective Terada to rush overto the call on his own.

And the placehe was summoned to ended

up being the scene of the crime.The abandoned gas station.

If he'd been called like that.Detective

Terada might have really goneto an abandoned gas station..

In the time beforeDetective Terada showed up.

The k*ller rigged a few thingsat the abandoned gas station.

First, they suspendeda massive pendulum from the roof

by attaching a rope to a hook

on the edge and secureda weight at the bottom.

The weight hadto be heavy enough

and dense enoughthat it could cr*ck

someone's cranium openwith a single swing.

The angle of its swing neededto be precise

and calculatedfor the detective's height,

which the k*ller hadpreviously researched.

Once they had all that finished,the

k*ller would keepthe rope extended,

take the endof the pendulum that had

the weight on it and setthe weight on the other hook,

set up further along the roof.

However, this hookwas attached to a mechanism

that could undo it at anytime by remote control.

Once that hook was disengaged,the weight

This is an insane amountof work just to k*ll one person.

The k*ller would haveto get Detective

Terada to standin the spot they had

previously chosen.But that wouldn't be difficult.

The k*ller could have heldsomething of interest toDetective Terada

if they waited with that in handat the abandoned gas station.

Detective Terada wouldundoubtedly stop his car nearthe k*ller detective.

Here's the bow that she dropped.And

those footprints arejust over there.

It's a bit dark,so I'll go on ahead

and turn on some lightsso that you don't trip.

Wait here. I'll be right back.

Sure.And that's probably all it took

to get Detective Teradato stand where

the k*ller wanted himto at that moment.

The k*ller usedthe remote control, releasing

the hook that held the weight.

The weight beingheld by the rope

would act as a pendulumswinging across the dark,

abandoned gas stationto split his head with one blow.

As the detectiveunknowingly stood in its path.

There were no residencesnear the crime

scene and cars rarely drove by,

so no one would have noticedthe rigged pendulum above.

The detective wouldn'tsee the pendulum set

up to k*ll him untilit was already too late.

Oh, yes, I see. Now that betterexplains the mystery.

This is how a strong and highly

skilled detective could bedispatched so easily withoutsigns of a struggle.

There was no wayhe could have predicted

that he'd be attackedby a pendulum

cracking his headopen without a chance

to defend himself aftermurdering Detective Terada.

The k*ller puts theirsetup away. They remove

any trace of beingthere and flee the scene.

All that's left afterthat is to burn

the costume they useto steal Lady Nanase,

as well as the riggingfor the pendulum.

But the scene is rightnext to the expressway.

There would be no telling whena car could pass by.

Wouldn't that alonemake this whole convoluted

setup for a m*rder even riskier?

The k*ller researchedthe traffic and knew

that very few cars passed byduring the chosen time period.

They experimented with the setupto determine where Terada shouldstand.

They did theirresearch likely months in

advance to ensurethis would work.

The detective d*ed afterbeing struck in the face.

Even if it wasdark and difficult to see,

would the k*ller reallygo to the trouble

of rigging a pendulumthat would hit him in the face?

If they set all this up,wouldn't

it be better ifthey had the detective

stand where the weight would beable to strike him from behind?

If it was coming from the front,

he might see it and try to dodge

or guard hisface with his hands.

Precisely.The k*ller's pendulum set up was

originally designed so that theweight would strike thedetective from behind,

where he wouldn't be ableto see it coming.

It's entirely possiblethat Detective Terada could

sense that somethingwas coming toward him.

The man was an outstandingdetective. He might have sensed

that the individualwas trying to k*ll him.

He could have even heard thehook being released by theremote.

That's why he instinctivelyturned in that direction.

But the weight came speedingthrough the darkness

too quickly to dodge.Which explains why

he didn't tryto protect himself.

And that's howDetective Terada was k*lled

by massive trauma to the face by

a blunt weaponwithout a struggle.

You come upwith this stuff so fast.

So is the blowto his face accidental,

or was it whatthe k*ller intended?

It's hard to knowone way or another

for the k*ller to intentionallyhave hit Detective Terada in theface.

They drew hisattention toward something.

If the k*ller looked in acertain direction or if they'dpointed,

there's a goodchance that Terada would

turn to look the same way.

But wouldn't that methodinvolve significant risk?

Indeed, In this case,there's a chance

that Terada's headwould move out of the way.

That's one con.But the victim dying

with a blow to the faceis a pro for the k*ller.

It's hard to say which theydecided to go with in the end.

What is certain is that the end

result of it all was exactlywhat the k*ller had wanted.

Well,I understand the trick, but you

still haven't explained onevery important thing.

That's right.Why did the k*ller bother

going to all that troublein the first place?

Not to mention.. Using the urban

legend of Steal LadyNancy itself as a cover

for m*rder.Sounds like a total hassle.

Even if the detectivewas truly exceptional,

they could have triedto poison him

rather than preparing stealLady Nancy's costume.

In a pendulum, it's fareasier to just use some poison.

That's a valid point.Why would they

bother using such a complicatedtrick? This lie isn't verypersuasive.

The reason the personinvolved went to so much

trouble is that ifthey succeeded in k*lling him,

they hoped to distancethemselves from theinvestigation.

If a detective is ablebodied as Terada

was k*lled by beingstruck in the face,

the proposed descriptionof the suspect would be biased.

If they couldn't figureout the trick,

they suspect a malewho had strength

equal or moreto Terada's and who was

most likely an acquaintanceof his as well.

Which means the murdereris the opposite.

Instead, they wereweaker than him and would

never be able to hithim with that much force.

Somebody It would seemunlikely for Detective

Terada to be alone within the middle of the night.

If they had murderedhim with poison,

it would seemlike the most obvious

method for them to use to killa man of his stature.

Which meansthe k*ller is a woman.

If the killerwas indeed a woman,

it would seemunlikely she'd meet a man

in the middleof the night in such

a secluded area unlessthey were dating.

It also seems unlikelythat she could

k*ll him with a blow to the facebefore he could respond.

The detective wasa judo athlete. There's

no way he'd be easilykilled by a woman.

That would allow the killerto avoid investigation.

That's why they createda ghost that would

be popular.Like Steel Lady Nancy.

Why did the k*ller needto create Steele, Lady Nancy?

And why use such a specificway of k*lling Detective Terada?

If we can justdetermine why they used

a complicated m*rder setup and fabricated a phantom,

that should help us narrowdown the possible suspects.

The k*ller knew DetectiveTerada's height and set thependulum trap accordingly.

The k*ller wasable to summon him

in the middle of the nightwithout it seeming suspicious.

The k*ller was able to forecast.The detective

would make a move if he noticed

something strange was goingon in the city.

Our k*ller has to be someone who

fits all these descriptions.The k*ller.

Is a female officer working atthe same department as DetectiveTerada.

If they workat the same department,

it'd be easyto find out the victim's

height as well as where his head

would be in relationto something like a door.

they'd also knowhis reputation as an

officer supposedly attackedby a suspect.

They'd know howto preserve evidence, and

no one would suspect a thing.

If they contacted a detective,they could rely on

the descriptionof the k*ller that comes

from all these factors canonly be a female cop.

Her motive for doingit is anyone's guess.

Perhaps Terada had been pursuingthe k*ller romantically,

and she had beentroubled by that.

Considering the troubleit took to set

up and that she wentso far as to k*ll him,

the motive to takehis life could have come

from an obsessiveweb of emotions.

That should covereverything from my first claim.

Still,Eddie Nancy is not a ghost.

She was createdby a female officer

to misdirect people so shecould eliminate a detective.

She's a means to a m*rder.

Even without naming the k*ller,she was

able to convince everyonethat they could

exist just by whittling downthe pool of suspects.

By creating such a detaileddescription of the k*ller,

she basically narroweddown who they could be.

The flow of the forumhas completely changed.

Kuro must be workingto track down

a future where everyonesupports you with a solution.

Hey, hold on. That suspectyou described is basically me.

Oh, so you noticed.Did you assume I wouldn't?

A female officerwho worked at the same

police department and whoTerada had feelings for.

Even the chief couldconnect those dots in one go.

You'll have to bear with me.I can't

just frame a randomfemale police officer.

I'm sure you'll agree. Plus,this solution won't last long,huh?

I'm afraid I don't agree. I have

to questionif a lone female k*ller

could have setup that pendulum trick

by herself on the roofof the gas station, does it..

Even make senseto create an urban legend,

then work to make it so big

that it causesenough trouble for a

detective.. To take action?

I can't see the pendulumthing happening.

Wait. The flow changed again?The solution may not berealistic,

but it's odd that they'd changetheir minds again so quickly.

Didn't the flow just changebecause of Kuro's ability?

Iwanaga You saidRika's The one who's

trying to give LadyNanase a form, right? Yes.

And she hasthe same ability as Kuro

that allows herto choose the future,

doesn't she? Yes.As I said earlier.

But then if that's the case,Rika

can also force the futureshe wants. Just like Kuro. Yes.

And that's exactly why the tidesturned so quickly again.

The idea that this is allcaused by a ghost is popular.

All she had to do was point

out a few flaws in our solution,then die once,

and she could easily shiftthe flow back in her favor.

It's entirely possiblethat several of the

posts are writtenby Rika personally. Re.

This wiki site. Despite a sudden

influx of traffic concurrentwith mass posting by users,

has somehow managed notto completely crash its server.

And we haven'trun into any trolls.

That's not normalfor a net discussion, is it?

So that means Ricais probably choosing

the future with the fewestproblems while maintaining thesite.

She may notbe censoring our posts,

but it's clear that she hasthe home field advantage.

Rica surpasses the lawsof nature, which means

the way to solvethis hasn't changed at all.

In fact, because Rica got a head

start and hadeveryone believe that Steal

Lady Nancy exists,we're at a disadvantage.

This assembly is unique.After all, the truth

never existed here.This is simple fiction.

Both Rekha and I know that SteelLady Nanase didn't exist before.

But Rico is still tryingto give that fiction a form.

Meanwhile, Kuro and I aretrying to convince

everyone that what is manifestedin reality doesn't exist.

This is a committeeof dueling fictions.

I will claim victory.I've only used

one solution so farout of a total of four.

All I need is for a portion

of the assembly to believe it.A portion?

I see the Internet is just aswirling mass of differentviewpoints.

It's not always easy foreveryone to believe in a singletruth.

In that case, you need to have

a variety of truthsenough to match

up against the variationof views.

We couldn't completely dispeleveryone's belief in Still

Lady Nancywith the pendulum solution,

but at least a few of themshould harbor some doubt now.

And she's goingto repeat this process

three more times to chip awayat still Lady Nancy's support,

even if she doesn'tgain the majority.

She just has to makea large enough number of them.

Believe that Rekha's proposedbill is not worth voting for.

That's why this strategyhas a chance.

She's incredible,using her knowledge to wield

a blade in one hand while subtlyinjecting poison with the other.

Who think that someonewho's chosen lies

as weaponscould be so diabolical?

No steel lady Nancyis totally a real ghost.

I've seen her.She appeared in front

of my car out of nowhere.This happened five days ago.

She came out of smoke,went totally berserk,

and started swinginga huge steel beam at me.

Uh.

That was a vengeful spirit,no doubt about it.

I could have been k*lled by herjust like that detective was.

I will be victorious.

All right, let's solution to..Commence.

We deploy the second and thirdsolutions to defeat Steel LadyNancy.

The Rikka Sakuragawastands in our way.

Will we be able to vanquish theghost next time? Duelingfictions.