01x10 - Dueling Fictions

[bunniefuu]

I will be victorious.

Hey, wait. I thought your gameplan revolved around the idea

that steal Lady Nancywas not a ghost.

The unreasonable won't bow toreason, so we'll beinconsistent, too.

That's the best wayto establish logic from within.

If we can convince themthere is a particular

reason for a ghost to appear,

we will inevitably find a wayto make that ghost disappear.

Take away its lease on death,and then

the ghost will stop appearing.Solution number two is go.

He's on.

Okay, guys. See you later.Get. Teaching this. Can't do.

Yummy. Can I?

On food and.

Steel Lady Nancy isn'timaginary. She's a real bonafide ghost.

The question is,why did Carrie Nancy

reappear as a ghostand start attacking people?

What? Wait,We're doing this again. The one

who k*lled Detective Teradawas Steel Lady Nancy.

He was out by himselfinvestigating the Steel

Lady and wasunlucky enough to meet

the real one who crushedhis head with a steel beam.

Detective Terada didn'tbelieve in ghosts, so when

he met a real one,he was shocked.

And that's when he was hit.He never

had a chance to fight back.

The reason the crimescene looked so incomprehensible

is because it wasthe work of a ghost.

So what could be the reason?Compelling

carinanos to reappearas a ghost.

What were the regrets sheleft behind in this world?

Wouldn't dying in a tragicaccident count as a compellingreason?

Cory Nanase's death isconsidered something akin tosuicide,

even though it was an accident.

That night, Cory Nanase wasso overwhelmed with despair,

she accepted the factthat her face

was about to be crushedby a falling steel beam.

It could even be arguedthat she chose to die.

So why come back as a ghostto wander this world again?

And why would she pick a steel

beam as her w*apon of choiceafter letting one crush herface?

If she became a ghost to strike

back at the society that droveher to an early death,

I think it's safe to say thatshe's finally gotten herrevenge.

Since emerging asSteel Lady Nanase,

she's become a biggerstar than she ever was.

We have to ask what made her

turn violent and go asfar as k*lling someone?

The real reasonNancy was chased out

of the spotlightas an idol is because

of the death of her father.

A rumor startedthat she had k*lled him.

That in mind,her ghostly return would

only instill fear and stirup further criticism.

Therefore, the reason Nancybecame a ghost wasn't her hatredtoward society.

She appeared becauseshe wanted to tell

the world about a differentproblem and a different truth,

and because the worldrefused to understand

what she was trying to say.

It was only a matter of timebefore she became violent.

Just think about it. She hadn'tbeen cleared of suspicion, ofmurder.

It followed her allthe way to the grave.

But if Carinanos reallyhad m*rder*d her father,

what message would she be tryingto tell the world right now?

She's enraged because shedidn't k*ll her father.

So she returned as a ghost to

make sure everybodyknew the truth.

But then is that trulythe core of it?

Isn't her unbridledrage actually an indicator

that she's longingfor something else?

But this isn't a deduction true.For the second solution,

I'm nothing more thana mere fiction writer.

The readers here seemto believe in ghosts

and support theoriesthat include them.

I'll solve this mysteryand ritualistically make

our ghost problem a thingof the past.

Let's go back to the beginning.Why

did Carinanos say who had a cult

following at bestsuddenly become the target

of mass media allegations ofsomething as horrible aspatricide?

Someone plotted against her andforged these nefariousallegations.

Carinanos had falleninto a trap, and that's

why she's reappearedin our world as a ghost.

Carinanos return is a protestagainst the sinister

person who tricked herand drove her to commit su1c1de.

We have to take what we know

for sure and find out the truthbehind these ghastlyallegations.

Who was the first to accuseNanasi of k*lling her father.

What I'm proposing is risky,but I have

to take the chancewhile it's here.

The suspicion wasfirst put on her

by the one who would laterbecome her alleged victim,Carinanos father.

Her father suspectedthat she was going

to try to k*ll him and even

left that in writing in anotebook found after his death.

How could anything be moreconvenient? If Carinanos,

say,truly did push her father down

the stairs intending to makeit look like an accident,

she likely would have beenmindful about any handwritten

notes he'd left behind anddisposed of them immediately.

Besides, it's hardto believe she'd actually

m*rder him while he was tellingothers that she scared him.

She would have instantly beena person of interest.

I heard Carinanos wassuper intelligent, and that's

how she was ableto dodge investigations.

But if that's the case,she made a lot of mistakes.

He lay it all out like that.A lot of it seems unthinkable.

So Carinanos wasn'tinvolved in his death.

She didn't harborany malice toward him.

So why did her father feel like

she had him in her crosshairs?

The one who lured Carinanosinto a trap was her own father.

In order to derail hisdaughter's blossoming career,

he k*lled himself in a waythat would appear

accidental and madesure someone would find

his handwritten thoughts abouthis daughter's malicious nature.

The strangest thing about thisstory. It could be true.

One can only imagine thedynamics of how the relationshipworked.

There are reportshe quit his job

because he expected partof his daughter's earnings.

That girl's made a damnfool of me, I tell you.

She's always rubbed her superiorintelligence in my face.

But wait, she's your daughter.How can

you stand thereand say such awful

things about her? You're crazy,huh?

It's probably true that herfather was wary of theirrelationship.

He was surviving on hisdaughter's flashy job, afterall.

But he also developed aninferiority complex because ofit.

He was suffering and feltlike no one cared.

That's what caused himto resent his daughter.

If he couldn't achieve the sameamount of success as she could,

he would commit suicideand drag her down with him.

That was the purposeof his death.

It was his last show of pride.To that end, he left a time

b*mb implicating hisdaughter via his journal.

And as he planned,Carinanos was looked

down uponand treated with suspicion.

Miss Nancy, would you care tocomment on your father'sjournal,

specifically the last note hewrote? I really don't knowanything.

No, I'm sorry, but I have to go.

Hold on. In this reporter'sopinion, the note

your father leftbehind was perfectly clear.

He said that you were goingto k*ll him, Miss Nancy.

That's what droveher away and led

her to an accident that manyconsidered borderline su1c1de.

That's how KarinaNSA left this world.

And her soulmoved to the afterlife.

Mm. And in the Next world. She

was reunited withher late father,

where she heardthe awful truth straight

from his own lips. Oh. Oh.

She heard the awfultruth straight from her

father's lips.Are you kidding me?

Where else was she supposedto find out the truth?

After finding out, her ownfather maliciously tried to ruinher.

She became filled with regret,and her

soul was unableto fully move on.

That's why she came back to our

world and is desperateto tell people the truth.

She wanted usto know the tragedy

that she didnot k*ll her father.

Despite all the hearsay, it washer father who k*lled her.

That's why she came back.That's why

her spirit has goneon a rampage.

Her father's betrayalturned her evil.

She devolved into a monster.But if we remember

her as she was and wishfor her soul to move on,

then the steel lady will stophaunting our streets at night.

The ones who believethe story are

the ones who canbring her peace.

All of you must be the judges.

Karina NSA,also known as Haruko Nanase.

Let us lay her tormented soul torest with our combined prayers.

I feel so sorry for her. Thatreally changes Lady Nanase'simage.

I sort of understand howher dad felt, though.

They're totally accepting thisdespite her bringing up theafterlife.

Hey, look, I think she's weaker.

I assume this meansthat Rika failed

to predict that we wouldswitch over

from such an orthodox solutionto its absolute opposite soquickly.

I tried to convincepeople who want

to believe in spiritsthat there was

indeed a ghostinvolved in this case.

That meant they wouldsupport that argument even more.

I think Kuru had an easier time

choosing that future,too, which doesn't hurt.

But this still doesn't guaranteethat we've won the battle.

I mean, sure, I can totally see

her own father settinga trap for her, but, you know.

Honestly,it just looks like she's getting

her revenge by wreakinghavoc on the world.

She even k*lled a detective.

Rica started exertingher control over the flow.

If Carinanos Ghost appearedmore clearly before

now and came acrossas more spiteful.

The second solution might havebeen able to concludeeverything,

but unfortunately, steal LadyNancy's fame is a huge obstacleto overcome.

It's hard to believethat a spirit

who had such validcomplaints or requests

would become a ghost sobent on wreaking havoc.

Nevertheless, Rica wasn't ableto completely deny my story.

If we're going to go on weavingthe tapestry of our story,

we'll have to focuson making it something

that people across the Internetwill find palatable.

Then Rica will have to acceptcertain premises of our story.

Since it's been so persuasive,we're in the minority with adisadvantage.

But everybody loves an underdog,especially when

they turn the tableson the reigning

champion who everyone wassure had a clear leg up.

Now then,time for our third solution.

Let's try another hypothesis.Steel Lady Nancy is not aspecter.

She is a fake ghostcreated by a living

human beingfor an unknown purpose.

Which means the one who killedDetective Terada is also human.

Because Steele LadyNancy is not Kari.

Nancy. It's arrivaland her death don't match up.

That in mind? Let's lookat the circumstances around

Nancy's death. There are stillsome inconsistencies about herdemise.

Plenty have arguedthat it doesn't sound

like the way someonelike her would go.

What's certain is shefelt trapped. She had lost

her hard earned placein the entertainment

business and a comebackwas proving difficult.

She was accused of killingher father on top of that.

And if those accusations stemmedfrom her own father'shandwritten notes,

then her whole life hadbasically been shattered beyondall repair.

The motivesfor a su1c1de are there.

And yet her oldersister had expressed

doubts about the likelihoodof Karin committing su1c1de.

I heard the interview with her.She said

she didn't think that wasenough to actually

get to her sister and that she

wouldn't willingly let herselfdie such a gruesome death..

When a family membercommits su1c1de. There

are times when the remainingfamily members can't readilyaccept it.

If the reason behind thatsuicide is another familymember,

they find a wayto shift the blame

to someone else so theywon't be suspected.

But her older sistermade statements to the police

that only made her a moresuspicious character in theireyes.

Would she have saidall that simply

to shiftthe blame somewhere else?

She'd had her doubtsfrom the very beginning.

Did Kari Nanase,aka Haruko Nancy, truly perish?

Couldn't it have beensomeone else whose

face was crushedby the steel beam?

Wait a double.A double is pretty

much a given when you havea corpse without a face.

The authorities took the propersteps to identify the corpse,

her clothes, blood typefingerprints, physicalappearance.

But in all frankness,how trustworthy is any

of that? Clothes can be changed.

And she wasn'tthe sort of person

whose fingerprint would alreadybe on file with the police.

You could quite easilyswitch out the personal

belongings in herroom with someone else's.

Her teeth were smashedto pieces along with her face.

There are plenty of otherpeople who share her blood type.

You can't dismiss thepossibility that she'd beenswitched with someone else,

which means it'stheoretically possible to have

a double because herface had been smashed in.

Dental records would be useless.It's possible

someone could have planteda double.

Let's get real. Switching bodieswould have been impossible.

The rules of realitydon't matter here.

What's importantis that Nancy's older sister

actually had suspicionsthat this corpse could

have been the remainsof somebody else.

Her younger sister had d*ed ina very uncharacteristic way.

The little sister,who was smart and on

the road to becominga popular idol.

There's no wayshe'd die like that.

Of course you'd think that way.Or the more

spite you might have bottledup inside,

the more likely you areto suspect someone else.

So who wasresponsible for leaking her

father's journal outto the media?

The only probable answeris Carrie. Nancy's

older sister was Hatsumiactually fond of her littlesister, Haruko.

It's safe to assume she had been

unfairly compared to herglorious little sister theirwhole lives.

The siblings mostlikely were not on

very good terms at the time.

Allegations that CarrieNancy k*lled her father arose.

Yet Hatsumi never made anystatements in her sister'sdefense.

She didn't even tryto criticize the media

that had driven her sisterto the brink of su1c1de.

I believe Hatsumi sentthe media her

father's note to get a bitof revenge against her sister,

but the resultsof her sending the

note probably farexceeded her expectations.

That's whythere's no way Haruka would

just let herself die so easily.

Isn't it possiblethat someone else k*lled her?

Someone else. This corpsemust be someone else's body.

She began wonderingif her sister had

faked her death to get revenge.

Realistically speaking,switching out the bodies would

have been difficult,but also not impossible.

And to Hatsumi,it seemed entirely likely

that her sister would dosomething exactly like that.

Haruko had alwaysseemed like the type

that would tryto get revenge if she

found out about the personwho had caused her misery.

I'm probably going to endup k*lled like that, too.

Haruko would totally do that.

No, no, no, no. Haruko has to..

Still be alive.Those who have been declared

dead are invincible.Avengers above suspicion.

Hatsumi was afraid. Ha ha.. Ha.

She was so terrifiedby the shadow

of her dead sister that itstarted affecting her dailylife.

She needed a lie to save her,

and it came in the shapeof steel. Lady Nancy.

Huh? I don't get it. Let's say

there's an outsideparty who cares deeply

for Hatsumi and was tryingto help her out.

Haruko is dead and gone.Hatsumi needs

to accept that or she'sgoing to break.

This is the onlyway to help Hatsumi.

I just have to provethat Haruko is really dead.

I just need to make it so. Theghost Okaeri Nana Sei appears.

And then I was like, No way.

He took on Lady Nanase'sform and started attacking

people on the streetsat night to fake

the existence of this ghost andto start rumors spreading aboutit.

Most people wouldn'texactly feel at ease

if the ghost of a family memberwere to suddenly reappear.

But for Hatsumi, it wasa needed step for recovery.

So who would be the suspect inthat case? Hatsumi's boyfriend.

The chances of that are low.A boyfriend

would have had to leavein the middle of the night.

Hatsumi would have noticedthat the suspect

is someone resourcefulwith plenty of time

on their hands who would dowhatever it took to helpHatsumi.

We can alsoassume it was someone

who was single and showcaseddeviant tendencies.

The suspect dressedas a ghost named

Steal Lady Nanase,which hadn't existed prior.

All for the sake of Hatsumi then

k*ll Detective Teradain a random encounter.

The suspect panickedafter murdering a police

officer for Hatsumiand might have wanted

to further their relationshippotentially harming her ifrejected.

Steel Lady Nancyisn't a specter. We must

track down this dangerousdegenerate quickly and confirm

that everyone else involvedin this is safe. Oh.

Are

you okay?Yes, I know how to pace myself.

Your third solution lookspretty effective, even

if they're just here for laughs.

A lot of peopleare supporting it.

If that's the case,steal Lady Nancy

doesn't seemto be getting much weaker.

You insinuated that the suspectmade up the Steel

Lady Nancy Ghost in order tosoothe her older sister'swounded heart.

But that doesn't make sense.Hatsumi was

afraid her sisterwas after revenge.

To calm her down,then steal Lady

Nancy's persona would have to besignificantly milder than therumors indicate.

And yet, if steal Lady Nancy has

a tendency to swing a steel beamaround assaulting random people,

unable to avenge herselfwhen she was alive,

wouldn't she think her sister'sghost was trying to att*ck her?

Besides, now that he'scommitted a m*rder,

she would be terrified of him.

He'd tear Hatsumi'spsyche further apart.

Therefore. The suspect'smotive doesn't match the method.

If the motive falls apart,that means

the solution based on thatmotive should also fall topieces.

That's right. The solution..Doesn't work. Really?

You can't be sure the suspectwouldn't do anythingcontradictory.

I mean, maybe it's possible, butif that solution is possible,

then any other one is, too.

The suspects clearly.. Havebeen messing they thought about.

Steel Lady Nancy is not a ghost.

The fourth solutionshould be powerful enough

that she'll simply cease toexist. Next time. The ultimatefiction.