People say words like "die" so easily.
I'm gonna die of this hangover.
It's so cool I could die!
"So delicious you'll die!!"?
But I've never seen a person die
because something was too cool or too delicious.
For the person whose memory resets every day...
In my case, it's like I die every day.
This is known as, "The death of memory".
Her life might seem tragic,
but it has a least one advantage.
Even if she has a day so mortifying she could die,
when she sleeps she'll forget it all
and wake in the morning with a clean slate.
But for us,
this girl mustn't do that.
Sandglass
Eh? You were fired from the bookshop?
I wasn't fired. I resigned voluntarily.
Well, I can guess, but go ahead and tell us.
The shopkeeper's nice, so even if the wages were low
we were sailing with a fair wind.
Misfortune
recollection
Yakusuke-kun, put these in the back.
Until I met the shopkeeper's wife...
Oh.
Where's the new part-timer?
Hello, pleased to meet you.
Apparently I'm the spitting image
of her ex-boyfriend.
What's more, that man...
Rewind
20 years earlier
Stop
Replay
Sorry, I'll pay you back.
Can't be helped.
Thank you, you're such a good woman.
He was despicable man.
But at that time, the wife...
He really loves me, doesn't he?
My appearance reminded her of that
for the first time in 20 years...
Fool... I'm such a fool!
I wish the me from then would die!
Die! Die!
I want to die~!!
Every time she saw me,
it brought the embarrassing memories back again...
...So I quit.
Was her ex-boyfriend your father?
I checked, but it's just a coincidental resemblance.
It's typical of your bad luck.
Thanks a lot.
Well, embarrassment is a nasty feeling.
Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge,
acquired a sense of shame,
and were expelled from Eden.
In other words, embarrassment
is a fundamental characteristic of humans.
It's true I'd prefer to recall
any memories other than the embarrassing ones.
Looking back and thinking, "Why did I do that?"
What memory is that?
I'm not telling.
Boring.
H?r?-san, you don't seem capable of embarrassment.
Eh? Me?
When you get to my age,
embarrassing memories just become good stories.
It's funny, yesterday...last night...
Hey! Listen!
How about Nuru-kun?
Nuru, got any embarrassing stories?
So, you're job hunting again?
It's normal for you, but hard luck.
Lately I've felt changing jobs often isn't a bad thing.
My variety of work experience
can be surprisingly useful.
I wouldn't call that worthless.
It certainly isn't worthless.
I've decided this way of life has its benefits.
That's why when job hunting,
thanks to all my experience
I can do most things!
Having found that confidence,
I've got one of these once again!
- A school card? - Yes.
I'm on the administrative staff at a middle school.
From cleaning to maintenance repairs
I do whatever comes up.
Good for you.
- However... - However?
There's just one thing...
- It's a girls' school! - That's risky~
It's too risky!
That's why, to avoid any suspicion,
I work carefully and don't even look any girls in the eye.
You can meet their eyes...
It's too risky for me.
I never know what bad luck will hit me.
But however careful I am,
the seeds of disaster are everywhere,
waiting to latch onto my unfortunate name.
Hey! Hey!
Hey, wake up! Hey!
Help! Somebody help!
CO2, CO2...
It's non-flammable so it won't explode!
Somehow we survived.
My experience working at a survival magazine
had proved useful.
But as usual I was suspected.
"The first discoverer is suspicious",
that's what they say.
Baseless speculation in the weekly online magazine Kuraitsuki
quickly turned me from a rescuer
into a possible murderer.
There was nothing I could do.
Once again, I needed the help of a detective.
When I was discharged from hospital,
I used my meager savings
to buy some famous puddings.
Welcome. Ky?ko-san?
for the fastest, most forgetful
detective in the world.
Pleased to meet you.
I'm Okitegami Ky?ko of the Okitegami Detective Agency.
I'm Yakusuke.
Thanks for your help.
Please tell me the details of your request.
Okitegami Ky?ko's Memorandum
Subtitles by Candylemon
The cause of the girl's and my collapse
was oxygen deprivation due to CO2.
The gas cylinders had been prepared for next month's school festival
and anyone could enter and leave the room.
The window lock had been encased in adhesive,
the inner doorknob had been removed in advance
and blocked to prevent opening from inside.
The fact the room had been sealed
was taken as evidence of the girl's intention.
A suicide note was found at the scene.
The handwriting was confirmed as the girl's,
but the credibility was still in doubt.
That suicide note
quoted the lyrics of the song "Outside the World"
by Eliza Head, a band very popular with youngsters.
But however much the police investigate,
there's no evidence she was a fan of the band or the song.
It seems her hobbies
didn't even include listening to music.
Well aware of my bad luck,
the detective said this:
The higher-ups are suggesting you planned a murder-suicide
and forced her to write a suicide note.
But why...?
"Kakushidate Yakusuke has been involved in so many incidents
"there must be something there."
There's a faction insisting that.
This is great!
Sorry, there were only 2 left.
You're taking this too lightly.
- He's joking, don't worry. - Of course I'd worry!
Hopefully the girl will wake up and testify.
The girl, Sakasezaka Masaka-san,
hasn't woken up.
Her test results show nothing wrong,
and yet, like Sleeping Beauty,
she goes on sleeping.
The girl
hasn't woken up
Mm~ Delicious!
So delicious I'll die...
That's why it's Heavenly Pudding!
They're bold selling it next to the hospital.
Um...
Were you listening to my story?
Of course.
Hey, where's your pudding?
They only had 4 left.
Ah, don't worry about it.
I've always been fated not to eat it.
Your bad luck extends even to pudding?
Well, let's have some coffee.
Thank you for buying it.
So you're requesting proof the girl intended suicide?
Proof the girl
intended suicide
What?
A middle schooler committing suicide.
It's a tragic story,
so I feel cruel asking you to investigate it.
It's too late for that.
I didn't realise it might be unpleasant.
Since she survived, it's a blessing in disguise.
Just to confirm,
you weren't acquainted with the girl, were you?
Right, I avoided getting close to the students.
So you had no designs on her?
No!
He's not interested in middle schoolers.
Yakusuke-kun has a woman he likes.
I see, that's a relief.
Well then, please show me the site.
Right.
It's a big school, isn't it?
It's privately run.
Let's speak to her classmates first.
Find out if she had
problems at home or with bullying.
We might find a motive for suicide.
I'll be hard to go in...
You haven't been fired yet, have you?
Still, people think I'm a murderer...
It's only natural they think that.
I'll go on ahead.
Got a minute?
Ah, no... I haven't done anything!
- No... - Hold it right there!
- Stop! - I really haven't...!
I haven't done anything! Ky?ko-san?
Hello!
I'm Ky?ko, an SG model.
- Model? - "SG"?
The fashion magazine!
It's number one right now.
"SG", the magazine all Tokyo high school girls buy.
Ah~
Ah~ "SG"! "SG", right?
You know "SG"...
It's great!
For next month's edition of "SG"
the special theme is everyone's worries.
Dieting!
- Breast augmentation! - Entrance exams!
I heard there was recently an attempted suicide here.
What do you think that girl was worried about?
She was in our class, but...
She sat there.
Saka-something Masaka.
- It's too difficult a name! - Right!
Did she have any friends?
She was always alone, right?
Hey, show us some model poses.
- Is that a wig? - It's natural. About that girl...
- Let me touch! - Me, too!
Ah, wait...
What's this?!
Look at this!
Girls! Girls~!
Could you...
Wait...don't...
Thanks for rescuing me.
I'm always catching the eye of the police
and being taken for questioning.
You're a magnet for trouble.
Listen...
Do the teachers suspect me?
They don't.
If you hadn't sounded the alarm,
things would've been much worse.
And everyone's seen how hard you work.
But I don't think the parents will agree
until the police decide.
She was so strange about borrowing books.
What?
Ah...
The student in question
visited the library every day.
But she had a characteristic a librarian couldn't overlook.
She took out poetry books
and hid a physics book among them.
She hid a business book with science fiction,
a statistics book with novels,
serious literature with light novels
and a romance novel with mysteries.
So she read a wide range of books?
It's hard to believe she read them all.
There was too much to get through before she returned them.
Well, anyway, I'm glad you're safe.
Ky?ko-san!
- What happened? - Don't ask.
I've borrowed the key from the staff room.
Are you alright?
Yes.
When I sleep, I'll forget this.
About the books the girl borrowed.
Why did she do that?
Men do the same when renting erotic videos.
Erotic?
They borrow other videos to camouflage it, right?
- You've done that, right? - Yes, I...
Back to the conversation.
Let's go back.
She borrowed books from every genre
so nobody would guess her tastes.
What?
Plenty of people don't want anyone to see their bookshelves, right?
Because they have
books they don't want people to see?
It's not about specific books.
There are people who
are embarrassed and concerned how their hobbies and preferences
might influence peoples' view of them.
They don't want people to know their tastes.
I expect that girl is the same.
This is the equipment room.
Why did you come here on that day?
There was water spilled in the corridor, so I was mopping it.
Then I heard gas leaking inside.
- Why was the water here? - No idea.
But that's always happening.
People spill things and leave them.
They assume the cleaners will deal with it.
It sounds crazy, but my bad luck
may have lead me here.
What?
At that time, there was a student...
A second girl.
I might have imagined it.
I have a bad feeling.
What?
- I sense something evil... - Eh?!
- Whatever. - You're okay?
Maybe the second girl you saw was a ghost.
Stop that.
If there really was a second girl here,
we have to consider the possibility of murder.
Murder?
Murder
The second girl called the first girl here,
forced her to write a suicide note
then tried to kill her in a way that looked like suicide.
The first girl fainted from lack of oxygen,
then when your bad luck brought you here
the second girl fled.
It's attempted murder by the second girl?
That's one possibility.
Everyone seems very calm about a suicide attempt among the students.
Suicide
"If it's her, she might've done it", they seem to think.
Does that mean she was bullied?
I don't think she was a target of bullying.
On the contrary, she was barely noticed.
But ignoring someone is a form of bullying.
Right!
I think so, too,
but it seems
she herself avoided contact with people.
It doesn't mean she had any bad intentions,
she just didn't join in conversations.
She stayed quiet even when they tried to include her.
It's just like with the books.
She didn't want people to know
her hobbies and tastes.
She didn't even want her classmates to know.
That's her profile.
The other students got a sense of that
and kept their distance.
So why did she attempt suicide?
Everyone genuinely seems not to know.
But they all say they understand the feeling of wanting to die.
- They do? - Yes.
"I've felt like dying, too."
"Everything's stupid, and lonely, and boring."
They feel they're sick of it all.
"They're at the age for suicidal feelings..."
Lot's of adults think that way.
That feeling is strongest in middle schoolers.
So people think middle schoolers will commit suicide
without much reason?
Yes, but that's not true.
Humans have an inherent desire for survival.
As long as that retainer band stays on.
So in the girl's case,
she had lost that retainer?
She may have.
However, this place bothers me.
A girl who didn't want to be known
would want to die somewhere inconspicuous where she wouldn't be found.
This doesn't match her profile.
Why did she choose this place?
It's a good thing she did.
That saved her.
Let's hope she wakes up soon.
If it was suicide, what was her motive?
Or was it murder by the second girl?
Either way, we need more information.
Where to next?
I've asked Nuru-kun to find an address.
He should call me soon...
I've been walking around dressed like this?
- Where are your other clothes? - They were burned.
That's incredible.
- Totally. - You're talking like them.
These clothes are just...
Wear this if you like.
- Buy me clothes, please. - Eh?
- Whatever you like. - Seriously?
No miniskirts.
I wouldn't! I wasn't thinking that!
I look forward to seeing what you choose.
The money will come from your pocket.
My pocket?
Well, see you later!
Evil spirit, begone!
Ghost spotted.
You've been listening to us for a while, haven't you?
You're the second girl.
It's warm.
I'm glad you're not a ghost.
I wonder if Ky?ko-san will like them.
Got a minute?
- We cleared up the misunderstanding earlier! - What are those clothes?
They're women's with no tags!
They're probably stolen laundry!
They're new, the tags were cut off...
- I won't move, so let go! - No.
Why not?!
Excuse me!
Has my brother done something?
Nuru-kun...
Don't go causing a nuisance!
I was just carrying some women's clothes...
My brother...likes skirts.
Is it really so wrong
for a man to wear a skirt?
Whatever his hobbies,
he's free to pursue them.
Are you ladies saying
there's something shameful about that?
Here.
Thanks.
Those policewomen were reluctant to believe they were my clothes.
Well, I say that like it's a bad thing,
but I have mixed feelings about
- the fact they were... - Tedious!
Get in. I'll take you to Sandglass.
Eh? But Ky?ko-san...
Ky?ko-san is at the girl's house.
- To see the girl's parents? - No...
I discovered she lives alone.
Alone?
Her parents are alive and well,
but she doesn't live with them.
They haven't visited her in hospital, either.
Excuse me~
Ah, welcome.
It may seem an odd question,
but does this girl come here?
I'm her cousin.
She's run away from home.
You don't know where she is?
That's right, it's worrying.
So that's why she hasn't come lately.
- When was she last here? - Let's see...
Yakusuke-kun said...2 weeks ago?
He said she'd been here.
Pardon?
2 weeks ago.
- Yakusuke-kun? - Ah, a part-timer.
He's left now, though.
Yakusuke is an unusual name, isn't it?
That's right.
Because it means "misfortune".
Yo, Yakusuke of Misfortune.
Don't tell me...
I've gone from witness to suspect?!
Celebrate.
You've been acquitted.
They say the girl's woken up.
Woken up?
A nurse went to change the drip,
and the tube was disconnected.
At first she thought she'd done it unconsciously,
but however you consider it,
the girl could only have done it herself.
The girl who can't wake up is the girl who doesn't want to wake.
Doesn't want to wake...
She won't eat and she rejects the drip.
In other words, having attempted suicide,
she still intends to carry that through.
That's what the higher-ups believe.
Why does she want to die?
Family reasons?
A fight with friends?
This is where the police work begins.
The school and her family
will create an increasing stir.
If she doesn't talk,
it'll remain a mystery.
Yakusuke-kun, phone call from Ky?ko-san.
Ky?ko-san! Where are you?
T?asa-san has said...
Ah... A police detective came here.
I see.
I'm glad you've been acquitted.
I have a slight problem.
Even you have a problem?
I'm not infallible.
Ah...
I've learned why the girl did it,
- but I feel... - Wait a minute!
You know why she attempted suicide?
Yes.
Although it's presumptuous.
Ky?ko-san! Wake up!
Hey, Ky?ko-san! Wake up!
Ky?ko-san! Ky?ko-san!!
I'm awake, don't worry.
Ah! My clothes!
Thank you! Yay~!
Let's draw the curtain.
Excuse me.
Lying on the bed,
I thought about how the girl who doesn't want to wake up feels.
You went to her home, didn't you?
Yes, it was locked but I used 2 pins...
You mustn't do that.
It's a drab room.
There's no hint of any music.
I thought the police were right to doubt the suicide note.
So the note was forged?
No, she wrote it herself.
However, the contents were a fake.
It was deliberately bland and unrevealing.
Then she shouldn't have written anything...
She must've written it for some other reason.
Her parents had abandoned her
and she had no friends.
She was alone, so she killed herself.
"Poor girl", people would think.
People would certainly think that.
She thought it was pathetic herself.
Pathetic?
She preferred them to think she'd been influenced by a popular band.
Don't you think so?
You could say she's very self-consciousness.
What made you choose these clothes?
The first time we met, you were dressed in white.
I see, you liked that.
So you realised the girl's self-consciousness.
Then what was the motive for suicide?
The second girl told me that.
There WAS a second girl?
She's human.
Recollection
By chance, the first girl saw something
she didn't want anyone to see.
Something she didn't want anyone to see?
The details are a secret.
I promised.
From that day on,
she worried whether anyone else knew.
She wanted the girl to disappear.
And after school on the day of the incident
she tried tailing the girl who never seemed to go home.
She didn't know what was going on...
...but soon she saw you arrive...
She was embarrassed about spying, and fled.
When she learned what had happened
and the fact you were falsely suspected
she felt anguished, unable to tell anyone.
This raises one question.
What was the meaning
of the behaviour she witnessed?
Spilling the water wasn't necessary for the suicide.
Come to think of it, you're right.
There is one answer.
That is...
...it was murder.
Murder?
The intended murder victim...
...was you, Yakusuke-san.
Me?!
The murderer was the girl who refuses to wake up.
She intended to kill you.
You had seen her, once.
Eh?
Dragonfly-chan.
Do you remember?
That time...
Ah, Dragonfly-chan will like this book.
- Dragonfly-chan? - She's a regular customer.
She has a dragonfly appliqué on her purse.
Several days later
180 yen change.
Here you go.
You like books like this, don't you?
The recommended book
was surely one fitting her taste.
However much she'd hidden it,
the professional shopkeeper
had detected her preference.
She felt like the heart she'd carefully hidden
had been revealed.
Because I carelessly recommended a book?
There's no need to feel responsible.
That event may have had a big impact on her,
but you can't possibly predict
how the all the great variety of people
in the world will react.
If it had ended there,
this incident would never have occurred.
I appeared at the school?
It really was bad luck for both of you.
"I won't go back to that bookshop."
She told herself that, but then
the man came to the school every day.
In your case
you couldn't tell one uniformed girl from another,
but that's not how she saw things.
After that, she kept wondering if you were telling people about her.
She wanted you to disappear.
It was a mental state similar to that of the second girl.
But there was one difference:
both at school and at home
she was alone.
There was nobody to interfere with her childish desire to murder,
so that feeling grew unchallenged.
If she killed, people would look for her motive,
and she was terrified
that her heart would be publicly exposed.
So she planned to kill herself, too.
Once she'd crafted her plan,
she waited many days for her chance.
For the moment you
would come to the equipment room alone.
And her trap worked beautifully.
Hey! Hey!
Hey, wake up!
Her only miscalculation was that
you had knowledge of survival techniques.
Thanks to that, you lived
and even saved your would-be killer.
For her, that was another layer of shame.
That's why she means to die in silence.
If her environment had disrupted her murderous instincts
she might have been stopped.
But the incident happened.
Unfortunately there's only indirect evidence.
The answers lie only in her heart.
Getting her to tell her story
isn't something I can do.
If she did, she would be
tormented by the memory of her shame.
And for me...
For me whose memory resets every day,
what could I possibly say?
If she knew that,
she'd say, "What do you know?"
That's how I feel.
My report is finished.
- Finished... - Yes. Ah...
If you'd like, here's a thank you for the clothes.
There was one left.
Isn't that lucky?
This incident will be treated as attempted suicide.
I don't know her motive,
or the darkness in the mysterious girl's heart.
It would be easy
to dismiss her motive in that darkness.
But I believe it's an adult's job
to shed light in that darkness.
She plans to die quietly,
without saying anything to anyone.
But even if she's dead,
that doesn't mean she'll be forgiven.
If she died too soon
that would be unforgivable.
I'd like to come in, if that's okay?
Even with my bad luck,
even living with no purpose
and nothing I want to do,
I go on living.
My life belongs to me.
The idea it could be stolen away from me
makes me angry.
But right now,
to this girl...
I want to convey that to Sakasezaka-san.
Pleased to meet you.
I don't remember what happened
that lead to my hospitalisation here,
but when I leave today
I'm going to quit my job and go far away.
I will never come here again.
So just for a little while
could you listen to what I say?
I don't know if you're listening,
but I'll talk anyway.
First, a story from my time in elementary school.
It's incredibly uncool,
so I've never told anyone this before.
Living is an embarrassing thing.
It's possible that somewhere
there's a person who lives flawlessly,
but I don't know them.
I'm not like that.
I struggle with confusion
and live in a way that seems ridiculous.
Every day I have feelings of self-hate.
But I'm here.
I'm alive.
That's why
I want you to go on
living through the shame.
It's ugly, and embarrassing,
but we live on with the memories
we wish we could lose.
Welcome back.
I'm back.
- Alone? - Yes.
I feel I only helped a little today.
Take your time.
That man...
He's a wonderful person.
but she won't remember it.
Pleased to meet you.
My name is Okitegami Ky?ko.
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