An employee directory dating back to ten years.
It should be sufficient if we're able to trace the records to that extent.
If we can find the corporate spies who stole them, the identity of the contractor who's after them will eventually turn up.
Still don't know where Mao is?
I'm searching for him now.
We're from the police.
There are a few things we'd like to ask you, madam.
W-Where the hell am I?
Dental records identified the corpse as Katsuragi Toshiko, the owner of the house.
It's only natural to conclude that she fell as she leaned on the banister, which gave under her weight.
It seemed plausible, since it was an old house.
That's why it would have been filed as a mere accident
until you came into the picture, Matsukichi.
I threw away that name along with my past.
My name is Gai, Kurasawa Gai.
What are you showing off for, you idiot?
Is there any connection between the cosmetic company suicides and this incident?
I left that job because I was sick of the lack of imagination.
The reason you quit being a cop was because you never had any sense of imagination, period.
Detective work doesn't suit you either.
You should go back to your homeland
for your own sake, Matsukichi.
My name is Kurasawa Gai, private investigator.
It definitely isn't Matsukichi.
The case that started out as a search for a cat has developed into one about an ex-wife's mysterious death.
My intuition tells me it'll develop into an even bigger case.
I found him.
You're not going to your part-time job at this time of night, are you?
Why are you loitering around here?
Is there something wrong with taking a walk?
Around here, though?
The stars are pretty.
Stars?
What are you talking about? It's overcast.
Are you all right?
I suppose they questioned you about every single detail.
The police are rather insensitive.
I apologize on their behalf.
No, it's not something you should be apologizing for, Mr. Detective.
About the cat that was found...
Cat?
Yes, the cat.
Oh, that cat.
It wasn't her.
It was a different black cat.
It resembled her quite a bit, though.
It's completely different.
My Mii-chan has a more sophisticated face.
Damn! If I could only use the wireless...
This is bad. Am I going to be sent to the pound?
While Toshiko was still married to Yuzuki, she came to my place one day.
His former wife?
Yes. She told me to break off the relationship with Yuzuki.
She spoke in an elegant manner, without the slightest change in her voice,
but her eyes were terrifying.
That must have been a frightening moment.
It was then when I noticed she wasn't wearing any perfume.
Yuzuki...
My husband didn't tell that woman to wear perfume,
which meant that he didn't dislike her body odor.
I became mortified for some reason.
Wouldn't you feel the same way?
A person's body odor is an intrinsic trait.
It was as if he told me I looked better with heavy makeup instead of none at all.
There was more to her relationship with Toshiko than I had thought.
By simple deduction, she was the one responsible for Toshiko's...
No, it can't be.
C-Cat?
H-H-Hey!
Are you telling me to take this thing?
That reminds me. That glutton was hanging around Toshiko's house, too.
Don't tell me he was the one who did that to Toshiko.
No, no, no.
Damn. Everyone's suspicious.
Hey, don't interrupt me while I'm thinking!
What the hell am I supposed to do with this cat?
I might as well throw him into the river.
Hey! Animal cruelty of that magnitude isn't tolerated these days!
Who's there?
I'm not going to hurt you.
Return that jacket without saying a word.
You're the one I met at the open air cafe.
He's the one.
Are you after me?
Why?
Hand over the jacket.
I get it. Are you involved in this case?
You are, aren't you?
Case?
It looks like you do know something.
What do you know?
Are you a contractor as well?
Contract?
A contract to kill the former wife?
Former wife?
What are you talking about?
Whatever.
If you have no intention of returning it...
This is the worst host ever.
He has athlete's foot.
He possessed that guy.
You should have returned the jacket without saying anything.
Hold it!
It's inside this jacket, isn't it?
Au revoir!
Getting used to an unfamiliar host is so annoying...
This crow...
I see.
You're the cat from before.
So you're a possession-type contractor, too?
What if I am?
You've lost it as well.
What?
Your body.
H-Hey!
Hei!
Another contractor?
Move to his blind side.
He won't be able to possess your body if you stay away from his line of sight!
W-Wait!
Hei! Shit! Help me!
Episode Eight The Scent of Gardenias Lingers in the Summer Rain... (Part Two)
I can't believe it.
What were you doing swimming at this time of year?
I have no idea.
You shouldn't stick your nose into frivolous matters.
You're going to lose your balls.
A man's job is tough.
Did you find the cat, Miss Flat Chest?
Again with the sexual harassment...
Oh, about that garbage mansion case...
It looked interesting, so I checked it out.
If you get too involved in this case, you'll have your balls taken as well.
Not that you have any to lose.
I'll seriously sue you.
More importantly, I heard a strange rumor around the neighborhood.
It's about this person.
The widow.
What?
Now that's bureaucracy at its finest.
They've finally taken action.
What's that?
Is this from Huang?
Yes.
Doesn't seem like there's any doubt about it.
What do you think, Mao?
Mao.
Oh, sorry.
I was just receiving data from the network.
Network?
Haven't I told you?
The deficient brain capacity of a cat is compensated by a server.
If I don't do this occasionally, the feline conscience becomes dominant, just like when I was lost in that garbage mansion.
That's him all right.
Ukiyama Norio, a manipulator of gravity.
Gravity?
Doesn't he use possession?
I don't know.
Together with another contractor that has the ability to possess bodies,
who goes by the name of Amitabh Kapoor, they've been particularly active in North India.
It's him.
Who?
Kapoor possessed Ukiyama's body.
However, due to an accident during the possession, Kapoor lost his body.
Where have I heard that story before?
According to the police, the ex-wife had a chronic heart condition.
Is that so?
She probably suffered a heart attack while she was walking along the staircase,
when she leaned on the banister and unfortunately fell.
There's little doubt about whether it was an accident.
However...
However?
Do you think I'm the culprit?
It was an accident.
Was it?
Why did you have me go to the ex-wife's place?
It was because of my cat.
There's no way she could have taken the cat.
Remember the trend some time ago
when people used to place plastic bottles filled with water to ward off cats?
It would be difficult to imagine someone who disliked cats that much would take her, even if it was to annoy you.
You were looking for someone to send to that house from the beginning
in order to find her body and frame as the killer, in the best case scenario.
I have a witness who saw you near Toshiko-san's house almost six months ago,
the estimated time of her death.
You had plenty of motives to have her dead.
You're the perpetrator, aren't you, madam?
Do you have any proof?
I don't have any evidence.
Call it an investigator's intuition.
Madam, I didn't want to acknowledge it.
Turn yourself in.
What's so funny?
It isn't possible for evidence to exist.
She was already dead by the time I went to visit her.
I certainly went there six months ago.
I had overheard her house had become a garbage mansion, so I wanted to see for myself.
Why would you do something like that?
It was Yuzuki's home since he was a child.
I couldn't stand the thought of it being tainted by her.
It was worse than I imagined it would be.
I couldn't restrain myself, so I went in to say something.
Is she away?
However, believe me,
I didn't ask you to go to the mansion to frame you as the killer.
Having her body not be found for such a long time and left neglected like that slightly scared me.
In any case, I was being used.
I'm sorry.
Why didn't you notify the authorities at the time?
I didn't want to be involved in the investigations.
No, that's not it.
That's how I felt about it,
Are you the one who called me out here?
but it had crossed my mind.
The body odor of the woman Yuzuki liked should turn into a rotten musk.
She deserved to rot amongst garbage and emit a vile stench.
Why did you go that far?
It seems to me you were the one who stole him from his ex-wife.
The reason why she trashed her own house could have been triggered by the shock.
You're the one who gained everything!
What did I really gain?
Yuzuki covetously used all of his senses...
Looking, feeling, licking...
If it was limited to that, I couldn't lose against Toshiko's aging body.
However,
from Yuzuki's perspective,
everything was about smell.
Smell?
Yes, he had an obsession for odor.
That person truly smelled every single detail.
It was as if every part of my body had been exposed.
But the odor he really loved
wasn't my scent.
Once I receive the goods from you, I'm saying farewell to this miserable country.
How unfortunate.
You're...
Did you do it?
It's a strange feeling.
When you experience that kind of treatment, you begin to believe that body odor has real significance.
How can I put it...
It's as if it becomes a part of yourself.
In hindsight, the only thing I obtained was the title of a wife.
I could never get what I really wanted.
What are these?
It's what the corporate spies took and what he tried to steal.
It's probably related to the gate.
Hand it over.
Let's go, Mao.
Mao?
He was sniffing a sock.
His remuneration, huh?
He didn't have any time to use his abilities.
In that case...
He probably just wanted to smell it.
There's no way to understand how a contractor thinks.
Yeah, you're right.
He just wanted to smell it.
If this sock was originally his,
the scent of this sock would be the only remaining evidence of his physical past.
He probably completed his remuneration
when he lost his body, like I did.
It's raining again.
Excuse me...
Is there something else?
Thanks...
See you tomorrow.
Bye-bye!
Oh, Hernandez?
Or is it?
Hey, wait up!
You lost something.
In the end, the cat was never found.
It might have been a farce from the beginning. A lost cat may have never existed at all.
Oh well.
I received the remaining payments in the name of grievance money.
The case was closed.
I found that person!
He was at the Home Run Ken eating enough ramen to die from!
He's cool!
Can I stalk him?
Don't do it.
Since then, I occasionally see that young man.
Upon further investigation, I've come to the conclusion that he's just a glutton.
What was I suspecting him of?
So goes the saying, "suspicion begets fear".
Mao, Huang is looking for you.
What? I was in the middle of a dream.
Do you have dreams?
Of course I do.
They're all trivial dreams, though.
About eating, bathing, frivolous stuff like that.
Sleeping all day without being yelled at is probably the only good thing about being a cat.
What's with the gloomy face?
You're supposed to laugh at that part.
The reunion of a friend is an ominous twist of fate.
The memories of her school days are faint,
leaving only the lingering scent of friendship.
The scheme underneath the white dress conceals
a dark conspiracy and a bloodbath.
The stone-like glitter of the flower
is cold and drives people insane.
The party has just begun.
Episode Nine The White Dress, Stained with the Girl's Dreams and Blood... (Part One)