The bar was quiet as it had always been. There would be some laughs from the businessmen on the other side of the bar, but besides that, only soft jazz music would play and try to encompass the bar. Sato took a small glass cup of whiskey and swallowed its contents. He had always hated the bitter taste of alcohol, but he had no other way to punish himself for his failure. How could he let such a blunder happen? Sato slammed his fist holding the small glass on the table. His face was all scrunched up with annoyance. "Oi, Watanabe-san, shouldn't you be in work now?" the bartender asked him with a fatherly tone, polishing the wine glasses.
"Don't have any new cases nowadays, Baba. It is either that everyone is behaving like normal citizens…" Sato hesitated before continuing, "Or that they don't trust me in cases anymore."
"Bullshit, Watanabe-san. Bullshit, I say. People make mistakes and you're no mistake," the bartender tried to reassure Sato.
"Thanks for the talk, Baba, but for us superhumans aren't considered people anymore…" Sato answered and put down a bunch of cash on the counter.
"Hey, Sato-san," Baba called Sato in which Sato said to leave his affairs alone before leaving the bar…
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Amidst the sea of normal and abnormal humans alike, a lone girl with a coal-black river as her hair stood out with a katana beside her right hip and attempted to navigate through the waters of society. She had graduated university way too early and was struggling to find a job that would allow her to apply as a full-timer while also suiting her needs. "What do you want to be, Seina?" her mother would always ask back then and the girl would usually answer with "I don't know".
However, one day, when the girl was 12 years old, her mother asked the same question as she did many times: What do you want to be, Seina?
The girl finally answered with something besides "I don't know": I want to be a detective. Her mother stopped asking questions about the former's career choices until when the girl was 15 years old; this time, the question was different: Why do you want to be a detective? The girl didn't answer and months had passed.
Finally, at dinner, the girl finally said to her mother, "Mom, you asked me why I wanted to be a detective. To be honest, at first, I don't know why. It was like a calling at first, but now… I think I have a reason."
"And what is it?" the girl's mother inquired, raising her brow in a curious expression.
"There's this person I know who supposedly died three years ago, but then I just saw him several months ago all grown-up and still talking. He said that he's a ghost, but when I put my ears to his chest, his heart was beating."
"And you want to know how he was still alive?"
"Yes, but there's more," the girl answered with confidence and pride, "I feel like that if I become a detective, I may meet this person again."
"And who is this person?" the girl's mother continued her interview.
The girl hesitated before answering, "Edvard Tod…"
Back in the present day, Kagami Seina had gone to multiple interviews with multiple private detective agencies and got rejected for each. The reason: she's too young, she wouldn't be able to pursue a case that is closed, and because she's superhuman.
Seina sighed and continued sailing through the streets of Tokyo. "Edvard Tod…" her mind kept repeating.
Seina tried to distract her mind with the stress of finding a job as a detective, but it was no use; once her mind was set on something, it wouldn't shift to something else unless it was related to that 'something'. She finally made it to the last detective agency: PSDA. She wouldn't probably be able to get a job here, but it was worth the try. Seina opened the door and an ogre blocked her path and with an accent that of a person just learning to speak asked for Seina's reason for entering. "I'm here for an interview," Seina said calmly despite the ogre's stinking breath was almost unbearable.
"Go… to… re… kep… sion… desk… o... ver… the...re…" the ogre replied and allowed Seina to enter.
Seina reached the reception desk and was greeted by a nymph who also asked Seina of her purpose in entering. Seina repeated her answer to the ogre and the nymph requested her to wait. In the next few minutes, the nymph was typing, calling, and finally, asked Seina to go to the fourth-floor room 13.
Seina walked toward the elevator and was prepared to go to her interview when the elevator doors were stopped by a hand and opened once more revealing a man who smelled like booze and wearing a damp beige coat. His eyes looked exhausted and sad, his hair was in a mess and he kept touching his head. She had never known him, but he looked… familiar...
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There was nothing but awkward silence throughout the journey up; none of them bothered to talk to each other and when the elevator door opened to the floor which Seina was going to, she felt free from the shackles of silence… until she realized the man also dropped himself off on the same floor. "A detective," she thought and proceeded straight to the interview room; the man also followed.
The two finally reached the room and Seina turned to face the man who asked her to go in first, in which Seina accepted; she had no time to deal with possible harassment. When she stepped inside the room, she found the room empty with only two chairs in the middle facing each other and the heat was suffocating. The room reminded her of the testimony rooms in movies. The man pushed her aside from the entrance and sat down on the chair facing towards the entrance before clasping his hands into a single fist and placed his forehead on it with his eyes closed.
Seina looked in confusion and stayed standing until the man finally ordered her to sit down in a scolding manner, in which Seina immediately followed, her katana jingling beside her hips.
The room was silent for a few minutes until the man asked his first question: what is with the katana. Seina was disappointed, but she decided to answer for the sake of getting the job. She pulled out the katana from its sheath and its blade glinted with such brightness despite there being only one light source.
"This katana is a gift by a friend. He told me that this katana is called Taiyōtsukiken and has the ability to kill even gods, especially Death itself," Seina explained while holding out and stroking the blade.
"Have you ever used it before?" the man asked, observing Seina closely.
"Yes, for training. My friend taught me a lot. According to him, he was training me to at least beat him."
"Interesting, is he that powerful?"
"Very!" Seina answered with joy and confidence before calming herself down, "He was strong… very strong. He was always the one protecting me when I was in trouble."
"He must be a very good friend then…" the man said, now smiling.
"Yeah. Although he's not here with me now, this katana had the same aura as him. It kept me safe like he always does."
"I see. What's this friend's name?"
"E-Edvard Tod…" Seina stammered and her face of embarrassment turned into worry when the man suddenly looked very serious… and in agony…
"Oh… I see…" the man's voice was filled with fear and pain.
Silence once again encompassed the room. "So you wanted to be a detective?" the man attempted to change the topic.
"Yes," Seina answered.
"Your reason?"
Seina's heart started beating fast. "The man didn't seem to like it when I said his name. What do I do?" Seina tried to think her way out before settling on the decision of stating the truth.
"I wanted to pursue the case of Edvard Tod!"
"You know that it was closed right? He's dead and the culprit is the SSSS. It was a simple case-"
"No, he's not dead. I met him the day before he died and when he taught me, it was a year ago."
"What? Are you hallucinating?"
"I thought I was, but we slept together that day and when I placed my ears to his chest, his heart was beating!"
"Are you drunk?"
"Can a 15-year-old girl drink alcohol!?"
The man's expression was perplexed and no more words came out of his mouth. "Damn, I accidentally shouted at my interviewer. There goes my-" Seina's thoughts were cut off by the man asking what was her name.
"Seina. Kagami Seina," Seina answered.
"Are you sure Edvard Tod is alive?" the man inquired about her faith.
"Yes!"
"You see… I don't believe you because I was there when Edvard's brain was blown off by one of the members of SSSS."
Seina was speechless; no wonder she felt that she had seen this man before… He was in the news: the famous detective in charge of the hostage rescue of Edvard Tod from the SSSS which failed miserably when a cop panicked and shot at the SSSS. Watanabe Sato, inspector at PSDA, codename: Chaos.
"You are…"
"Yes. So there is no way he was alive when a witness saw the death itse-"
"That proves my theory."
"Hey, no cuttin- What theory?"
"Oh, I really wanted to meet Edvard, but of course, if he's still alive, he would have changed his identity since the news didn't post that he's alive and well." Seina started her explanation.
"Yes?" Sato was unexpectedly dragged into this crazy girl's explanation.
"I thought of all possibilities and came out with many identities. However, I didn't know how his death at the hands of the SSSS exactly played out, but thanks to you, I was able to confirm his identity."
"What do you mean?" Sato was now questioning why he felt excited by this far-fetched theory.
"Do you know the Dark God?"
"Of course, who doesn't? He killed the strongest S.E.R.V squad like it was nothing and he even dared to attack a family close to Grandmaster Zhou Huang of China. How could he not be known?"
"Well, did you watch the video footage of him killing the S.E.R.V squad?"
"Well, yes, but I don't get what you-" Sato was shocked when he realized where this was going.
"Didn't the Dark God get shot by seven mags at one time and it looked like the bullets actually killed him? But He still rose up."
"Yes? But it was probably an act-"
"It was not," Seina entered the climax of her theory, "S.E.R.V squads are equipped with guns that chamber the same bullet that killed Edvard Tod. Edvard Tod's ability was unknown, but it was noted he had the strongest endurance and strength yet despite his endurance, his skull was still pierced by a bullet which was later known as Abnormal Killer."
"Keep going…"
"Even GOD wasn't able to tank those bullets as he did with everything else. This bullet is a superhuman killer."
"But couldn't the Dark God be an actual god?"
"That's where you're wrong. The Dark God isn't a god. He's mortal. Just impossibly hard to kill."
"What do you mean?"
"The Dark God has the ability to resurrect himself from the dead. That is what I'm saying."
"And what proof-"
"His actions. You can't fake death unless you were constantly exposed to it. The Dark God just joined the SSSS back then and he wasn't as experienced. You could tell how he just used his power without thinking of the consequences."
"How do you know that that was his mindset?"
"I studied psychology."
"I see. So he has no ability to act dead so that acting was actually-"
"Real, yes," Seina finished Sato's sentence before continuing her explanation, "Since I meet Edvard Tod three years after his death and found out that he's still alive, in addition to you seeing his head exploding into droplets of blood, if he were to be alive, he would need the ability to resurrect himself from the dead."
"Are you saying the Dark God is actually Edvard? Impossible, the kid wasn't like that. He was kind…"
"He's still that kind person; he just doesn't act like it."
"Shit, girl. You got me thinking."
"There is also one thing I also would like to say?"
"You got more of that fucking long explanation!?"
"Yes," Seina acknowledges before saying, "The Dark God. Rename it 'Death'."
"Death?"
"Yes. Have you ever read the bible?"
"Once or twice."
"That means you know the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."
"What about them?"
"Do you know that they've been appearing in recent events?"
"What do you mean?" Sato was confused.
"You don't even know you're a Horseman yourself!?"
"No, I don't ride fucking steeds. I ride the subway though. Does that count?"
"No, but you're still a Horseman. Chaos, Revenge, War, and Death. All of them are here in this world. War appeared in the Superhuman Revolution. You appeared in the case of the Zodiac. Death appeared in the video footage. Revenge appeared as a shadow assassin."
"You know you're going off-topic right?"
"Yes, I'm talking about different topics right now. Why?"
"You should say something if you want to shift the conversation to another topic, you know?"
Seina tried to continue, but Sato had thrown her off-track and she scolded him for doing so.
"Sorry. Sorry." Sato chuckled as Seina started threatening him with Taiyōtsukiken.
Silence encompassed the room once more.
"Hey, kid. I was actually planning on getting an assistant. Do you want-"
"Yes! Of course. I am sure that I will be able to meet Edvard sooner with you by my side."
Sato made a shocked expression that turned into a chuckle before mutating into a laugh. "Welcome to the team, Kagami Seina," Sato said with a welcoming smile.