Chapter Text
Welcome back to Makoto Mirai Town, home to sky-rise buildings, weak detective culture, lots of manga, and the city's only ferris wheel. The date? August 24... 2026. The CUREtto Detective Agency had been open for exactly forty-three minutes when Mikuru Kobayashi decided that nothing interesting was going to happen that morning.
At forty-one years old, Mikuru had been a professional detective for twenty-seven years. She had investigated thefts, fraud, disappearances, blackmail, suspicious deaths, corporate scandals, domestic disputes, and one particularly confusing incident involving a zoo and three missing penguins. Compared to those cases, the quiet little office in Makoto Mirai Town felt almost unnaturally peaceful. The London branch had gone bankrupt years ago, leaving Mikuru as the agency's only employee, and she had long since become accustomed to doing everything herself. Investigation, paperwork, accounting, answering the phone, making coffee, cleaning the office—if it needed doing, Mikuru did it.
She sat behind her desk, reading the morning newspaper with a cup of coffee beside her. The office was quiet enough that she could hear the ticking of the clock on the wall.
Mikuru glanced at it.
9:15 AM.
She took another sip.
"Another peaceful morning."
The moment she said it, there was a loud knock on the door.
Mikuru lowered her newspaper.
"Come in."
The door flew open. A man in his thirties stumbled into the office, looking as though he'd just escaped from a burning building.
"DETECTIVE KOBAYASHI!"
Mikuru calmly put her newspaper down.
"Yes?"
"MY LUNCH HAS BEEN STOLEN!"
There was a long silence.
Mikuru looked at him.
The man looked back.
She reached for her notebook.
"Sit down."
The man's name was Takeshi Moriyama, an employee at a nearby insurance company. He explained that he had prepared his lunch that morning and brought it to work as usual. At 12:03 PM, he had gone to the company break room, only to discover that his lunchbox had disappeared from the refrigerator. Nobody had admitted to taking it, and because the company had apparently experienced several similar incidents recently, Moriyama had decided that the situation was serious enough to require professional assistance.
Mikuru listened without interrupting, occasionally writing something in her notebook.
"What was in the lunchbox?"
Moriyama looked slightly embarrassed by the question.
"Rice, grilled salmon, tamagoyaki, pickled vegetables, and two pieces of fried chicken."
Mikuru wrote it down.
"Anything else?"
"No."
"What kind of lunchbox?"
"Blue. Plastic. About this big."
He demonstrated with his hands.
Mikuru nodded.
"And you are certain you put it in the refrigerator?"
"Absolutely."
"At what time?"
"Around noon."
"Who knew you had brought that particular lunch?"
Moriyama thought for a moment.
"Three of my coworkers. I told them what my wife had made."
Mikuru stopped writing.
"Three?"
"Yes."
She slowly circled the number three in her notebook.
"Names?"
Moriyama gave them to her.
Mikuru wrote each one down.
"Suspects."
Moriyama stared at her.
"You actually think they're suspects?"
Mikuru looked up from her notebook.
"You asked me to investigate."
"It's just lunch!"
"Then why did you hire a detective?"
Moriyama opened his mouth.
Then closed it.
He appeared to realize that he had no answer.
Mikuru calmly continued writing.
THE SCENE OF THE CRIME
Mikuru arrived at the insurance company shortly afterward. The employees gathered around the break room as she examined the refrigerator, took photographs, and inspected the surrounding area with the seriousness of someone investigating a major criminal operation.
One employee watched her crouch beside the refrigerator.
"Detective Kobayashi, do you really need to look under there?"
"If the lunch was stolen, the thief may have dropped something."
"Like what?"
"Food."
The employee nodded slowly.
"Right."
Mikuru opened the refrigerator and examined its contents. There were several drinks, containers of leftovers, a suspicious number of convenience-store desserts, and a yogurt that had apparently been sitting there long enough to become a separate life-form.
She pointed at it.
"Whose is this?"
Nobody answered.
Mikuru wrote something down.
"Interesting."
Her assistant, who had been dragged into the investigation despite having no idea why a detective agency needed an assistant for a missing lunch, looked over her shoulder.
"What's interesting?"
"Nobody has claimed the yogurt."
"Why is that important?"
Mikuru closed the refrigerator.
"It isn't."
She walked away.
The assistant stared after her.
"Then why did you write it down?"
"I don't know yet."
THE THREE SUSPECTS
The first suspect was Moriyama's coworker, Sato, who admitted that he had seen the lunchbox that morning.
"Did you take it?"
"No!"
"Did you want to take it?"
Sato hesitated.
"...The fried chicken looked good."
Mikuru wrote something down.
"Motive established."
"WAIT, WHAT?"
The second suspect claimed that he couldn't possibly have taken the lunch because he had brought curry from home.
Mikuru looked at his lunch.
Then at him.
"You could have eaten both."
"That's a terrible accusation!"
"It's a reasonable possibility."
The third suspect said he didn't eat fish.
Mikuru stared at him for several seconds.
"The lunch contained chicken."
"I know."
"Then why did you mention fish?"
The man froze.
Mikuru slowly closed her notebook.
"Interesting."
Her assistant leaned toward her.
"Is that actually interesting?"
"No."
"Then why do you keep saying it?"
"It creates pressure."
THE SECURITY CAMERA
Fortunately, the company had security cameras covering the break room entrance. Mikuru obtained the footage and watched it carefully.
At 12:01, Moriyama entered the break room.
At 12:02, he opened the refrigerator.
At 12:03, he appeared to put something inside.
At 12:04, another employee walked past.
At 12:15, another person entered the room.
At 12:37, someone carrying a cup of coffee entered.
At 1:02, Moriyama returned.
He opened the refrigerator.
The lunchbox was gone.
Mikuru rewound the footage.
She watched it again.
Then again.
Her assistant leaned against the wall.
"Do you see something?"
"Yes."
She rewound the footage one more time.
At 12:04, an employee walked past the refrigerator. He stopped for half a second, opened the door, looked inside, and continued walking.
Mikuru paused the footage.
"Who is that?"
Everyone immediately recognized him.
It was the company president.
The room went silent.
Mikuru stared at the screen.
"Interesting."
Her assistant sighed.
"This time, I think you actually mean it."
THE PRESIDENT
Mikuru entered the president's office and placed a printed image from the security footage on his desk.
The president looked at it.
Then at Mikuru.
Then back at the image.
"Is there a problem?"
"Did you take Moriyama's lunch?"
The president's expression changed immediately.
"...No."
Mikuru remained silent.
"I didn't."
She pointed to the photograph.
"You opened the refrigerator."
"I was looking for my yogurt."
Mikuru paused.
"Your yogurt?"
"Someone stole it yesterday."
Mikuru considered this.
"Was it strawberry?"
The president looked surprised.
"Yes."
Mikuru nodded sympathetically.
"Then you have my sympathies."
Her assistant stepped forward.
"Mikuru."
She looked at him.
"Right."
She turned back to the president.
"Did you see Moriyama's lunch?"
"Yes."
"Did you touch it?"
"No."
"Did you move anything?"
"No."
Mikuru thanked him and left.
As soon as they reached the hallway, her assistant asked:
"Do you believe him?"
"Yes."
"Then why did we interrogate him?"
"Because I wanted to know whether he had seen anything."
"And?"
"He didn't."
The assistant stared at her.
"So that entire conversation was pointless."
"Not entirely."
"What did we learn?"
Mikuru looked at the photograph in her hand.
"Someone stole his yogurt."
THE BREAKTHROUGH
Mikuru returned to the break room.
Something was bothering her.
She had examined the refrigerator several times, but one detail had never quite made sense. She opened the door and looked inside again.
Then she looked at the freezer compartment.
She opened it.
Inside was a blue plastic lunchbox.
Mikuru stopped.
Her assistant looked over.
"Is that—"
"Yes."
She pulled it out.
Moriyama came running.
"THAT'S MY LUNCH!"
Everyone crowded around.
Moriyama opened the lunchbox.
Everything was there.
The rice.
The salmon.
The tamagoyaki.
The pickled vegetables.
And one piece of fried chicken.
He stared at it.
"...There were two."
Mikuru nodded.
"Yes."
She turned back toward the security footage.
She watched the recording of Moriyama entering the break room.
Then she froze it.
"You didn't put your lunch in the refrigerator."
Moriyama blinked.
"What?"
"You put it in the freezer."
"No, I didn't."
Mikuru pointed at the screen.
There he was, opening the freezer and putting the lunchbox inside.
The entire room went silent.
Moriyama's expression slowly collapsed.
"...I did."
Mikuru closed her notebook.
"Yes."
"I thought I put it in the refrigerator."
"You were in a hurry."
"I must have been."
"And you forgot."
Moriyama looked devastated.
"So nobody stole my lunch?"
Mikuru shook her head.
"No."
He looked down at the lunchbox.
"But someone ate my chicken."
Mikuru's expression became serious again.
"That remains unexplained."
ONE PIECE OF CHICKEN
Mikuru reviewed the footage from 12:37.
The employee who had entered with the coffee was seen opening the freezer.
He took out his own lunch.
Then, without looking, he picked up something else.
A piece of fried chicken.
He ate it.
Mikuru summoned him.
The employee stared at the remaining piece of chicken.
Then at Moriyama.
Then at Mikuru.
"...I thought it was mine."
Moriyama looked horrified.
"Your lunch was pasta!"
"I know."
"How do you mistake pasta for fried chicken?"
"I wasn't paying attention."
Mikuru looked at him.
"Did you know the lunch belonged to Moriyama?"
"No."
"Did you intend to steal it?"
"No."
Mikuru turned toward Moriyama.
"Then there was no intentional theft."
Moriyama pointed at the chicken.
"But he ate it!"
"Yes."
"Can I get compensation?"
The employee immediately bowed.
"I'll buy you a whole lunch."
Moriyama thought about this.
"...With two pieces of fried chicken?"
"With two pieces."
Moriyama nodded.
"Deal."
Mikuru closed her notebook.
"Case closed."
CASE REPORT
Back at the CUREtto Detective Agency, Mikuru sat at her desk and typed up the official case report.
Her assistant looked over her shoulder.
The report read:
CASE #4,816
CASE TITLE: The Missing Lunch
CRIME: None
CULPRIT: Human error
DAMAGES: One piece of fried chicken
RESOLUTION: Compensation agreed upon
DIFFICULTY: 2/10
Her assistant stared at it.
"You spent six hours investigating someone's lunch."
Mikuru continued typing.
"It was a complicated lunch."
"It was in a freezer."
"That was not initially known."
"You interrogated three people."
"Two of them had suspicious behavior."
"One of them was just eating curry."
Mikuru stopped typing.
"Curry can be suspicious."
Her assistant stared at her.
Mikuru stared back.
Neither of them said anything.
The phone suddenly rang.
Mikuru picked it up.
"CUREtto Detective Agency. Kobayashi speaking."
A frantic woman's voice came from the other end.
"Detective Kobayashi! Someone has broken into my house!"
Mikuru immediately straightened in her chair.
"Did they take anything?"
"No!"
Mikuru paused.
"Then why do you think someone broke in?"
There was a long silence.
The woman finally answered.
"Because they left something behind."
Mikuru's expression became serious.
"What?"
Another pause.
"A second front door."
Mikuru slowly lowered the phone.
Her assistant stared at her.
Mikuru stared straight ahead.
After twenty-seven years as a detective, she had learned one very important lesson.
Never say that your day is going to be peaceful.
END.