The sweet smell from last night still seemed to cling somewhere. Aiko pedaled her bicycle, trying to shake off the sensation again and again. But her body remembered it clearly. Fifteen minutes sitting in the seventh-floor hallway of Sylpheed Mansion, staring at the fluorescent lights flickering on and off. Five in the evening. "Kagerou Street" in Mikage Town began to show signs of life again at this hour. Salarymen on their way home pushed bicycles along the pavement. An elderly man emerged from the convenience store "Daily Hearts" clutching a plastic bag. As Aiko passed the shoe shop with its half-closed shutter, she unconsciously pressed harder on the pedals. (If I keep moving, I can overwrite it.) That's why she'd started her shift two hours early today. But the faster she rode, the farther the memory didn't go. Every time she approached the narrow alley in Mikage Town, Block 3, her bicycle slowed on its own. The opposite direction from Sylpheed Mansion, yet her body reacted anyway. Even opening her deduction notes, nothing continued past what she'd written last night. "・Chopsticks unused (opened) → collapsed before eating" "・Early rigor mortis → estimated TOD 4-6h post → approx. 8-10 PM" The information was complete. But the "next line" wouldn't come. Not in her head—something was lodged in her chest, blocking the path of thought. (I can deduce the case, but I can't read my own agitation at all. What's that about?) Her smartphone vibrated continuously. A chat notification from the FreshLine app. Seeing the sender's name, Aiko frowned. "ねこたみな☆" That account had appeared in the late-night courier chat three weeks ago. A fresh recruit by the looks of it—every message came with at least three emojis. Aiko had never exchanged messages with that account before. She opened the notification. "Help me please 🆘🆘🆘" "I'm looking at the map app and it told me to go right so I went right and almost fell in the river 🌊" "I have no idea where I am 🗺️❓" "I got a notification asking how many minutes until delivery and I'm panicking 😭😭" Aiko stopped her bicycle. She set down the kickstand and stared at the screen. She checked the send intervals. Seventeen seconds, twenty-one seconds, fourteen seconds. The panic was written in the numbers. No current location listed. If "river" was the clue, the only river in Mikage Town ran along Aoki River, but without knowing the delivery address, this was going nowhere. Aiko typed a short reply. "Send me the delivery address." The response came in three seconds. "Around Mikage Block 3, Number 5!! 🙏" ("Around" isn't an address.) Again. "Copy the address shown in the app and send it exactly as it appears." There was a slight pause this time. Then: "Sorry I made a mistake! 3-5-14! Sylpheed Mansion Room 403 🏢" Aiko's fingers stopped. Sylpheed Mansion. The same building. The same mansion as the seventh floor last night. Exactly the same. The tightness in her chest shifted into a different shape. The impulse toward deduction was pushing against the lid. "I'll explain from where you are now. The direction you walked toward the river is south." "Which way is south? 🧭" (Which way...) "Stand with the river at your back. The direction you're facing now is north." "Got it! I'm facing that way! 🙆" "From there, your right side is east, your left side is west." "Which right are you talking about?" "...Right is right." "Oh! Wait a second! I'm in front of a convenience store now! 📍" "There are two convenience stores in Mikage Town. Is it Daily Hearts or Famiche?" "The sign letters are too small to read 🔍" Aiko held her phone and pressed her hand to her forehead. Still sitting on the bicycle seat, she didn't move for about three seconds. (I'm giving logical directions, so why doesn't any of the information line up?) "Open the convenience store door and ask the clerk, 'Which convenience store is this?'" Thirty seconds later. "It was Daily Hearts! And the clerk was really nice and gave me directions!! 🎉" "Then I'm not needed anymore." "Wait!! The clerk told me the name of the street but I can't read the kanji 😅" "Send me a photo." A minute later, a blurry photo of a sign arrived. "It's Tarusaki Slope Street. Go north on that street and you'll reach Sylpheed Mansion." "Which way is north?" Aiko stopped typing. She stared at the screen without moving for a while. Then, slowly, she typed. "Left when you exit Daily Hearts. Walk straight for three minutes and you'll see a big mansion." "Got it!! Can you tell me in person? I'll send my address!!" "Not necessary. Just follow the directions I gave you——" She started typing, then stopped. Aiko had the GPS display open. She saw the two position markers displayed there—hers and Mina's—nearly overlapping on the same coordinates. (Why?) Mina's current location and where Aiko was standing right now. In front of Daily Hearts and in front of Corpo Mikage. About forty meters apart. A few seconds later, the intercom at Corpo Mikage buzzed. * Aiko looked at the monitor in her room. On the screen was a girl wearing a helmet at an angle. Mint-green twin tails swayed softly on either side. Height around 155 centimeters. She wore FreshLine's orange delivery jacket, her delivery bag slightly tilted on her back. Golden eyes looked straight at the camera, bright enough to overflow at any moment. She was waving frantically at the camera. (Why is she here?) Aiko had no idea. She'd said she'd send her address, but how did she know Corpo Mikage's address? The FreshLine system shouldn't display couriers' home addresses. "Um!! I'm Mina Nekota, the one who helped you just now!! On chat!!" The voice through the intercom was far more energetic than she'd imagined. "How do you know this address?" "Um, I was looking at the GPS and there was someone at the same location! I thought maybe you were a senior courier so I came over!!" (She reverse-traced the GPS, then.) Actually, the FreshLine app had a feature where couriers in the same area could see each other's positions——an "Area Members Display" attached to the courier chat function. Aiko had forgotten to turn it off. After a few seconds of silence, Aiko spoke into the intercom microphone. "I won't open the door. I'll give you directions to Sylpheed Mansion Room 403." "But——" "Exit Corpo Mikage, turn left, and head north on Kagerou Street. Turn right at the end. Seven minutes." The girl on the screen made a confused face for a moment. But it quickly returned to a smile. "...Understood. Thank you." Her voice tone was slightly softer. Aiko closed the screen. She stood there for a while. (I have a reason to go to Sylpheed Mansion now.) Realizing it herself felt strange. A reason had been given from outside to a place she'd thought she shouldn't go. The impulse to verify the abnormality in the delivery records hadn't disappeared since last night. But going alone had a resistance she couldn't quite name. Now it was different. She could go to the same place as the person she'd guided. She put on her jacket and grabbed her bicycle keys. * She arrived at Sylpheed Mansion's entrance slightly before Mina. Before the automatic doors opened, Aiko stopped. Through the glass, she could see the bulletin board inside. A notice from the management association was posted, but she couldn't read the content. The seventh-floor hallway wasn't visible. Of course it wasn't. She opened the app and tried to check the delivery history. Normally she could only see her own records, but notifications sometimes came through as "nearby building delivery history"——a system feature that shared aggregate data with all couriers to optimize delivery density in the area. There was one line. "Sylpheed Mansion 704 / 22:47 / Okame Food / Fried Chicken Bento, Medium, Special Sauce / Completed" Yesterday's date. Aiko scrolled. The day before. Same time. Same menu. The day before that. Same. Three days. Every night at 22:47. Fried chicken bento, medium, special sauce. Delivery completed. Aiko's thoughts began moving rapidly. Room 704 last night. Based on the rigor mortis stage, the estimated time of death was between 8 and 10 PM. Which meant that when the 22:47 delivery completion was recorded, that person was likely already dead. Then who had marked it as "received"? FreshLine delivery completion was normally recorded when the recipient confirmed it in the app or when a photo of the package placement was sent. Room 704 was set to "hand delivery"——Aiko had confirmed that at the scene last night. For "completion" to be recorded on hand delivery, someone had to open the door and receive it, or the reception operation had to be performed from inside. A dead person couldn't operate a smartphone. (Someone had faked their survival.) It was certainty. Certainty with grounds. Three days, same time every night, same menu. That itself was unnatural. If someone was making it look like a habitual order when they were actually operating from outside—— "Wait, are you Aiko Amemiya?!!" A voice flew at her. She turned around. Mint-green twin tails were running toward her. The helmet was tilted the same way as before. The delivery bag on her back fluttered as she moved. Aiko didn't answer. Her eyes couldn't leave the screen. Her thoughts were accelerating. External sounds were becoming distant. "Um, you're the person from the chat, right?" No response. Mina stared at Aiko's profile for a while. Black straight short hair. Deep chestnut eyes fixed on the smartphone screen. Her expression——wasn't scary. She wasn't glaring or angry. It was more like... "You look kind of... on fire." She said it without thinking. For a moment, Aiko's gaze left the screen. Mina's face was right there. Golden eyes looking at her with curiosity. Not surprised. Not exasperated. Just straight. Aiko immediately looked away. She put the smartphone in her jacket pocket. "...Finish your delivery." "Y-yes!! I'll be right back!!" Aiko watched Mina rush through the automatic lock and disappear inside. The automatic doors closed. Aiko was alone. The evening air of Mikage Town touched her cheek. The western sky was beginning to turn orange, and the mansion's shadow stretched long across the ground. ("On fire.") Those words echoed in her chest once more. It wasn't unpleasant. Just strange. She'd never been seen that way by anyone before. The fact that her appearance while absorbed in deduction looked not "scary" or "weird" but "on fire" to someone else. (What does that mean?) She started thinking about it, then stopped. It wasn't relevant now. * "Sorry for the wait!! I delivered it safely!!" Mina returned ten minutes later. Her helmet was tilted to the right this time. What kind of movements would cause that? "Then——" Aiko started walking. Back toward Corpo Mikage. Mina fell into step beside her. Aiko judged it pointless to stop her, so she didn't. It was a different silence than before. On the way there, she'd been staring at GPS while typing. Now she wasn't doing anything. Just walking side by side. The evening air of Mikage Town mixed with the smell of fried food. From the kitchen of "Okame Food"——Toshiko Mifune was probably doing tonight's prep. Fried chicken bento, medium, special sauce. Aiko's pace wavered for just a moment. (Three days. Every night. From the same shop. Same menu.) "Um——" Mina opened her mouth. But didn't continue. Only their footsteps echoed on the stone pavement of Kagerou Street. The shoe shop with its closed shutter, the mailbox overflowing at the barber shop, the tilted sign of the general store. The night of Kagerou Street was almost here. In front of Corpo Mikage, Aiko stopped. "Here." "Okay." As they were about to part, Aiko turned back for just a moment. Mina's golden eyes were looking at her. "Don't go near that mansion for a while." "Huh, why——" She was already riding her bicycle away. Mina was saying someth