日本語 101
Japanese 101

Baka 馬鹿 means Stupid / Idiot 
Yomi no Kuni 黄泉の国 means Death Realm also known as Yellow Spring World
Yomo tsu Okami 黄泉大神 means The Grand Deity of Yellow Spring World
Sonzai Kachi 存在価値 means Existence Value
Chan ちゃん means little one, an honorific usually reserved for children or people who are close friends or family members
San さん means Mr, Mrs, A universally to address people out of respect 
Gomen nasai ごめんなさい means I'm sorry (non-formal)

‘A walk in the afterlife should not end like this.’

At least, Aoyama Sho would have thought that visiting the forbidden Yomi no kuni would be more exciting than that. After watching so many documentaries about the afterlife and unexplainable and hearing so much about it, she would have thought of it as an experience of a lifetime. People have been talking about how incredible it has been being dead for a brief moment before returning to the living world.

But the truth was, her experience was nothing like what people claimed to be.

Where were the bright light shining and movie-like memories flashing past in her mind?

What about the floating around in the air and visiting friends and family for the last look before departing to the other world?

What about meeting Yomo-tsu-Ōkami for those untimely deaths and making a choice either to return or to stay as a wandering soul in the Yomi.

Those things that people often claimed to have witnessed or done in the short period when they left this world after returning from dead. She had wanted to experience it all and they never happened…

If she was to comment, her flirt with death was … well, rather anti-.

‘No wonder Yamabuki has always advised me not to expect these so-called documentaries to be true. Being alive is more fun than being dead it seems!’ the young profiler pouted discontentedly as she considered whether she should announce to the room that she was back to the world of waking.

‘The room should empty as always, it’s not like anyone would visit the troublemaking little brat,’ Aoyama Sho cracked open her right eye slowly to peep at her surrounding to get her eyes familiar with the bright light before considering opening both eyes.

But to her surprise, she was not as alone as she thought she would be. Unlike before, she realised that she was actually being watched over by two detectives and one inspector. In the moment of incredibleness, the young profiler was shocked by the entourage she has in her room.

‘Shouldn’t they have something better to do than visiting the disobedient brat?’ Aoyama Sho could not help but to roll her eyes at their strangeness.

Noticing a familiar presence, Aoyama Sho stole a glance at her right only to see Kindaichi Hajime staring into emptiness with an unfamiliar emotionless look.   

Letting her breath out slowly, she supposed that having Kindaichi Hajime at her bedside was becoming somewhat of a regular occurrence recently. But it was the first time that all three men, including Detective Akechi and Inspector Kenmochi, to gather together in her room.

Breathing in deeply as she pondered about the unusualness of the situation, the young profiler caught a whiff of misplaced flowery scent in the hospital private room.

‘Flower?’ Aoyama Sho deliberated about the source of the strange smell and thought bitingly to herself, ‘what a strange thought! As if I would receive anything from outsiders at all, nobody would care about us anyway.’

But the young profiler was proven wrong about in her thought as her eyes continued to wander around the room and caught sight of something unexpected.

As though the appearance of the three men was not surprising enough, Aoyama was also taken aback to see fruit baskets and flowers lined up on her table. Blinking her eyes in disbelief, the young profiler had no idea why these things would appear in her room.

‘Do they have to be that dramatic? There was nothing when I was warded in the hospital previously, what’s the big deal now? These crazy silly men!’ The silent profiler shook her head lightly at the display of gifts from them. Or at least she would assume so since they are probably the only one who knew about her being warded in the hospital again.

But one thing for sure, none of the S.T. members have learned of her latest episode yet. If they had, they would be gathering in her room, all ready to chew her off for acting alone again.

At the comforting thought, the young profiler let out a breath of relief and reflected on her decision. It was an extreme decision she supposed but not the hardest to make.

To the young profiler, she felt strangely satisfied leaving the world in this manner.

At least she was able to prove to them that she was capable enough to do something on her own without being under their watchful eyes. That in a way, sounded very cool and grown-up to her.

It was also her way to show them all that she was no longer the kid in S.T..

But that was not the only reason for doing so.

 ‘I am always the one being protected, be it at home or with S.T.. It feels different to be able to do something for another person, even if the person is dead,’ Aoyama Sho had felt a strange connection to the dead girl.

Perhaps it was the way the young student was alienated by her peers or the fact that nobody cared enough to even mourn for the young girl had angered her unknowingly.

Reality and Virtual world differences.

How the young girl had used the virtual world to construct her image to hide the fact that she was being bullied in school was a fact that Aoyama Sho had picked up when she was looking through her various upbeat postings on her social media accounts.

It was a girl trying to appear normal to the world, in hope of being accepted. But somebody cruel had twisted that hope into something deadly. For someone who was said to be bright, Akemi Mizuki was terribly naïve to think that she could be accepted by others that easily.

The reality was nothing like the virtual world at all as she would learn in the last moment of her death. It was a terrible life lesson, at the cost of her life. But at least she could finally understand the cruelty of people and how jealousy could blind any heart.

Wincing at the reminder of her own past as well, Aoyama Sho bit her lower lip to avoid from making any sound.

There was something about this case which made her strangely eager to help that girl.

At the very least, she knew she had done some good in doing her part to help the young student named Akemi Mizuki. She might not be the one to put the handcuffs on that pair of twisted cousins, but at least she was the one who pointed Kindaichi Hajime to them.

And knowing Kindaichi, even though without having her to explain, that Baka detective would probably be the only one who could have worked out what she had suspected.

That would have been a great sense of satisfaction, even at the expense of her own death. That might be the sonzai kachi she had been looking for, the purpose for existing instead of living aimlessly as a puppet all these while.

But unfortunately, that was only possible if she was dead as she had predicted.

No, Aoyama Sho has never been suicidal. It was just that she would have preferred not to face the music after what she had done. While it was unintentionally, but having seen the stiff postures and tense looks from the three men in the room, Aoyama Sho knew that her welcome back party would be a troublesome one.  

Judging from the constant pacing in the room of Kenmochi Isamu and the piercing stare of Akechi Kengo, she supposed that aside from the possibility of having S.T. being angry with her, she should have considered adding them on the very short list of people who would be angry with her.

The way they stared at her with a tightened jawline, it was not difficult for the young profiler to sense their angry mood. But the young profiler could not come out with a reason why they would be as angry as her fellow S.T. members since they were merely strangers to one another barely a week ago.

‘Better them than having S.T. here,’ the young profiler snorted in amusement, ‘they should at least be as amusing as Yurine cap. Though I wish they would give the handcuffs a miss. I thought they were only threatening me when they said they would cuff me up if I escaped again. Sigh~ these old men have no sense of fun at all! At least Kindai-baka would have laughed it off. ’ 

Stretching her back and faking a yawn, the young profiler purposely made the point to tug her arms, allowing the rattling sound of the handcuffs to announce her awaken state to the crowd in the room.

Having done that, Aoyama Sho pretended to blink her eyes innocently at the three men in her room.

Perfecting that angel-like innocence, Aoyama Sho tried to put on her best puppy look at the men and hoped that their happiness at her being alive was enough to write off the stunt she pulled.

Unfortunately, no amount of wetness in their eyes upon seeing her awake was enough to avoid her pending punishments from the two furious Yokohama police officers.

“Aoyama Sho!” The young profiler winced in discomfort at the shout of her name by Detective Akechi Kengo and tried to look away as the detective continued his speech, “Of all the stupid things to do, you actually went ahead and done the impossible and tried to kill yourself in the action!”

Detective Akechi Kengo glared angrily at the relaxed young profiler and growled at her innocent smile. How dare she try to brush it off after she gave them such a scare?

‘Just as I thought,’ Aoyama Sho rolled her eyes at Akechi’s words, ‘he is just another Akagi clone. All barks but no bites at all.’

Of course, having to be scolded by Akagi Samon repeatedly in the past had made the yelling of Akechi Kengo seemed mild when compared to her past experiences.  While Akechi Kengo had tried to be cold and purposely insulting in his words, he was no match for the real Akagi Samon at all. He did not manage to make Aoyama Sho felt like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar, because he could not understand why she did the thing she did. Akagi Samon would have understood her point completely and still made her felt like a fool for doing such a thing.

 “I have no idea what nonsense being in S.T. has taught you but no man or woman should ever face a suspect single-handedly.  This rule was the first rule taught to all police officer and had been highlighted repeatedly in the police conduct codebook so frequently that only an idiot would miss that rule! Being in the Police Department would mean that you are required to follow that conduct codebook and not acting as you please.  That is why people will never take you seriously! “

The older detective was truly upset with the profiler but other than trying to make her see sense by yelling at her, he has no idea how to deal with the order phobic profiler.

‘I shouldn’t have gotten her involved in this case,’ the guilty detective thought to himself as he tried to focus his anger on the profiler.

Rolling her eyes at Detective Akechi’s lecture about the police code of conduct, Aoyama Sho stopped the detective in his speech with a sentence, “First of all, I am a researcher, an analyst, an observer, a profiler and many more, but I was never a police officer, you Baka! Secondly, if you are trying to scold somebody, you should not feel guilty at all. The way the sides of your lips twitched as you paused in the speech had told me that you feel guilty rather than being angry with me and are trying to gather your words in order to pretend otherwise.”

Recognizing the truth in her words, Detective Akechi was flustered by her response but continued to argue his point across to the stubborn profiler.

“Nevertheless, you are part of the organization and hence should aside to the rules of the organization!”

Perfecting the look of ‘are you serious?’ with a hint of her usual smugness, Aoyama Sho spoke the truth which rendered the detective speechless, “have you forgotten that I am Aoyama Sho, the infamous S.T. profiling monster with order phobia?” 

“You…baka kid!” Detective Akechi was speechless at her sharp reply and decided to mess up her hair as his way to get back at the smart-aleck profi