After a not-so-private bath, I reluctantly paid for the 3 boxes of pizzas that Koharu ordered, all of which had "extra" toppings" that could hurt my bank account.

We sat across from each other and “enjoyed” dinner… By that, I meant she was casually enjoying a slice of “meat lover’s pizza with extra pineapple” while once again wearing nothing but my Pajama shirt that was too large for her.

“This pizzzzaaaa~~~ Itsh~ sho~ gooood~~!!” Koharu placed her hand on her cheek as she enjoyed the slice of capitalism.

At least one of us was having fun.

I’m deeply concerned about why this girl was so casual with wearing my shirt, using my money to buy Italian take-out and reading a magazine about “the latest swimsuit to wear this summer” while directly next to the guy she just met.

“Say Koharu.”

“Hmm~~??”

She seemed to be enjoying the pizza like she was a kid eating it for the first time, it was a cute sight to see.

“Have you heard about the supposedly “Haunted” “Haunted House” attraction within the carnival at the nearby Piers?”

“I heard of the rumors, why ask me that?”

“I heard there were several sightings of “ghosts” among the visitors of the carnival and that several people had gone missing.”

“Well, it’s all rumors and “make-believes” my dear sidekick!”

…Again with the sidekick comment!?

“Yes, but the stories say that when guests go inside the “haunted” attractions at midnight or nearly 3 am, they say that they never come out and disappear without a trace, it’s even rumored that their “spirits” start haunting the attraction. So how do you disprove that?”

“They were actors!”

She gracefully flicked back her hair.

Does she think that makes her look cool?

“Actors?”

“Yes my dear sidekick, actors that were paid to make it look like they disappeared but in reality they were part of the staff so when they entered the attraction they just slipped into their costumes and then acted like they were so horrified they disappea–”

Some of the pizza sauce dripped on the table while she swung it around trying to look smart

“Sigh, here,” I handed her some tissue paper.

Koharu wiped the sauce off the table before continuing to enjoy more pizza slices.

“So these rumors, you’re telling me there may be some truth to them?”

“Something like that, after all, you are the “great ace detective” around these parts, right? So I thou- knew that you should be able to solve it.

“Eh~~ Such a nice sidekick, praising me like that~ keep that up~”

Seriously this girl… does she think she can get away with acting like this just because she’s cute? I’m getting distracted from the elephant in the room here now, aren’t I?

“Hey, Koharu.”

“Yes?”

“You’re inside the house of a guy you barely met, stop reading bikini magazines while eating pizza and wearing nothing but the pajama shirt of the guy you just met. Do you think you’re some kind of girlfriend who’s living with me?”

“Not really.”

“Well that’s why I’m complaining, you act like you’re my roommate or girlfriend when we just met.”

“I can’t help it okay!? being around you makes me feel like a total genius!!”

Koharu winked before stuffing herself with another slice.

How hopeless can this girl be?

“Anyway sidekick, about these ghost sightings.”

“Hm?”

“Are you telling me that you believe the hauntings in the carnival?

“I don’t, it’s just that some of the students from my campus have been rumored to have gone missing there, quite a lot of them if I’m being honest.

“Are some of the people that disappeared your friends?”

Koharu yawned as she stretched her arms.

“Not really, I don’t have that many friends, but back to the matter at hand, the rumors that these students also become poltergeists is the concerning part.”

I was about to take a sip from a cola when.

“Aren’t you a kind one~ not only did you treat me to a delicious pizza and cola dinner, but you’re also deeply concerned about students who aren’t your friends~”

“I’m not kind, and I never said I was treating you, so hurry and pay up!”

“I’m not paying~ anyway do you want to go visit the attraction on the weekends?”

Where’d that come from? Is she inviting me on a date?

“I’m good.”

“...I see, You don’t have any friends apart from me now do you.”

“Now that is uncalled for, take it back.”

“Nope~” Unsurprisingly, Koharu quickly declined.

I wonder if I die again, would I be able to reincarnate where this girl can’t get to me?

“Nah, that probably wouldn’t work at all.”

“What wouldn’t work?”

“It’s nothing.”

“...Hmm… You haven’t eaten anything since we started, is something the matter?”

Why are you being concerned suddenly, just ignore me and keep enjoying your pizza.

“I’m not hungry, so don't mind me.”

“I see, I see, Now then say ahhh~~~!!”

I rolled my eyes but to my surprise, she grabbed a slice of pizza and started moving it towards me as if she was about to feed me like a girlfriend would to her boyfriend.

“Jeez, I said I was full didn’t I-”

***Garble garble!!!***

“Eehh~~ you say you're full but your body seems to be very honest down there~”

“I told you I’m good”

“Then admit what’s wrong~?”

“I’m just, I’m just not used to having a girl in my room okay? Er… well it’s more of-”

“You never had anyone feed you?”

“Yes.”

“Well there’s a first time for everything, say ahh~~~”

Sigh… fine.

***Nom, Nom***

I reluctantly took a bite from the pizza slice she offered.

“See~? Now doesn’t that feel better?”

“Shut up.”

“I can’t hear you~~~”

I slowly turned away before getting up.

“So the meet-up is at the weekends, right?” I muttered.

“Indeed~”

“Fine, I’ll go just leave me alone until the weekends.”

“Aye. aye Captain!” Saluted Koharu.

“Yeah, yeah, It’s not a date though”

“Of course not!”

“Good, I’m going to bed now.”

“......Well then~ shall we share your bed?”

“I’m good.”

Why did she hesitate for a moment?

“Oh right! Do you mind if I sleep on the couch?”

“Just leave by morning.”

"Okieeee!!!"

     As the weekends were about to come, Koharu surprisingly didn’t bother me for the 4 days leading up to it. She just did her job and minded her business whenever we were in the same room together.

     I stood outside the Carnival waiting for this girl to arrive, My watch said 11:50 AM, however, the skies were completely dark.

    Apparently in the world I was reincarnated in, a single day is 18 Hours of nighttime and only 6 hours of daytime including sunrise and sunsets, needless to say, the city had a few balls of light that acted as artificial suns that rose and set every 12 hours to recharge.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.

Sight, and so the nightmare begins.

“Took you long enou-”

     Upon turning around Koharu stood behind me wearing an off-shoulder short-sleeved blouse, a pink plaid skirt, and thigh highs,

“Why are you dressed like that?”

“Oh~ do you find this outfit pretty? Well then shall we have lunch?”

“Zip it, Sherlock, we came here to investigate the haunted attraction not go on a date.”

“Ehh~~?!!!? How dare you invite a pretty girl you just met on a date and tell her, “Why are you dressed like that?” and deny her a warm meal!? Some boyfriend you are!”

Koharu’s cheeks turned red and puffed up her cheeks making a very sour face.

“You’re the one that invited me here so it’s your treat, and second we’re not dating!”

I pinched both her cheeks hard.

“Ow~~ fine you made your point!”

“Good.”

It looked like we were having a lover’s quarrel, and the people around us had probably already started gossiping about us.

“Well then shall we~?” She moved her right arm on her hip.

Was she suggesting that we start walking arm-in-arm? That’s not gonna fly by me- Hold on, if someone from my campus spotted me out here with Koharu, they might think that I’m dating this very pretty girl, and gossip about it would spread to the other students in campus, This could be a way for me to get some attention from some of the other girls.

It could go like this;

“***Kyaaahhhh~!!!*** It’s so scary here!!!”

“Don’t worry Koharu, I’m here to keep you safe!”

“Aww~~ My hero!!”

     Putting my hand under my jaw I thought; But would this cause trouble for Koharu? Hmm… probably not, Koharu isn’t her real name so It should be fine right?

“Hey Kohar-”

     Upon turning around I saw a crowd of boys and girls surrounding her asking to take pictures as if she was some kind of supermodel, and she was charging them a lot per photo!? What the heck is up with this girl!?

“Ah right, please hand over the payments to my sidekick over there!”

Well, there goes my gossip plan… Was this part of her plan? Y’know what, I don’t care anymore. It took us 45 minutes to finish getting paid for all the photos.

“You sure had fun over there.”

“My~ my~ are you jealous?”

“In your dreams.”

“I’ll take that as a yes-”

“Koharu, What do you wanna have for lunch?”

“Eh?”

“I said what do you wanna have for lunch? Hurry up and decide so I can buy it”

“ ***Gasp!!!*** First, let’s look around the stalls then pick the ones to eat!”

“Woah-”

Koharu quickly grabbed my hand and rushed inside the carnival looking for food stalls.

I guess her weakness was being treated to yummy dishes. 

While walking around the carnival, we immediately saw the haunted house.

“Well there’s our target, Now all we need to do is find out whether it was haunted or not.”

“Don’t be a dummy sidekick, I already told you all the facts remember?”

“I know, I just wanted to confirm it, should we look around that place first?

“No, we buy food first!” 

“Sigh… alright”

We walked around for an extra 14 minutes before deciding on ordering a pair of Crêpes.

“Koharu, what toppings do you want to add-”

Koharu suddenly looked like she was deep in thought, calculating the perfect size, portions, and extra toppings to add.

“Banana and cherries with extra whipped cream, and glazed with peanut butter and chocolate syrup!”

…Talk about being a total glutton.

“Sigh, alright, I guess I’ll just have one with strawberries and blueberries with whipped cream with lemon curd.”

“Ehh~~ I see you’re avoiding overlap~ are you expecting to share Crêpes?”

“I’m good, just find us a spot so I can order.”

“I know~”

The line for the Crêpes booth took 6 minutes, and I ended up paying extra tips due to the sheer amount of shame I felt ordering Koharu’s caloric overload of an order.

“Here, eat up.”

“Thank you.”

“Whatever.”

Koharu chose a bench under a tall tree, we sat next to each other and ate our lunch together.

Even though I wanted to use this opportunity to try spreading gossip about myself, I can’t help but feel a bit awkward eating Crêpes with a girl.

“Hmm~~ You were mad about the pizza a few days ago and here you are buying food on my behalf~ what changed?”

“I’m just using my “kindness” to make sure you don’t suscept anyone to the torment you’ve been committing to me for the past week, and things change naturally on their own, rather than stressing myself over the nonexistent ghosts in the attraction, I’m just gonna enjoy this carnival date to it’s fullest extent.” 

***Nom, Nom, Nom*** “Hmm? What’s this? Did you think that a date means that I’m your girlfriend~?”

“Huh? Not really? Not even a bit… not at all. I don’t think so…”

“You’re a dummy.”

And there goes her sly comments on everything.

Koharu suddenly got up and held my hand.

“What are you?”

“Let’s go buy some takoyaki, and then corndogs and cotton candy.”

Did she already forget the real reason we came here?

We spent roughly 20 minutes going around the booths and stalls eating snacks when we finally decided to enter the haunted house.

“Are you ready sidekick?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then ladies first!”

Who are you calling a lady!?

As we entered the main hall Koharu stopped to look at a painting of the lisa mona whilst I looked at the stuffed animal heads on the wall.

“How creepy.”

I suddenly felt a sharp push from behind.

“That ain’t funny Kohar-”

Upon turning around I saw that Koharu was still looking at the painting.

“Did you say something sidekick?”

“N- Nevermind.”

What the heck pushed me?

I decided to start looking around and I noticed that the interior decoration wasn’t scary at all, the mansion was “Normal” it’s almost too normal to be scary, maybe it was the antique aesthetic that was the horror lure?

“Sidekick, come look at this.”

Koharu signaled me as she entered what looked like a bathroom with several stalls, that didn’t belong in a mansion.

I didn't understand what she wanted but I reluctantly did as she said. Upon arriving she seemed to be observing what looked like a small piece of plastic inside one of the stalls so I followed her.

“Do you know what this is?”

Lowering herself to pick it up, I couldn’t help but notice her blouse riding up a bit, this wasn’t time to observe respectfully. I followed her and lowered myself next to her.

“There seems to be powder inside.”

“It’s magic white powder.”

Magic white powder? Did she mean Monosodium glutamate, aka  “M.S.G. ?”

“More importantly, why would there be a torn packaging for medicine here?” asked Koharu.

“Maybe someone drank medicine after eating?” was the only idea I could think of.

“How come such a depressing idea came so naturally to you? Don’t tell me a peaceful life to you is eating alone in some dirty bathroom stall?”

“I already told you, that I don’t have parents and I live alone, I never had anyone make lunch for me (at least not in this life) so most lunches I do have are eaten in a toilet alone.”

“I pity your sad existence, shall I make lunch for you then?”

“I’m good, and I doubt by lunch you just mean by pizza agai-”

Koharu suddenly shushed me with a finger.

“Do you hear that?” whispered Koharu.

Looking under the stalls’ door saw 2 people walking as if they were having a meeting.

“Did you bring the goods?” said a shivering voice from a boy.

“Yes Dear, The goods are prepared well, and they can be yours for the right place.” responded a charismatic tone from a woman.

“Yes, I brought the money just give it to me!”

The boy sounded desperate for whatever goods this woman had.

“Sidekick be ready,” Whispered Koharu.

“Yeah…”

In a brief flash, I kicked the door open to separate the buyer and seller.

“Freeze!” Koharu demanded white aiming a pistol that was previously stored in her pocket. 

“Oh no!” shouted from the other side of the door as the buyer ran away.”

The boy seemed to be a plain high school student from my campus, meanwhile, the seller had long hair but was wearing sunglasses and a trench coat 

“Drats!” spoke the annoyed seller.

The seller decided to slide under the door and ran in the opposite direction.

“Let’s go after the seller.”

“Right.”

After leaving the bathroom stall we saw that the boy was nowhere to be found and the seller ran up the stairs of the main hall.

“Were you planning to shoot them?”

“No! This is a pellet gun!”

What the heck happened to your rifle!?

We ran after the trench coat lady up the stairs and after catching up we saw that she had slipped into a black and white sailor mouse costume before jumping down the stairs and exiting the mansion

“How did she not die to that?” I wondered before Koharu carried me like a toy, then dropped down on the floor, and rushed after her outside the mansion.

Upon exiting she placed me down.

“Do you see the mouse anywhere?”

“Not really.”

Looking around in different directions we noticed there were several people with mice costumes dressed as sailors.

“There she is!”

Koharu pointed at one of them who was looking at us directly and flipping us off before running away.

“Let’s go! I announced as we continued running after the mouse, where we ended up pushing through crowds and several different attractions until we found ourselves in a cosplay building.

There were several rooms with people trying out different costumes ranging from modern, fantasy, sci-fi, and comics, one of which had a fox maid costume.

Now that I think about it a fox-maid costume would fit Koharu, sadly no time for that.

“We would like to rent 2 costumes please?” Announced Koharu.

Huh!? we did have time for costumes.

Koharu pushed me inside a fitting room and threw a few costumes inside.

“Koharu I don’t think this is the time to dress up as a maid.

“Sidekick, please do not look down upon me by suggesting I wear a fox maid costume! Because I won't!” Koharu announced with a frown before closing the curtains.

I reluctantly changed to what she gave and it was… a white tuxedo?

Why did she give me this to wear? It feels tight and tacky on the shoulder.

I quickly heard a crowd of people talking outside and after sliding the curtains open Koharu was dressed up in a silver gown with a flower crown as a crowd of both boys and girls surrounded her.

“How precious of her.”

“Oh sidekick, well~ how do I look?”

“I guess you look nice.”

“A photo of us together please!”

What did she say?

     And just like that we were forced to stand behind a photo shoot of what seemed like a wedding ceremony and took a photo together. Did she read my mind when I thought of spreading gossip on my campus?

“We’re getting off-tracked here!”

Not a moment later Koharu and I rushed outside running past a group of people while dressed as a groom and bride while I held the tail of her skirt while running. There will be gossip about this later.

“She’s down there!”

Looking down the docks we saw the mouse selling drugs again.

“How do we stop her?”

“Allow me sidekick!”

“What are you? Woah!!!”

Koharu carried me like a princess leaped off the docks and slowly glided down. That day, news of a silver princess carrying her prince was on the news.

Upon landing, she revealed her Musket that was folded over and demanded that the mouse put her arms in the air.

“Nowhere to run!” exclaimed Koharu as we caught the dealers.

After making the dealers fess up, Koharu tied them up on the docks’ wooden pillars and waited a bit as the cops arrived shortly after.

“Oh come on, Kid don’t tell me it’s You again?”

I looked up and saw a policewoman with wine-red hair, and green eyes, this woman was Ms. Saffron a police commissioner who used to be my babysitter during the times I was in foster care.

“Hahaha, I promise I didn’t do anything bad.”

“I’ll believe you for now.”

Saffron lit up a cigarette before looking at the people Koharu and I caught, after 15 minutes Koharu explained what happened to which Ms. Saffron said she’d deal with everything else here and that We should go now.

After that long goose chase, Koharu and I went to a Dinner and discussed matters.

“The drug that lady had is notoriously known for making people act like lunatics, it’s a good thing you mentioned it back at the apartment,” Explained Koharu.

“But why was it in the haunted house? So they can wash out the monster-like behavior with the screams?”

I took a sip from a cup of joe.

“Correct, these are the reasons students from your campus were disappearing, the drugs gave them a sense of euphoric happiness for a brief period, but also put them in a trance-like state, making them occasionally commit bad stuff while under the influence. They spread fast to your campus as the rumors said the finals were hellish so they used it as motivation, the side effects made people look sickly causing them to be mistaken as ghosts, and due to the expense of the drugs made them more stressed so they resorted to selling it themselves, and that’s where your ghosts come from” explained Koharu as she started drinking some hot chocolate

So It was just a bunch of students skipping school, that were under the influence making them do bad stuff

“So how does it explain the ghosts only appearing at 12 to 3 o'clock?”

“Beats me.”

“You don’t have an explanation!?

Koharu shrugged

“The closest I have is she wanted to blend in and beat her rivals, but that’s just a hunch.”

“That’s satisfactory enough I guess.”

“However it seems that the organization was involved with the carnival?”

“The group that attacked my school?”

“Yes, you see the plastic package We saw wasn’t normal it was too expensive and delicate, something that the organization loves when creating, so it’s likely they were pulling strings.”

“You make them out as some cult, how distasteful.”

“So what will you do now, Elio?

I said, I want a peaceful life but that peace was disrupted by an ace detective venom dragging me into her bizarre missions and now I can never have it back…

Observing Koharu as she sipped the hot chocolate just made me realize it all.

“Hey.”

“Hm?” Smiled Koharu.

“What merit do I get from being your sidekick? Why did you choose me? Was it a hunch? A foresight? My tendency to get in trouble during my youth?

     She wants to bring down the organization that attacked my school, and return the peace of this town, so causing the incidents may be a way to shed light on their actions, she doesn’t need an assistant or sidekick, she needs someone to trigger the events to bring justice, she has nothing to offer me.

     I already had a steeled resolve to refuse.

“I will keep you company.”

“Hm…”

“No matter the incident or trouble you start, I’ll accompany and keep you safe with all my heart! So please be my sidekick.

Koharu offered her hand with grace.

This girl is hopeless, buttering me up to make her lies look better.

Looking into each other’s eyes, I accepted her hand.

“If you insist that much then I accept.”

“I guess before we came here you had a proper answer right?”

“Well you kept calling me sidekick, so I didn’t have much to do”

“Well, my dear sidekick you can start by waking me up every day, making me brush my teeth, and helping me put my clothes on after a bath.”

“..........I won’t do it.” I slowly turned away.

“My~ my~ there’s a pause there~ did you think a life like that would be ideal~?” whispered Koharu, leaning towards me.

“Just shut up already, I already said I’ll be your sidekick.”

I quickly stood up and announced:

“So please stay with me forever”

“...Eh…? Was that a proposal?”

“I take it back,” I shouted before sitting back down.

“It’s a deal” Koharu Smiled.