text; un:✨🕵️GOLDEN WEEK SPECIAL RELEASE

[paperpusher]

Happy Golden Week, everyone! Natori Shuuichi here, hoping everyone is doing well-- especially our new faces! Please let us know if we can help you adjust.

I'm excited to announce that my new movie Fiance of the Funeral Procession, the second film in the Sparkling Detective Akeboshi Koutarou series, is now available in theaters! It's a historical mystery involving a beautiful woman and her beautiful fiance and the dark secrets that they keep. Each film in the series stars a new case with only the detective as the recurring character, so you don't have to have seen the first one! It would mean a lot to me if you could support my coworkers by watching the film.

Thank you and I hope you enjoy ✨

[What Natori didn't make clear is that he is playing Akeboshi Koutarou, though that becomes obvious to anyone who know what he looks like as soon as they come across a movie poster. Shockingly, this is canonically a good movie. A summary of the plot is available here! Feel free to have characters already seen posters/seen the movie if you'd like.]

Comments

ic subject line: 🤐

[diesuki]

Much more interesting, right?

[Dazai, you are literally the only one in all of hell -...]

ic subject line: spoilers for akeboshi koutarou movie 3?!

[paperpusher]

A different kind of interesting, anyway.

[but... now he's thinking about it...]

That would be a good twist to a murder case, actually. Someone poisons the bride and groom at their wedding through the wedding cake! But after a careful investigation, the detective uncovers that in reality, the culprits were the not-so-happy couple themselves!

[localweirdo]

It was inherited to me. After my grandfather passed away, it was up to me to keep the business going.

[Pause]

But I was supposed my undertakers are going to be the ones in charge now.

[cutcloud]

Will do.

How have you been otherwise?

ic subject line: SHOCKGASP now that you're here, clearly I should write that!!

[diesuki]

A dislike for their family's drama? A simple boredom with the world? Or, indeed, love's truest expression?!

The options are endless. And nobody will ever guess!

[this subject line intentionally left blank]

[paperpusher]

[as in, Natori deletes the subject line because he doesn't think he can write his full reply that way.]

Dazai-san, I do have some news for you...

Before I arrived here, I was handed the script for the third movie.

[no_kyouken]

Ya can be friends with yer rivals, makes it more fun.

Just means ya gotta duke it out from time t'time.

[retroductions]

Hm, and what of The Great Detective Herlock Sholmes, the Inimitable?

[Sholmes, all you did was jumble the wording around.]

[metafictions]

It lives on you? This may not be a question for here, but its presence isn't harming you, is it?

[If the answer is yes— and it’s bad— it’ll probably be bad to air that out on the network: better to give Natori some way out of explaining just in case.]

That’s a good point. If I hadn’t seen it more than once I’d have chalked it up to a smudge on the screen. I think this time, though, people around me noticed: perhaps it’s because we’re all technically in their realm that it’s visible?

[enlighteneds]

Ahaha, perfect. You're quite a storyteller, but I should've expected it from the chosen actor himself! You've got yourself another fan in the making ♡

Don't get me wrong about it, I do love them myself. But the hype was all about reincarnation and absurdly fraudulent power level genres and the rest of them simply got buried by that gigantic flavor of the month. As someone who published most of them, it was quite an experience to see the boom, to say the least.

[ To the point that it actually kind of getting boring for her to read and choose the same genre over and over again （︶^︶） ]

[diesuki]

NOOOOOOOOOO the humanity! My one chance to fame and fortune!!

[ ... ]

Oh, well. I guess I'll write the fourth one, then.

[paperpusher]

If you want my opinion as an actor, it's not very snappy. It's a little hard to fit in a title card, right?

How about: The Great Herlock Sholmes: Consulting with Mystery?

[that's not better.]

[paperpusher]

Thank you, I'm honored! But especially to hear such praise from someone involved in publishing? You must be far more knowledgeable about the genre than I am!

[paperpusher]

Ah, I see. I'm not sure how long ago it was, but I'm sorry for your loss.

[Though their relationship to death must be pretty different, huh? It still doesn't feel right not to say anything.]

Well, think of it this way: you'll have an awful lot of stories to tell them once your contract is fulfilled and you go back.

[paperpusher]

Haha, it seems like it's just a freeloader, not anything else. ["Seems" because he has no way of knowing; if they were in person, where he could control the tone of his voice and see the reaction, he might have said "it hasn't killed me yet." He's mostly made his peace with not knowing.] But you're right. We're in the ayakashi realm, so even humans without any abilities can see them here. Which is too bad for them, if you think about it! They likely wouldn't be made to work here if they couldn't see anything around them.

[retroductions]

[Are you sure? It sounds snappy to him.]

Ah, with the larger text above, and the subtitle below?

The Great Herlock Sholmes: The Case of the Inimitable (fill in the blank)

[paperpusher]

Exactly! Now, if it was one of my movies, it would be something like The Case of the Inimitable Young Maiden or The Tale of the Broken Heart and would end in a love story, but I don't know how true to life that is for a real detective.

[metafictions]

We should be congratulating your freeloader... sounds like it's their big debut.

[Here's hoping the thing really is harmless, for Natori's sake.]

Minus those who've got a sense for them, of course. Although I suppose this also means that you're a little bit out of work on that front, too. On ayakishi [see, he remembered that time!] home turf, an exorcist is a little out of his element, isn't he?

[paperpusher]

Haha, maybe as far as the majority of the audience is concerned, but it's been sneaking into shots since my first drama. It really ruins the suspension of disbelief sometimes!

[Lizard-induced continuity errors :( anyway, he'll probably lose his left leg in the future. It's fine.

Anyway, look at Kamui using the right words and everything!!]

You could say that again! I can't say I expected my film career to be more successful here than my exorcist work, but life is full of surprises. At least my leader doesn't seem to mind.

[retroductions]

It might surprise you to learn that these titles are not too far removed from similar ones that grace the published tales of my adventures. The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle is but one of the more recent examples.

[nerine]

[ooc: Continued here!]

[enlighteneds]

Oh no no, you might be overestimating us a bit on that end. Publishers like me might read a lot, but ultimately, all the filtering went to the editors, though some of them often moved the wheel for their own gains.

Surely you've read a lot of case like that, no? When a story's plot went into a bad direction out of sudden?

[metafictions]

If you were ever in disguise, it might ruin that surprise too. Imagine if your appearance were supposed to be a surprise, only for your lizard to suddenly appear...

[a hard knock life for all the exorcist-actors out there....]

How did that even work, by the way? Did she just let you know she'd acquired your film from your original world?

[sort of alarming, that the heads of clans have so much freedom while they're here waiting to fulfill their contracts and go home.]

Sorry for the late! Life sucks ass

[localweirdo]

It's fine, it happened quite some time ago so it's nothing to get upset about!

[That and airing her grief to a stranger wasn't really an option for her. Still, his words did leave her speechless for a moment. Indeed, would they be happy to see her back?]

But I suppose so! They would be shocked to see their director back from the grave! You can say it'll be a deadly surprise!

[paperpusher]

Haha, exactly! It's why I tend to cover my face and hands if I'm trying to be stealthy in the exorcist community.

[And just like that, Kamui gets to know the real reason he walks around with a paper bag over his head when attending festivals like the Night Parade.]

Something like that. [Natori flashing back to his moment of dissociation of watching his movie alone with Tenkohime in her private theater goes here.] Kamui-san, can I ask if your leader has returned anything to you yet? I'm curious about how they arrange it.