Title: A Criminal's Daydream
Synopsis: The Metropolitan Police Department's Special Cases Investigation Division is known as the "Detective Incubator," a bizarre place that recruits eccentric detectives to solve even more bizarre cases. On rookie field officer Sato Koki's first day, he runs into his partner, Tsukimisato Chiaki, a self-proclaimed "mystery novelist," gesticulating wildly at a corpse. "This locked-room trick is so outdated! The killer climbed in through the ceiling, but somehow forgot to wipe the footprints off the ladder. One star!"
They specialize in solving "imperfect crimes": a food delivery order left at a locked-room murder scene, a copycat killer who forgets to remove the name tag on their chest, a perfect alibi disproved by the neighbor's unbearably noisy dog... Every case ends in a fizzle, and every culprit is staggeringly stupid.
Then one day, they take on a case that is "too perfect to be true." Every piece of evidence points to someone who couldn't possibly have committed the crime. And that person is sitting right there in the Special Cases Division office, smiling at Sato Koki. "Welcome to my daydream, rookie."
When "imperfect" becomes "too perfect," is the truth a carefully crafted deception, or... a mass hallucination?
