Burying Officer Matsuda in the Grave of Marriage

This novel is expected to go premium on January 31. A 10,000-character update will drop then. (Updates are scheduled for 6 a.m. daily. There may be delays due to unforeseen circumstances, but I will make up for them within a week.)

"You ask who I am? I am a defiant sinner, a great power who brings light and hope, a wandering soul caught between yin and yang, a traveler drifting beyond the world. I have many identities and many secrets, but right now, I am nothing more than an ordinary housewife."

"Detective, infected with curiosity, you want to know the truth? Then go and find it. Go uncover my secrets. I hid everything there!"

"I look forward to the moment when the long-buried past is revealed once more. It will be a... catastrophe..."

"But for now..."

"Hey, Matsuda, did you get paid? We still haven't paid next week's rent... What? You're telling me to stop buying watermelons?"

A few things to know before you start

The original title was After Marrying Officer Matsuda. Everyone in the police academy group survives, but this is not a story about redemption.

This is a self-indulgent work, not a story about a genius darling. The style and plot are both bizarre to the point of madness. The heroine is already Matsuda's wife from the very beginning. The longest route Matsuda has ever walked is the one laid out by the heroine.

The heroine has a complicated personality. You could describe her as lazy, controlling, a good wife and mother, chivalrous, lovesick, sweet on the outside but dark within, cruel and cold, and so on. This isn't out-of-character writing. She has so many layers of disguise that they hide the truth beneath. She's not a lunatic; her mental state is perfectly normal.

The heroine is all about throwing her weight around and doing whatever she wants without restraint. Want to experience being absolutely accepted, with someone always willing to approach you, hold you back, follow you, accept you, and put up with your every bad mood, no matter what you do? Then welcome to this story.

Natsume Yui: "What? A terrible woman? How can you slander me like that? Matsuda hasn't suffered any physical harm. I just kept a tiny little secret from him. I'm a perfectly capable full-time housewife!"

Content warnings.

1. The protagonist, and most importantly the heroine, is the main character, not Matsuda. I recommend reading from the protagonist's perspective. You have to love yourself before you can love someone else.

2. This is an ensemble story. The point of view shifts to suit the plot, and there will be plenty of scenes where the heroine doesn't appear.

3. Make no mistake: I am a hater of certain characters. There are characters I dislike, and I won't write scenes featuring them. If I dislike a character, why would I put them in the story and torture both myself and my readers? Any major or minor characters who do appear in the story are at least characters I don't dislike.

4. Even for the characters I love most, I won't avoid describing their flaws, including the protagonist's. Please don't assume that writing about a character's flaws means I'm a hater of that character. It's basic respect for the character. Only characters with both strengths and weaknesses can be more than an imagined perfect ideal.

5. Comments affect my state of mind a lot. Some comments on my previous novel really affected me, and I'm still not doing too well. But commenting is a reasonable right for all paying readers. So I won't check the comments often. All readers are welcome to leave comments and share their thoughts or talk with other readers.

That said, defamatory and abusive comments only expose the character of the person who wrote them.

The original blurb is below. The plot hasn't changed; the new blurb just does a better job of highlighting the story and drawing readers in.

The original blurb:

At a bar, a woman propped her chin on her hand and complained in a low voice, "Tell me, Mr. Midorikawa."

"My husband won't even come home when our child is sick with a high fever. He says there's a new bomb threat, and he's the only one on duty nearby, so he can't leave! How can there be so many cases? Every day it's bomb disposal this, bomb disposal that! Why doesn't he just defuse the two bombs below his waist?"

Her gaze turned icy. She slammed her palm down, driving a dinner knife into the counter. "A father who only knows how to make children but never spends time with them. Is there any reason for him to be alive?"

The bartender, a slightly stubbly man, broke out in a cold sweat at the sight. He almost couldn't keep the smile on his face as he tactfully suggested, "I recently got a new recipe. Why don't you try it, Mrs. Natsume?"

The man in black sitting beside her was sweating too. "..."

Elsewhere, in a cafe, a curly-haired police officer sighed. "Blondie, I actually envy you a little now. Must be nice to have such an easy life..."

"?" The light-blond man smiled politely.

"...Take it from someone who's been through it. If you're not ready, and you haven't saved up enough money, don't rush into marriage..." he said with a pained expression. "And don't have so many kids. Seriously, they'll eat you out of house and home."

"Do you know what it's like to work as hard as you can and still see no light at the end of the tunnel, because you never have enough money?"

The light-blond man rested his chin on his hand and suggested, "Why don't you get a part-time job here?"

The curly-haired man: "???"

At the Black Organization's base, where everyone gathered:

"Scotch, what's wrong with you today?"

The slightly stubbly man gave an awkward smile. "No, it's nothing. I was just thinking that marriage is terrifying."

Hearing that, the blond man with dark skin couldn't help sighing. "Yeah, marriage is terrifying."

The heroine's original rose-tinted version of the blurb, version 2:

I consider myself smart, capable, and lucky. I met the love of my life while I was in college.

We got married soon after, had children, and welcomed an adopted son and three biological children.

The two of us raised the children and cared for the elderly together.

Marrying someone you love is supposed to be a happy thing. Having children is supposed to be a happy thing, too. How did putting two happy things together turn them into misfortune?

These days, all I want is a divorce.

P.S. The romance isn't sweet at the beginning. The first half is sour, bitter, and spicy, but I promise it gets sweet later.

Theme: Marriage isn't the happily-ever-after. What comes afterward, with all its ups and downs, is what true love is really about.