Will Faking Your Death Always Trigger a Love Rival Showdown?

[One-Sentence Synopsis]

Can faking your death set off a love-rival showdown?

Detective Ayatsuji looked at the men gathered around her, some cold-faced, some sneering, and answered with difficulty:

- Yes! The odds are one hundred percent!

[Serious Synopsis]

Just pretend I'm dead.

Ayatsuji Byakuya shouted to the whole world.

One day, she woke up and suddenly realized that the world she'd lived in for more than twenty years was a manga series that had been running for nearly thirty years and still wasn't finished.

And she was a tiny, tiny, tiny character who had never even appeared in the story...

Even so, she had to endure the 996 work schedule, remaining on standby until the main story began, then waiting for the manga's author to reveal the whole truth at some unspecified point...

Good grief, she couldn't take it anymore. She was going to die sooner or later, so if she died now, at least she could be buried in the police department's cemetery.

She couldn't wait to embrace death, and then she died once.

Wait, what do you mean, she died once?

She wanted to die, but got the ability to come back to life. Is this what being in a manga is like?!

Just as she was heartbroken and in tears, someone suddenly appeared, speaking in riddles, and told her with an enigmatic air: You're not the one who was meant to be...

What will she choose?

1. Grab this person's leg and ask what on earth they're talking about

2. Smile and let it go

3. Pull out his oxygen tube

Detective Ayatsuji decisively chose option 3. Like a branching choice in a visual novel, she leaped from the rooftop, leaping past death and the police storyline, toward that pitch-black distance.

From then on, Ayatsuji Byakuya no longer existed in the world. In her place were one secret identity after another.

In Nagano: I'd rather jump from here and splatter into a bloody mess than die!

Officer Morofushi: So I'm the one who got the salvation route...

At the Black Organization: Gin's not home, so I'm going to be the boss.

Scotland & Bourbon: Every day, we come home to find our childhood friend trying to get herself killed.

In Beika Town: Am I today's suspect?

Officer Matsuda: That's right, you. Stop! Don't run!

After every faked death, someone stands for a long time by her grave, until they discover she's still alive...

Countless men who have cried for her close in, and the love-rival showdown is about to erupt!

Ayatsuji Byakuya: Ahaha, did I never tell you before I died that I can come back to life? Oh dear, what a mess...

She'd thought her death didn't matter, but after encountering old friends time and again, they found salvation in each other.

*The main story is in first person. Chapters where she changes identities are in third person.

*The heroine is adored by everyone.

*There is an age gap. Gin's codename is connected to the later plot.

[Preorder: Raising a Mute Scotland]

Kurose Shu, an assassin who deals with traitors to the Organization.

One winter, she received her first mission target.

The target had been shoved roughly into a cardboard box. He was slender, with black hair brushing his ears, eyes sharp as blades, his whole body tightly bound with duct tape, and unmistakable red marks on the exposed skin.

Her superior said he had been drugged and couldn't speak, and had no strength in his arms or legs. Otherwise, he would be a very difficult man to handle.

But Kurose Shu thought he was nothing more than a cat who happened to be far too handsome...

And a cat that handsome could be forgiven for having a bit of a temper.

Kurose Shu thought this the third time she fended off the man's attempt to kill her.

After completely treating her mission target like a cat, she decided that she was the problem. She changed how she dealt with him, putting away all the terrifying equipment at home and the medicine the cat hated. She thought this would bring them closer...

But one snowy night, the cat climbed out the window and ran away without a backward glance.

Devastated, she went out into the snow to look for him.

The cat was easy to find. He was wearing the collar she'd had custom-made, with a tracker hidden inside...

But the cat didn't know that.

Before she could find him, her superior suddenly sent her his location, which matched the tracker's signal...

When she arrived, the cat was lying in a pool of blood, breathing faintly.

The cat she couldn't bear to lay a finger on. Her cat. Her cat.

Her superior agreed to give her another chance to manage him. After all, the new drug was at a critical stage of development, and live test subjects were precious.

But the chance wasn't free. Kurose Shu would have to take the cat's punishment in his place.

Hearing this, the cat, breathing faintly, closed his eyes. He didn't think Kurose Shu would...

"Okay."

But Kurose Shu answered just that.

Half a month later, she finally came home, with the foul stench of blood clinging to her.

She planned to wash away the smell before feeding the cat, but the moment she came in, the cat stayed by her side, unable to hide his worry. Only after she entered the bathroom did the cat's ears turn red, and he hurriedly ran off, realizing what he was doing.

Kurose Shu: I suffered for half a month to get one moment of concern from the cat. This is...

A fantastic deal

So she quite naturally didn't tell the cat that the blood on her wasn't hers.

The cat began to care about her. He no longer bristled and lashed out with his sharp claws whenever she came near...

He even gradually accepted her petting him.

Their relationship grew more peaceful, until they could sit down and have dinner together.

Her superior hadn't contacted her in a long time, and hadn't even asked how the new drug was coming along.

Kurose Shu and the cat both thought their days would go on peacefully like this...

Until another snowy night, when a bullet pierced her chest and the little home she shared with the cat was burned down.

She didn't get the chance to say goodbye to the cat, who had gone out to buy flowers. All she left him was a body with its skull destroyed...

And three of her own teeth.

The cat probably won't be sad...

She thought as her consciousness faded.

The Organization was destroyed, its remaining records burned in a final act of self-destruction, and everyone involved was killed.

The undercover agents finally returned to the protection of sunshine and cherry blossoms.

Officer Morofushi felt someone watching him.

There was no threat in it, and there was even... some inexplicable hint of relief...?

He frowned and followed the gaze, but it led him all the way to a dental hospital.

"We can't disclose patient information."

"She's a criminal suspect."

Who says abandoning a cat isn't a crime? Officer Morofushi heard the doctor beside him add: Goodness, that criminal really did a number on herself... Three teeth, pulled out by her own hand...

He took a deep breath and decided that getting back together with her would have to be considered carefully. After all, their relationship before hadn't been healthy, and could even be called warped...

But that thought shattered when he heard she was going to get a new cat.

Guys, I adopted another cat.

Even Kurose Shu, badly injured and living under a disguise while faking her death, couldn't turn away an injured cat.

I'll send him away once he's healed.

That was what Kurose Shu had planned.

But the cat started leaning against her.

But the cat started kissing her fingertips.

But the cat started... How did the cat end up in bed beside her?! And why did he force her mouth open and find those few newly replaced teeth with such precision...?

His gaze became harder and harder for her to withstand. His big hand clamped around her wrist, leaving her no room to resist, and then she realized.

The cat was angry. Angry that she had abandoned him, angry that she didn't trust him, angry that she... wanted to get a new cat.

From then on, the cat's possessiveness was reserved for her alone.

- You can't take in a cat, treat it well, and then abandon it.

- The cat will be sad. When it sees you again, it won't let go with its claws.

- It might even leave its mark on you.

*Organization traitor handler x Organization traitor

*Devotee of play the pig to eat the tiger cats x highly possessive black cat

*Sweet romance (certainly)

*Includes faked deaths and plenty of passionate romance after their identities are revealed

Theme: Fight for your own life