Chapter 1

Chapter 1 Simply put, I transmigrated. When a disagreeable and gloomy brat slung his schoolbag over his shoulder, put on a condescending "25 million" attitude without even saying goodbye, and left the house one after another with a man holding a briefcase who claimed to be my husband, it took me a long time to sort out my current situation. Two days ago, I was intently staying up late writing my doctoral dissertation when I suddenly transmigrated into a housewife in a small Japanese town. The whole thing was utterly absurd, but despite trying everything, I couldn't return to my original body, where I was just a step away from earning my Ph.D. It seems the fact of what happened is already unchangeable. The housewife's age isn't much different from mine, but in our respective twenty-something years of life, I had been studying hard for my future while staying single since birth, whereas this housewife's son is already eleven years old! Japanese society is very distorted; it is difficult for women to gain recognition in the workplace, so many women choose to become housewives after marriage. According to the housewife's memories, during her student days, out of vanity, she dated a handsome guy at school and ended up in a shotgun marriage due to an accidental pregnancy. After her husband started working, he became an ordinary corporate wage slave with an average salary. They couldn't afford a house, so they rented, and because they had to raise a child, their daily income and expenses were out of balance, often falling behind on rent. The housewife herself looked down on her husband; the two had no common language and hardly spoke to each other normally. So when the housewife's soul was replaced, the husband didn't even notice that his wife had become different from before. ...Though that wasn't the main reason; rather, it would be strange if he *could* notice! Because this housewife's husband was also replaced two days ago! It wasn't until now that I finally remembered where I had heard the husband's name—Kosaku Kawajiri, an unlucky, disposable side character from a superpower manga I read not long ago. He was originally a very ordinary but reasonably handsome, normal corporate worker, but due to bad luck, he happened to walk past the scene where a serial killer was swapping faces. His face was stolen, and he was tragically murdered. In other words, the housewife's real husband is actually dead. The current Kosaku Kawajiri is an antisocial serial killer whose real name is Yoshikage Kira... and the reason he killed 48 women was simply because he was obsessed with women's hands. It basically means "why is a woman attached to such a nice hand?" He would kill women, take their hands, and date the hands as if they were his girlfriends. Of course, a corpse's hand couldn't be preserved for very long, so after his "girlfriend" rotted and stank, he would "break up" and continue searching for a new "girlfriend." ...Sounds way too perverted!! I don't want to judge anyone's fetish; everyone has their own fetishes, which is normal, but isn't this serial killer's style a bit too twisted? Anyway, during one of his murders, he messed up and was targeted by the protagonists, who began searching for the serial killer who had been hiding in the small town for over a decade. Just as they were about to find Yoshikage Kira, Kira killed Kosaku Kawajiri, stole his identity, and hid from the protagonists to continue living. Man, the original author who could come up with this kind of plot is really something else. Of course, the ending definitely involves the serial killer being brought to justice, so there's no need to worry about that at all. But the point now is that, because I was busy writing my dissertation, I didn't get to finish reading that manga, so I have no idea what happens next! So I also don't know how many people died in order to catch the killer, including whether this housewife and her son became victims and got killed. According to the usual tropes, it's very likely that the housewife or the son suspected something was off with the husband, found clues before the protagonists, and were killed—that's how it always goes in movies! Damn it! What am I supposed to do?! To be honest, I'm completely at a loss regarding my current situation. Originally, my plan was that since the housewife isn't that old, I could divorce the husband, hand custody of the brat over to him, leave Japan for the UK or the US to pursue a Ph.D., advance my career, and stay away from all this bullshit. But now that's obviously impossible—the husband has been impersonated by a serial killer! Calm down, calm down, there must be a way. I held my chin anxiously. I thought transmigrating into a housewife with a child was shocking enough, but compared to the husband being replaced by a serial killer, that was nothing. I thought about calling the police! But this is a world of superpower manga, where many chosen ones have superpowers, and as the story's BOSS, this killer naturally has one too. The main reason he was able to kill 48 women and remain uncaught to this day is because of his special ability. Yoshikage Kira can turn anything touched by his spiritual energy into a bomb, including human bodies. Once detonated, there is no chance of survival. Later in the story, his ability even evolved—I heard it could turn back time, which is practically like cheating. I really can't figure out how the protagonists managed to catch him. If I call the police, setting aside whether they would believe me, how could I prove that the husband was replaced by a killer? Even if the police believed me and decided to arrest him, he has more than enough ability to kill everyone and escape before being caught, which means I would definitely go straight to GG—it would be literally seeking my own death. Trying to strike first and kill him at night while he's sleeping off-guard is also unrealistic. Even if there were a one-in-a-million chance of success, the person taken away by the police to rot in jail would be me. ...Now I really regret not taking the time to finish the manga back then. Otherwise, I would know how the protagonists handled it and what my next step should be. And most crucially, there is currently a non-human entity monitoring me. —A ghost hidden inside a photograph: Yoshikage Kira's father, who refuses to pass away because he dotes excessively on his antisocial son. I noticed it ever since I arrived—that omnipresent, eerie gaze in the house. After Yoshikage Kira went to work in place of the housewife's husband, Photo-Dad began monitoring me. ...Probably worried about whether I noticed anything off about my husband and grew suspicious, thereby threatening his son. Help! Why are there so many fatal flags?! What kind of hell-difficulty start is this! Under these circumstances, even tipping off the protagonists is extremely difficult. Setting aside how to find them, under Photo-Dad's surveillance, it's hard for me to do anything. At this stage, I must find a way to make them drop their guard around me to create an opportunity. After calming down and thinking for a while, I slowly sat up. Under that gaze from an unknown source, I sluggishly tied on an apron, opened the fridge, and began cooking. "My husband didn't take a bento to work today either. Eating fast food all the time isn't good. I should make a portion and bring it to him..." I feigned muttering to myself, acting as though I cared deeply about my husband. To create an opportunity, I have to normalize certain behaviors. In order to have a valid reason to go out every day, I will pretend to be a good wife. Once Photo-Dad gradually lowers his guard, I'll have the chance to find the main characters. Because of my previous experience studying abroad, my cooking skills are actually pretty good. I used the ingredients in the fridge to make tomato scrambled eggs and tonkatsu. Although it differs from Japanese recipes and leans toward Chinese flavor, this housewife usually didn't cook because she hated her husband—he would just eat instant noodles in silence when he came home at night—so it shouldn't be a big problem. Anyway, what kind of person the housewife used to be, what dishes she excelled at, and what tastes their family usually preferred—besides that rebellious brat, nobody else knows. What the brat thinks isn't important; he doesn't look like the type of kid who communicates with his parents anyway. Even if he notices something wrong with his parents, he probably can't do anything about it. How to arrange things for him later is also something to consider, but unfortunately, his biological dad is already dead, so he can only be handed over to his grandparents or maternal grandparents to be raised. Hopefully they're still alive; if they're all dead... ...Besides, those are all things to consider *after* surviving the killer! With a heavy heart, but appearing cheerfully on the surface, I packed the hot rice into a bento box and divided the hot dishes into insulated containers. That eerie feeling of being watched still hadn't disappeared, but I pretended not to notice anything, changed my clothes, and left with the lunch to head to the company where the housewife's husband works. "Kawajiri, your wife came to see you! That's a rare sight—it's the first time seeing your wife at the office. She's quite a beauty." "You usually complain that your wife doesn't care about you, yet she actually brought you lunch! Not bad!" Seeing me arrive smiling with the bento box, his colleagues teased him one after another, while the man appeared slightly tense, observing me with a subtle air of uncertainty. Yoshikage Kira has extremely high intelligence and is very sharp—a typical high-IQ criminal. He could easily deduce from daily details that this identity's original self had a poor relationship with his wife—for example, the wife never cooked for him, there were no contraceptives at home, they had no sex life, and they basically lived separate lives. A wife suddenly coming to deliver lunch is clearly a bit suspicious, but I can only find ways to rationalize it; this is an unavoidable part of the current plan. "Coming to my company so suddenly, is there something important, dear?" Yoshikage Kira appraised me with a touch of guard and tension, but still used his calm, charming voice to probe politely and calmly. I had already guessed he would definitely find it strange. However, thinking back to right before I transmigrated, Yoshikage Kira had also just taken over the husband's identity. Pressed by the landlord for overdue rent, he stole the landlord's money. This was originally an utterly despicable act, but after the housewife saw it, she absurdly thought this behavior was extremely thrilling—or perhaps the subtle feeling of her husband suddenly being replaced aroused an NTR spirit in her. In short, the original owner of this body developed a trace of "affection" for him. The housewife might have been a bit abnormal too, but none of that matters; what matters is that it gave me inspiration! I can pretend that I've fallen for my husband again, and so I started caring for him! "Because you left without taking a bento, and fast food is unpalatable and unhealthy. I was worried you wouldn't eat well, so I prepared lunch and brought it to you!" I acted shy while looking at him, handing the bento over to Yoshikage Kira. He stared silently for a moment before calmly accepting it. "Is that so? Then I'm really grateful. But there's no need to go to such trouble; I could have just handled it like before." "I feel like I went too far in the past. Even though you work so hard for our family, I didn't care about you at all. So please let me do something for you too. A hot meal tastes way better than fast food, so hurry and eat while it's hot." I deliberately feigned ignorance of his guard, picked up a piece of tonkatsu with chopsticks, brought it to his mouth with a smile, and said in a sweet voice, "Open wide, dear."