I found this slightly-battered softcover at a local Savers thrift shop, and decided to give it a try. It's a one-shot mystery manga by the author of Fake, and while it's an earlier work it's still quite entertaining. It also features several familiar aspects, including the bickering couple romantic tension and the annoying kid who becomes part of the family.

In this case the kid turns up at private detective Al's office inside a shipping crate. He's 13-year-old Rai, the youngest of three children from a wealthy family. His adult sister Rei turns up almost at once - cue the bickering between her and Al. Turns out Rai faked a kidnapping attempt for laughs, but a genuine attempt interrupts - and we learn that Rai has ESP and can levitate, hurl things around with his mind, and generally kick ass.

THEN Rei really does get kidnapped, and we find that oldest sibling Rou thinks that Rai did it, while Rai thinks Rou did it. So who's the culprit? It was pretty obvious in-story - he even gave an evil laugh early on - and the plot twist is supposedly that he's the illegitimate son of the trio's late father and wants the estate to himself. This is a very common plot twist, but the fun here was the casual way the siblings mentioned how they'd had to investigate their father's love-life in detail and they know he didn't have any by-blows. The look on the villain's face is priceless!

That's just the first story. Next, Rai gets a message from a kitten - that is, from a psychic girl named Rathe who's being held captive and has used her own psychic powers to speak through the cat. Her father's an ex-con being threatened into helping with a new crime; will our heroes be able to rescue him without anyone getting killed? Sure!

Another story deals with Rei's fiance, whose existence rather startles Al; he seems to be a good guy, but of course what with all the bickering we know who Rei's going to choose.

And then there's a three-years-later story, with everyone still together, but with Rai and Rathe starting to court - but with the obstacle of a young boy with a massive crush on Rathe and some serious psychic powers of his own.

Nothing really deep here, but some lively and entertaining stories.

I plan to leave this book on a bench near the Main St. bridge at around 1; hope the finder enjoys it!

*** Released as part of the 2016 E-less release challenge. ***