This wasn’t a serious episode like Blood Night or the Nemesis Incident, where we fought against powerful enemies. Instead, it was more of a slice-of-life story—a sort of summer ghost story special.
The plot wasn’t particularly complex.
One day, a client, terrified and desperate, came to the office for help. They had been receiving threatening messages with ominous curses, sent by an unknown source. Shortly after receiving the messages, the curses began to manifest in reality.
In this mysterious situation—where no one knew who was sending the messages, how they were being sent, or why—Raven accepted the request and used David’s abilities to trace the sender.
To everyone’s surprise, the sender turned out to be someone who didn’t even exist in reality. Eventually, Raven discovered that the communicator itself was the culprit threatening the client.
However, the communicator wasn’t easy to deal with. Even after removing its recognition chip, turning it off, or physically breaking it in half, it would somehow repair itself and resume sending cursed messages with relentless persistence.
The situation escalated as the communicator trapped the client and the Troubleshooter team inside the office, gradually shrinking the space and threatening their lives.
In the end, Raven cleverly managed to drop the communicator into a gap between disappearing stairs. The communicator, caught between worlds, would fall endlessly into the void, bringing the haunted communicator episode to a close.
“It felt like one of those standalone horror episodes you’d find in an old, long-running shonen manga. Less focused on logic and more on just being entertaining.”
Sure, it was just a passing, typical episode with no lasting significance, but some readers seemed to sense a strange discomfort about it.
Their argument was that, even as a ghost story special, the actions attributed to a mere communicator were far too extreme.
Trapping the team in an infinitely looping office?
Making the bizarre curses sent via messages manifest in reality?
Even with the comedic elements of the series, it seemed far beyond the realm of common sense in this world’s setting.
Curious readers eventually asked the author about this in a Q&A session, and the author provided a fitting bit of backstory:
“Oh, actually, that haunted communicator is a type of object, similar to Tesseract. It was removed early in the story, but... if it had fallen into the wrong hands, it would have caused quite a bit of trouble, don’t you think?”
In terms of plausibility, it made sense. Items linked to the Invaders had always been described as overpowered tools capable of world destruction. If the communicator was one of them, it was more than reasonable for the Troubleshooter team to struggle against it.
Of course, since this explanation came out long after the episode had been serialized, it felt a bit random by that point. Still, for me, this was some of the most useful information I could’ve hoped for.
A communicator plagued with an inexplicable error, cheaper than a normal one, that could connect to the internet without a chip, fix itself if damaged, and was even compatible with Invader technology?
It was only natural that I’d feel elated about getting my hands on it. After all, there wasn’t a more cost-effective device out there.
“Well, considering how it ended up circulating on the black market because even the Invaders weren’t actively looking for it... I’m not expecting it to rewrite reality or anything. You just need to work as a communicator, and that’ll be enough.”
[Friend! Friend!]
[...]
After returning home and settling into the closet in my usual fox-mask appearance, I turned on the communicator. Immediately, Tesseract, hanging around my neck, began swaying excitedly.
Naturally, since Tesseract was attached to my neck, my head tilted forward as a result. My forehead ended up smacking against the closet door, and I quickly restrained Tesseract with telekinesis.
“Hey, I get it. You’re excited because it feels similar, but calm down a bit. If you keep this up, Raven’s going to notice.”
I rubbed my slightly sore forehead beneath the mask and glanced at the communicator, Echo, which seemed to be warily observing me.
“You can hear me, right? If you keep ignoring me, I’ll let Tesseract use you as a toy. Or maybe I’ll just feed you to it?”
[Eek! Please, no! Have mercy!]
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[Ah! It talked!]
Echo trembled as its screen flickered in panic, and I couldn’t help but confirm my suspicions, which had been more guesswork until now.
“...So it’s not Tesseract that’s strange. It’s me. Why can I hear their voices?”
I tried not to let it show, but I was genuinely flustered. It wasn’t just that Tesseract or Echo speaking wasn’t mentioned in the original story. Even the Invaders had only used them as tools without interacting with them this way.
It had to be something about me. Maybe it was related to my inability to speak, or perhaps it had to do with my past life memories as a psychic? The more I thought about it, the deeper my confusion grew.
“Well, whatever. I don’t know for now, but I’ll figure it out eventually.”
I scratched my neck, brushing the thought aside, and turned my attention to Tesseract and Echo, who were now having a lively conversation.
Based on their voices, Tesseract sounded like a child under ten, while Echo had the tone of a stern career woman. Strangely, though, Echo seemed completely intimidated by Tesseract.
[What’s your name?]
[I-it’s Echo!]
[Echo... Got it! I’ll remember!]
[May I ask for your name too?]
[I’m Tesseract! Nice to meet you!]
[Y-yes! Tesseract, sir! It’s an honor to meet you!]
A clear hierarchy seemed to have already been established between the two.
I had no idea what criteria they were using to decide that... but seeing Tesseract, who liked me, thoroughly suppressing Echo, I felt a little less worried about the communicator doing anything weird.
“Well then, let’s test it out.”
Sitting upright on the blanket in the closet, I brought the communicator to my forehead and made a request:
“Call Raven for me.”
Of course, I hadn’t exchanged numbers with Raven yet.
But Echo seemed competent enough to handle it on its own. Surely, it could connect the call somehow.
[I-I’ll connect to the nearest communicator!]
As soon as Echo said that, a number popped up on the screen, and the call began to connect. Moments later, the call was answered, and an all-too-familiar male voice came through the speaker.
“Yes, this is the Crowley Troubleshooter Office. How can we help you?”
“....”
It was Raven.
Judging by his tone, he probably thought it was a work-related call from an unknown number.
I couldn’t help it—I collapsed on the spot, silently laughing so hard my stomach hurt. Then, unable to contain myself, I ended the call and flopped onto the blanket, rolling around like a pill bug.
I hadn’t planned this at all, but it felt like I’d just prank-called a friend, and it was ridiculously satisfying.
There’s no way Raven would figure it out, right? I didn’t say anything, and he doesn’t know my number.
As I rolled around in the closet, congratulating myself, the closet door suddenly swung open.
Raven stood there with a deadpan expression, looking down at me as he said,
“That was you on the phone just now, wasn’t it? Part-timer.”
“...!”
How did he know?!
I quickly sat up, feigning ignorance with a puzzled tilt of my head.
But Raven didn’t care. He casually reached down, snatched up Echo from where it had been rolling on the floor, and checked the call history. His brow furrowed.
“Thought so. How’d you manage to prank-call me without even having my number?”
“....”
“Here, just save my number. Call me if you need anything.”
“Figure out the rest yourself,” he added, handing Echo back to me without hesitation.
I never thought I’d get caught for a prank call in under a minute.
Next time I pull something like this, I’ll have to make sure Echo doesn’t leave a record.
As I squished Echo in my hand, feeling a bit frustrated, Raven tapped at the communicator, seemingly saving my number in return.
“Why are you acting so weird all of a sudden?”
“...!”
I gestured for him to watch carefully.
Then, poking Echo with my finger, I placed another call to the number saved as Raven’s.
Once again, the call connected naturally, and Raven’s number appeared on the screen as it rang.
When Raven saw this, his eyebrows twitched in disbelief.
“How... how is the number different already? What the hell is going on here...?”
It didn’t make sense.
Nothing had been touched, but somehow, the number changed between calls.
Raven rejected the call and dialed my number instead. The first time, it said the number didn’t exist. The second time, someone completely unrelated answered.
“What kind of ghostly nonsense is this...?”
Raven rubbed the back of his neck like he was getting a headache, staring up at the ceiling.
‘Well, there’s no way it would have a real number without an authentication chip,’ I thought.
For me, it was an obvious result. Phone numbers are just combinations of digits assigned by the system. A communicator like Echo, which operates by bending reality, wasn’t going to have a fixed number.
In other words, it worked like this:
I could contact anyone I wanted, but no one could reach me.
It might seem like a limitation, but for me, it just meant I had to change my approach.
“Echo, can you create an untraceable email address for me right now?”
[W-what?]
“Please. Make one.”
[Echo! Work! Now!]
[I-I’ll get it done right away!]
Hiding myself from Raven’s view, I whispered my request to Echo.
Echo seemed a little flustered at first, but after Tesseract gave it a figurative whip crack, it quickly got to work.
Before long, an email address appeared on the screen. I had no idea what site it was from, but the name was laughably simple.
I showed the screen to Raven, indicating the email address.
The gesture clearly said, Contact me here if you need anything!
“Unbelievable. You’re not even trying to hide it anymore, huh?”
“...?”
“Never mind. Just talking to myself. I’ll save this, then?”
“...!”
I nodded enthusiastically, watching Raven’s bewildered expression as he saved the address.
Heh, I can’t wait to tell Alice and David about this tomorrow!
Even though the day wasn’t over yet, I was already looking forward to tomorrow.