[DeepL Translation - needs review] Volume 1:
We are generally made up of lies, but we are only making sense. Read the book and you will understand.
--Kyogoku Natsuhiko is a delight!
Everything is a lie, and yet it is interesting. A battle of logic and deduction that defies the rules, in which the bizarre (irrationality) is overturned by the fictional (untruth)!
Inoue Shinso marvels!
A consultation from a specter
(Translator: DeepL)
Ayakashi-case-solving mystery: explain ghosts without mentioning ghosts
Story
The story follows a guy named Kuro and a girl called Iwanaga Kotoko. She is meditating issues between oddities (ayakashi, ghosts) and humans, while hiding the existence of those oddities from humans.
This volume is centered around a ghost entity called Steel Lady Nanase (鋼人七瀬) - specifically her destruction. Despite the premise, the centerpiece of the story is not exorcism and not some epic spirit fights. It's a lot of talking and reasoning instead. The direction (the Kyokou in the title) is coming up with socially acceptable explanations to what ghosts are doing to pretend they are not here.
Overall
I watched the anime some years ago, so I knew what I was coming into. In the first season of the anime I was wondering why in our ayakashi-case-solving mystery this Steel Lady Nanase (鋼人七瀬) is taking so long, here I was more surprised by how we have no padding around this case at all. The whole book is dedicated to her case.
The book has a short character introduction, time skip to this one "case" and a short wrap-up. If you're wondering about more adventure of the main duo - read more. If you're wondering how we ended up here - idk, I hope the next books will show us :D
I can't help but wonder and worry about the relationship between the main duo. If there was supposed to be romance it went past me for now.
Language learning
I was reading while listening to the audiobook and sometimes by brain would melt, so I'd just listen to parts without following the text (audio is my strong point, so that's easier for me).
It's very verbose, which increases the difficulty for me. I can't say if I saw some kanji or vocab that stood out to me as very unusual (yes, I had words I don't know but no... Idk, chinese vocab or anything that stayed unexplained until the end).
I rate it as "couldn't have done without audiobook out of ten" so lvl 35+?