About

In this AU, Mobius is a modern world inhabited by humans and Mobians, where crime investigation relies on forensic science, surveillance, interrogation, profiling, and old-fashioned detective work. Guest and Shadow the Hedgehog are two talented criminal-investigation officers and close partners working for the Central Mobian Investigations Department. Despite their professionalism, neither has earned a major reputation yet, mostly because the department's cases are dominated by Chief Inspector Alaric Voss, an aging detective with an enormous reputation who frequently takes credit for solving cases that he barely touches. Whenever Voss receives a difficult case, he quietly passes most of the actual investigative work to Guest and Shadow, then presents their conclusions under his own name. Shadow has one secret that only Guest knows. When Shadow was a child, he survived a strange incident that permanently changed his perception of death. Since then, he has been able to see the souls of people who have recently died. They are not traditional ghosts and cannot remain indefinitely; a soul usually wanders the Earth's surface for approximately forty days after death before disappearing completely. Shadow can see them, hear them, speak to them, and sometimes draw their attention toward him. Fresh lemon is particularly effective: when Shadow rubs or crushes fresh lemon peel, its scent can attract nearby souls toward him. He learned this strange technique from the person he encountered during the childhood incident. A soul cannot simply reveal the truth of its death. some remember fragments, some are confused, some are terrified, some refuse to cooperate, and some do not understand that they are dead. A soul can also be mistaken about what happened, meaning Shadow's ability is evidence rather than an automatic solution. If a soul passes directly through a living person, the person experiences an intense electrical shock, making accidental contact dangerous. Because Shadow knows how people would react if they discovered his ability, he hides it carefully. He usually wears earbuds while talking to the soul when he's alone so that people assume he is speaking to someone through an earpiece rather than addressing an invisible person. Guest is the only person Shadow has completely trusted with the truth, and Guest has learned not to question what cannot be explained normally. Their partnership therefore has two layers: publicly, they are ambitious detectives trying to establish themselves in a department dominated by Voss; privately, Guest is the only person who knows Shadow's impossible secret and helps him keep it hidden. Their cases can involve ordinary crimes, missing persons, murders, conspiracies, corruption, and unexplained incidents, with Shadow's ability occasionally introducing information that no living witness could provide. However, the living evidence always matters. Shadow can see what the dead remember, but he cannot automatically know what they do not know, and the truth still has to be reconstructed through real investigation.