Copyright

The Detective Is Already Dead, Vol. 5

nigozyu
Translation by Taylor Engel
Cover art by Umibouzu
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and
incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons,
living or dead, is coincidental.
TANTEI HA MO SHINDEIRU, Vol.5
©nigozyu 2021
First published in Japan in 2021 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION,
Tokyo.
English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA
CORPORATION, Tokyo, through TUTTLE-MORI AGENCY, INC.,
Tokyo.
English translation © 2023 by Yen Press, LLC
Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value
of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: nigozyu, author. | Umibouzu, illustrator. | Engel, Taylor,
translator.
Title: The detective is already dead / nigozyu ; illustration by
Umibouzu ; translation by Taylor Engel.
Other titles: Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru. English
Description: First Yen On edition. | New York, NY : Yen On, 2021.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021012132 | ISBN 9781975325756 (v. 1 ; trade
paperback); ISBN 9781975325770 (v. 2 ; trade paperback);
ISBN 9781975325794 (v. 3 ; trade paperback); ISBN
9781975348250 (v. 4 ; trade paperback); ISBN 9781975360122
(v. 5 ; trade paperback)
Subjects: GSAFD: Mystery fiction.
Classification: LCC PL873.5.I46 T3613 2021 | DDC 895.63/6—
dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021012132
ISBNs: 978-1-9753-6012-2 (paperback)
978-1-9753-6013-9 (ebook)
Contents
Cover
Insert
Title Page
Copyright
6 years ago, Nagisa
Chapter 1
One year later, the adventure resumes
Cold memories
The maid dances in the dead of night
The truth of that day, the last wish
The Ace Detective swears a second oath
The order rings out
Plant City 20XX
That was how we did things
To all living creatures
Until we take them all home someday
The primordial wish
The three warriors
The future entrusted to a neighbor
The unhappy prince
The tale of the happy swallow
Chapter 2
Epilogue and Prologue
He who protects the living
A journey to foretell the world
Two detectives, twelve justices
 And so the world turned
The scales of justice
The detective, beaten hollow
The enemy’s name is Arsene
The buzzer’s sure to sound three times
The white demon and the whereabouts of the soul
The curtain rises on the next story
Those dazzling three years I spent with her
Chapter 3
The true conclusion of Route X
Client and proxy detective
Setting Nagisa in motion
Where this muzzle points
The name of this feeling
A certain boy’s recollection
A blank shot of an oath, told at ten thousand meters
A certain girl’s recollection
That’s how I define “living”
Buenas noches
Epilogue
Yen Newsletter
 6 years ago, Nagisa
For us, it was a routine sight.
“—Nana! I brought lots. Which one do you want?”
Afternoon sunlight streamed into the hospital room.
The pink-haired girl who’d called me by my nickname dumped
an armful of picture books onto my bed, then started lining them
up. She was trying to choose one to read aloud.
“Um, Ali? I’m already twelve. You really don’t need to read to
me…”
I knew she was doing it to be nice, because I was physically
weak and couldn’t go outside. I appreciated the thought, of
course, but…
“This one, then!”
Yeah, she wasn’t listening. She never did.
Instead of her usual diary, which she’d been writing in just a
minute ago, she opened a picture book and started reading it,
enthusiastically and loudly.
She had an energetic, charming voice.
I got the feeling that just listening to her voice might cure me.
…Though being read to was still a bit too childish.
Gazing fondly at Ali, I spoke to the other girl in the room. “What
are you reading, Siesta?”
A girl with white hair was sitting in a chair in the corner with a
book. For some reason, she had a code name, “Siesta,” and she
seemed rather mysterious. She had to be about the same age as
Ali and me, but she seemed more mature than you’d expect. She
had what I guess you’d call a philosophical air about her; I
thought it wouldn’t hurt for her to be a little more childlike and
honest…even though I was a kid myself.
“It’s the tale of a prince who was both happy and unhappy,”
Siesta said. I assumed that was a description of the story rather
than its title.
A prince who was unhappy but happy… What did that mean?
“What’s it about?”
Ali had stopped reading the picture book and joined our
conversation. Absolutely everything interested her, but she also
got bored with things twice as fast as the average person. In a
good way, we could probably stand to learn from her free-spirited
behavior.
“It’s about a statue of a kind-hearted prince who shares his
treasures with the poor people of his city.” Siesta closed the book
gently, then closed her eyes just as softly.
“What a nice guy!” Ali sat down in a chair near me and started
swinging her feet back and forth.
So it was a story about a compassionate, wealthy prince helping
his citizens? …So where did the “unhappy” bit come from?
“The thing is…” Siesta opened her eyes, and they were rather
sad as she told us the rest of it. “The treasures he gave them
were pieces of himself.”
“What do you mean?” Ali asked. “He didn’t have a lot of money
and watches and things?”
“No. The kind statue was covered in gold leaf and decorated
with jewels. He gives his own body away to the poor, bit by bit.”
“…He loses parts of himself ?”
The thought of that prince’s devotion, his literal self-sacrifice,
gave me an indescribable feeling. My chest grew tight.
“A ruby sword. Sapphire eyes. The gold leaf that covered his
body. When the statue of the prince had given all these things
away to the townspeople, he looked very shabby. All he had left
was his heart, which was made of lead.”
As she said that, Siesta gently placed her hand on the left side
of her chest.
 “That poor statue!” Ali cried out. Even if it was just a story, she
felt genuinely sorry for that prince.
Trying to save somebody, even if it meant sacrificing yourself—it
was a noble act, but it also seemed terribly sad.
“But that’s not where this story ends.”

I raised my head, as if Siesta’s voice had pulled me out of sleep.

“This statue had someone precious who understood him.”
““He did?”” Ali and I asked in unison.
“That’s why the title of this book is what it is, too.”
Then Siesta began to tell us about the lone swallow who
remained with the statue.
The tale of a small black bird who stayed by the side of the one
he loved to the very end, even though no one could see why.
 Chapter 1
One year later, the adventure resumes
“Have you calmed down a little?” Siesta asked outside the
bathroom.
“……Yeah.”
In the bathtub, I gave a small sigh of relief.
While lecturing me about how I couldn’t have a healthy mind in
an unhealthy body, Siesta had half forced me into the bath. She
was right; my physical and mental strain had eased, and my brain
fog was slowly clearing.
“Shave your stubble while you’re at it.”
“Yeah.”
“Can you wash your back by yourself ?”
“Yeah.”
“And don’t pee in the tub.”
“…What am I, a kid?” I smiled wryly. How old did she think I
was anyway?
“Well, I don’t know how much you’ve grown.” Siesta sat down; I
could see her back through the frosted-glass door. “‘Give a guy
three days to grow, and you might not recognize him at the
end.’… Remember? You’re the one who said it,” she told me.
I’d forgotten until she mentioned it. “Yeah, I guess that’s true.”
In our case, it had been way more than three days.
Today, Siesta and I had truly reunited for the first time in a year.
“I never dreamed you’d still be living in this apartment, though.”
Siesta’s light laugh drifted to me from the changing room.
She’d used the master key, one of her Seven Tools, and walked
into my place like she owned it. Just like before.
“…The ‘I never dreamed’ bit is my line.”
At dawn on the day I’d fought Ms. Fuubi, I’d sworn I’d get
Siesta back someday.
 Of course, I’d known it wasn’t going to be easy. That was why
I’d been prepared to put everything I had on the line. But right
now, that wish had really—
“You’re…not SIESTA, right?”
A memory of the maid flickered through my mind, and I asked
without really thinking. After all, you couldn’t tell the two of them
apart just by their appearances.
“Are you stupid, Kimi?” That old familiar line zinged back at me
from the changing room. “We’ve talked for this long and you still
aren’t sure?”
“…Yeah, good point.”
Only one person in the world scolds me that way—and it’s you,
Siesta.
That meant I’d gotten my wish.
Even so, I couldn’t be 100 percent delighted about it. I’d lost
something irreplaceable in exchange.
“But it sounds as though she did make contact with you.”
Just when my eyes were threatening to go misty again, Siesta’s
voice broke in. From the gist of the conversation so far, I assumed
she was talking about SIESTA the maid.
“Yeah. I got through that problem you assigned me.”
Through the maid, Siesta had given each of us a task to handle
and had shown us the way to resolve our worries and problems.
Her one miscalculation had been that the future we’d chosen was
different from the ending she’d imagined.
“Where is she now?” I asked the original Siesta. When I’d run
into SIESTA at the former SPES facility a few days ago, she’d been
living inside a computer terminal, but…
“Carrying out a different task. She’s the one who gave me the
master key before I came here.”
Come to think of it, I’d returned the key to her at the lab. Did
that mean she’d guessed Siesta would wake up all along?
“Siesta…” How in the world did you wake up? I was about to
ask the question, but I swallowed it back down.
I didn’t have to ask. I knew.
Siesta was probably aware as well. That was why she was here.
 “What I need to do now is rescue our friends. That’s one more
reason to defeat Seed as soon as possible.” That had to have
been Siesta’s dearest wish for four years—for six. Before she met
me, she’d encountered Seed on that island. He’d defeated her and
stolen all her memories of the facility, his organization, and her
companions. Even so, she hadn’t forgotten her mission; she
pursued Seed, and had spent three whole years fighting SPES
with me.
At the end of that story, Siesta had lost her life. However, she’d
managed to transfer her heart and mind into the body of her
enemy Hel—aka Natsunagi. After that, Siesta and Hel had
consolidated their memories, and Siesta had reclaimed the ones
she’d lost.
“I’d forgotten some important things,” Siesta said quietly on the
other side of the thin door. “The fact that I met Nagisa six years
ago. The fact that I lost Alicia. That past was the last thing I could
afford to lose, and still…” Her voice was subdued.
Still, I knew better than anyone that Siesta wouldn’t back down.
“I won’t forget any more. I won’t let them steal anything else
from me. I won’t hesitate. I won’t lose. So, Kimi…” Siesta’s intense
voice seemed to pierce through the door and echo in the
bathroom. “I want you to be my assistant, just one more time.”
I could see a familiar silhouette on the other side of the frosted-
glass door. We’d had a similar conversation here four years ago.
I’d turned her down that time. I splashed hot water over my
cheeks, then gave my answer. “—Yeah. Make me your assistant
again.”
It was about time I got out of this tepid water.
“So please, Siesta. Help me find a way to save Saikawa.”
A few days earlier, Seed had taken Saikawa to use as a potential
vessel for the primordial seed. However, if he was planning to use
her that way, he wouldn’t kill her.
“Yes. Seed has always wanted a perfect vessel. Hel and I were
his top candidates, though. If he’s going to use Yui Saikawa
instead, it’s probably going to require some prep work. I’m sure
we still have a chance to save her.”
“! So then—”
 “It’s all right. We’ll save Yui too, of course,” Siesta declared
firmly. But…
“Saikawa ‘too’?”
Something about the way she’d said it seemed odd to me. It
was as if she thought there was somebody besides Saikawa who
needed saving… Was she talking about Charlie? But Charlie was in
the ICU, and as frustrating as it was, there wasn’t anything we
could do for her.
“You can’t mean…”
My heart was pounding loudly. I shook my head; it couldn’t be
that. If it was, though… If something like that was really
possible… It was a ray of hope, and I wanted to grab it in spite of
myself. After a seemingly endless silence, Siesta said—

“I’m not giving up on Nagisa Natsunagi.”

Cold memories
“Siesta, what’s this about?”
Soon after, I’d gotten out of the bath, then found Siesta in the
living room. I wanted to know what she’d meant by not giving up
on Natsunagi.
But all she said was, “If you don’t dry your hair, you’re going to
catch a cold.” She patted a nearby floor cushion, motioning for me
to sit down. “Here, give me your towel.”
I sat cross-legged on the cushion, and Siesta got behind me
and rumpled my hair with the towel, drying it off. When I looked
at the low table, there was a pizza delivery box on top. Siesta
must have made the order while I was in the bath.
“You can’t have sound thoughts with an unsound body, after
all.”
So now that I’d washed up, we were going to eat?
Remembering I hadn’t eaten a thing for the past three days, I
opened the box. “…Were pizzas always shaped like Pac-Man?”
“I couldn’t quite wait until you were out of the bath.” When I
took a closer look at Siesta, I saw a piece of cheese stuck to the
corner of her mouth.
 She hadn’t changed. I gave a wry little smile, and then we sat
across the table from each other and started on the pizza. It was
the first time in a year that we’d had a meal together.
“…This’s great,” I said.
The comfort food was especially delicious to my tired body. I’d
had pizza with Siesta at my place four years ago, too. After that,
I’d left on an adventure with her, and we’d spent three dazzling,
extraordinary years together.
Whenever we’d gotten through one of our many fights with
pseudohumans or survived unforeseen incidents, we’d toasted
with Coke and stuffed ourselves silly.
…This is everything I wanted, I thought. Taking a bath, eating
and talking with somebody who was important to me. But those
were privileges exclusive to those of us who were alive. As for
those who weren’t… Natsunagi—
“Assistant.”
The next thing I knew, Siesta was gently drying my eyes with
her fingertips.
Had I always been this weak?
“…Sorry.”
“This is nothing new.”
Siesta and I both smiled wryly at each other.
“I know everything about you, Kimi, weaknesses included. It’s
fine,” she said. She was acting like she was my new parent.
“You don’t know about this past year, though.”
“True. But…”
At that, Siesta’s smile grew troubled.

“I do know you were trying to bring me back to life.”

Oh, right. At dawn, just after I’d fought Ms. Fuubi, about ten
days ago, I’d declared an oath to SIESTA and to Natsunagi’s heart.
It must have reached her.
“You’re not going to say it?” I asked.
“Say what?”
“The usual.”
 She could easily call me stupid for it. I thought she should,
really. Considering what that wish had ended up doing—
“I won’t say it,” Siesta told me. I couldn’t look her in the face. “I
shouldn’t.”
That made me raise my head. Siesta was looking straight at me.
Maybe it was my imagination, but her eyes seemed just a little
wet.
“…I didn’t think I had the right to say this now.” Saying nothing
would be the same as lying, though, so I told Siesta the words I’d
been keeping in. “I’m glad I got to see you again.”
“So am I.”
Siesta accepted the thought with a smile, without teasing me
the way she used to. Neither of us could be thrilled with the
situation in the truest sense of the word, though. Yes, I’d gotten
my wish, but this wasn’t the ending I’d wanted. I really couldn’t
call this outcome a “happy” one.
So I asked her one more time: “Hey, Siesta. What do you mean,
you’re not giving up on Natsunagi?”
“I can’t say anything for certain yet, but has anybody actually
seen her body?”
Was that what this was? So Siesta didn’t know about that yet…
The momentary glimmer of hope was snuffed out.
“—I did. I held her hand and felt it growing colder.”
What I’d seen three days ago came to mind. Something sour
worked its way up from the pit of my stomach.
On that day, lying in a hospital bed, I’d heard about Natsunagi’s
death from Ms. Fuubi. I hadn’t wanted to believe it. Setting my
feelings aside, believing it seemed wrong somehow.
After all, a year ago, I’d made a big mistake regarding Siesta’s
death. At the time, I’d lost some of my memories to Betelgeuse’s
pollen; Ms. Fuubi had told me about her death later on, but what
I’d heard hadn’t been the truth.
Because of that, I’d decided I couldn’t take Ms. Fuubi’s
statement at face value and had bolted out of my hospital room.
…Then I’d run into a doctor. The man had said he was the
director of the hospital and shown me to a certain room. And
there…
 “Natsunagi was lying on a bed, unconscious, hooked up to a
ventilator.”
There were all sorts of tubes connected to her body. It was like
every available scientific technology was trying to preserve this
one girl’s life.
“Then Nagisa really is still…”
“Alive? That’s what I thought, too.”
True, there was no way to know how the situation would
progress, but Natsunagi wasn’t dead. There had to be a possibility
of saving her. …Or so I’d hoped, until the doctor kept talking.
“Nagisa Natsunagi is brain-dead.”
The term meant exactly what you’d expect. The brain had lost
all function, and the possibility of recovery was zero. The patient
would never wake up again. In most countries around the world,
a person was considered officially dead when their brain died.
Thanks to the ventilator and medication, her EKG was still
undulating quietly, but even that wouldn’t last long. As Natsunagi
didn’t have any relatives, there was no one to make the decision
to take her off the ventilator, so she’d simply been kept on.
Her condition had changed suddenly, and they’d closed her
room to visitors. Just before, I’d held her hand for the last time. It
had been as cold as ice, which wasn’t right for a girl with such a
summery name.
“I see…” After she’d heard the story, Siesta lowered her eyes in
thought. “So we can’t confirm Nagisa’s current condition.”
Exactly. As I’d said a minute ago, no one was allowed to visit
her at this point. In fact, if you thought about it in terms of what
turning away visitors meant, I could guess what had happened to
her. Natsunagi really was—
“We don’t know what her condition is.” As I responded to
Siesta, I erased the conclusion my mind had already drawn. “I do
know someone who might know how she ended up like this,
though.”
“You mean…” Siesta seemed to have thought of the same
person. Her eyebrows furrowed.
“That’s right. Your junior—Mia Whitlock.”
 The maid dances in the dead of night
“I see. So you met Mia, too.”
Siesta and I were in the back seat of a car, on our way to a
certain destination.
Mia Whitlock was the Oracle, one of the twelve Tuners who
protected the world. She had the ability to foresee major turning
points in history. About a week ago, in search of a way to bring
Siesta back to life, Natsunagi and I had flown to London to see
her.
“Yeah, we talked about you a lot.”
I remembered the conversation I’d had with Mia, who was
apparently Siesta’s junior, that day. How SPES had come to
possess the sacred text and the resolution Siesta had made
behind the scenes—
“Are you angry?” Siesta asked without looking at me. “I hid so
much from you during those three years.”
…She really had. She’d hidden the true nature of the enemy we
were fighting, for example. She’d called herself the Ace Detective
but hadn’t explained what it meant. Her friendships, too. She’d
never told me any of the important stuff.
“If there was a reason you needed to keep it a secret, then I
could never be mad. But…” I could feel Siesta turn to look at me.
“Sacrificing yourself—that’s the one thing I can’t let go.”
I wanted to tell that to both detectives, not just this one.
“…You’re right,” Siesta said quietly, and returned to gazing out
the window at the setting sun. “Still, who’d have thought Mia
would be in Japan?” Shifting gears, she smiled. “I haven’t seen
her in a year.”
Last time a future she’d predicted had changed, Mia had visited
Japan to confirm it in person. This time, the Ace Detective had
come back to life, and the world had reached a major turning
point; there was no way the Oracle wouldn’t come to observe it.
“And you think Mia may be able to explain Natsunagi’s current
state?”
“Yeah. At the very least, she should know what’s happening that
I don’t know.”
 That was why we were on our way to talk to her. About a week
ago, on top of that clock tower in London, Mia and Natsunagi had
a secret conversation. We were in a car bound for a certain
location where we might find Mia and learn what they’d
discussed.
“But, Siesta, are you okay?”
Siesta cocked her head as if she didn’t know what I meant.
“I mean, you did just wake up, and we’re already on the
move…”
I’d realized quite late I’d brought Siesta out here without giving
any thought to her physical health.
“I haven’t deteriorated so badly that I need you worrying about
me, Kimi,” she murmured with her eyes closed. Apparently I’d
been worried for nothing. “Besides, there isn’t much time.”
“True.” It couldn’t be much longer before Seed made Saikawa
his vessel. “Can we go a little faster, SIESTA?” I asked our driver.
The girl sitting behind the wheel shot me a glance in the
rearview mirror. “I don’t appreciate being ordered around by you,
Kimihiko.”
It was the former maid-type SIESTA; she’d come back with the
original Ace Detective. Her body had been returned to Siesta,
though, which meant this one was brand new…
“What’s the matter? Have you been captivated by the new me?”
SIESTA asked with a straight face, registering my gaze.
“I mean, you can tell yourself that, but you don’t look any
different.”
The girl was still identical to Siesta. The only differences were
the maid uniform and the fact that she wasn’t wearing a hair clip.
“Yes, because this is ‘me.’”
Up until a little while ago, a mysterious doctor, based in SPES’s
laboratory, had been repairing SIESTA. Did that mean he was the
one who’d made this body?
“Unfortunately, my current design isn’t meant for combat.
However, now that both my body and heart are mechanical, I
wouldn’t have minded being a fighting maid robot,” SIESTA went
on. As she spoke, her expression in the rearview mirror didn’t
change.
 “The ‘mechanical heart’ bit doesn’t make sense to me,” I told
her. “All else aside, there’s no way anyone who can make a wish
for somebody else is just a machine.”
She’d wanted to save her mistress, even if it meant going
against orders. If her heart was capable of a contradiction like
that, then it was definitely the real thing.
“Right, Siesta?”
“…Yes. I never thought you two would surprise me so much.”
Coming from her, that was a frank admission of total defeat, but
she seemed to be smiling as she said that. “We’ll have to think of
a name for you, then.”
Siesta’s eyes focused on the driver’s seat. True, SIESTA should
probably have a new name, both to celebrate her new life and to
make it easier to tell the two of them apart.
“You’ll name me?”
Stopping the car at a red light, SIESTA blinked at us in the
rearview mirror.
Siesta leaned forward from the back seat and slipped a moon-
shaped hairpin into SIESTA’s pale silver hair. “Your name is
Noches,” she told her.
For a girl who’d been weighed down with a daytime moniker up
until now, that did seem like an apt new name.

The truth of that day, the last wish

“It’s been a week, huh, Mia?”
The person we’d hoped to find was there when we reached our
destination, and I heaved a sigh of relief.
“You really have no manners, do you? Telling me you want to
see me out of nowhere like that…” Sweeping her pale blue hair
back with one hand, Mia Whitlock glanced at me. She was
wearing the shrine maiden outfit she always wore when
performing her duties. “I believe we’d agreed that I would contact
you if there were any developments.”
Along with the matter of Natsunagi, I’d asked Mia for a certain
favor. I wanted her to keep an eye out for the world’s next crisis…
for Seed’s appearance. I knew it wouldn’t be that easy, but I’d
turned to her anyway, trusting that it would help me find Saikawa.
“Sorry. The situation’s changed a bit.”
With a few meters between us, I faced Mia. Behind her, Japan’s
capital city spread out as far as the eye could see. This was the
observation deck of the nation’s tallest radio tower; just like her
clock tower in London, Mia Whitlock had been conducting her
duties in a place where she could look out over the city.
“…It’s just you?” As Mia spoke, she gazed out the windows at
the urban landscape bathed in the warm glow of the setting sun.
She and I were the only ones here, and there wasn’t a single
person in the gallery, either… In other words: “If you’re looking for
Siesta, she’s not here now.”
When I said that, her shoulders flinched a little. I knew even
without asking that had been her biggest reason for coming to
Japan.
“We got dragged into a little incident on our way here. Siesta’s
getting it sorted out.”
“So, nothing’s changed there.” With a small sigh, Mia turned
back to me. “And? Why are you actually here?” Her
straightforward lilac eyes bored into me. From this point on, lies
and evasions wouldn’t be tolerated. That was just how I wanted
it, though.
“Well, there was something I wanted to check on.”
I took a few steady breaths then asked my question:

“Natsunagi’s heart is what brought Siesta back to life, right?”

Siesta and I had come to that conclusion without even talking
about it. One year ago, when Siesta had lost her heart and her
life, her body had been put in cold storage and preserved in
suspended animation. That meant just one piece was needed in
order to truly bring her back to life: her heart.
Siesta had used the power of her “seed” to transfer her own
consciousness to her heart. So if it were to be returned to her
body… If her body and spirit were linked again, then Siesta would
come back to life. The idea itself was simple enough.
 However, there was one major issue: The all-important heart
was in Natsunagi’s body. When Natsunagi had fought with Siesta
as Hel, her heart had sustained damage, and she’d attacked
people indiscriminately in London, trying to find a replacement for
it. The heart she’d finally found had been Siesta’s. If Natsunagi
were to lose it again, she’d—
“That’s right.” Mia looked at me. There was no change in her
expression. “Nagisa Natsunagi picked up on that possibility. She
asked me, if she died and the heart were returned to its owner,
whether the Ace Detective would come back to life.”
Then I’d guessed right. Back then, Natsunagi had already
braced herself.
She’d thought that her death might revive Siesta.
That was why she’d made that promise to me last week in
London: “I’ll get Siesta back, no matter what I have to do.”
No matter what she had to do. Even if that meant sacrificing
herself.
“And you didn’t stop her, Mia?” I squeezed my fists until I felt
my nails dig into my palms.
“No.”
“—Why not…?!”
“Well, I mean—!” Mia’s protest echoed in the observation deck.
“That’s what happens when you change the future!”
Her shoulders were quaking. She was angrier than she’d ever
been, and she was crying harder than I’d ever seen her. With
tears rolling down her cheeks, she raged at me, or maybe at
herself. “No matter how hard the choice is, if there’s a wish we
really and truly want, we—”
…Oh, I see. That was what I’d asked Mia to do. I’d asked her to
help me revive Siesta, to help me find a new route that would
make it possible. And these were the consequences.
A year ago, Siesta had died, and her heart had kept Natsunagi
alive.
Now Natsunagi was dead, and her heart had brought Siesta
back to life.
Route X had been the only one that could bring about the
miracle I’d wanted, and this was how it ended.
 “I guess I made you do it.”
That was true for both Mia and Natsunagi. There was no way I
could blame either of them.
“No matter what you sacrifice, no matter what price you pay,
keep working to get that wish of yours.” Those had been Bat’s last
words to me.
I’d thought I’d braced for the worst long ago, but what I’d
resolved to do was swallow that seed. To offer myself, basically.
Even if the seed took part of my body or a few years of my life, if
it made it possible to revive Siesta, I would’ve been glad to make
the sacrifice.
…But I hadn’t realized Natsunagi probably thought the same
way. I hadn’t noticed just how badly she wanted Siesta back, nor
did I pick up on her passion.
Natsunagi had met Siesta six years ago, long before I had. Then
Seed had stolen both their memories, they’d encountered each
other as enemies, and finally, they had parted in death.
However, that separation had been a result of Siesta’s devotion
to Natsunagi. Natsunagi had wanted to relive her life, to
experience going to school, and Siesta had used her own heart to
make that wish come true. When Natsunagi retrieved her
memories of the incident, she’d resolved to save Siesta even if it
meant sacrificing herself. There was nothing unnatural about it.
“Nagisa smiled. She seemed relieved,” Mia told me, wiping her
tears away again and again. “She wasn’t originally intending to
die, of course. Even so, she said she’d finally be able to do the job
she needed to do as a detective. That she’d be able to repay her
debt to both you and Siesta.”
“……!”
That wasn’t right. Natsunagi wasn’t the one who hadn’t repaid
her debt. It was me.
“I asked Nagisa if she wasn’t afraid, if she was really all right
with this. And she said…” Mia gazed out the window, into the
distance. “She said she was only returning what she’d borrowed.
That this was the correct route.”
“That can’t be. Why the hell would I want that future?”
 “Yes. I didn’t think it was correct, either. How could I?” With her
eyes on the sunset, Mia spoke quietly. “That choice couldn’t be
the right one. At the very least, I knew that it wouldn’t be the
future you wanted, Kimihiko Kimizuka. You’d tried so hard to
persuade me, and and you did. I wanted to help you… And if this
was the result, after all that, I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted
to hit me. And yet,” she went on, “I couldn’t deny Nagisa’s choice.
Her passion.”
A single tear rolled down Mia’s cheek.
Had she cried like this a year and a half ago, when she’d failed
to stop Siesta’s gamble?
“I don’t know how to face Boss. I betrayed her wish and
prioritized Nagisa’s. And so—”
“—That’s wrong.”
Just then, a voice that didn’t belong to either of us echoed
throughout the observation deck. Mia turned around. Her gaze
focused on a spot right beside me.
“It’s been a long time, Mia.”
The two heroes, the Oracle and the Ace Detective, reunited for
the first time in a year.

The Ace Detective swears a second oath

“Boss…”
Mia Whitlock stared at the white-haired ace detective, stunned.
She’d known that Siesta had come back to life, or at least that
the possibility existed. However, she’d only understood it in a
logical, factual way.
This reunion really should have been impossible, and Mia stood
frozen, tears streaming down her face.
“You’re still a crybaby, I see.” Beside me, Siesta was smiling.
“…I don’t recall crying that often in front of you, Boss.” Mia
looked away apologetically.
Siesta watched her. Then, for some reason, she sighed and
glared at me. “Kimi, I do think you should stop trying to make
girls cry. It’s a bad habit.”
“Who’d do that on purpose? No one wants to see that.”
 “Granted, the fact that you haven’t changed is a bit of a relief…”
“That’s a terrible thing to be relieved about.” Although, since
that predisposition of mine hadn’t changed either, I had to admit
I’d caused her trouble just a minute ago.
“Besides, it’s my cue at times like these.”
Siesta took a step toward Mia.
“……!”
Mia’s face twisted. She believed she didn’t have the right to see
Siesta now. “I rejected the future you wanted to protect, Boss.
The new route I found took another life. I knew nobody would be
happy that way, and I still…”
Mia didn’t think this outcome was the right one, either. Back
then, though, she’d had no choice. She hadn’t been able to ignore
Natsunagi’s feelings and had gotten the opportunity to clear her
regrets over having been unable to save her benefactor…but
another detective had paid the price.
One week ago in London, Mia had taken a step forward.
However, she hadn’t necessarily been heading toward the future
she’d hoped for.
“I’m sorry.” Mia spoke from the heart. Her eyes were red, and
her head was facing down. “Once again, I failed to stop the Ace
Detective’s gamble. I knew it might be a mistake, but I couldn’t
do a thing. I’m… I’m…”
“That’s not it.” Interrupting Mia, Siesta pulled her into a hug. I
could see Mia’s startled face within Siesta’s arms. “First of all, I’m
the one who needs to apologize. I’m sorry, Mia.”
“Boss, why should you…?” Mia didn’t seem to understand what
Siesta was trying to get at. Her round, lilac-colored eyes wavered.
“I made you go along with my selfish request, and you got hurt.
I want to give you a proper apology for that.”
A year and a half ago, Siesta had come up with a plan to make
the enemy steal the sacred text, one that incorporated the
possibility that she’d be sacrificed. In order to put that plan into
action, she’d enlisted Mia’s help.
 “…You were only trying to complete your mission as a Tuner,
Boss. I just wasn’t prepared,” Mia murmured. She was crying in
Siesta’s arms. “And this time, again, I…”
“As I said, you’ve got that wrong, too.” Siesta held both her
shoulders, speaking firmly. “This isn’t over yet.”
Mia’s eyes widened.
“It’s true that Nagisa’s sacrifice brought me back to life.
However, who decided this was where we’d end?”
Mia and I trembled at her words. Just as I’d sworn not to let the
story end until I’d brought Siesta back to life, even in this
desperate situation, Siesta wasn’t giving up on Natsunagi.
“Listen to me, Mia.” On that observation deck, in the heart of
Japan, Siesta issued a declaration. “I swear I’ll save Nagisa
Natsunagi. After all, she didn’t give up on me.”
Siesta was swearing that oath to the two of us, and maybe to
herself.
“…Really?” The Oracle’s voice sounded very childlike.
As she dried Mia’s tears, Siesta smiled.
“Yes. I prefer stories with happy endings.”

The order rings out

“I’m sorry.”
A little while after that, Mia bowed her head to us again.
It wasn’t a continuation of that earlier conversation, though.
“No matter what I do, I can’t see the future that’s affected by
the primordial seed.”
I’d wanted Mia to take a look at the future that revolved around
Seed, but it hadn’t worked. “That can’t be helped. I know you
can’t just see what you want to see.”
“That’s true as well, but…” Mia kept darting glances at me, as if
she had something else she wanted to say.
“What? Is it hard to talk about?”
Not that any of the people around me are shy.
“I think she’s trying to say it’s your fault, Kimi.”
 …The first and finest example being the white-haired girl next
to me.
“You’re saying I’m the reason Mia can’t see the future? That’s
crazy talk.” But when I looked at Mia, she averted her eyes
uncomfortably. …Wait, seriously? “What did I do?”
“You changed the future,” Siesta said briefly. “In the one I had
in mind, you and Nagisa, Charlie and Yui would have defeated
SPES. Or Seed, rather. Granted, that was only what I hoped would
happen, but even so.”
That had been Siesta’s last wish, and Natsunagi, Charlie,
Saikawa, and I were the legacy she’d left behind.
“But from there, you started down a path even I hadn’t
envisioned.”
…Yeah, that’s right. I hadn’t been able to give up on her, and I’d
started searching for options with Natsunagi and the others.
Neither the Oracle nor the great detective had seen that coming.
That had landed us where we were now: Natsunagi was dead,
Saikawa had been taken captive by the enemy, and Charlie was in
critical condition. This route couldn’t have been further from what
Siesta had hoped for, or from my own ideal.
“The future is incredibly unstable right now.” Mia had been
listening to us with her eyes closed; as she spoke, she opened
them again slowly. “Because of your actions, there is no set route
regarding the battle with Seed any longer. There’s nothing I can
observe now, including who will win or how it will happen.”
That was the conclusion Mia Whitlock the Oracle had come to.
Even the Tuner who saw the future couldn’t see how this story
would end.—But…
“Our loss isn’t set in stone, either.” True, this was nothing like
how I’d visualized it would be. I’d lost three precious friends. But
our last hope was still standing next to me. “Isn’t that right,
Siesta?”
I gazed at that “hope,” the Ace Detective.
If the future was undecided, then we’d defeat the world’s
enemy with our own hands and rescue all our friends. That was
the ending Siesta was aiming for.
“Yes. That’s why I came back.”
 Siesta’s fleeting smile wasn’t confident, like one a hero of a
story would have worn. Right now, though, when we couldn’t see
the light, just having her with me made me believe I could still
make it until tomorrow.
“Assistant.” Siesta pointed at my chest, and I realized my phone
was vibrating in my jacket’s inner pocket. I checked the name on
the display, then picked up.
“Hey, you damn brat. Finally got out of bed, huh?”
I heard someone blow cigarette smoke on the other end of the
line.
It was Fuubi Kase, the person who’d first told me Nagisa
Natsunagi was dead.
“Ms. Fuubi. It’s like I thought—we can’t give up on Natsunagi…”
“Kimihiko Kimizuka,” an ice-cold voice said from the receiver. “If
you’ve got time to cling to hope, then pick up your weapon.”
…Yeah. That was the sort of person Fuubi Kase was.
She’d been assigned the role of Assassin, an ally of justice—no,
an enemy of evil—who eradicated the world’s crises. She didn’t
cling to temporary emotions or 1 percent chance of hope. She
believed in nothing but solid logic and the strength she herself
had built up, and she used those things to defeat the enemies of
the world. It wasn’t long before I realized a situation where we’d
need them was bearing down on us.
“________!”
The crisis began with a sudden ringing in my ears.
It felt as if an enormous bell was clanging right next to me. My
head throbbed, and I felt sick to my stomach. The phone fell from
my hand, and I dropped to my knees.
“Kimihiko? …Boss!” Mia ran to me, but her eyes promptly turned
to Siesta. Apparently Siesta and I were the only ones this mystery
phenomenon was affecting.
“What’s…this…?” Like me, Siesta was kneeling on the floor. She
grimaced, holding her chest.
“The enemy’s attacking,” Ms. Fuubi said from my dropped
smartphone.
Just then, I heard a distant explosion.
 “What now…?” The headache and nausea had finally receded a
little, so I got to my feet and looked outside. “What’s…
happening?”
From above, at a height of four hundred and fifty meters, I saw
enormous tentacles attacking a cluster of skyscrapers.

Plant City 20XX

“What the heck is this?”
Once Siesta and I had recovered from the mysterious bouts of
nausea, we’d left the radio tower and raced to the scene.
However, the sight before us was so bizarre that I stopped in my
tracks.
The sun was down. Long, thick roots, which looked like
enormous tentacles, were coiling around the cluster of
skyscrapers. An astronomical number of vines had wrapped
around an elevated railway line, trapping a train. The streets were
in complete pandemonium. People panicking ran this way and
that, accidents were breaking out everywhere—smoke permeating
as flames shot up.
“Assistant!”
Just then, a powerful shock ran through me.
“…?!”
The next thing I knew, I was lying on the asphalt, and Siesta
was covering me.
A moment later, a pedestrian signal crashed down right beside
us. The weird plants were tangled around its support pole. I
should have given a little more thought to why there were so
many traffic accidents.
“What’s going on?”
Taking Siesta’s hand and getting to my feet, I looked around
again. The ground had split, and roots choked the buildings.
Traffic signals and signs had been destroyed, and many people
had already abandoned their cars. This city was in the process of
being conquered by plants… Or, actually, by the primordial seed.
“Assistant, look.” Siesta pointed urgently. A tentacle had
attacked a young man who hadn’t evacuated fast enough. It
coiled around and around him, then carried him off.
“Siesta, we’re going after it!”
What was the enemy planning to do with kidnapped civilians
this late in the game? Seed’s main objective wasn’t to attack the
human race…
“We’ll never make it in time if we just chase it.” Pulling me by
the hand, Siesta dashed up the fire escape of a nearby building.
From that high vantage point, she watched to see where the
tentacle went.
“That’s…”
A distant commercial-use building that was taller than the rest
had been punctured throughout by an enormous tree. In the
crown of that tree, I could see what appeared to be a big, ripe,
swollen fruit.
“Yui Saikawa is there.” Siesta was peering through a pair of
binoculars. She pointed at the upper floors of the building. “She
and several civilians are trapped inside that giant fruit.”
“Is she okay?!”
“She looks limp. She may be unconscious.”
—Still, now we knew where we had to go.
“Those trapped civilians are probably serving as nourishment.
Nutrients are being drained away from them and used to cultivate
Saikawa, the vessel.”
I see. Cultivating the vessel…or maybe repairing it.
During the fight a few days earlier, Saikawa had sustained
injuries even Seed hadn’t seen coming. He was probably trying to
heal her damaged body, to restore her strength as a vessel. At
this point, the process was most likely in its final phase.
“Siesta, let’s hurry.” We’d learned the enemy’s objective and
where our friend was. In that case, we didn’t have time to hang
out on these stairs and watch. “We need to get to Saikawa fast—”
Before the words were out of my mouth, my body rose into the
air.
“Assistant!” Siesta screamed; she was peering down at me. It
wasn’t until then that I realized I was falling. In the same
moment, a vine had stretched up from the ground and destroyed
the stairway.
 “_____!”
Even if I managed to land using proper form, I was plunging
toward concrete from ten meters high. Was landing safely even
possible? Hoping that the seed I’d swallowed had made my body
a bit sturdier, I kept falling—
“Hm?”
A few seconds later, I collided with something, but the impact
was nowhere near what I’d expected. When I dubiously opened
my eyes, I saw…
“Hey, you damn brat. Now you’re indebted to me for life.”
The irritating redheaded policewoman was cradling me in her
arms, looking triumphant.
“…How many kilograms of force do you think that was?
Hundreds?” Staring at Ms. Fuubi’s face at close range, I forced a
smile. I weighed a shade under sixty kilos. Not only that, but
when you considered how far I’d fallen straight down…
“Don’t underestimate the police. I can carry an African elephant
in one hand.”
…That’s really scary. I don’t think I’ll be defying her again, ever.
“Assistant!”
Siesta made a clean landing on the asphalt. She might be a little
late, but she’d just casually pulled off a superhuman feat of her
own.
“It’s been a while, Ace Detective.” Ms. Fuubi grinned. She didn’t
seem startled to see her. It was as if she’d already known Siesta
had come back to life.
“I do feel bad for having caused trouble for you after my death.”
Siesta gave an apology that only someone who’d been resurrected
could give. “I’m also grateful that you protected the others,
Charlie included.” But even as she spoke to Ms. Fuubi, her eyes
were cold.
“Hm? Oh, yeah, I’ll give him back.” Joking around, Ms. Fuubi
lowered me to the ground.
“And? What’s the situation?” Siesta asked. Since Ms. Fuubi had
called us about this, she had to know something.
“From what I hear, it all came out of nowhere. A huge tree grew
up through a building that was smack in the middle of town; then
the ground fissured and plants started attacking people. Right
now, even the police are panicking.” Ms. Fuubi sighed.
“And Seed is nearby, too?” I asked. If our enemy had triggered
a situation this massive, I couldn’t imagine that he wasn’t here.
“Good question. I dunno what he looks like.”
“I don’t suppose you’re Seed, are you?” Siesta inquired casually.
Come to think of it, about a year ago in London, Seed had made
contact with us disguised as Ms. Fuubi.
“Ha! Did your deductive skills dull while you were dead?” Ms.
Fuubi dismissed Siesta’s question with a laugh. “If I were the
enemy, I would have killed that brat a second ago.”
Oh, yeah, probably. So this was the genuine Fuubi Kase, then.
“In that case, are you sure you’re okay with this?” Siesta
watched Ms. Fuubi dubiously. “The mission of defeating SPES was
assigned to me, the Ace Detective. You’re the Assassin; ordinarily,
you wouldn’t be allowed to help me with this.”
That was a rule set by something called the Federal Charter.
Since there were countless global crises, they were each handled
by a predetermined Tuner. Seed’s attack had been assigned to the
Ace Detective.
“Help you? Nah. I was just cleaning up after you people.” Ms.
Fuubi gave us a mean little smile. “For now, I’m taking a
temporary break from my Assassin work. I’ll evacuate the
civilians; you focus on rescuing Yui Saikawa and defeating the
enemy.”
Then she tossed her survival knife to me. “I’m off to do my duty
as a police officer,” she told me, red ponytail swaying. Her
expression was bursting with confidence.
“Let’s go, Assistant,” Siesta said, and the two of us started
toward Saikawa again. We were headed for the retail building
we’d seen from the stairs, the one that had fused with the huge
tree. Pushing upstream against the fleeing crowd, we raced to the
scene.
“How are we going to rescue Saikawa?”
“I suppose we’ll just have to climb up the side of the building—
Wait, remind me: Can you do things like that?”
 “I’m surprised you thought there was even a one percent
chance that I could.”
“Hmm. Maybe I should have stolen that spider-fellow’s ability,”
Siesta said. She was talking about a pseudohuman we’d defeated
ages back.
Come to think of it, did Siesta know I’d swallowed Chameleon’s
seed? The seed was a double-edged sword; it gave you special
abilities, but in exchange, you had to sacrifice one of your senses
or some years of your life. If Siesta knew I’d eaten it so I could
get her back, what would she say? Would she be worried for me,
or—?
“Assistant?”
My silence seemed to strike Siesta as odd. She turned back,
staring at me.
“No, it’s nothing. Let’s hurry,” I said, making a run for my friend.
“Yes. Seriously, do hurry. I’ve been matching your pace all this
time.”
“…I’m starting to think it would be faster if you carried me
piggyback.”

That was how we did things

From the scramble intersection, we looked up at the eight-story
shopping mall. A huge tree grew straight up through its center,
and thick branches had broken through windows and walls.
“Saikawa…”
In the crown of the tree, which was practically part of the
structure now, we could see a fruit-like object. Saikawa and other
regular citizens were trapped inside its eye-catching ripe skin.
“It doesn’t look like scaling the outside is going to work.”
“Then we’ll just have to go through the inside, huh?”
That enormous tree had suddenly sprouted and impaled the
building. There was no telling what the inside would look like.
Even if we made it up to the fruit, we wouldn’t be able to rescue
everybody at once. If we could retrieve Saikawa, though, the flow
of nutrients should stop, and that would save the civilians.
 As I was thinking, I looked up at the building again and spotted
a helicopter in the dark sky. Were they taking an aerial survey of
the damage?
“…Hm?”
Just then, a long, thin tentacle stretched up out of nowhere and
grabbed the helicopter’s tail rotor. There was only one way I could
see that playing out.
“Assistant!”
Even before I could move, Siesta’s sharp voice hit me, followed
by the rest of her: She’d tackled me, pushing me to the ground to
protect me. The next instant, an explosion pierced my ears.
“……! Siesta!”
We were a good distance from the crash, but even then, an
intense blast of heat hit us. The black smoke was so thick, I
couldn’t open my eyes. I called out to the detective…but there
was no answer. I couldn’t even sense her presence. No way… I
raised my head, and just then, a gunshot rang out. The bullet split
the wind, cutting through the smoke.
“It’s a hundred years too early for you to worry about me.”
Siesta stood in front of me, musket at the ready. She knew I’d
never catch up to her.
Beyond the distant flames from the explosion, I spotted the
silhouette of an enemy I’d seen just the other day.
“—It’s been a long time, but I see you haven’t changed.” Out of
the gradually clearing smoke, Seed spoke to Siesta. He normally
couldn’t tell humans apart, but Siesta had been a candidate
vessel, so perhaps she was a special case.
“You, on the other hand, take on a different shape every time I
see you.” Siesta was expressionless. She must have been
watching her enemy transform ever since their first encounter six
years ago.
However, Seed looked nearly the same as he had when I’d met
him a week ago. His long white hair was mixed with strands of
gray, and he wore armor that came up to his neck. His face
seemed lifeless, his features androgynous. He had the eyes of a
creature that had abandoned all emotions and everything else. As
if he’d cut them off and thrown them away.
 “I do think you used to be a bit more human, though,” Siesta
said unexpectedly. Even if Seed was a plant that had flown here
from outer space, Siesta seemed to imply that he’d once
resembled us.
“What are you getting at?” Granted, Seed didn’t seem able to
understand human words. He cocked his head, mystified.
He wasn’t playing dumb. He also wasn’t doing what Hel did
when she’d been pretending not to notice her feelings of love.
The fact that Natsunagi had bombarded him with her strong
emotions and still hadn’t managed to defeat him was proof: The
primordial seed had nothing resembling feelings.
“Enough arguing. I’ve already issued the order.” Four tentacles
stretched from Seed’s back, and thick briars grew from the
cracked ground. The seeds he’d sown all over the world were
ready to sprout.
“The vessel will be complete soon. For now, I’ll eliminate the
enemies who threaten my survival instinct.”
Then Seed’s tentacles and the tips of all the plants under his
control streaked toward us. As he said, there would be no
resolving this through debate. We were heading into the genuine
final showdown.
Still, even if he’d taken damage the other day, would we have a
fair fighting chance against him? It was nighttime, so we couldn’t
expect any help from the sunlight that made him weak.
“What do we do, Siesta?” I asked, coming up to stand beside
the world’s most reliable partner.
“It’s fine. I’ve got an idea.”
Yeah, that’s it. This reassuring feeling. She’d always protected
me this way, with that big metaphorical umbrella of hers. Yes,
she’d picked me up just like this, and…
“…Hm?”
Throwing me over her shoulder, Siesta started forward and
skillfully dodged tentacles as they stabbed into the ground. Then,
leaping as if she were taking flight, Siesta threw me past Seed.
“Not fair!”
I tumbled right into the entryway of a building. The exact one
we were here for, so—
 “Take care of Yui.”
“…For once, could you explain what you’re doing before you do
it?”

To all living creatures

Looking back, whenever Siesta said she had a good idea, it was
usually a bad one for me. I didn’t have time to complain right
now, though.
“I’ll be back in ten minutes.”
Turning away from the battlefield, I set off to rescue Saikawa.
Ten minutes. Would Siesta be able to withstand the enemy’s
attacks that long? For now, I had to believe in her. She’d chosen
to send me, and I needed to respect her choice. Besides…at this
point, I couldn’t see her choosing to sacrifice herself.
I made my way through the mall, the former heart of a space
for teenagers. Just a few hours ago, it must have been bustling
with people, but now it was changed beyond recognition.
“So I can’t use the escalators or the elevators.”
The building’s power was out, and it was dark. The huge tree
stretched up through the center of the floors, and viny plants
grew thickly all over the place. Pushing my way through them, I
spotted a stairway.
I was pretty sure this building had eight floors. From there, I’d
have to get up to the roof, then jump down onto that big fruit. I
had a mental image of how it should go, but would it really be
that easy to rescue Saikawa? …There was so much to think about
that it was giving me a headache.
Siesta was fighting with Seed, and Saikawa had been captured.
Charlie was still in the hospital in critical condition, and Natsunagi
—
“………!”
As a rule, nothing I did could change their fates, and I knew
there was no point in thinking about it now. Even so, as I ran up
the stairs two at a time, the girls’ faces came to mind.
I’d been alone. The next thing I knew, though, they were with
me, by my side. I’d gained so many things that were important to
me, without even meaning to. When people found something
more precious than themselves, I was sure they—
“!”
I saw a figure huddled on the landing between the fourth and
fifth floors.
“Are you okay?”
Was it a shopper who hadn’t gotten away in time, or a civilian
who’d been snatched by a tentacle? I couldn’t see that well in the
dark, but I reached out toward the hunched back.
“—Gah, aaaaaaaaah!”
The huddled figure gave a piercing shriek, then whipped around
and leaped at me.
Like a zombie, it made a grab for me. It wasn’t as strong as I’d
thought, though. I swept its feet out from under it, pinned it, and
held a gun to its head.
“You’re…”
My gun was trained on an enemy I’d met on the battlefield
many times: Chameleon.
“…No.”
It didn’t take me long to realize this wasn’t the actual
Chameleon I’d fought. It was a doll. When I’d encountered Seed
at the SPES laboratory a year ago, he’d been cutting off bits of his
own body and making temporary clones. This doll was probably
something similar; it didn’t have as much strength as a
pseudohuman, and it was hard to define it as either animal or
plant.
“Forgive me.”
Even so, I murmured to it briefly, then shot through its head.
The Chameleon doll shriveled up; it was like watching a plant die
in fast-forward.
“—I, w—”
At last, with a strangled whimper, the doll vanished.
Ow?
I thought about what that expression of pain meant.
Was the impulse to scream from pain different from “emotion”?
Seed had no emotions whatsoever. In that case, the clones he’d
created—
 “Complete the mission,” said a voice behind me.
When I turned, there were enormous, razor-sharp claws right in
my face.
“—!” I lost my balance but managed to dodge, then got a good
look at my attacker. “You’re as huge as ever, Cerberus.”
The pseudohuman Cerberus was a hulking, priestlike man who
was around two meters tall. Just as he’d done during our previous
encounter, he had transformed fully into a beast-man.
“Sorry, but I don’t have time to deal with you, either.” With no
hesitation, I pulled the trigger, finishing the enemy with three
shots.
“—I, wa—” Cerberus cried in a thin voice. This was another
hastily made plant doll. It would have taken a lot more than that
to stop the real Cerberus, but with those three shots, he toppled
toward me, apparently dead.
He was two meters tall, and yet, as his body fell against me, he
seemed to weigh practically nothing. He began to dry up and
crumble away. At the very end, the proud wolf murmured
something in my ear.
“—I want to live.”
I want to live.
Not Ow. They’d been saying they wanted to live.
Both Chameleon and Cerberus. All living creatures. They all
want to survive, to live. Just as I’d wanted to bring Siesta back
from the dead and had wanted Natsunagi to live.
“Everybody’s like that.”
Belatedly, I understood. The fear of death was a basic emotion,
an instinct nobody could deny. Dolls, plants, pseudohumans…
When I let those words affect me, I almost forgot.
Hel and Bat, of course, but also Chameleon and Cerberus, and
the clones I’d fought all this time—They feared death just as
ordinary humans did. They got angry and occasionally showed
other emotions.
The loyalty Cerberus felt toward Seed, the sadism Chameleon
inflicted on Natsunagi, and the hostility he’d showed me. Those
were all clear examples of feelings. That’s right: Unlike the
primordial seed, the clones had unmistakable emotio—
 “—No, that’s wrong.”
Like a jolt of electricity, one theory raced through my brain.
Maybe I’d—maybe we’d—had the wrong idea all this time.
“That’s why you…”
Just then, a tremor made me stumble. There was a fierce battle
going on outside, and I had no time to stand still. I hurried for the
roof.

Until we take them all home someday

I raced up the stairs and finally reached the door at the top. I
shot out the lock, then kicked the door down and stepped outside.
“—! Here too?”
The crown of the great tree had burst out onto the roof,
covering the whole space with thick branches and leaves. Pushing
my way through them, I made for the edge.
“Saikawa!”
When I looked down, I saw the enormous fruit clinging to the
wall of the building a few meters below. From a distance, it had
looked like a distorted semicircle, but from this angle, it was
closer to a cross-section of a pomegranate. Saikawa and the other
sleeping figures were surrounded by globules of dark red pulp.
Steeling myself, I jumped down onto the fruit—and luckily, it
was sturdy enough to hold the weight of another human, because
I managed to land safely.
“If I cut these stems…”
Thick plant stems were tangled around Saikawa and the bodies
of several civilians; they seemed to be transporting nutrients, as if
they were pipes. Pulling out the survival knife Ms. Fuubi had
loaned me, I began to cut through them one by one. However, it
was a process of trial and error—
“Give me a break already!”
A tentacle that had penetrated through the wall of the building
reached toward me. It seemed to have grown out of the great
tree that pierced the mall, and I guessed this was a defense
system, meant to drive away undesirables.
“—!”
 There was a total of three tentacles now. Hastily leveling my
gun, I fired one shot, two…and realized I was out of bullets. I had
no way to avoid the third tentacle. Not good, I thought—but then
I noticed I had an incoming call.
“—You saved my butt, Charlotte.”
A third bullet sliced through the wind and blew the last tentacle
away.
“As expected of you. You’ve got to be five hundred meters from
here.”
Guessing where she was from the angle of the shot, I spoke to
her through my wireless earphone, keeping my eyes fixed on the
distant building.
“That was nothing,” she responded after a few seconds. “A first-
class sniper can kill an enemy from two kilometers away.”
She was tough on herself, as you’d expect from an agent who
was training under the world’s toughest boss.
“Charlie, are you okay? Ms. Fuubi didn’t say a thing…”
It had been three days since I’d first heard that Charlie was in a
coma, and Ms. Fuubi was supposed to call me if her condition
changed.
“Do you think that woman would take care of me for three
whole days?”
…That was disturbingly convincing.
“I’m not okay just yet, so this is the best I can do.” She was
laughing at herself. She still couldn’t move as well as she wanted
to.
“That was plenty helpful. But how did you get from the hospital
to that building?”
“She brought me here.”
Charlie was referring to Noches, who must have told her about
Natsunagi and Siesta, too.
“I see. Okay, Charlie, you head somewhere safe as well.”
“Kimizuka.” Just as I was about to hang up, she said my name.
“Take care of our companion.”
It was a pretty common line. For anyone who worked as part of
a unit or team, it would have been a totally natural exchange.
However, coming from Charlotte Arisaka Anderson, the words
probably carried several times more weight than usual.
“Yeah, I know.” So, as I ended the call, I made sure my short
reply had years’ worth of feelings in it, too.
“Saikawa, it’s time to wake up.”
 I cut the last stalk, the one that connected Saikawa to the fruit
itself, and shook her awake.
“…Kimi…zuka…?”
Saikawa’s eyes opened a bit. She wasn’t wearing her eye patch,
and I caught a glimpse of that distinct ocean blue.
“Yep, I’m one of the Kimizukas. Kimihiko, to be exact.” I
scooped Saikawa into my arms, princess-style.
“You came…to rescue me?”
“While getting rescued myself, yeah.”
Ms. Fuubi and Siesta had both saved me from deep trouble. So
had Charlie, just before. I still wasn’t strong enough to protect
everything that was important to me all on my own. Even now, I’d
just happened to score the chance to play hero.
“…You haven’t changed at all, Kimizuka.” Saikawa gave a wry,
mildly chagrined smile. “It’s all right. You don’t always need to
have a punchline ready.”
“You’re saying it’s okay to play the dashing hero every once in a
while?” It had been a few days since the last time we bantered.
We’d have to finish up this routine after we got down, though…
After everything was over. Holding Saikawa, I prepared to jump.
“Yes, but you don’t have to act.” Saikawa clung to me, and…
“You’ve been dashing as long as I’ve known you, Kimizuka.” She
murmured something in a tiny voice, but the wind carried it away.

The primordial wish

“Siesta!”
When I returned to the battlefield, I found Siesta a little ways
from the building. She had shallow cuts on her forehead and
shoulders, but she was steady on her feet.
“That didn’t take as long as I expected. I’d assumed you
wouldn’t be back for another two hours.” …As always, her opinion
of me was way too low. I was maybe two minutes late. “And?
What about Yui?”
“She’s safe. …We sort of fought at the end, though.”
Ultimately, I’d abandoned the idea of gallantly jumping off the
building, choosing to play it safe and climb back in through a
window instead. Apparently her judgment of me had taken a
steep dive. So unfair.
“Ms. Fuubi’s taking care of her now, so she’s in good hands.”
On my way down with Saikawa on my back, I’d run into the
redheaded policewoman, who’d attached an anchor-like tool onto
the building’s exterior wall. She’d asked me to rescue the other
people who were trapped in the fruit, and she was currently
making arrangements to evacuate Saikawa and the rest.
“So, Siesta. What’s the situation here?” I took another look
around. Most of the buildings were half-demolished and covered
in vines, and the cracks in the ground had gotten worse. This
place had lost all function as a city.
“I’d say we’re headed into Round Two.” Suddenly, Siesta sent a
sharp look at one of the destroyed buildings. Soon, from the
clouds of dust, someone appeared—
“Seed…”
Seed was swaying on his feet, and part of his armor had
crumbled away. The Ace Detective and the enemy of the world
must have been equally matched for those ten minutes.
“We rescued Saikawa,” I told Seed, coming up to stand beside
Siesta. “We’ll never let you touch her again. There are no
pseudohumans to help you out now. Seed, your plans end here.”
I pointed my Magnum at the enemy. In the same moment,
Siesta aimed her musket straight at him.
“—Yes, I know. And so I retrieved that seed a short while ago.”
For a fraction of a second, I thought I saw a blue flare in the
depths of Seed’s colorless eyes. …He couldn’t mean he’d used the
fruit of the huge tree to extract the seed from Saikawa, could he?
“The vessel this body originally wanted is here.”
Eight tentacles stretched from Seed’s back, all reaching for
Siesta. There were too many of them to repel with bullets, and on
top of that, they regenerated fast. We hid in the shadow of a
demolished building, riding out the enemy’s attack.
“So that’s how it is.” Wiping sweat and blood from her forehead,
Siesta added to Seed’s remark. “He’s taking another shot at what
he tried last year. My heart is inside me now, and my body is
undamaged. Seed’s trying to secure me as a vessel.”
 “I see…”
One year ago, Siesta had died and lost her right to become
Seed’s vessel. However, now that she’d come back to life, she was
qualified again.
“You don’t have to worry, though. I won’t become a vessel.”
Siesta spoke firmly, and her expression was dauntless. “While you
were gone, Kimi, I realized something.”
“You did, huh? What a coincidence. So did I.”
We looked at each other, then exchanged nods. I didn’t know if
we were both assuming the same thing, but we couldn’t be too
far off.
“Assistant.”
Siesta pushed my head down just as one of the enemy’s
tentacles pulverized the exterior wall of our building. Using the
clouds of dust as cover, Siesta sprinted toward the enemy.
“—I’d predicted that attack already.”
Seed’s eight tentacles writhed like snakes, trying to catch Siesta
in the billowing dust, but she leapt from one to the next, racing
through the air and closing in on the enemy.
“Siesta!”
Just as she reached the spot directly above Seed, the tentacles
formed the shape of an open-mouthed carnivorous plant and
attempted to devour this foreign invader. Surrounded by a solid
wall of feelers, Siesta said—
“I’m too strong for you now.”
She shot her way out, scattering fragments of tentacle in all
directions. Plunging straight down into the enemy, Siesta blasted
a bullet into Seed’s neck.
“________!”
Maybe even Seed could feel pain: His face twisted slightly. The
neck armor Siesta had fired at fell apart, exposing the skin
underneath. In addition to the gunshot wound on the enemy’s
neck, there was a gash as if he’d been slashed with a large blade.
“You’re losing your ability to regenerate,” Siesta said. She
bounced back, light-footed in spite of the broken ground. “I heard
you took a dose of full sunlight and sustained a mortal injury
during your fight with Bat. It damaged your cells’ capacity for
regeneration. Moreover,” she continued, revealing another
conjecture she’d thought of during this battle, “in the process of
sharing abilities with your companions, you’ve been weakening
yourself.”
It wasn’t clear whether Seed was listening to her or not. His
neck was oozing a thick, viscous fluid, and he staggered.
“So although he was creating clones, he wasn’t simply
replicating,” I said.
Siesta nodded. “That’s right. Seed makes clones by distributing
his seeds with them. That means the more clones he makes, the
more power he loses.”
Seed had simply been transferring his power. As he shared his
abilities with his subordinates and scattered seeds across the
world, he’d been growing weaker. Siesta had noticed because
she’d fought him several years ago, and then again here and now.
Even so, he should have been far stronger than the average
pseudohuman, but that’s where Bat’s desperate gambit had come
in: After getting hit with sunlight, Seed’s body was having trouble
regenerating. Now that the Ace Detective had resurrected, she
could fight him as an equal.
“—I don’t understand,” Seed said. He bent his back forward, his
face turned toward the ground. “Why must my power be taken
from me and given to my clones?”
He wasn’t trying to pull one over on us, and he wasn’t playing
dumb. He genuinely didn’t understand.
“Because that’s what you wanted, right?”
I’d reminded him of the wish he’d forgotten.
“Seed, your wish. That survival instinct—”
Then I gave him the hypothesis I’d formed inside that building.
“Its real purpose was to help your descendants survive, wasn’t
it?”

Seed’s tentacle flew at me.

“……!”
Siesta stepped forward and blocked it, swinging her musket at it
like a sword.
 I couldn’t see any anger on Seed’s face. That attack had
seemed more of a defensive reaction, though, suggesting I’d hit
the nail on the head.
“You mean to say this survival instinct doesn’t exist for my
sake? That I have it merely so that those things will live?” Seed
asked, temporarily breaking off his attack.
He was talking about Cerberus and Chameleon. He was asking
himself whether creating those clones and leaving them on this
planet had always been his ultimate wish.
“And that’s why I unintentionally shared my power with them?
You’re saying I did so with the knowledge that it would age me?
Such self-sacrifice could never—”
“What’s so strange about that? I mean…” I answered Seed’s
question for him. “You’re their parent, right?” At that, Seed’s
unfocused eyes widened. “That’s why you shared your strength
and your emotions with your children.”
All this time, we’d had the wrong idea. It was true that Seed
had no emotions now, but that didn’t necessarily mean he’d
always been like that. Seed had made an emergency landing on
Earth fifty years ago and had subsequently infiltrated human
bodies, studying their structure. Since he’d learned how to
disguise himself as a human, it wouldn’t have been odd if he’d
acquired human emotions as well.
As a matter of fact, I’d seen signs of it. A year ago, when I’d
encountered Seed at SPES’s hideout on that deserted island, he’d
flown into a rage at Chameleon for interrupting his conversation.
It had been a small thing, but it was proof that Seed did feel
anger. Besides…
“Chameleon and Cerberus were born from you, Seed. If they
had emotions, it’s obviously due to their parent’s influence.”
Essentially, we’d been looking at it the wrong way.
Pseudohumans didn’t acquire feelings or personalities as they
grew. They inherited them from Seed, their parent.
Now that I thought about it, Seed’s tone and expressions really
were flatter than they had been a year ago. Every time he’d given
power to his children, he’d been cutting away his emotions. He’d
sacrificed those parts of himself for just one reason.
 “You didn’t want to ensure your survival. You only wanted to
leave your seeds behind.”
For living creatures, that was a natural instinct. It was a
primitive, inexorable emotion they developed: the desire to leave
descendants superseded their desire to survive. However, Seed
hadn’t noticed that… Or rather, he’d forgotten. A year ago, at that
laboratory, Seed had declared that he was going to bury this
planet in his seeds, and he’d called it “our objective.”
As he made more clones, he’d continued to lose his power and
his feelings, and finally he’d even lost sight of his original goal. His
bleached-out hair, those eyes that held no hint of emotion—before
he’d even noticed, Seed had lost his humanity.
“That’s why, Seed,” I continued. “You don’t want self-
preservation. You only want your children, your seeds, to survive
on this planet.”
That was the final deduction Siesta and I had reached for the
story of SPES.
“I see,” Seed said quietly. He was standing far away from us.
“So that is my ambition. The goal I’d forgotten. My reason for
living. The meaning of sowing seeds. My survival instinct—I see,
so that’s it. I understand everything.”
Now, when it was too late, he understood. If Seed had enough
emotion left to be self-deprecating, he would probably have spat
out the words with a sad smile.
He’d just proved our hypothesis. For the first time, humans and
the primordial seed shared a common awareness. We’d reached a
mutual understanding. Even so, I quickly learned that this
temporary stillness didn’t signal the end of the battle.
“If this body’s mission is to leave descendants, then I must not
die here.”
Sprouting one thick tentacle from his back, Seed stabbed it into
his own abdomen. He immediately gave a brief howl but stood
firm.
“Rise again, my comrade.”
The fluid that spilled from Seed’s stomach spread over a wide
patch of cracked ground, soaking in. And then…
“—Gugyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
 As if the gates of hell were rumbling open, disaster emerged
from the depths of the earth. At first, the stuff seeping out
appeared to be liquid, but it gradually assumed the shape of an
enormous four-legged beast.
A huge black body: the biological weapon Betelgeuse.
The creature had nothing resembling eyes, but as it gave a loud
roar, it definitely looked at us. My feet froze in place, but not
because I was scared of this monster. Memories of a year ago
were flooding my brain, and I couldn’t stop them. On that island,
this monster had taken Siesta and—
“Assistant!”
The voice that pulled me back to the present was real, not part
of that distant memory.
“……! Sorry.”
I looked up at the monster again. It was even bigger than it had
been last time, and its body was covered with black scales I
hadn’t seen before.
“—Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
The beast had to be at least ten meters long. It mowed down a
frozen traffic light, crushed an abandoned car underfoot, and
charged straight at us.
“……!”
It really wasn’t the sort of opponent we could ward off with
guns. Siesta and I sprinted out of its way; unable to stop,
Betelgeuse plowed into the building behind us. However, it
promptly turned back and zeroed in on us again, as if it had
picked up the scent of blood. If this kept up, it would wear us
down.
“Assistant.”
Just then, Siesta pointed up.
I heard the sound of engines coming from the sky.
Reinforcements. Had Ms. Fuubi arranged for them, or was it the
official military? A swarm of combat drones appeared from the far
side of the moon, preparing to launch missiles.
“That’s really nice of them, but…”
“They’ll take us out, too.”
Siesta and I exchanged nods, then booked it out of there.
 Within moments, we heard explosions rain down behind us and
felt the heat of the flames. I smelled something burning. Then…
“Gugyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
The roar was so loud that it would have ruptured our eardrums
if we hadn’t plugged our ears. However, it was proof that the
missiles had struck the monster. We dove into a mountain of
rubble, shielding ourselves from the hot wind, and watched the
thick smoke clear, but…
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
In moments, the monster was howling again. Maybe those
black scales prevented any attacks from going through. Ignoring
the vortex of flames, Betelgeuse shot out dozens of tentacles
from all over its body, striking at the unmanned aircraft.
“If any of those crash over here, we’ll be in trouble…”
Betelgeuse’s tentacles pursued the fleeing drones through the
night sky, smacking one then another into the distance.
“Now’s my chance.” Beside me, Siesta moved. “If I can just get
this bullet to penetrate it…”
A red bullet. It was the weapon Siesta had used against Bat
four years ago. If that were to hit its target, Betelgeuse’s
tentacles wouldn’t be able to attack her anymore.
While those tentacles were battling the last remaining drone,
she ran toward the enemy again.
“—Siesta!”
Just then, though, I felt Betelgeuse’s nonexistent eyes turn our
way. Its tentacles automatically homed in… The beast’s attention
had been focused on us all along.
“……!”
Deciding not to run away, Siesta shot the red bullet at the
enormous enemy. However, the monster’s scales repelled it.
“Siesta!”
My feet were moving before I could think.
Or rather, by the time I yelled her name, I was already right
next to her.
“……!”
I covered Siesta, but there was no way I’d be able to shield her
from the attack completely. I was ready to die when—
 Skash.
It sounded like a big blade slashing something apart. I didn’t
feel any pain, though. That meant it hadn’t been the monster’s
claws gouging my back. In that case—

“Don’t you think you should be my partner after all?”

A girl in a black overcoat swept a glowing red saber to the side.
Her long hair streamed in the wind. Through it, I caught
glimpses of her profile. It was the face of a girl I would have
risked anything to see again.

“Yeah, that wouldn’t be so bad—Hel.”

The three warriors

With a yelp of pain, Betelgeuse retreated. There was a large
wound in its right front leg; Hel’s red saber had shattered its
scales.
“This sword was specifically designed to destroy cells replicated
by the primordial seed.”
On that battlefield of scorched earth, the girl turned back,
lowering the tip of her saber. Her long hair was glossy black, and
her crimson eyes blazed. She wore a military-style black-and-red
coat, just as she had when I’d encountered her a year ago.
“Come to think of it, you used that sword on Cerberus before…”
I remembered something that had happened the night I first
met Hel. Back then, she’d beheaded the pseudohuman Cerberus
with one stroke of her sword.
“Yes, and on my own heart,” Hel said, laughing at herself. On
the day when Siesta had used her brainwashing ability against the
black-haired girl, Hel had lost her heart to her own blade.
 “Originally, Father gave it to me to prevent a rebellion among
our kind.” Hel looked past the giant monster to where Seed stood
limply, a hole in his abdomen, unconscious on his feet. Her eyes
narrowed sadly. “I never thought I’d end up using it against him.”
The armor over Seed’s neck was broken, and there was the
large unhealed cut. Who on earth had done that to him, and
when…? At this point, I didn’t even need to ask.
A few days earlier, in an abandoned building, one girl had risked
her life to fight Seed while I was unconscious. This girl in the
military uniform was more than just a reinforcement—she was a
ray of hope.
“You didn’t die, huh, Natsunagi?”
My voice was trembling. Actually, it wasn’t just my voice; my
legs were shaking so badly that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stay
on my feet, and I dropped to one knee.
Nagisa Natsunagi was alive. She’d survived.
“Don’t be relieved just yet.” The girl in the military uniform
sheathed her sword and came closer. “I’m only myself, not Nagisa
Natsunagi.”
Narrowing her red eyes, she stated the facts calmly. Natsunagi
hadn’t come back from the dead.
“Besides. It’s fine to think of my master, but right now, I wish
you’d look at me.” Kneeling, Hel placed a finger under my chin,
gazing into my eyes from a few centimeters away.
“—Hel,” the white-haired detective said. She’d been watching
the exchange from nearby.
“Hello there. It’s been a long time, Detective.” Hel rose to her
feet, and she and Siesta glared at each other.
A year ago, these two had fought each other in mortal combat,
and now here they were, face-to-face.
“Hel, why are you here?” Siesta asked about her motive for
helping us—No, that wasn’t all. She was asking what miracle had
let her survive.
“I received Father’s order as well. I believe you two know what
I’m talking about.”
 “……! That ringing in the ears?”
I remembered the noise I’d heard on the radio tower, like the
sound of an echoing bell. Why hadn’t Mia felt anything weird?
Why had Siesta and I been the only ones who heard the ringing?
It must have been because we both had a seed inside us.
“My master sustained a lethal wound, so her body temporarily
went dormant. Father’s seed reacted in self-defense.”
“Dormant plants… I see…”
Information I’d read somewhere before swirled around inside
my head. Such states were a defense system used by plants and
other living creatures to keep energy consumption as low as
possible while sustaining the bare minimum of biological activity.
For example, just as bears and moles hibernate for the winter,
living creatures will try to get through abrupt, life-threatening
changes to their environments by going to sleep for a while.
That system must have taken root in Natsunagi as well, since
she had Seed’s survival instinct in the form of his seed. When he
lethally injured her, she’d probably unconsciously stopped most of
her physical functions, including her brain stem, in an attempt to
preserve her life by lowering her energy consumption to the
absolute minimum.
“Come to think of it, Siesta also…”
A year ago, Siesta had stopped her own pulse and put herself in
suspended animation to ride out Chameleon’s attack. Had she
been using the same system in her own way?
“When it received that order from Father, the seed in this body
began to wake up again,” Hel told us, placing a hand on her
chest.
The primordial seed’s order had resonated with every seed he’d
sown across the planet. Hel had been no exception: The seed
inside her had set her body in motion again, urging her to the
battlefield.
—Except…
“But right now, your heart is…” Siesta gazed at the left side of
Hel’s chest; her expression was full of pain.
She was right. Even if she’d managed to hold on to a faint trace
of life by going dormant, and even if the seed had astonishing
powers of recovery, right now, Hel’s heart wasn’t—
“Before I answer that, we’ll need to do something about this.”
Hel’s eyes were on the monster. That grave wound had
threatened its survival instinct, and it was trembling with rage.
Betelgeuse gave a low growl, drooling, and fixed its invisible eyes
on the three of us.
“If you want that red bullet to sink in, you’ll need to destroy
those scales first. …So? What do you want to do, Miss Ace
Detective?” Hel asked Siesta.
“I really don’t think I’ll ever be friends with you.” Without even
glancing at her, Siesta heaved a sigh. “Please, Hel. I want you to
open a path for me,” she said, turning to a previous enemy for
help.
For a moment, Hel’s eyes widened in surprise—but just for a
moment. “I knew it. Having you ask me for favors is quite
gratifying.” The corners of her mouth rose in a satisfied smile.
“…Don’t get the wrong idea. I have no intention of getting
along with you.”
These two hadn’t reconciled, and they certainly weren’t
companions.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend— The white- and black-
haired girls, who’d once fought each other with sword and
musket, confronted the monster together.
“So what am I supposed to do?” I called out to them. It would
be all right for me to join the conversation now.
“Hm? Well, of course, Kimi—”
“You stay where you are, out of the way.”
Oof. Totally not fair.
“—Gugyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Just then, apparently tired of waiting, Betelgeuse gave a roar
and charged despite its wounded front leg. Every step made the
ground shake.
“Honestly. And I spent so much time training it…” Sighing, Hel
had a hand on her saber—then vanished. The very next instant,
the red blade slashed at the monster’s other front leg.
“What happened to fighting alongside each other?” Siesta
grumbled. It would be great if she took this opportunity to
understand how I felt.
“If it frustrates you, try to keep up.” Hel glanced back at Siesta
and smiled.
“…Maybe I’ll take you down first after all.” But even as she said
it, Siesta sprang forward and fired a bullet into the patch of
missing scales.
“With that huge body, one shot won’t do a thing.”
“I don’t need you to tell me that.”
Sniping at each other, the two of them threw themselves into
the battle against the monster. From the sidelines, it almost
looked like a fight between sisters. Since they’d inherited DNA
from the same parent through their seeds, the two could count as
siblings.
“—The same DNA, huh?”
Out of nowhere, I remembered the showdown they’d had on
that isolated island last year. At the end of it, Hel had stolen
Siesta’s heart and transplanted it into her own body. However,
Natsunagi’s plan had returned it to Siesta. In that case…whose
heart was Hel using now?
“_____! Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” The monster’s
scream was high and scratchy.
Dodging and weaving through its multitude of tentacles, Hel
and Siesta continued inflicting irreparable damage on Betelgeuse
as if this was some sort of competition.
“So, Hel. How exactly are you moving right now?” Keeping her
musket trained on the enemy, Siesta glanced at Hel’s chest. It was
as if she were trying to see the new heart that had to be in there
and identify its donor.
“I’m—we’re—borrowing that girl’s life.”
“…That girl?” Siesta furrowed her brows. Leaving her behind,
Hel darted in close to the enemy.
“—Is that what it is?”
I’d thought of one possibility for the identity of “that girl.” She’d
undergone clinical trials at SPES’s lab, and so she’d acquired the
same DNA from Seed as Natsunagi had…
“Will it be a bit quieter now?”
 Using slash attacks no ordinary eye could follow, Hel finally
brought the monster down. When she returned to stand next to
me, my eyes traveled to the left side of her chest. I had a hunch.

“Hel. The heart you have now is Alicia’s, isn’t it?”

Even before Hel reacted, Siesta’s eyes went wide.

Hel blinked slowly, and when her red eyes opened, they were
burning with quiet flame. “Yes. Right now, her pulse is what’s
keeping us alive.”
“…Why?” Siesta’s blue eyes wavered. “Why Alicia’s heart? Six
years ago, she—”
Alicia had died protecting Natsunagi and Siesta at the SPES
laboratory. …So what was her heart doing inside Hel?
“She was originally one of Father’s vessel candidates as well. As
a result, when that happened, special measures were taken.” Hel
relayed information from six years ago, facts she’d learned during
her time as a SPES executive. “That day, her body rejected
Father’s seed and died. However, since she had been a vessel
candidate, her organs were valuable specimens. Just as your body
survived through cryonics, they preserved her heart in a special
environment.”
When I heard that, I remembered my visit to that laboratory a
few days ago. Siesta hadn’t been the only one there; Alicia’s will
had been sleeping there as well.
“Alicia’s heart has Seed’s DNA. I guess that’s why it was a match
for you.”
Six years ago, at the SPES lab, Siesta, Natsunagi, and Alicia had
been told they were participating in clinical trials and given
medication. The goal was clear: to prevent their bodies from
rejecting Seed if they became his vessel someday. They might
have had his cells implanted in them to act as antibodies.
“Yes, exactly. This heart belonged to a twelve-year-old, though.
It isn’t fully grown yet, which means I can’t push myself too
much.”
…Except Hel had just finished a very dynamic fight.
 “As a result, I don’t have as much power at my disposal as I
used to, but…” Hel was about to continue when her eyes suddenly
widened in surprise. She was looking at Siesta, who was crying.
“I’m sorry, Alicia.” A single tear trickled from the detective’s blue
eyes. “Six years ago, I couldn’t save you…”
It had happened before she became the Ace Detective. It was
her one regret, the one thing she couldn’t undo. That day was
what had pushed Siesta to start her journey in fighting against
the world’s enemies.
“I was weak back then. I couldn’t protect you—But…” Even
though tears were still rolling down her cheeks, Siesta’s voice was
dignified. “That’s not true anymore. I won’t let anyone take
anything else that’s precious to me. I want you to fight beside me
again.”
The detective extended her left hand to the companion in her
distant memories.
“My name is Hel. Code name: Hel. I tell you these words as the
queen who rules the land of the dead.” Hel looked straight at
Siesta. “Thank you for remembering me.”
It was the reverse of Alicia’s final wish. But I knew Hel had
picked up on the voice in her heart and relayed it to Siesta.
Immediately after that, the monster howled again. As if
preparing for its final attack, the dozens of tentacles on its back
lashed wildly. They’d been shot with the red bullet, though, and
they only struck at empty space: Siesta was standing in front of
us, and they couldn’t attack her.
“This six-year story is about to reach its climax.”
“Yes. Let’s all end it together.”
The white- and black-haired girls stood side by side, one
gripping her musket and the other her sword.
It might have been my imagination, but I thought I saw
another, smaller form standing between them.

The future entrusted to a neighbor

The fight seemed to last an eternity; we couldn’t let our guards
down for a moment. In terms of actual time, though, the battle
didn’t even last a few minutes. Finally, with a brief howl from the
monster, it was over.
“Did that do it?”
Siesta and Hel were panting, shoulders heaving. As I watched
their backs, I uncurled my clenched fists.
“…Hff…hff… Your pet is…far too…undisciplined.”
“……! …Hff. They do say little ones that cause you the most
trouble are the cutest.”
As they bantered, their eyes were fixed on the shopping mall,
which had fused with the huge tree. Betelgeuse was lying at its
foot. Siesta’s bullets and Hel’s slashes had finally made the
walking disaster stop moving.
“I was impressed you slid right up to the enemy and hit it with a
bullet at the end there.”
“Well, I didn’t want you to get all the glory.”
“You always did hate to lose, hero.”
Even as Hel and Siesta argued they exchanged a low-five
without turning to face each other. They weren’t enemies, and
they weren’t allies. They’d only shared a common goal
temporarily, and their united front had succeeded. But now…
“Be careful,” I told them, moving closer. What would happen
now that they’d defeated the biological weapon? I knew better
than anyone: I’d taken damage from it before.
“The pollen.”
Siesta narrowed her eyes, gazing into the distance. Large flower
buds had begun to sprout from Betelgeuse’s corpse. A year ago,
after the fight with Hel, I’d been hit by the pollen from those
flowers and lost my memories of the previous few hours. I’d
forgotten the truth of Siesta’s death and the feelings she’d
entrusted to me and spent a year soaking in tepid routine.
The same thing was about to happen now. We had to cut down
those buds before they opened—
“Something’s wrong.”
Just as I was about to move, Hel stopped me. The next instant,
the buds that had sprouted all over Betelgeuse began wilting en
masse.
 At first, I thought Siesta and Hel had beat Betelgeuse so
thoroughly that it no longer had the strength to make them
bloom. But when I considered who’d made Betelgeuse in the first
place, the answer was obvious.
“—Seed.”
Beneath the great tree, an unsteady humanoid silhouette
appeared beside the fallen monster.
It was Seed, the parent of all the clones.
The hole in his abdomen was closing, as if the cells were
regenerating. A few of his tentacles had crawled over the ground
and absorbed energy from Betelgeuse. Seed could share his own
power with the pseudohumans, and he could also take it back.
“Father,” Hel murmured. Her black hair fluttered in the wind,
and I couldn’t see her face.
“—Why?” Seed’s voice sounded staticky. “Hel, why are you on
their side? What’s become of your mission? Do you intend to wipe
out our seeds?” Seed was seeing his former right-hand woman
again for the first time in a year, but he felt nothing. He only
spoke to her coldly. “Come fight for me once more.”
“That was my plan all along. …At least, I wish I could tell you it
was.” Hel took a few steps toward Seed. “Unfortunately, I can’t
beat this ace detective. I got a good look at her during the fight,
and I’m sure of it. As I am now, I can’t inflict a single lethal
wound on her.”
As Hel coolly analyzed the difference in strength between
herself and Siesta, her expression softened. She knew better than
anyone that she was currently injured.
“Father, we lose.” With that, Hel announced the final result of
the long battle between SPES and the Ace Detective. She’d
determined that Seed couldn’t beat Siesta at this point, either.
“—In that case, Hel, become my vessel.”
But the answer Seed found was different.
For a moment, all three of us froze up.
“That is your mission and your reason for existing.”
…He was right. Hel had originally been a candidate vessel for
Seed. Until now, Siesta had been inside her, keeping Seed out, but
now that the two of them had separated, Seed would be able to
use either one.
“Me, be your vessel, Father…?” Hel’s red eyes wavered. Ever
since birth—ever since she’d come into being as a new personality
inside Natsunagi—Seed’s orders had been her only guiding star. To
Hel, they had been an absolute, unchanging spell that had bound
her. All of her personal principles had been influenced by him.
Now, after a full year, she’d received another mission from
Seed. In theory, fighting Siesta and winning was impossible, and
she could refuse. However, it was possible for her to serve as
Seed’s foundation. So the idea of Hel rejecting Seed’s order was—
“I refuse.”
Hel wasn’t the one who had answered.
Startled, she turned and looked at the white-haired detective.
“Why would you…?” Hel didn’t know why Siesta was protecting
her.
What situation would make shielding her former enemy worth
it?
“No idea.” Unusually, Siesta’s tone was rather childish.

“I don’t want that. That’s all.”

The Siesta who’d operated on logic would have considered that
conclusion unreasonable.
But Siesta was familiar with human emotions now.
It had to be because she’d spent the past year in the mind of a
girl whose feelings were more passionate than anyone else’s.
“—I see.”
When Hel heard that, she smiled. It wasn’t the conniving smile
of one forming a plot. Her face was bright, as if a weight had
been lifted off her shoulders.
“I’m sorry, Father. Seed, I mean.”
Then Hel gave a response to the mission that had been inside
her all these years.

“I’m choosing a future in which the people around me will

smile.”
 The saber in Hel’s right hand turned toward Seed.
This was the conclusion she’d come to. She’d once agonized
over the fact that she was no one, asking herself why she’d been
born, but now—in entrusting the proof of her existence to others,
she’d found her answer.
To Hel, those “others” were mirrors who would look at the self
she wasn’t able to see, viewing her from another perspective.
Just as Siesta had tried to protect her from the enemy. Just as
Natsunagi had taught her about the passion she’d been
unconsciously harboring. Hel had entrusted her course of action
to her friends who understood her better than she knew herself.
“Seed. With the sword you gave me, I’ll put an end to you.”
Hel’s red eyes flashed, and those words acquired a soul. It had
nothing to do with her seed’s ability, though. Hel had vowed to
steer this story to its conclusion.
“—So it is as I thought.”
Beside Betelgeuse’s withering body, Seed took Hel’s defection
quietly. There was no longer anyone on the battlefield to help
him. And yet he was still here. Seed’s instinct was to bear
descendants; what future would he choose on this battlefield?
“If the parent dies, he can’t leave any children.” Seed’s lightless
eyes began to glow dark violet.
“Assistant, are you ready?”
“Yeah. Have been for a year.”
It was the beginning of the final battle between SPES and the
Ace Detective.

The unhappy prince

Seed had declared his intent to fight again, to protect his instinct
to leave descendants. He seemed to have finished absorbing the
biological weapon’s energy; his body bulked up, and thick blood
vessels pulsed. Enormous tentacles grew from his shoulders; he
reminded me of a Chinese dragon.
“Siesta!” Watching the enemy prepare for war, I gripped my
gun. We were past the point where I could afford to be dead
weight.
 “Yes, let’s go.”
Siesta and I attacked from his right, while Hel dashed in from
the left, holding her saber at waist level. Right now, dealing with
those tentacles came first. Splitting up, we each targeted one,
and—
“I don’t need this right ear anymore.”
In the next instant, Seed’s right ear flew off.
For a brief moment, the sight stopped us in our tracks, but then
—
“I won’t let you do it.”
Realizing what was happening, Siesta fired at Seed.
“That ear had already fulfilled its purpose. It’s better to use its
energy for other things.”
Before Seed had finished speaking, the tentacle growing from
his right shoulder morphed into an enormous silver sword and
repelled Siesta’s bullet.
“Then take this!”
With a loud metallic crash, Hel’s red saber knocked the tentacle
away. That was all it did, though; she couldn’t sever it.
“……!”
The tentacle was even harder than Betelgeuse’s scales, and Hel
was forced into a one-sided defensive battle.
“Next, my left eye. I don’t need it, either.” As Seed spoke, the
light vanished from his purple eye. “It lost its power seven years
ago, in any case.”
Then the tentacle on his left shoulder split into a dozen feelers.
As if they had wills of their own, they lunged at Siesta.
“—! There’s too many of them!”
Siesta tried to fight back with her musket, but even when she
shot them off, the countless thin limbs started regenerating in
seconds. Like Hel, she was forced to concentrate on defense.
“…So it’s down to me, huh?”
With Hel and Siesta pinned, I was the only one left in this fight.
Using Chameleon’s transformation ability, I blended into the
scenery. Seed’s right ear had had extremely sharp hearing, just
like Bat’s. Now that he’d lost that, he wouldn’t be able to find me
easily. Invisible, I raced toward the enemy.
 “And my right eye. I’ll discard that as well,” Seed murmured
while his tentacles kept up their attack. The purple light vanished
from his right eye, and—
“……?!”
Just then, the ground jolted under me. A fissure? Maybe the
seeds he’d sown had sprouted again; I tripped over the cracked
ground, and then…
“……! Ghk—Ow…”
A thin briar had sprung up and skewered my right foot.
“Assistant!”
Siesta tried to run to me, but a massive wave of tentacles
attacked, blocking her way. Like me, Hel had been trapped by the
cracked ground, and she was desperately fighting the silver
tentacle.
“…So he doesn’t need sight or hearing, huh?”
Using my knife, I cut through the briar, then managed to get
back on my feet somehow. In that case… “It’s all on you, Siesta.”
After all this time, we didn’t need words. I just made eye
contact with her, then launched myself off the asphalt toward a
tentacle.
“……!”
A sharp pain ran through my wounded right foot. It didn’t
matter. Natsunagi must have felt the same fierce agony when
she’d faced this enormous evil all by herself.
I pushed through the pain and kept going, using the countless
tentacles as footholds. Traveling along a path of tentacles Siesta
had made that led to the enemy, I—
“I can catch the scent of human blood no matter where it is.”
Just before I reached Seed, a tentacle dug into my side. He’d
lost his sight, but Seed’s sense of smell was as sharp as
Cerberus’s, and he’d used that to locate me.
“You are not the one I gave this to. I’m reclaiming it.”
“….! Gahk—Hah…”
Seed’s thin tentacle raked through my insides and pulled
something out. I spat up dark red blood; my guts were shredded.
“Chameleon’s…seed…”
 Extracting the black lump that had been buried in me, Seed
absorbed it into his own body through his tentacle. I collapsed
before I even reached him.
“…! Assistant!”
It was Siesta’s voice. She rushed toward me, weaving through
the horde of tentacles.
“D-don’t.”
It was too convenient—my crisis galvanizing Siesta and helping
her knock all the tentacles away. If the enemy’s attacks had
thinned out at a time like this, it meant…
“……Oh.”
Maybe it was the effect of the reptile’s seed, which he’d taken
from me and absorbed. Seed’s tentacles had combined into one,
and it transformed into a huge snake, sprang at Siesta from
behind, and bit her on the neck.
“S-Siesta…”
She collapsed beside me, bleeding all the way from her neck to
her shoulders. “…It looks like…I blew it.”
“I told you…you freak out too much when I’m in trouble…”
Back when Hel had kidnapped me, Siesta had completely fallen
to pieces as she raced to the rescue. The ace detective is usually
cool and collected, but whenever this happens, all that goes out
the window. Man, I swear…
“…I suspect you like me way too much.”
“Are you stupid, Kimi?”
Even as we swapped jokes, we lay on the asphalt, our faces
twisted in pain.
“—I knew it.” My vision was blurry, but I could see Seed looking
down at us with blind eyes. “Because of your emotions, you
humans expose yourselves to mortal danger. They threaten your
survival instinct. How foolish,” he said. There wasn’t a trace of
anger or pity in his voice. He just spoke coldly, as if he were
stating a simple fact.
“You had emotions once too, remember?” I was gritting my
teeth so hard I thought they’d shatter as I tried to get up. “You
just gave them all away as you made descendants, and then you
forgot. Way back when, even you—”
 “Yes, that’s right. And so the primordial seed evolved.”
“…?” My mind was becoming hazy from the pain in my side, and
I couldn’t follow what he was saying.
“When it comes to protecting one’s survival instinct, emotions
are unnecessary. They are counterproductive, in fact. That is why
this body discarded them in the course of its evolution.”
…So that was how Seed saw it. Instinct and emotions were
different. In fact, emotions threatened the survival instinct, the
thing that was most important to Seed… Or to any living creature,
actually. As far as he was concerned, losing them was a step in
the right direction.
I had no words that could convince him otherwise. If I hadn’t
been bleeding, if my body had still done what I’d told it to, would
I have managed to argue back? …No, maybe nothing I came up
with logically would have worked. What would that girl have done
at a time like this? Nagisa Natsunagi, who’d always fought with
passion—
“—You haven’t lost your emotions yet.”
A sharp voice split the air. Still on my knees, I turned to look
back. The girl who stood there shared a face with the person I’d
been thinking of. She’d stabbed her red sword into the ground
and had both hands clasped around its hilt.
“You have one left. Just one.”
The uniformed girl was covered in cuts, but she confronted the
world’s enemy with dignity. Beside her lay the silver tentacle,
finally broken.
“What are you talking about?” Seed’s blind eyes gazed at Hel.
Biting her lip, Hel spoke about what had happened back then,
telling him things even I hadn’t known about. “That day, when
Nagisa Natsunagi slashed you, you said, ‘You too, Hel?’
Meaning…” She squeezed the hilt of the saber, the same blade
Natsunagi had used that day, and stated her conclusion:

“You were caught off guard by my rebellion, and it made you

sad.”
 The moment Hel said that, Seed’s plants all began to wither at
once. His sightless eyes widened.
“Our relationship was built on commands. You gave them; I
took them. That was all it was.” Quietly, Hel described the
connection she and Seed had formed over the course of several
years. It was similar to the way Siesta and I hadn’t been lovers or
friends, just odd business partners. “As far as you were
concerned, I was a convenient pawn. You didn’t tell me what the
sacred text really was. I didn’t even know you planned to use me
as your vessel.”
…She was right. When I’d met Hel a year ago, she’d had a blind
belief in Seed. As a separate personality that dwelled inside
Natsunagi, she’d had no choice. If she hadn’t created some sort
of bond, she wouldn’t have been able to find any meaning in her
own existence.
However, when Natsunagi had acquired Siesta’s heart, the
unconscious Hel had shared memories with Siesta, and she’d
realized that Seed had been using her all along.
“I was angry, and I felt betrayed. Maybe that’s why I didn’t put
up much of a fight even after the detective sealed me inside
Natsunagi, and why I’m turning my blade on you now that I’m
finally free. However…” Hel lowered her saber. “I realized that you
and I were the same. I tried to win your trust so that I would
have some bond connecting me to this world. In the same way,
you really just wanted someone to stay with you.”
It had to have been a miscalculation on Seed’s part: In order to
survive on this planet, he’d gotten too close to mankind. He’d
accidentally acquired human emotions, even though they clashed
with his survival instinct. But then, in the process of creating
pseudohumans, Seed had gradually lost both his power and those
feelings.
The emptiness he felt at that loss was far greater than when
he’d had nothing to lose. It was like when I’d lost my memories of
how Siesta had really died. Or when Siesta had forgotten she’d
known Alicia and Natsunagi. Or the way Natsunagi had gone so
long without knowing who she was.
 Seed was like us. Every time he created a child, he’d lost
emotions, and the widening hole in his heart had shocked him
more than anyone.
“Father.”
Hel called Seed by that name again.
Letting go of her weapon, she took a step closer to him, then
another. Her eyes were red and swollen from crying as she
shouted, “You trusted me, so I’ll say it in your place: Father,
you’re no monster! You wanted to be human; you couldn’t
possibly be a monster! You’ve lost your sight, your strength,
you’ve whittled down your life, all to protect your children. The
emotion that drove you is called—”
Just then, a tentacle that was no longer silver shot from Seed’s
right shoulder and pierced Hel’s left one.
“_____!”
Hel had on a pained expression, but she picked up her saber
and cut the tentacle away. “Fa…ther…”
“Don’t. That’s no longer Seed.” Siesta squeezed the words out,
her hands covering her wounded neck. “His mind has been taken
over…by that Ouroboros.”
Siesta looked up at the “snake” that had grown from Seed’s left
shoulder.

“Right ear, left eye, right eye, and then…your mind.”

In a voice like low static, the serpent spoke. It was as if it had
erased what little awareness and emotions Seed had left and now
was in control. “Ouroboros” was the name of Seed’s survival
instinct itself.
“—Blood. There’s not enough blood.”
Seed’s head hung limply. In his place, Ouroboros’s golden eyes
turned to glare at us.
“Assistant…”
“Siesta…”
Siesta and I reached out for each other. Neither of us was able
to stand yet.
“……Ghk.”
 Hel stood in front, shielding us. Ouroboros sprang at her, baring
its huge poisonous fangs—and just as my hazy eyes saw a spray
of blood, I blacked out.

The tale of the happy swallow

I was deep, deep in the light.
I turned my face away, squeezed my eyes shut, but the light
was so bright, it seemed to penetrate through my eyelids.
I was born as a terribly nebulous being: the second personality
of a girl. That girl—my master—had been physically frail since she
was small and had created me in an attempt to escape the pain of
her medical treatments.
As I shared my master’s suffering, I hugged my knees, locked
away in a world that held no one but me. Still, what I found
hardest to bear was the “light” the girl radiated.
That smile, bright as the summer sun. The only reason she
could smile like that was because I was bearing half her pain for
her, but as she talked cheerfully with her friends, she had no idea.
I couldn’t have hated her more.
We were two sides of the same coin, though, and one day, we
finally switched places.
“Your name is Hel. Code name: Hel.”
When I opened my eyes, the first voice I heard was Seed’s.
My name was Hel.
Code name: Hel.
When he called my name—when I, who was no one, had my
existence recognized—it felt as if a ray of darkness had appeared
in the light. I couldn’t imagine anything more pleasant than the
chill of that darkness.
“You have a mission. In order to protect your comrades, destroy
the world.” With that, Seed had handed me a book.
“Destroying the world is my duty?”
“Destroying the world is our method.”
I cocked my head, puzzled, and Seed—Father—went on.
 “You have only one duty. No matter what happens, your duty is
to survive.”
Looking back, maybe Father only said that in order to make his
plan a reality. A plausible white lie so that he’d be able to use me
as his vessel someday.
Still, when he said them, a certain emotion settled within me.
I’d acquired a bond that let me experience a desire to live. As a
result, I began to destroy the world in accordance with the book.
Later on, I would learn that it was a book of prophecies known as
“the sacred text.”
“I know this isn’t right.”
Even as I told myself that, I swung the red sword Father had
given me.
I thought things were best this way. A single black drop had
fallen into that dazzling light, and I clung to the stain. If doing so
would get this world, and Father, to acknowledge me… If my
mission was to be the world’s enemy, then I’d live for that alone.
If I’d made one miscalculation, it was this: Although I’d hated
that light and my master more than anything, somewhere along
the way, I’d begun to treasure them. That hesitation and
weakness had created this battlefield, and the thought made me
smile bitterly at my own pathetic weakness.
“—No. It wasn’t ‘somewhere along the way.’”
It had been like that all along. Nagisa and I were two sides of
the same coin, a reflection in a mirror.
My envy had belied my affection.
“Are you still alive?”
I’d fallen to my knees. Far overhead, the golden eyes of
Ouroboros looked down at me. This was Father’s survival instinct,
its physical manifestation. Did this mean I would have to cut off
its head before anything I said could reach him?
“Will you get up again? Will you give me more blood?”
The snake coiled in midair, and its red tongue flicked. My blood
contained Father’s DNA; it probably wanted to absorb it and build
up its strength.
“Don’t misunderstand, all right?”
 Stabbing my saber into the ground to use as a support, I got to
my feet. How could I go back into combat against it? How could I
stand up again? Apparently, the snake didn’t know. Well, it was
only instinct, with no memories or emotions, so there was
probably no help for that.
That person had definitely said it, though:
“Father ordered me to live, no matter what.”
Sorry, but I promised. Leveling the red sword Father had given
me, I charged at the enemy dominating the space under the great
tree.
“Don’t worry, Father. You don’t have to do this anymore. Your
first survival instinct has already been satisfied.”
Slashing through the briars that sprang up from the ground to
attack me, I ran toward him.
He was still unconscious on his feet. Most of his armor had
crumbled, and there were cracks in his body. His eyes were blind,
and I didn’t know whether his remaining ear could hear. He’d lost
his awareness and his emotions. He was simply waiting to dry up
and wither away. Even so, I shouted at him.
“What you wanted to leave behind is alive on this planet! The
sapphire eye, the ruby sword, a heart of lead—All of them are
here!”
Pseudohumans weren’t the only things Father had left in this
world.
A sapphire eye that could see through anything, even human
hearts.
A ruby-colored sword lit with the flames of passion.
A heart of lead that hadn’t broken, even after death.
Father must have wanted to protect all those things, really.
“—The ears that could have heard you are already gone.”
The tail of Ouroboros whipped toward me, slicing through the
wind. I was sure I saw the snake smirk at me, but in the next
moment, its golden eyes widened in surprise.
 That attack had been aimed at my heart, but it stopped dead
just before it reached my chest.
Why hadn’t the blade touched me? Exactly who had stopped it?
I didn’t even have to explain.
“The survival instinct you always prioritized will remain on this
planet as your undying legacy: the love that protected your
children to the end! That last wish will never die!”
That had to be the true essence of the primordial seed’s first
survival instinct.
The name of the emotion that Father had lost long ago.
“……! You stay out of this…!”
Ouroboros glared at its host. I was only a few meters away by
then, and it struck at me with its enormous fangs. I parried with
my saber, and the blow knocked me back a good distance.
“…Maybe I pushed myself a bit too hard.”
I’d been thrown onto the concrete. When I tried to get up, my
strength failed me, and I dropped to my knees. I hadn’t had
Alicia’s heart for very long—and only a few days ago, this body
had basically been dead. The fact that I’d gotten back up at all
should have counted as a miracle.
“—Ha…ha-ha.” The snake laughed, as if it were eating away at
the faint traces of emotion it had absorbed from Father. “Those
who’ve violated the principles of life have no right to live again—
or to defy this survival instinct.”
Then Ouroboros gave a great howl. It attacked with its
poisonous fangs again, and again I was thrown back.
“Sorry, Hel. I overslept.”
…But it was the detective’s assistant who’d thrown me off this
time.
“That’s just what I’d expect from my partner. You came to save
me.” With an intentionally fake smile, I let him help me up.
Then I heard a gunshot. The detective had also woken from her
nap and was battling Ouroboros with her musket.
“Sheesh. You two aren’t exactly unscathed either, you know.” I
sighed, looking at the boy; he was bleeding from his forehead and
stomach.
“Yeah. Well, you know, I couldn’t keep that promise.” He bit his
lip.
Promise. No doubt he meant the one he’d made to me a few
days earlier, while he was carrying Nagisa Natsunagi piggyback at
the laboratory. If he did anything to make my master cry—I’d kill
him twice.
Did that mean he was trying to protect her through me now? If
so… “That promise will never expire. Stay by my master from now
on.” I gripped my red sword again, turning to look at the enemy.
“—You’re going?” Realizing what I was about to attempt, the
boy held me back for a moment.
“Yes. You should go to your partner, too. I’m sure she could use
some help.”
“…Yeah. But you’re…”
His eyes were damp, to my surprise.
He couldn’t be feeling sympathy for me, the enemy, could he?
If he was, I felt like I might laugh just a little… But no, it wasn’t
funny. I hoped his indecisiveness wouldn’t hold him back… But we
could deal with that by having his partner train him properly. I
started toward the primordial seed again and turned back to the
boy one more time.
“I’m glad I was born.”

When I said it, for a moment, his eyes widened in surprise.

Then he gave a soft smile.
Why had I wanted to tell him that now? I wasn’t sure, but my
heart was calm.
“Take care of my master, Kimihiko Kimizuka.” With his name as
my final words, I ran like the wind.
On the way, my eyes met the white-haired girl’s blue ones.
A year ago, I’d asked the pair of enemies who stood in my way
how they could trust each other so much. I’d been sealed within
my master’s body before I’d managed to understand their
relationship. Now, though, I understood. No… They’d told me as
much back then.
 “It was their bond.”
Ouroboros’s tail was right in front of me, and as I murmured
those words to myself, I unconsciously cut it off with the shining
red sword. Exchanging one last, wordless look with the Ace
Detective, I launched myself off the ground.
“This is how she and I should be.”
Maybe it’s another sort of bond—although that would be
wrapping things up too neatly, I thought, smiling wryly.
In the end, at the very least, I’d formed a bond with Nagisa
Natsunagi. Now I had to tell Father about it. That was my final
mission.
“My legs will not stop.”
Using my word-soul ability, I gave myself an order. In response,
the sword in my hands blazed red. I’d channeled all of my seed’s
power, and even my own mind, into that red sword. Then I’d use
it to destroy the primordial seed itself—the Ouroboros was bound
to die as well. I ran toward Seed on legs that would never stop.
Father was at the foot of the building that had been pierced by
the tree. That tree had grown even bigger; by now, it had almost
swallowed the fifty-meter building.
“I will take responsibility for all our crimes.”
The wounds we’d inflicted on this world would never fully heal.
Shouldering all the sins, the bloodshed, and the weight of life, I
ran across the battlefield.
All the cells in my body. The power of the seed engraved in
each cell. My own consciousness. I focused all of these in the
palm of my hand, channeling them into the ruby sword.
“I believe that this was love.”
And then…
“Hel…!”
With Kimihiko Kimizuka yelling behind me, I ran my sword
through the primordial seed’s stomach.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
What was this emotion?
It wasn’t anger or sadness—but I had to scream. I couldn’t help
it.
 With the strength that could have shattered all the bones in my
body, I impaled Seed with my sword and pinned him to the
towering tree.
“_____! Hah…”
A small groan escaped Father’s lips, just above my head.
At the same time, I heard the monster’s dying shrieks behind
me.
Our final enemy had just perished.
“—H…Hel?”
I heard a familiar, beloved voice.
It was the voice that had given me my name six years ago.
“Yes. Code name: Hel. I’m right here.” I responded just as I had
on that day, but the answer I gave was different. “Father, let’s go
home. Back to the world where we belong.”
When I looked up—Was it my imagination? I thought his lips
held the faint suggestion of a smile.
“…Yes. I am a little tired.”
Father sounded almost like an ordinary human, and his words
were the last thing I heard. Falling against his chest, I slowly,
slowly closed my eyes.
Chapter 2
 Epilogue and Prologue
“I see. So one global crisis has ended.”
On the other end of the line, the girl gave a relieved sigh.
“Yeah. It’s been a week, but apparently the seal on Seed is
holding.” In the corridor of a certain small hospital, I leaned
against the wall.
One week ago, we’d tackled a worldwide calamity in that city
taken over by plants. Siesta, Hel, and I had fought Seed; we’d
ultimately won but at a heavy cost.
Hel, Nagisa Natsunagi’s second personality, had infused the red
sword with her own mind and the power of the seed inside her
and sealed them into the tree with Seed. That tree still towered
there, like a watchtower over mankind.
“Excellent work, Kimihiko,” said the girl on the phone. “You
chose a route for the future that even I couldn’t foresee, and you
saved the world magnificently. As a Tuner, you have my gratitude.
Thank you.”
Even through the call, and the nine thousand kilometers
between us, I could tell she was bowing.
“…I didn’t do anything.”
It was true that one global crisis was over, but I hadn’t been the
one to end it. The sacrifices of Siesta, Natsunagi, and many of our
comrades had done that. And finally, it had been Hel who’d put
Seed to sleep with the passion she’d inherited from her master.
Had she been happy in the end? I thought about it as I gazed
at the great tree. The dead can’t talk, which is why the living
should respect that silence. We shouldn’t speak on their behalf.
Even so, I thought in spite of myself. Hel’s life had been a
constant search for love. I couldn’t help but hope she’d sleep
peacefully in the shelter of that tree with Seed, who had finally
learned—or rather, remembered—what it meant to feel emotion.
“You’re the one who really had it rough, Mia,” I said, shifting the
topic to something else.
As the Oracle, Mia’s Tuner role was to foresee the world’s crises,
and she’d helped Siesta fight against Seed for years. She might
have even more history with him than I did. Now that their score
was finally settled, she’d returned to that clock tower in London.
“So did you. And? How are your injuries?”
“Oh, I’m well enough to talk on the phone.”
That said, Seed’s tentacle had ripped into my side. I could easily
still have been hovering between life and death. The effects of the
seed I’d swallowed seemed to have lingered, though. Thanks to
its astonishing powers of recovery, the wound had almost healed
over. Seed might have extracted it, but, for better or for worse,
maybe some of its effects would stick around. More importantly,
right now…
“If I had to say, Siesta took more damage.”
On the battlefield, Ouroboros had bitten Siesta’s neck and
inflicted a large wound. She’d been transported to this hospital,
and as of today, she’d finally recovered enough to be allowed to
have visitors. The fact that it required some time to heal despite
Siesta’s unusually strong powers of recovery showed how bad the
bite had actually been.
“I imagine she’ll heal more quickly if you pay her a visit, then.
Through the power of love, you know,” Mia joked.
“Is that another prophecy?”
“Women’s intuition.”
…Oh, is that right? Telling her I’d see her later, I hung up.
When I reached Siesta’s hospital room, I took a deep breath
outside the door.
I’d just reunited with my former partner after a year apart, and
due to the situation, we hadn’t been able to really talk before.
Now that we did have the time, what should we talk about? What
should I tell her? I couldn’t gather my thoughts properly, but I
opened the door anyway.
“Hey, how are you feeling?”
For a private room, it was pretty big.
The Ace Detective was sitting up in the bed by the window,
dressed in a hospital gown.
“I can’t believe you recovered first. I must be losing my touch.”
Siesta turned to look at me. The morning sun’s light shone against
her pale silver hair, and she had on a playful smile. I didn’t know if
you could call this “fine,” but she was feeling well enough to kid
around, at least.
“Charlie’s here too, huh?” I spotted the blond agent in a chair
near the bed. She must have come to visit Siesta, but she was
heavily bandaged herself. “…? What’s up, Charlie?”
Charlie still hadn’t spoken. She seemed restless; she kept
stealing glances at Siesta, then letting her gaze fall to her hands.
She’d always been really attached to the detective. I wouldn’t
have been surprised if she threw her arms around Siesta in joy,
but…
“Yes, that’s what I expected too at first.” Realizing what I was
actually asking, Siesta answered for Charlie. “Apparently seeing
me again for the first time in so long has made her shy, and she
doesn’t know how she should act around me.”
“M-Ma’am! Please don’t say it!” Charlie kept her eyes riveted on
her knees, but her face flushed apple red.
“Charlie, are you a lovestruck maiden or something?”
“Sh-shut up. You know I can’t help it.” Whatever this was, she
had it bad. Even when she snapped at me, her heart wasn’t in it.
“I mean, I had no idea a miracle like this could happen. …Well, of
course I believed, and I planned to do what had to be done. Now
that it’s actually come true, though, I don’t know what to do…,”
she murmured softly, clenching her fists.
“Come here.”
Watching her beloved apprentice, Siesta spoke to her gently.
Charlie’s shoulders flinched, and she slowly looked up.
“I’m sorry for making you sad.” Apologizing to Charlie the same
way she’d apologized to me, she gently stroked her head.
“……Mgh. Ma’am, Ma’am…!”
Charlie’s eyes opened wide, filled with tears. She clung to
Siesta, crying like a child.
“Yeesh. Just be honest about this stuff to begin with, wouldja?”
After I’d watched them for a little while, I smiled wryly and went
to change the flowers in the vase by the window.
“…You’re the last person I want to hear that from, Kimizuka.”
Charlie’s sharp ears had caught my murmur; she poked her head
out from within Siesta’s arms and glared at me.
 “You two haven’t changed a bit. Can’t you get along a little
better than that?”
“There will never be a day when Kimizuka and I get along!”
Resting her head on Siesta’s lap, Charlie started insulting me.
“I thought we’d started to understand each other a little.”
“It’s possible to understand something logically and still be
physically unable to stomach it.”
“Sorry, Siesta. I guess we’re exactly where we were a year ago.”
If this incident hadn’t been enough to bring us closer, it was
never gonna happen. Sighing, I sat down on a stool near the bed.
“Heh-heh!” Unexpectedly, Siesta’s lips softened into a smile. She
stroked Charlie’s hair. “It’s okay. It’s been a long time since I got
to see both of you doing your banter routine.”
““It’s not a routine, Ma’am!””
Charlie and I spoke in unison, then glared at each other.
In the middle of our mudslinging contest…
“I really wish you wouldn’t hold these fun little parties without
me!”
It was an idol with pink and white streaks in her hair and an eye
patch over her left eye: Yui Saikawa had arrived.
“Yui!” Charlie sat up with relief. …But her gaze was focused on
Saikawa at a lower angle than usual.
“Hey there. You okay now?”
“I’m just perfect! …Actually, that would be a bit of an
overstatement, but I’m doing well!” From her wheelchair, Saikawa
flashed us a peace sign. Her legs were fine, but she wasn’t strong
enough to walk yet. Noches, the maid formerly known as SIESTA,
was pushing the wheelchair. She’d been taking care of everyone
for the past week.
 “You always look so at home in that maid uniform.”
“And you always notice the same things, Kimihiko.”
I see. I knew she wasn’t complimenting me.
While Noches and I were talking…
“This is the first time we’ve met in person, isn’t it?” From the
bed, Siesta gave Saikawa a gentle smile.
“It’s nice to meet you, Siesta. I’m Yui Saikawa, the world’s
cutest idol!”
From her wheelchair, Saikawa gave her very best elevator pitch.
Siesta had known about Saikawa and had been working to protect
her from the shadows, but this was their first time meeting each
other in person.
“I’m told I caused you a lot of trouble. I’m sorry.” A slight
shadow fell across Saikawa’s smile, and she bowed her head.
Saikawa’s parents had once funded SPES’s activities.
“It’s nothing you need to apologize for, Yui.” Siesta stroked
Saikawa’s hair. “And thank you for staying with my assistant while
I was gone.”
“Siesta…” The two of them locked eyes, and then… “Yes,
honestly, taking care of Kimizuka was an awful lot of work. I
massaged him, I cooked for him… He may not look it, but he can
be quite a baby. There were times when I had to hold him
tightly…”
“Quit making stuff up.”
“Ow!”
I karate chopped Saikawa’s head. Her eyes teared up. “But I
wasn’t…” Her mumbling didn’t make much sense to me, though.
Siesta gave me a cold look, and I got the feeling she’d muttered a
certain word starting with “p,” but since there was some
conveniently loud construction work going on outside, I didn’t
catch it.
“Still, I see.” Siesta’s eyes softened, and she looked at me. “So
these are your current companions, Kimi.”
In addition to Siesta, there was Saikawa, Charlie, and Noches
present in the room. And although they weren’t physically here,
Mia and the redheaded policewoman probably counted, too.
 Compared to a few years ago, I definitely had more friends and
gained more precious things. Right now, I’m able to think that
from the bottom of my heart…or I should have been. However,
there was one person who wasn’t here, so I shook my head.
“There’s one more. If we left her out, she’d be madder than
anyone.” When they heard that, Saikawa and Charlie both looked
down.
Nagisa Natsunagi.
Alicia’s heart had been transplanted successfully, and the
primordial seed’s order had brought her out of her dormant state.
Then, during that final showdown, Hel had permanently sealed
her own mind. It wouldn’t have been odd for Natsunagi’s
personality to wake up and take her place.
But a week had passed, her injuries had been thoroughly
treated, and she still wouldn’t wake up. She was asleep in a
different hospital room all by herself.
“I haven’t forgotten her, of course. I couldn’t possibly forget,”
Siesta said. Her eyes were closed.
However, when she opened them, she said:

“And so, Assistant, let’s go on a journey to save our friend.”

She held out her left hand to me.

“But how?” Was there anything we could do?
As I hesitated, Siesta said, “There’s someone we still need to
meet and talk to.”
…Oh, right. That individual was deeply involved with our current
situation, but he hadn’t yet made an appearance. Over the past
week, I’d tried to make contact with him several times, but he’d
never shown himself.
From the way Siesta was talking, though, a meeting had been
arranged. There were a ton of things we’d have to discuss with
him.
“In that case, if you’re ready, shall we go see him?” Even
though Siesta was still on bed rest, she sat up as she spoke. “…
The underground doctor who saved all our lives.”
 He who protects the living
After I’d helped Siesta into a wheelchair, we headed for another
hospital room. We hadn’t wanted to barge in as a crowd, so the
two of us went on behalf of our group.
We made our way down the dingy corridor of the little hospital,
and when we opened the door of that room—we saw a girl lying
on the only bed.
“Natsunagi…”
Pushing Siesta’s wheelchair, I went closer.
I’d visited this room several times in the past week, but I still
hadn’t gotten to see Natsunagi smile like she used to.
“The conditions for Nagisa to awaken seem to be in place.”
From the wheelchair, Siesta gazed at her, analyzing the situation.
“All that’s left are the things we amateurs can’t pick up on.
Whether there’s serious internal damage, for example. Say she
managed to miraculously overcome brain death by going
dormant. It’s still possible that it put too much stress on her
cerebrum, and she’s fallen into a vegetative state.”
“Yeah, that’s about all I can think of, too. I spent the past week
reading through all the medical journals I could find, but an
amateur who’s studying this stuff on the fly was never going to
come up with a great theory anyway. Besides, since Natsunagi’s a
special case, previous case studies probably won’t be much help.”
That was exactly why we needed a specialist right now. This
medical expert had saved Natsunagi’s life once; he might know
what it would take to wake her up again.
“Before you worry about others, you should remember that
you’re badly injured yourselves.”

A man spoke behind us. I turned around…but he didn’t even

glance at me. Instead, he walked straight to Natsunagi.
“She’s making good progress. It appears there were no real
problems while I was away,” the man murmured in a rather
monotone voice, adjusting the IV drip in Natsunagi’s arm.
“Thanks for all your help,” I told him, and he finally turned to
look at us across the bed. He seemed to be in his midthirties. He
had bright blond hair, but the eyes behind his round glasses were
of a subdued color. Even at a glance, you could see his
intelligence in his features, and in his lab coat, he looked like a
knowledgeable researcher as well as a doctor.
“Do you mean with this girl? Or are you referring to yourself ?
I’ve taken care of more patients than I can count, so there are far
too many cases you could be referring to.”
It sounded like a joke, but the man spoke in a matter-of-fact
way, and his expression didn’t change. I guess I should’ve known
he wouldn’t be the type to crack jokes.
“I meant both of us. And Siesta, Saikawa, and Charlie, too,
actually… You helped all of them as well. I’m grateful.”
I didn’t just mean this time, either. I’d been brought here when
I was wounded in our previous battle with Seed, and this doctor
had treated me then, too. He was the director of the hospital and
the man I’d asked about Natsunagi’s condition.
From what I’d heard, this hospital didn’t take ordinary patients.
It existed to treat people in special situations like ours. During the
three years we’d spent traveling, both Siesta and I had been
saved by back-alley doctors like this one time and time again.
“No, there’s no need for gratitude. It’s my job—and the duty I
must fulfill in this world.”
…The conversation was oddly failing to connect. It was as if
none of his words were allowed to leave any room for
interpretation. He seemed to be refusing to read between the
lines, or to let us do it.
“I suppose I haven’t introduced myself.” The man didn’t bother
to read the mood or pick the correct moment, and his face stayed
blank.
“I am Stephen Bluefield—the Inventor.”

The Inventor. When I heard that, the first thing I thought of

was Thomas Edison, the world-famous king of inventions. If you
went back in time a bit, there was also Hiraga Gennai of Japan,
inventor of the electrostatic generator. However, the man probably
wasn’t talking about ordinary inventors like those.
 “He’s a Tuner,” Siesta chimed in; she’d been listening quietly up
till now. “He was involved in the manufacture of my Seven Tools
as well. He preserved my body cryogenically in suspended
animation, and he also equipped it with an AI and created Noches
—He’s the Inventor, an underground doctor.”
…So I’d been right about that. Two weeks ago, I’d had missed
the chance to meet him at the SPES hideout. Although I hadn’t
seen him then, this guy was the unknown doctor who’d based
himself within the lab. He was a Tuner, one of the world’s twelve
guardians.
“It’s been a long time, Stephen.” Siesta looked up at him from
her wheelchair.
These Tuners seemed to have a lot of shared history I didn’t
know about.
“Yes. Seeing you moving and talking this way makes it clear
that the yearlong course of experimental treatment was a
success.” Gazing at the patient for whom he’d done so much for
so long, Stephen smiled a little.
Siesta told him, “You and Nagisa saved my life. But, Stephen, if
you consider it your mission to save lives, then please: I want you
to save Nagisa this time.”
She was asking Stephen for help again, in order to repay the
debt she owed Natsunagi. She believed this man was the only one
who could possibly know how to wake her up.
“Daydream.” Stephen called Siesta by her nickname as he
entered notes into a patient chart. “You’re drastically
underestimating my skills as a physician.”
That didn’t seem right. Shouldn’t it have been “overestimating”?
He wasn’t being modest and telling her he didn’t have that kind
of power.
“In order to save my patients—my clients—I always do
everything I can. I pour my heart’s blood into the work and call
upon all the knowledge and technical skill I possess. If the patient
fails to wake up even then, I never blame myself. I’m aware that
I’ve already done all that could be done.”
There was no anger or dissatisfaction in his voice. He was just
telling us the cold, hard facts, and Siesta and I listened.
 “If there was anything I could still do for a patient, it would be
proof that I had previously cut corners. As a Tuner and a doctor, I
take pride in my principles, so I assure you, I’ve done everything I
could.”
At that point, I understood why Ms. Fuubi had told me “Nagisa
Natsunagi is dead” that day. She made that statement due to the
trust she placed in the Inventor.
Ms. Fuubi had to be familiar with Stephen Bluefield’s personal
philosophy. When he’d performed treatment and gave the
diagnosis of brain death, she’d understood there was nothing
more that could be done.
“That other time, too. So that’s why…”
Come to think of it, when I’d sworn to bring Siesta back to life a
few weeks ago, Fuubi had hinted at a possibility by telling me
about Mia Whitlock, the Oracle. Putting us in contact with Stephen
should have been the more natural thing to do, since the Inventor
had been involved in Siesta’s treatment.
But Ms. Fuubi hadn’t done that. She knew that the Inventor had
already done his best, so there was nothing left for him to do.
Still, I believed in miracles, and so she’d introduced me to the
Oracle; she hadn’t had any other leads.
“Therefore, there’s nothing else I can do for Nagisa Natsunagi.”
Telling us bluntly that the current treatment was the final option,
Stephen briskly turned and left the hospital room, white coat
flaring behind him. He’d been gone this whole week; he might be
on his way to see another patient with special circumstances.
“Wait.” Siesta rolled her wheelchair after Stephen. Following
them out to the corridor, I saw the Inventor had stopped. He still
had his back to her.
“I know about your philosophies, too,” Siesta told him. “You
have another one: You refuse to attempt surgeries that are one
hundred percent impossible. Meaning that if you were to get
involved, there’s a definite chance that that patient will be saved.”
It was the Inventor’s second conviction. Siesta was insisting
since that was the case, there must still be at least a 1 percent
chance that Natsunagi would wake up.
 “You diagnosed Nagisa as brain-dead, and you donated her
heart to me in accordance with her wishes. But you didn’t stop
there.”
She was right: Stephen had transplanted Alicia’s heart into
Natsunagi. Ordinarily, brain-dead patients had no chance of
recovery. Even so, Stephen had conducted the second transplant;
that had to mean he’d seen a possibility of at least 1 percent.
“On that day,” Stephen began, still with his back to us, “after
Nagisa was declared brain-dead, I did transplant her heart into
you. As a doctor, it was my job to do so. However…” He turned to
face us. “After that, I did my job as an inventor.”
The hint of a smile in his blue eyes was unsettling.
“I hate miracles that can’t be reproduced.”

His expression promptly reverted to the chilly, intelligent one

he’d worn earlier.
“Ordinary humans don’t come back to life. I’m aware of that.
Still, I was exceedingly conscious of the fact that your bodies are
not normal.” As Stephen spoke, he was gazing at Siesta—or
possibly at the left side of her chest. “I was also intrigued by the
primordial seed that made you this way.”
“Is that why you worked out of the SPES lab for so long?”
When Natsunagi and I visited the place two weeks ago, Noches
had mentioned that Stephen was researching the primordial seed
there while he continued Siesta’s treatment.
“That’s right. As a matter of fact, when the Daydream died a
year ago, I preserved her body with cryonics…but the operation
didn’t succeed through my skill alone. Immediately after death,
she made an involuntary attempt to preserve her life by going
dormant.”
Glancing at Siesta, he gave us additional information about how
she’d resurrected.
“Then, as I was performing Nagisa’s surgery, I had a sudden
revelation: As the sole fully compatible host for the primordial
seed, she might have done the same and intentionally put herself
into suspended animation.”
 That was what had led Stephen to help Natsunagi a second
time, even though she was supposed to be dead.
“That is why, after I had transplanted her heart into you, I
transplanted the girl Alicia’s heart into her. I was concerned
Nagisa’s heart might be too damaged for the procedure, so I had
brought a spare from the laboratory—and it proved to be the right
choice.”
“So that’s why Alicia’s heart was here…,” Siesta murmured.
The medication trials she, Natsunagi, and Alicia had undergone
six years ago had given them DNA from Seed. That was why their
three hearts were interchangeable and why the surgeries had
been a success.
“Both operations, including the transplants themselves,
succeeded without incident. However, neither you nor Nagisa
awakened immediately. In particular, Nagisa showed no vital
reactions that would overturn my diagnosis of brain death, and
the limit seemed to be drawing near. That was when you
happened to visit her hospital room,” Stephen told me. I
remembered taking Natsunagi’s steadily cooling hand about ten
days ago.
“Therefore, I did not retract my diagnosis of brain death, and I
felt that was the natural result. If this was a world where the dead
could be revived so easily, there would be no need for doctors.”
He had a point. In terms of modern medicine, Natsunagi had
died then. However, three days after that, Stephen had changed
his opinion. On that day, one week ago, Siesta had awakened,
and Hel had come back to life soon after. Over the course of three
days, the heart that had been Siesta’s to begin with had settled
into her body, and Seed’s order had awakened Natsunagi from
suspended animation.
“I hate thoughtless words like ‘miracle,’” Stephen said again.
“Why don’t miracles occur consistently? It’s illogical. I only believe
in things that can be repeated. On that point, since the primordial
seed has brought two humans back from the dead, it should be
referred to as a reproducible philosopher’s stone.”
“Then there could be a miracle that would wake Natsunagi
again…” But even as I said it, I spotted the problem.
 The primordial seed himself was already lost. Besides—
“There isn’t a fragment of the seed left in Nagisa’s body. I’ve
done all I can for an ordinary human.”
The argument had come full circle: Both as a doctor and an
inventor, Stephen had already performed his duty to the best of
his abilities. Now he was off to save some other patient with
special circumstances somewhere else—leaving Natsunagi behind.
“You used Alicia’s life…!”
My strangled voice echoed in the corridor.
He’d used Alicia’s heart, her life.
What if, after all that, Natsunagi never woke up? That couldn’t
possibly be okay.
“Assistant.” Siesta gently tugged the cuff of my sleeve. My fists
were clenched, and my nails were biting into my palms. One other
problem had crossed my mind.
…I knew Stephen had used Alicia’s heart to save Natsunagi, as
a doctor. But naturally, Alicia’s will hadn’t been involved. Had it
really been the right thing to do? I couldn’t—
“It isn’t my job to speak for the dead.” At the sound of
Stephen’s voice, I looked up. “The dead cannot speak for
themselves. That being the case, my mission is to save the life in
front of me. To help people through science. There can’t be
anything more to it.”
I knew that. Just guessing what someone would have wanted
and then actually wishing for it on their behalf would be
arrogance on the part of the living.
However, an idol had curtailed the debate with pretty words
once; she’d worn a nice dress and argued against the skepticism
with a song. I didn’t know whether that had been right or not.
—Still. If the dead can’t talk, it means the question doesn’t
exist, either. If there’s no question, then maybe there never was a
correct answer.
“Let me make this clear, Kimihiko Kimizuka.” Stephen said my
full name, even though I’d never told him what it was. “If it
means I will save two people, I will kill one. I can’t save all three.
Always think of the whole, the greatest good. Numbers are
everything. Whatever saves the greatest number of people is the
right thing to do. I work to save the living, and I have no time to
consider the last wishes of the dead. My next patient is waiting.”
With that, Stephen left.
In response…Alicia’s and Natsunagi’s smiling faces came to
mind, and I couldn’t respond at all.
“Let’s go back.” Siesta tugged gently on my cuff again. I nodded
wordlessly, then returned to the door of Natsunagi’s room, which
we’d left standing open.
“Sorry to make you listen to all that, Natsunagi,” I told her
sleeping form. I reached for her hand…but somehow I couldn’t
bring myself to take it. I felt as if I didn’t have the right,
considering how we still haven’t found a way to wake her up.
“…Hm? What’s this?”
I noticed there was something that looked like an old book
sitting on a nearby shelf. It was close to the spot where Stephen
had first stood.
“……! That’s—” Siesta’s blue eyes wavered, and I handed her
the book. When she opened it…the inside seemed to be a child’s
picture journal. In the photo, a girl with black hair was sitting on a
bed, chatting with a girl with white hair and another with pink hair
who stood near her.
“It’s Alicia’s diary,” Siesta murmured. She gently hugged the
book to her chest as if it were precious.
“…So we already had our answer.” When I saw Alicia’s journal
and Siesta’s profile, I remembered.
Alicia’s heart had awakened Natsunagi’s body once. I’d seen the
three young girls standing side by side. That was the answer.
Even if it was a selfish wish, I decided to believe in that sight and
in the words Hel had left behind.
“Hurry and wake up, Natsunagi,” I told the girl on the bed.
And then let’s have another stupid fight, like we always do.
 A journey to foretell the world
Three days passed. During that time, Siesta, Saikawa, Charlie,
and I all brainstormed ways to wake Natsunagi up.
Stephen, her attending physician, had already washed his hands
of the matter. He’d said something to the effect that there was
nothing else he could do, but that didn’t necessarily mean there
was actually nothing that could be done, period.
Working on that assumption, Siesta named an expert who could
step in for the Inventor, and we decided that she and I would go
find him right away. However…
“Say, can I order a snack?” Next to me, Siesta was holding an
in-flight menu.
I never imagined she’d drag me onto an airplane the day after
we got discharged from the hospital…
“They’re expensive, so no. I told you to buy something at the
kiosk, remember?”
“What could I do? That trouble on the train made us get there
at the very last minute. And it was mostly your fault, Kimi.”
Siesta’s apathetic eyes fixed on me. Sorry, but if you’re going to
hang out with me, you’re going to get dragged into random
trouble. Did she forget about that?
“Still.” Siesta gazed at me and shifted the conversation to
something else. “It’s been a long time since the two of us were on
a plane together, hasn’t it?”
We were currently cruising at ten thousand meters
aboveground. This was how I’d met Siesta on that fateful day four
years ago.
“Yeah. There’s no telling how many planes I rode with you after
that.”
“We racked up an unbelievable number of frequent-flyer miles,
didn’t we?”
Remembering those three years, we both laughed a little.
Today, we were bound for New York. In order to meet a certain
person, and attend a certain council, we were globe-trotting for
the first time in a year.
 “Are you really okay to travel, though?” I asked her again. She’d
been injured worse than I had, but she’d left the hospital and
boarded the plane as soon as she was able to walk.
“Yes, I’d like to hurry a bit.”
“Yeah. Both for Natsunagi and that council.” I followed up with a
question about one of our objectives. “And? What is this Federal
Council, exactly?”
The Federal Council—Siesta had asked me to accompany her to
a meeting of all the world’s Tuners. The council was apparently
held at random locations as needed; it would be in New York this
time, and since the Ace Detective was a Tuner, Siesta had an
obligation to attend.
“In simple terms, it’s a place where the twelve Tuners meet and
talk whenever the world has reached a major turning point.” As
Siesta answered, she was nibbling on a long, thin chocolate
snack. When had she bought those? “When a new global crisis is
looming, they decide who’s going to handle it. Since the
‘primordial seed’ crisis has passed this time, I suppose there’ll be
a postmortem report on that as well.”
“I see. So you’ll be reporting your achievements as the Ace
Detective, huh?” From what I was hearing, it sounded as if we’d
be the highlight of this conference, in a way. …Still, meeting in
person in this day and age made them seem like a pretty old-
fashioned crowd.
“Are you nervous?”
“I’m shaking from excitement.”
“Literally, it appears.”
You try getting dumped straight into a massively important
discussion that’s going to determine the future.
“Well, there’ll be plenty of people you know there. Like her, for
example.”
“Oh, Ms. Fuubi? Yeah, I’d wondered how you two knew each
other. I never figured it’d be this, though.”
After the hijacking four years ago, Siesta had handed Bat over
to Ms. Fuubi. They’d been connected before I was even aware of
it, comrades who protected the world from the shadows.
“So will Mia be there, too?”
 “That’s a good question. She’s never attended before.”
True, it was hard to picture a homebody like Mia attending such
a tense meeting. Come to think of it, Ms. Fuubi had said she’d
never met the Oracle.
“Then you mean people are allowed to skip this thing?” A
council that predicted the way of the world seemed like it would
be pretty uptight, but…
“All the Tuners besides me have a quirk or two. Not many of
them are good at getting along with others.”
“You make it sound like you’re normal or something.”
Siesta only sipped her tea, acting as if she had no idea what I
was talking about. You just brought your own teacup on board
like it’s nothing.
“Still, the one we’re going to meet is probably the most
troublesome member of the group.”
…Right. There was another reason we were headed to New
York and attending the council.
“The Vampire—Scarlet,” I muttered.
Siesta gave a small nod. “You know him already, don’t you?”
“Not that I particularly want to see him…”
Even among the Tuners, the Vampire was a heretic. I’d sensed
something fathomless in his sharp eyes, which seemed to take the
measure of everything. He’d also hinted that there was something
between him and Siesta…
“You’re acting as if something unpleasant happened. Did he pick
on you?”
“…He was just sort of creepy. Never mind that; you really think
Scarlet knows how to wake Natsunagi up?”
The Vampire was the person Siesta had said we’d need in order
to awaken Natsunagi. Pinning our hopes on him, the two of us
had set off for the Federal Council, which he’d be attending along
with the other Tuners.
“It’s just that there’s a possibility. However, while he may not
look it, he is an expert on life and death, so he’ll have some
personal views on human consciousness.”
“…I…see?”
 The Vampire had a technique that could resurrect the dead,
although his revenants were only able to follow their most
powerful instincts from their past life. He probably did have an
insight into human life and death, their consciousness and souls,
but…
“Can we count on a fantasy creature like a vampire?”
“Are you stupid, Kimi?”
“You’re so unfair.”
It had been a while since we last ran through that exchange.
“Vampires aren’t the fanciful beings that folklore describes, and
they didn’t just spontaneously appear somewhere.” Siesta took
another sip of tea. “Everything happens for a reason. There has to
be a cause. You mustn’t shut your eyes to those things and rely
on convenient words like ‘impossible’ or ‘coincidence.’”
As she told me something vaguely familiar, her profile reminded
me of the person I most wanted to meet right now.
“To begin with, vampires originated…” But just as Siesta was
about to tell me about vampires, she cut herself off. “Oh, come to
think of it, did you see today’s astrology column? Taurus was in
the lowest position.”
“Geez, could you find a clumsier way to change the subject?”
And don’t give me information I don’t need. I’m gonna feel
bummed all day now. “Look, don’t hide important stuff for no
reason, all right? Just give me the information I need to know
now.”
“Well, it’s fun to watch you flail around when you don’t know
anything.”
“That’s the worst reason ever.”

Two detectives, twelve justices

After a twelve-hour flight, Siesta and I arrived in New York. After
dropping our luggage off at the hotel, we headed straight to the
Federal Council venue.
“There’s shuttle service and everything. They’re really giving us
VIP treatment,” I said to Siesta. We were in the back seat of the
black car that had been waiting for us as soon as we stepped out
of the hotel. From the fact that Siesta had climbed in without
hesitating, it would probably take us to our destination.
“They may be treating us like VIPs now, but we might not even
be alive in a few hours,” Siesta said. I didn’t like the sound of that.
“Wasn’t the Ace Detective supposed to be the star of this
show?”
“Subjugating the primordial seed took far longer than it was
supposed to. Besides, we also deviated from the future the Oracle
foretold.”
“…I see. You mean we drastically changed the route, and they
may hold us responsible?”
In the sacred text, the original future that revolved around Seed
had ended with Siesta losing to Hel, and Hel becoming Seed’s
vessel. To head that off, Siesta had appointed me and my knack
for getting dragged into stuff as her assistant. Little by little, that
move had changed the future.
However, the altered route was what we’d lived through last
year: Siesta and Hel had taken each other out, Seed had lost both
of his candidate vessels, and only Hel’s main personality—
Natsunagi—had survived.
Siesta had intended for me, Natsunagi, Saikawa, and Charlie to
defeat Seed. I’d rejected that ending as well, though. I’d sworn to
bring Siesta back to life, and now—Natsunagi had sacrificed
herself to accomplish that goal, and after all our trials and
tribulations, we’d ultimately managed to seal the primordial seed.
…Now that I thought about it, I really had been reckless. As
Tuners, no wonder Ms. Fuubi had flipped her lid and Mia had
cried. I’d destabilized the world for the sake of my own wish. I’d
warped the future, and now Natsunagi was—
“You’re as easy to read as ever.” Siesta gave a small sigh. “It’s
all right. Nagisa’s going to wake up.” She smiled softly. “She may
have fallen into a long sleep, assuming she’s fulfilled her role. But
you know that’s not true, don’t you? Nagisa Natsunagi isn’t a
proxy detective; nothing like it. She’s not a stand-in for anyone.
She’s your one and only partner.”
As if trying to convey the emotions in her words physically, she
squeezed my hand, held it for a few moments, then released it.
 “…I see. Yeah, you’re right.”
Natsunagi had lost her memories, forgotten how to live, and
had been tormented by her lack of identity. However, she’d only
just accepted her entire past, learned where to head, and finally
discovered who she was. And now she was going to fall asleep
forever? Even if Natsunagi was okay with that, I wasn’t. I’d kill her
twice, once for me and again for Hel.
“I’ve got one correction, though.” Siesta looked puzzled. I gazed
at her but turned to face forward before I spoke. “You’re my
partner, too.”
She’d said Natsunagi was my only partner. But to me, Siesta
was also—
“—I see.” Like me, Siesta turned to face forward. As she spoke,
we didn’t look at each other. “We’re almost there, Assistant.”
She didn’t say anything more. From the fact that she’d called
me by my job title, though, our relationship was the same as it
had always been.
Before long, the car slowly came to a stop. The rear doors
opened, and I climbed out after Siesta.
“This is it, huh…?”
A grand, palatial building stood on the other side of an
expansive garden. So this was where the Federal Council would
convene. “Is it okay to have a top-secret meeting at such an eye-
catching venue?”
“It’s fine. Civilians never notice this place.” Siesta strode toward
the building.
“What, is it behind a magic barrier or something?” Three paces
behind her, I stepped into the palace’s spacious front hall.
“Twelve Tuners in total… Right now, I know about half of them.”
As I climbed a long staircase, I counted the Tuners I’d met so
far. There was Siesta, the Ace Detective; Ms. Fuubi, the Assassin;
Scarlet, the Vampire; and Mia Whitlock, the Oracle. Plus Stephen
Bluefield, the Inventor, the one I’d just met. Also, although I only
knew of him, the Phantom Thief; he’d stolen Mia’s sacred text and
was now doing time deep underground somewhere.
“You’ve been involved with other Tuners, too,” Siesta said,
glancing back briefly.
 “What do you mean? Is this going to be one of those Saikawa
was actually ‘the Idol,’ a Tuner kind of punch lines?”
“From the fact that Yui’s the only acquaintance you can think of,
you obviously don’t have many friends.”
Hey, mind your own business. Charlie counts, too.
“Well, it’s more that you were involved without being aware of
it. You’ll meet them right after this,” Siesta told me, opting not to
explain any further now. “More importantly, maybe I should tell
you about a few of the members you should watch out for.”
“Yeah, it would be nice if I could brace myself.” I’d had way too
many heart-attack-inducing surprises during that three-year
journey, so I was grateful for the offer.
“Right. The particularly dangerous ones are the Magician and
the Enforcer.” We’d reached the top of the stairs and were walking
down a long, red-carpeted hallway. Siesta continued her
explanation. “The Magician is a witchlike old woman who almost
never leaves the forest. They say she once used a certain secret
art to destroy a whole village. But that power is the reason they
made her a Tuner.”
“So it’s possible to become a defender of justice even if you’ve
committed crimes?” They’d probably decided her secret art would
be useful in protecting the world, but…
“That’s a tough one… Still. From the perspective of what ‘crime’
means, the Enforcer has definitely killed more people than any
other Tuner.”
“That’s pretty unsettling. The Tuners are the world’s guardians,
right?” As Ms. Fuubi and Scarlet had demonstrated, apparently
you couldn’t just call these people “heroes” and leave it at that.
“It depends on how you define ‘justice.’ In fact, the job assigned
to the Enforcer is the execution of criminals who can’t be judged
in the outside world.”
“…So, a ‘necessary evil,’ huh?”
It was true that there were cases that the law couldn’t settle
adequately. Apparently, the Enforcer was an antihero who cleaned
up the aftermath from the shadows.
“Right. He lurked in the shadows, carrying nothing but an
enormous sickle, which he used to cut down criminals. In terms of
pure combat skills, he’s up there with the Assassin and even the
Vampire.”
“The Magician and the Enforcer, hm? I’d rather avoid getting
dragged into any unnecessary… Whoops.”
Nope. If I say any more than that, I’ll jinx myself.
As I hastily clapped a hand over my mouth, we came to a set of
doors that was larger than the others.
“Listen, Assistant.” Siesta shot me a glance. “From this point on,
don’t think the common sense that has worked for you before will
still apply.”
Yeah. I could see that from what she’d just said and from the
Tuners I’d met so far.
We exchanged nods. Then she pushed the doors open with
both hands—and in the large room beyond them, we saw…
“What Rill is trying to say is—how come the Ace Detective is
allowed to do whatever she wants when the rest of us can’t?”
“Huh? So you’re jealous of her, and you’re pitching a fit because
you want to get your way all the time, too?”

A girl had jumped up onto a long table. She was holding a black
cane like a weapon…and glaring at Fuubi Kase. The redheaded
policewoman was slouched in a chair, smoking a cigarette and
gave an equally intense scowl.
The girl on the table looked quite a bit younger than the
Magician, and the weapon she was holding didn’t seem to be the
Enforcer’s sickle. In that case, this thoroughly unreasonable kid
was—
“Who do you suppose she is?” Siesta looked puzzled.
What, you don’t know, either?
Then she really wasn’t the Magician or the Enforcer?

“—This is sacred ground. Lower your weapon.”

Just then, a chill that made my insides feel airborne assailed
me. It felt as if someone’s hand was raking the pit of my stomach.
Siesta and I, and the pair who were arguing, all looked toward
the owner of the voice. A middle-aged man was sitting on a dais
in the depths of the room. He didn’t blink at all as he spoke. “The
day’s leading players have arrived. Come, let the council begin.”
With one last glare at Ms. Fuubi, the girl on the table returned
to her chair.
“Come on, Assistant.”
Aside from us, there were six heroes at the long table.
The council to determine the world’s future was about to begin.

And so the world turned

“Ace Detective Siesta. I apologize for my late arrival,” Siesta said,
bowing her head to the people seated at the long table. “You too,
Kimi.”
As prompted, I copied Siesta—Wait, we were late?
We seated ourselves in the chairs closest to us, sitting side by
side.
Some of the faces in the row of Tuners were familiar, and
naturally, there were others I’d never seen before. Unfortunately,
even though he’d been the one we were counting on, the Vampire
didn’t seem to be present.
“I don’t believe we’ve met, Ace Detective.” The girl with the
cane spoke politely, but her tone and her eyes were clearly
hostile. She glared at Siesta, who was sitting directly across the
table from her. Although her flashy outfit was very anime, her
expression was cold and stern.
“You’ve violated the Federal Charter’s rules a zillion times,
you’ve been granted exceptions, and on top of that, you’ve
literally come back from the dead… Just how much do you need
the world to love you, anyway? Rill wishes you’d share some of
that good luck with her.”
The girl who called herself Rill pointed the cane in her right
hand at Siesta, who didn’t resist. I wasn’t able to react fast
enough, and my muscles tensed.
“Enough.”
That said, everyone here was a seasoned veteran who’d put
their life on the line to protect the world. Maybe I was too normal
to keep up, but the redheaded Assassin already had her gun
pointed at the girl.
“Weren’t you just told to put down your weapon, Reloaded?”
“Violating the charter is a capital offense, remember? What’s
the problem?”
“Even if it is, you’re not the one who dishes out the
punishment,” Ms. Fuubi snapped.
“Fuubi. Neither are you.”
The man in a suit who sat at the head of the row told Ms. Fuubi
to put her gun away. Apparently his words carried the most
weight with this crowd; both Ms. Fuubi and Reloaded obeyed,
reluctantly stowing their weapons.
I had the feeling I’d seen that man’s face somewhere before.
His brown hair was combed back, and his eyes were deep green.
His expensive suit fit him well; he seemed to be some sort of
politician… “…Oh. Are you Fritz Stewart?” I asked.
The man let his icy mask drop and smiled with his public face.
“Once again, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Fritz Stewart, mayor
of New York City.”
I knew it. His face was the same one I’d seen on TV.
Back when Siesta and I had spent time in this country, Fritz
Stewart had already been a distinguished politician. He’d won
support with his mild personality and solid track record, and he
was still the acting mayor of New York. “I never thought someone
like you would be a Tuner.”
“Yes. I’ve been given the role of Revolutionary.”
Revolutionary… That was a Tuner position?
“I can’t discuss the specifics, but slightly tilting the world from
the shadows is the Revolutionary’s mission. You might not think
so, but much like children’s seesaws, governments in every era
are made up of balances.”
For the sake of peace, the world’s balance was preserved, or
sometimes broken. While he wasn’t a femme fatale who seduced
kings and toppled nations, Fritz Stewart the Revolutionary
probably didn’t limit his activities to this city. From behind the
scenes, he interfered with politics and economics around the
world. “Global crisis” didn’t always mean aliens or the denizens of
parallel worlds. People who commanded nations could destroy the
planet easily.
“Fritz, are you the leader of the Tuners?” I made guess based
on what I’d seen so far.
“No, no. I’m only the moderator for this particular session.”
Since I didn’t know anything about this council, Fritz explained for
my benefit. “Perhaps you weren’t informed that we Tuners are an
organization under the direct control of the Mizoev Federation,
either?”
“…That’s right. My business partner won’t tell me anything
unless I ask her. And when I do, she still won’t tell me.” I shot
Siesta a look, but as usual, she acted as if it had nothing to do
with her. She’d made black tea at some point and was elegantly
enjoying a cup by herself.
“It is something I’d vaguely expected, though. If some country
had taken the initiative and organized the Tuners, it had to be
America, Russia, China… There weren’t too many other
alternatives.”
At present, there were six continents: Eurasia, Africa, North
America, South America, Australia, and Mizoev. When the
continents had fought each other over the Akashic records in
World War III, no country had sustained heavy damage; I’d heard
that was due to the Mizoev Federation’s “Silent Rule.”
“That said, the Federation Union includes several important
figures from countries besides Mizoev, and that is the entity that
appoints us as Tuners. Among our group, I have been charged
with moderating this council,” Fritz said, wrapping up his answer
to my first question. He had to be used to moderating already due
to his work in politics; as far as I was concerned, he was the right
guy for the job.
“Still, this is your first time taking part in a Federal Council,”
Fritz said, focusing on me again. “Everyone here knows about
you, of course, but the reverse isn’t necessarily true. Before we
get into the main topic, why don’t we introduce ourselves?”
…He’d just said something really scary in passing. Why did all
the Tuners know about me? And why were they all watching me?
“You’re sure it’s okay to use up time on an outsider?”
 “You and the Ace Detective are today’s guests of honor,” Fritz
responded. “Besides, if they obtain permission in advance, all
Tuners are allowed to bring one assistant to the Federal Council,
or send one proxy for themselves. Just as she’s done.” Fritz’s gaze
went to the chair diagonally opposite mine.
“Come to think of it, our positions are similar, huh, Olivia?”
The Oracle’s messenger wasn’t a flight attendant today. She
was attending as her Tuner’s assistant and proxy.
“Yes. Although, the Oracle is here as well.” Opening her laptop,
Olivia turned it to face me—and there…
“…What are you doing?” I almost said Mia, but clammed up to
protect her privacy. Still, the girl on the screen, who was clearly
Mia Whitlock, was dressed in a shrine maiden’s costume…and
wearing a fox mask.
“I heard it was possible to attend online. Quite modern, don’t
you think?” Mia said, justifying her choice. I never thought I’d see
the day when shut-ins were ahead of the times.
“—I don’t need this, though,” she told us, removing her mask.
Olivia and the other Tuners stared at her, caught off guard.
Mia had never revealed anything about her identity before, not
even her face or her name. Unless she filled us in, there was no
way to know what had brought on this change of heart. Even so,
her eyes were glowing with a determination to be involved with
the world.
“I see. So you’re already acquainted with the Oracle. I suppose
I should have expected no less.” Fritz watched me, intrigued. “Do
you know him too, then?” He let his eyes wander, skimming over
the Ace Detective and the Assassin, until they came to rest on a
man in a dark suit at the very end.
“………………”
Even though we were inside, the man wore sunglasses, and he
sat with good posture without moving a muscle. He looked almost
like an exquisitely made android; he had a stern face, and he
didn’t say a word.
I didn’t know him. But I’d been involved with these guys lots of
times.
 “The Man in Black.” Fritz introduced the man by his position, not
his name. “Their organization, the Men in Black, has been
collectively appointed as a Tuner. They’re stationed all over the
world as what you might call handymen.”
“…Oh, yeah, I know what you mean.”
Four years ago, they’d made me smuggle that musket just
before I met Siesta at ten thousand meters. After that, they’d
helped us out with jobs now and then, on Siesta’s instructions.
After death had temporarily separated me from Siesta, I’d relied
on them personally a few times.
“That’s right. The Men in Black are a replacement for a piece
that went missing right before the completion of an enormous
puzzle. They’re the lubricant that helps rusted, immobilized gears
turn again. They’re the gods from the machine that appear to the
characters of a certain story in order to hold the plot together.”
This world was riddled with inconsistencies, but people still
managed to live without any cognitive dissonance. It might be
thanks to a single bullet that was fired from the darkness, invisible
and unremembered.
“Am I next, then?” Another individual who’d been silent until
now spoke. He sat diagonally opposite Fritz: an old man with
white whiskers who wore a silk hat and a smile. “My name is
Bruno. My job is to provide intelligence that’s useful to the rest of
you as the Information Broker.” Bruno’s gentle smile was exactly
the kind Santa Claus would have worn if he’d really existed. “It’s
been quite some time since we last saw each other, Ace
Detective.”
“It really has. It’s good to see you, Bruno.” Siesta bowed her
head to the elderly man with unexpected reverence. Apparently
they were old friends.
“He helped you out as well, Kimi, although you didn’t know it,”
Siesta whispered in my ear.
“During those three years, you mean?”
“Yes. A third of those incidents couldn’t have been resolved
without his knowledge and information.”
I see. So the Tuners she’d mentioned before we got here, the
ones I’d been involved with unaware, had been the Men in Black
and the Information Broker.
“There’s no mandatory retirement age for Tuners?” I whispered
to Siesta, idly curious.
“No. And, Kimi, you say some pretty rude things without even
blinking.”
…It was rare for Siesta to get mad at me for a good reason. She
was usually much more unfair.
“Ha-ha-ha!” Bruno sounded unexpectedly entertained. He’d
heard my comment loud and clear. “Oh, it doesn’t bother me. No
doubt you were concerned for my health.” He smiled gently.
…On the other hand, somebody who was probably capable of
killing people with one look glared at me. “Listen up, you damn
brat.” Sure, I count as a brat to somebody your age, Ms. Fuubi, I
thought, but I didn’t say it. “He’s lived ten times as long as you
have, and he’s still performing his duties as the Information
Broker. Don’t you dare disrespect him.”
…Ten times my age? Then Bruno was… No, but he only looked
about seventy…
“It’s thanks to a rather special drug. It hasn’t made me quite
immortal, but I will live a tad longer than the rest of you.” Bruno
toyed with his beard. “It’s just that, since I’ve lived a slightly
longer life, I know a few things. The Assassin and the Ace
Detective always face the world’s crises squarely, out on the front
line, and I respect them.” Bruno turned his gentle gaze on Ms.
Fuubi, then Siesta.
“Let’s move on, shall we?” Fritz’s introductions finally shifted to
the seventh Tuner. This last one was the problem kid who’d been
arguing with Ms. Fuubi when we came in…
“So we finally get to talk.” Switching from the stern expression
she’d worn this whole time, the girl—Reloaded—smiled rather
proudly, flashing white mini-fangs. Sweeping her orange hair
back, she said:
“Kimihiko Kimizuka, you are in the presence of the great Magical
Girl, Reloaded. How would you like to be her pet—um, familiar?”
Why are all the girls I run into such a pain in the butt?
 The scales of justice
Once the introductions were over, the positions held by the seven
attending Tuners were clear. Fritz Stewart the Revolutionary,
Bruno the Information Broker, the Man in Black (name unknown),
Siesta the Ace Detective, Ms. Fuubi the Assassin, Mia Whitlock the
Oracle. And—
“Um, excuse me? Why is Rill the only one who just got
ignored?”
The girl with vivid orange hair was still calling herself by her
nickname. Thumping the table, she stood up. The jolt knocked
her black cane over. “Rill’s saying it one more time, Kimihiko
Kimizuka: Be her familiar.”
This was the seventh Tuner, Reloaded the Magical Girl. She was
probably about the same age as Siesta and me, but what she was
wearing looked exactly like the sort of magical girl costume you’d
see in an anime. It really suited the cute expression she’d shown
for a fraction of a second earlier.
However, nothing she’d said or done this whole time had been
cute at all. I guessed “familiar” was a magical girl term, and she
was actually telling me to be her errand boy. Meaning…
“…I really doubt there’s anything in it for me.”
“Oh, no, that’s not true. You must be getting tired of being the
Ace Detective’s assistant. Being a cute magical girl’s dog is bound
to be more fun.”
“You totally just said ‘dog.’ …And anyway, why me?” I didn’t
even have to think about it; I knew for a fact that I was meeting
this girl for the first time. Why was she trying to make me her
dog…or, uh, her assistant?
“Isn’t it obvious? Kimihiko Kimizuka, you are this world’s—”
“—Sorry, but my assistant’s never going to be yours,” Siesta cut
in. Reloaded had been picking a fight with her since before the
council began, and Siesta finally looked ready to take her up on it.
She didn’t go for her weapon, but a cold war was starting across
the table.
“What? You’re planning to monopolize him? Nobody likes
jealous women, you know.”
 “It’s not a question of petty emotions. It’s a contractual issue.”
“A contract? After three or four years, they generally get
renewed.”
“Nice try, but no. The contract was for lifetime employment. He
doesn’t have time to be your partner.”
…I seemed to have found myself in some sort of mystery pact
with Siesta.
Did “lifetime employment” mean I’d be with her until I died?
That the rest of my life would be full of unfairness? ………………
Yeah, I should turn that down. No reason to hesitate there.
“Are you planning to cheat, all by yourself ?” Reloaded snapped
at Siesta again. “If Rill could just use the Singularity, she could do
her job more efficiently…”
“Reloaded, you always manage your duties as the Magician
quite well,” Fritz said, attempting to defuse the situation with a
compliment.
“I told you, Rill is the Magical Girl, not the Magician. She did you
the favor of becoming a Tuner, so you said you’d change the
position’s name.” Reloaded propped her chin in her hands,
scowling at Fritz.
Apparently, Reloaded had taken over the position of Magician
from the old woman Siesta had told me about on our way here.
I’d just been told there was no mandatory retirement age for
Tuners, so why had the previous Magician decided to step down?
The mysteries and questions kept piling up, and nobody—
including the prim-faced Ace Detective next to me—was providing
any answers.
“—Now then. Let’s begin our discussion on the main topic,” Fritz
said in a voice that seemed to sink into the pits of our stomachs.
We were finally getting down to business. I’d heard that a report
on the subjugation of the primordial seed was on the meeting’s
agenda, and sure enough…
“All right. We’re running behind schedule, but once again,
Daydream: Thanks to you, the crisis of the primordial seed has
passed.” Turning to Siesta, Fritz congratulated her on her work as
the Ace Detective. “The secret society SPES should be wiped out
soon, including its collaborators around the world. It has also
been decided that the remote island they had illegally occupied
will become a Mizoev Federation territory. The ‘primordial seed’
crisis has been completely resolved. Well done.”
Several people applauded. Mia (on the screen), Olivia, Fritz, and
Bruno all congratulated Siesta on completing her great mission.
“I…” But Siesta’s face was far from cheerful.
Six years ago, she’d encountered the primordial seed. Four
years ago, she’d left on a journey to battle SPES with me. If you
added up all the things she’d lost along the way, she couldn’t
possibly put on a smile here. It wasn’t the kind of girl she was.
“She didn’t exactly do a praiseworthy job, though.” The self-
declared Magical Girl gave Siesta a cold look; her chin was still
propped on her hands. “And several other Tuners broke the rules.”
She widened her attack to include people besides Siesta.
I’d already guessed who she was talking about.
“Fritz, you already know, don’t you? The Assassin and Oracle
overstepped their authority.”
…I knew it. She was right: Those two had helped subjugate
Seed, even though the job had been assigned to Siesta. Mia had
shown Siesta the sacred text, although no one but the Oracle was
allowed to view those books. After Siesta’s death, Ms. Fuubi had
helped Charlie and me fight SPES. Reloaded was suggesting that
they’d violated the Federal Charter.
“……! It isn’t Boss’s fault,” said the girl in the computer. “I acted
of my own accord, so Boss isn’t…”
“Huh? So what? You’re not refuting anything, you know.”
“…Olivia, how do you shut off this call screen?”
Mia wasn’t used to fighting—she wasn’t even used to talking to
people. Shrinking under the pressure, she dejectedly tried to
retreat. Pathetic, but also cute.
“Let me explain.” Bruno the Information Broker raised his gloved
right hand. “Truth be told, I received a proposal from the Assassin
about this earlier. Certainly, the Federal Charter stipulates that one
Tuner is to deal with each global crisis. However…” Bruno
thumped the floor with his cane. “The Assassin asked whether it
would be acceptable to assist another Tuner, provided she was on
top of her own mission. In fact, while it is part of my duty, I
myself assist other Tuners. I understood her argument quite well.”
In response to Bruno’s comment, all eyes turned to Ms. Fuubi.
So, knowing that her actions would cause a problem someday,
Ms. Fuubi had gone to the Information Broker about it in advance,
since he was both the oldest member and the one most likely to
understand what the job entailed.
 “See, when a police officer notices someone in trouble, it’s only
natural to help them.” Even with all that attention on her, Ms.
Fuubi stayed cool and composed enough to crack jokes. Not only
that, but… “Well, that might be too much to process for a little kid
who’s struggling so much with her own mission that she can’t
afford to be considerate of other people.” She snorted, clearly
mocking a certain someone.
“Are you talking about Rill?”
“Oh, so you knew you were like that?”
“Huhn?”
“Uhn?”
…Ms. Fuubi, you suck at interacting with people.
“I see. I understand the situation.” For now, with no change in
his expression, Fritz accepted Ms. Fuubi and Bruno’s claims. “It’s
true that the threat from the primordial seed was on a level not
often seen in recent years. We should be able to allow a few
irregularities.”
“—You’re just a mediator. You don’t have the authority to make
that decision.” Unable to accept the decision, Reloaded snapped
at Fritz.
“Correct. If it comes down to officially changing the rules, the
Federation Government will make the ultimate decision. That
said…” Fritz’s tone changed again. “I handed down that judgment
on the understanding that, right now, our top priority should be
the smooth progression of this meeting. Are there any
objections?”
He spoke in a voice that chilled me to the bone, and I felt a
phantom pain run through my heart. Even though she’d acted so
arrogant, Reloaded flinched, then backed down.
“That appears to be settled, then.” Bruno’s hoarse voice broke
the silence; he’d chosen to ignore the tension. “A new age calls
for new rules and values. I am proud of young people who don’t
fear such changes. …Or perhaps this senile old codger is simply
desperate to keep up with the times.” He gently stroked his cane
with his fingertips.
“Thank you for your consideration.” Ms. Fuubi bowed her head
to the Information Broker. Like Siesta, she seemed to have a
genuine respect for Bruno.
“Ha-ha-ha. It was a request from a cute girl, after all.”
“…Thank you for your consideration.” After a brief pause, Ms.
Fuubi responded with the exact same line she’d said before.
Uncharacteristically, she didn’t seem to know how to react, and a
laugh escaped me—almost. Man, that was close.
“All right, shall we discuss the main topic?”
—Fritz’s cold eyes turned toward me.
Oh, I get it. That was when it hit me: The council’s objective
wasn’t to hear a simple report about the primordial seed’s
subjugation. This was…
“The future written in the sacred text has changed. What are
your views on that?”
Its goal was to denounce me for messing with the future Mia
had prophesied and searched for the brand-new Route X.
“I heard Daydream should have died. The next Ace Detective
would have been the one to defeat the primordial seed. You
rejected that and twisted the narrative—and as a result,
Daydream returned to life. However, we lost Nagisa Natsunagi,
the next candidate for Ace Detective. At least, I’m told she’s
currently comatose.” Fritz looked at me, one eyebrow raised. “Was
this truly what you… No, what Daydream wanted?” Fritz was
asking me and only me. This was an interrogation. Did I think
Siesta had wanted to trade Natsunagi’s life for her own? I couldn’t
reply. I was all too aware of the answer.
“The Singularity.”
As Fritz said that word, he looked at me, and the eyes of the
other Tuners all focused on me as well.
“When an era begins to experience dramatic changes, it
inevitably appears. It overturns the future the Oracle foretells,
transforming the world’s set path. An irregular element—that’s
you,” Fritz stated.
The Singularity. A while back, Scarlet had mentioned that word
once. I also got the feeling Mia had said something similar, and
that she’d been watching me when she said it.
 An irregular entity capable of changing the future, of setting the
world in motion… That was me, Kimihiko Kimizuka. That’s not
even funny. There’s no way something that ridiculous could be
true. Internally, I laughed the idea off, but signs of subtle
foreshadowing in my past flickered through my mind.
There was my irritating tendency to get dragged into things.
Could that actually be because I was the Singularity, and my
nature kept setting off unexpected trouble around me? Come to
think of it, Hel had once told me that my predisposition was the
type that transformed things and triggered incidents, and that I
was the center of the world. Not to mention how a certain ace
detective had taken me ten thousand meters into the sky because
she’d needed me to help her change a disastrous future.
What if I assumed that all those things had been because I was
this “Singularity”? That was why incidents happened around me,
why I attracted detectives and enemies of the world, and had
even overturned the Oracle’s prophesied future. The real reason
I’d managed to pull off a taboo like resurrecting the dead was—
“Let me ask you this, Singularity. How will you involve yourself
with the world from now on?” Fritz asked me. “It’s true that this
time, partly due to the cooperation of other Tuners, Daydream
returned to life as you had planned. The elimination of the
primordial seed also happened to go well, but that won’t always
be the case. To me, results aren’t everything.”
I was silent. Keeping his eyes on me, Fritz Stewart laced his
fingers together, resting his elbows on the table. Ms. Fuubi and
Mia couldn’t argue, either. Even if they didn’t come out and say
what they’d done was wrong, they had to know it hadn’t been
right.
I knew that better than anyone, though. I’d made Ms. Fuubi
mad, I’d made Mia cry, but I’d still convinced both of them. I’d
deceived them. In that case, I’d have to be the one to say it.
“Assistant?”
I’d abruptly stood up, and Siesta stared at me, startled.
Until now, I’d relied exclusively on the detective. For those three
years, I’d been with Siesta all the time. I’d been too quick to rely
on her, to believe that as long as she was there, the cases would
be solved and our wishes would come true. …And I’d paid for that
when I lost her. Unable to forget her, I’d spent a whole year doing
nothing, and then I’d met a new detective.
It was fine for Natsunagi to live her own life. I’d told her so
myself, and yet in the end, I’d asked her to continue being a
detective. Once again, I’d come to rely on her completely. During
those three years, and that year of tepid idleness, and these past
few months when I’d gotten back on my feet, I’d constantly clung
to and been saved by a detective. But…
“It’s probably about time we switched places, huh?”
That had to be why I was standing here today.
My legs had been weirdly shaky for the past few minutes, but
hey, I wasn’t going to worry about it. It was just fatigue from
sitting for a long time without shifting positions—No, I was
quivering from the adrenaline.
“Fritz. You’re saying it’s a problem that we tried to bring Siesta
back to life, right?” I looked at the Revolutionary, then let my gaze
travel across the other attendees. I was a regular guy, surrounded
by Tuners; technically, it was presumptuous of me even to speak
here. What on earth could I say, with the eyes of all these global
heroes on me?
“Simply put, yes, that is what I’m saying,” Fritz answered for the
group, without turning a hair. He spoke, not with his public
politician’s face, but as the Revolutionary who pulled the strings of
the underworld. “In the original route, the Ace Detective would
have been sacrificed to save the world.”
This representative of the world’s guardians had determined
that the detective should have died.
When I heard that, my mind grew oddly calm. The Tuners’
rules, the story recorded in the sacred text, whether or not I was
the Singularity—none of that had anything to do with this. There
was only one thing that really mattered. I already knew what I
had to say.
“I see. So Siesta shouldn’t have come back to life, huh? Do you
seriously think that? If so, you people should quit this job right
now.”
I mean, if they couldn’t understand something so simple…
 People like that weren’t qualified to protect the world, were
they?

“Losing Siesta is a loss for all of humanity, the whole world, the
entire universe.”

Ever since the day when I’d met the detective at ten thousand
meters, she—no, both of them—had held out their hands to me.
All this time, they’d saved me. From now on, though, it would be
the other way around. It didn’t matter whether I was the
Singularity. I didn’t care about the world. The only thing I couldn’t
give up was…
Siesta. Natsunagi.
I wasn’t letting the detectives die.
“……………”
Silence fell. In the stillness, all I could hear was my own
heartbeat. Of the seven Tuners, some glared at me, others wore
intrigued smiles or gazed indifferently into space. After the
seemingly endless silence had stretched on for thirty seconds or
so…
“…Well, that’s what I think, but let’s leave the actual decision to
the higher-ups.”
“Are you stupid, Kimi?”
Unable to take the silence any longer, I returned dejectedly to
my seat. As expected, Siesta gave me a cold, clammy look. Before
long, she heaved a big sigh.
“Still—thank you.”
She seemed vaguely troubled, but she had on a faint smile. “I
suppose I can’t make my assistant work that hard and then say
nothing myself.” As if taking my place, Siesta rose to her feet.
“Naturally, I’m prepared to take responsibility for this incident.”
Scanning every face in the room, she spoke calmly.

“I hereby declare my resignation as a Tuner. I would like to

officially nominate Nagisa Natsunagi as the next Ace Detective.”
 The detective, beaten hollow
After the Federal Council, Siesta and I went to a trendy cafeteria
near our hotel for a light dinner. We got ourselves some pasta and
scones and other things, and then we planned for the fallout of
that council.
“What’s this about, Siesta?” I asked. She was twisting up neat
forkfuls of pasta. “Are you seriously stepping down as Ace
Detective?”
At the Federal Council about an hour ago, Siesta had declared
that she was leaving the position of Ace Detective, and had
nominated Natsunagi to replace her. However, the other Tuners
(except for Mia) had seemed perfectly unruffled by her
announcement.
“Oh, that? I just assumed you were going to ask about the
Singularity.” As primly as ever, Siesta dabbed at her lips with a
napkin.
“If I said I wasn’t curious, I’d be lying…but there’s something
else I need to prioritize now.”
“I see. I thought you’d yell at me for not telling you about
important things like that beforehand.” From the way she was
talking, Siesta had been aware that I was that sort of thing. At
least for now, though, that information was relatively unimportant
to me. “Let’s say I really do have some sort of effect on the world.
That won’t influence what I do.”
I’d had this insanely troublesome knack for getting dragged into
stuff my whole life. At this point, giving it a different definition
wasn’t going to change anything about how I thought or lived.
There was just one thing I needed to do, one wish I want
granted.
“…I see. Heh-heh. You really have grown, Kimi.” Seeming to
have convinced herself of something, Siesta resumed her meal.
“And? I’m asking why you suddenly said you were quitting as
the Ace Detective.”
She’d wrapped things up in a vague sort of way with a good
story, but Siesta had a particular talent for glossing over the
important details.
 “My mission as Ace Detective was to annihilate SPES, nothing
more. Now that I’ve done that, I don’t think it’s odd for me to
resign from the position.”
“…Didn’t you tell me you were born to be a detective?” As I
asked her that, I was studying the glass near my hand. I could
see my own warped reflection in the water.
“That’s right. And so, now that I’ve defeated my mortal enemy,
I’ll go back to being an ordinary detective. That’s all.” Watching
me, Siesta smiled. “From now on, this is your story.” Her manner
was mild, but the way she spoke left me no room to argue.
“I see…” She was right, though. Even if Siesta stopped fighting
the enemies of the world, she’d still be tackling the mysteries and
evils that lurked in everyday life. She might have quit being the
Ace Detective, but that didn’t mean she’d completely vanish from
my life—
“Assistant?” Immediately, I realized Siesta was peering at my
face.
“…No, it’s nothing.” I’d decided to quit relying on the detectives
for everything, and yet here I was, taking it for granted that
Siesta would be with me. It surprised me, and I cleared my throat
before I continued. “So you’re appointing Natsunagi to take over?”
“Right. It’s all thanks to Nagisa that I’m able to move like this,
and that we managed to defeat Seed. I’m sure she’ll be a better
Ace Detective than me… No, Nagisa was better suited to it all
along. She’s beaten me hollow.” Siesta leaned against her chair. It
was as if she was admitting defeat to the Alicia version of
Natsunagi we’d met in London a year ago. “Of course, that’s
assuming she still wants to be the Ace Detective. She may have
lost the power of that seed and gone back to being an ordinary
girl.”
“…Yeah. We’ll just have to ask her about that.”
We exchanged nods, then went over our game plan. No matter
how much Siesta wanted Natsunagi to take over as Ace Detective,
it wasn’t going to happen unless Natsunagi woke up.
“That’s true. We don’t have much time, but we’ll wake Nagisa
up for sure.”
 At the Federal Council, we had been told that Siesta’s intention
to resign would be officially communicated to the higher-ups on
the condition that we summoned Nagisa Natsunagi to the council.
In other words, unless Natsunagi woke up and agreed to inherit
Siesta’s will, Siesta would stay the Ace Detective.
“We didn’t get to see Scarlet, though.”
Siesta had planned to get a hint about how to wake Natsunagi
up from the vampire, but unfortunately, he’d never showed.
“It might still have been too early. He should be fine indoors,
but…”
The vampire only came out at night. Like Seed, he didn’t get
along with the sun. “Still, only seven Tuners attended.”
The ones who hadn’t come were the Vampire, the Inventor, the
Phantom Thief (whom I still hadn’t seen), and two more… Oh,
one of those would have to be the Enforcer that Siesta had
mentioned, huh?
“It’s actually unusual for more than half to turn up. We were
lucky we got to see the new Tuner, the Magical Girl,” Siesta
murmured, relieving her dry throat with a sip of tea. Saying this
after the other girl had ripped her a new one—talk about
imperturbable.
“She said she’d taken over for the Magician? Do positions really
switch out that easily?” Although in this case, she might just have
changed the name of the role.
“Oh, yes. It happens a lot. There have been more than twelve
Tuner positions before, and they’re tailored to their particular
eras. I seem to recall that there were Exorcist and Master
Swordsman positions once, long ago.”
“So there’s a lot of turnover.”
“That’s what happens when you fight the enemies of the world,”
Siesta said with a sad smile.
I’d only been talking about the fact that the positions changed,
but Siesta had probably taken it another way. There were new
Tuners on a regular basis because they were killed in the line of
duty.
“As a matter of fact, it sounds as if the Enforcer I knew also
disappeared during the past year.”
 …I see. So it wasn’t just that he’d skipped the council. Does
that mean another person had already taken over the Enforcer
role, or had the whole position been switched out for another
one?
For those three years, while Siesta had fought the enemies of
the world, she’d known what was going to happen to her
someday. I’d been right next to her the whole time, and I’d never
picked up on her resolution.
“More importantly, we need to think about Nagisa right now.” As
always, Siesta got the conversation back on topic as if she’d read
my mind. “I mentioned it earlier, but I think her consciousness has
fallen into a deep sleep.” Putting a fingertip to her chin, she began
considering Natsunagi’s current condition. “She thinks she’s
fulfilled her role. Once she came to terms with that, she felt
relieved and fell asleep. That’s what I did, too,” she said; she was
speaking from experience.
Siesta had also left her mind to live on in Natsunagi’s heart and
gone to sleep.
“…Hm? Then how did you do it that one time?”
“What one time?” Siesta tilted her head slightly.
“You know, on that luxury cruise ship. When I was fighting
Chameleon after he lost control, you borrowed Natsunagi’s body
and came to help me, remember?”
At the very least, Siesta had awakened and came running to me
then.
“…Did that happen?”
“Look, there’s no way you can play dumb about it.”
But for some reason, Siesta averted her eyes, apparently
puzzled.
“Oh, I see.” Just then, a certain possibility occurred to me. After
being her assistant for so many years, I’d picked up some
deductive skills, too. “You mean since I was in deep trouble, you
panicked and woke up because you couldn’t bear to just stand by
and do nothing.”
“……”
“On an unconscious level, you were worried sick about me.”
“…………”
 Siesta was doing her best to hang on to her composure, but
even so, her eyebrows twitched.
When I remembered the way she’d rushed to the scene in a
mecha when I’d been kidnapped, that actually didn’t strike me as
out of character. In other words—
“Siesta, you like me that much, huh?”

A whole year later, I’d been given the opportunity to get her
back.
“…………Are you stupid, Kimi?”
I was rewarded with the weakest put-down I’d ever heard from
her.
“……Haaah.” Siesta heaved a long sigh. “Should you really be
having conversations like this with me, Kimi? If Nagisa heard you,
I think she’d be very angry.” She stared at me, looking rather
disgusted.
Now that I’d reunited with my partner after a year apart, she
seemed to be more expressive than before. It was probably
because she’d spent that year in constant contact with a girl who
always held strong emotions. On that thought, I told her, “Yeah, I
bet she would be.”
—That’s why.
“That’s why I want her to wake up and scold me already.”
That was my only wish right now.
“…Kimi, I suspect you like Nagisa far too much.” Siesta smirked.
I had no idea how to respond to that prompt retort, and as I
was racking my brain…
“—Nobody move!”
A man’s voice and a gunshot suddenly echoed throughout the
café. Wondering what happened, I turned to look and saw several
masked men pointing their guns at staff members and customers.
Apparently, we had yet another incident on our hands. Geez.
Talk about destroying the mood. Biting back a wry smile, I waited
for the detective’s instructions.
“Assistant. Seriously, could you do something about that
predisposition of yours?”
 “Yeah. That’s actually the second-biggest wish I’ve got right
now.”

The enemy’s name is Arsene

The next day.
Having received a summons from a certain individual, Siesta
and I were visiting the New York City Police.
“Hey, did you enjoy yourselves last night?”
We were shown into a reception room where a female police
officer sat on a sofa as if she owned it, a cigarette in one hand.
With a line that reminded me of a certain famous RPG, Fuubi Kase
smirked at Siesta and me.
“I don’t get what you mean by ‘enjoy ourselves.’” Playing dumb,
I sat down on the sofa across from Ms. Fuubi, next to Siesta.
“Oh, you know. The young lady over there looks sleepy. I
thought maybe you’d kept her up all night.”
“…This ace detective always looks sleepy.” I glanced over at
Siesta. She was rubbing her eyes; it wasn’t clear whether she was
listening to me and Ms. Fuubi. Now that I thought about it, she
did seem to be having a harder time waking up than usual…but I
swear to God we hadn’t done anything last night. Not that I
should even have to point that out.
“Actually, Ms. Fuubi, why are you so comfortable at the NYPD?”
A rank-and-file Japanese police officer had occupied this room
as if she was the boss and was puffing away on a cigarette. And I
thought she’d said she’d quit smoking.
“Oh, this? I’d love to kick the habit right this minute, but…” Ms.
Fuubi smiled thinly. “I figured I’d smoke enough for that guy too
for a while.”
I hadn’t expected that. In her own way, she was paying her
tribute to her deceased enemy.
“…And? You wanted to talk about yesterday’s incident?” I meant
the masked mystery men who’d attacked the café where we’d had
dinner the night before. Unfortunately for them, one of the diners
had been the Ace Detective. In the end, Siesta subdued them
before I could even attempt to do something cool, and we’d
handed them over to the police.
Since we’d at least partially completed our objectives, we’d
been thinking about heading back to Japan today. Right before we
did, though, Ms. Fuubi had contacted us about the incident, and
so here we were.
“Yeah. We got the crew you hauled in yesterday to cough up
their motive for that attack. And, y’know, they said something
kinda interesting.”
Anything Ms. Fuubi said was “interesting” was definitely going
to be a pain in the butt for us. Drooping in resignation, I listened
to what she had to say—
“They said, ‘Free Arsene.’”
The moment Siesta heard that, she flinched. So much for the
sleepiness from earlier. Then she put a fingertip to her chin,
looking grim. I didn’t yet know why, though. Arsene? Who was
that?
“He’s the Phantom Thief.”
“…! The Phantom Thief ? You can’t mean…”
Siesta nodded. “That’s right. One of the twelve Tuners—the
traitor, Phantom Thief Arsene. Although I’m told that isn’t his real
name,” she added. She seemed conflicted.
The traitorous Phantom Thief Arsene. The Oracle, Mia Whitlock,
had explained the reasons behind that modifier to us earlier.
The Phantom Thief had made some sort of deal with Seed and
stolen the sacred text from Mia. Tuners were supposed to be allies
of justice, of course, and this had been a blatant breach of faith.
As a result, he’d been confined in an underground prison.
“They tell me there’ve been frequent acts of terror here in New
York lately, with the goal of setting him free. That Fritz louse is
hard-pressed to deal with them all.” Exhaling a puff of smoke, Ms.
Fuubi brought up the name of the Revolutionary, who worked as a
politician.
“It isn’t just New York, either. We’re getting scattered reports of
similar occurrences from around the world. What do you think?
Ring any bells?” Ms. Fuubi’s sharp eyes turned to me.
 “Don’t tell me… Was that busjacking in London part of this?” It
had happened about three weeks ago, when I was taking a bus
through London with Mia. I was pretty sure the man with a gun
had demanded that the police “free his comrade.” By “comrade,”
he’d meant Phantom Thief Arsene?
“Does the Phantom Thief have that many friends?” Companions
who’d hijack buses or barricade themselves into buildings in New
York, London, and all around the world in attempts to rescue
him…
“I had heard he had a lot of collaborators,” Siesta responded.
“But I doubt…”
“Yeah, the people working to get him released definitely aren’t
his friends.” Ms. Fuubi finished Siesta’s thought for her. “They
didn’t know anything specific about the Phantom Thief other than
his false name, Arsene.”
Ms. Fuubi seemed sure about that, so the men probably weren’t
lying to protect the Phantom Thief. If so… “You’re saying they
were just disposable pawns of his?”
“That, or…” Ms. Fuubi stubbed out her cigarette in an ashtray,
cutting me off. “Arsene may be controlling them however he
wants.”
Ordering people around the world, individuals he’d never seen,
to break him out of prison.
“…Is that even possible?” Did Arsene have a technique that let
him use complete strangers like puppets?
“I don’t know how he does it specifically. But…” Siesta’s
expression was unusually grim. “He is the Phantom Thief: He can
steal anything, even human hearts and wills.”
“…! But if Arsene is plotting to break out of jail, can’t we stop it
somehow?”
I’d been told he was locked up deep underground in some
unknown country. In that case, if we took proper steps before he
made any further moves—
“Yeah. It would have been great if we’d done that, but…” Ms.
Fuubi answered in Siesta’s place, blowing smoke toward the
ceiling. “According to the incompetent higher-ups, Phantom Thief
Arsene has already escaped.”
 The buzzer’s sure to sound three times
After leaving the police station, we discussed Phantom Thief
Arsene… Or that’s what I figured we’d do, but Siesta betrayed my
expectations.
“These two should be ours.”
Siesta and I lowered ourselves into a pair of theater seats. For
some reason, we were at a Broadway theater to catch a musical.
“Now really isn’t the time for stuff like this.”
“Hurrying won’t necessarily help us find the answer we’re
looking for,” Siesta declared calmly, looking down at the pamphlet
in her hands. There had to be some kind of logic behind this
decision of hers, right? “Still, it’s been a long time since we did
this. Two years ago, wasn’t it?” she asked, reminiscing. We’d
visited this theater before, on her suggestion. “Last time, there
was a terrorist incident during the show, so we weren’t able to
enjoy it properly.”
“So this is a redo, huh? …Actually, it seems like all we do is get
dragged into stuff like that.”
“Mostly because of you, Kimi.”
We spent the time before the curtain went up bantering.
It had been two years.
Back then, I seemed to remember talking about making it up
later. However, a year after that, I’d realized that was a promise
we wouldn’t get to keep. Who’d have thought it would happen
now…?
“Well? Over the past year, have you matured into a man who
looks good at musicals and other stylish cultural scenes?”
“Well, I am eighteen and all. Formal situations don’t make me
nervous, and escorting women is my specialty,” I told her, dodging
her probing question. “During the past year, not only have I gone
shopping with them and had dinner with them, but I’ve hung out
with them at pools and casinos while on vacation. I can even
invite them to bars.”
“…I see. Not that it has anything to do with me if you grow up
and get along well with other women.”
 I’d managed to step on some sort of landmine. Siesta’s mood
had obviously soured.
“I’m kidding. All those women were either Natsunagi, Saikawa,
or Charlie.”
Not only that, but it had all happened over the past couple of
months. From Siesta’s death until I met Natsunagi, I’d done
nothing but soak in tepid routine.
“It is true that I’ve gained more experience with a lot of stuff,
though,” I told her. Siesta looked at me, perplexed. “Well, you
know. First, let’s wake up Natsunagi. After that, once things calm
down—”
As we talked, we were dreaming of a day somewhere in the
future.
“Want to go somewhere together?”
“—Yes, that sounds good.”
The opening buzzer sounded.
“There’s nothing like a Broadway musical on actual Broadway, is
there?”
Three hours later, as we walked back to our hotel, Siesta
stretched. Her hands reached up toward the sky and the crescent
moon far overhead.
“The funniest part was when the two leads started making out
and you got really uncomfortable.”
“Don’t enjoy it in ways that make no sense. Watch the show,
not me.”
“Oh, then I guessed right? It was so dark, I couldn’t actually
see your face.”
That was a dirty trick…
The corners of Siesta’s lips curved up slightly. Then she took
three steps ahead of me. “We should be getting back to Japan,
though.”
“…Yeah, I’m worried about Natsunagi.”
In the end, we hadn’t managed to see Scarlet and currently had
no clues on how to wake Natsunagi. There was no point in staying
here any longer. As Siesta said, we should return to Japan as soon
as possible.
 “………”
“Assistant?” The next thing I knew, Siesta was standing in front
of me, looking into my face. “Were you thinking about the
Phantom Thief ?”
…This ace detective really did see everything. What Ms. Fuubi
had told us was still bothering me. “Yeah. I was wondering how a
jailbird turned people around the world into terrorists.”
Even if Phantom Thief Arsene did have a way to control others
like Ms. Fuubi and Siesta said, it seemed like it would be tough to
pull off from inside a cell.
“Good point. If he’d manipulated a prison guard, for example, it
would have been easy for him to break out himself. I can’t think
of a reason for him to do that to total strangers all over the
world.”
Exactly. The tactic Arsene had used seemed like an extremely
roundabout way of doing things. If breaking out of prison had
been his first and only goal, there had to have been a more
efficient method. There was a major contradiction between what
Arsene was capable of and the results of his actions. That seemed
to be the biggest mystery here.
“Do you know anything else about the Phantom Thief, Siesta?”
Up until now, she’d never gone out of her way to tell me things.
However, since I’d learned about the Tuners and gotten closer to
the world’s darker side, she probably wouldn’t hide information
without a good reason now.
“Arsene always was a mysterious figure. Even I don’t know
much about him, besides his abilities as a phantom thief.
However, one thing I do know is that…”
With that preface, Siesta gave me new information on the
Phantom Thief.

“If Arsene steals from someone, that person will never notice.”
According to Siesta, he’d been given the position of Phantom
Thief in recognition of those overwhelming skills.
The victim would never realize something went missing, much
less that it had been stolen. The old me would probably have
wondered if that was possible; I wouldn’t have been convinced.
However, I’d forgotten the truth of Siesta’s death once, because of
that pollen. Siesta had also had her memories of meeting
Natsunagi and Alicia stolen.
Things that were lost this way were washed out to sea and over
the horizon by fuzzy, pixelated waves, without their owner ever
noticing they’d vanished. Could Phantom Thief Arsene steal wills
and hearts that deftly, too? And his victims would never even
know he’d done it…
“Still.” As I stood silent, Siesta continued. “You’re actively trying
to solve this incident. Even though you used to look so put out
whenever I brought in a job… You’ve grown.” Stretching a little,
Siesta patted my head. “Physically too, at some point.” For some
reason, her smile looked lonely.
“…Quit it.” I reached up to knock her hand away, but my regrets
raced through my mind, and I ended up lowering my arm again.
As Siesta said, we didn’t necessarily have to be the ones to
solve this problem. Ms. Fuubi might have gone out of her way to
bring it up to us because she was hoping for something from the
Ace Detective, but even then, no one was forcing us. Still, I’d
stuck my nose into this case because—
“If I seem enthusiastic, it’s because this job is special.”
“Special?” Siesta tousled my hair, looking perplexed.
…If I don’t make her stop soon, my hair will be too messy to be
seen in public at all.
“Yeah. According to what Mia told me, the Phantom Thief asked
Seed for something as a condition for stealing the sacred text. If
what he asked for was one of his seeds, I thought it might be the
key to solving this case.”
In other words, I’d thought this might be an extra inning of the
primordial seed crisis. If so, then the Ace Detective and her
assistant should deal with this as well.
“—I see.” Seeming satisfied, Siesta removed her hand from my
head.
“Even so, wasn’t there anything they could have done before he
escaped?” Why should we have to scramble like this now? I
grumbled about the other Tuners and the group above them. “And
they didn’t strip the position of Phantom Thief from Arsene? Why
not? If he stole the sacred text, it wouldn’t have been a crazy
thing to do.”
“I don’t know much about what’s happened during the past
year, but the selection of Tuners is ultimately the decision of the
top brass. They may have had a reason to let Arsene stay the
Phantom Thief and to lock him up instead of killing him. Apart
from whether or not that was the right move…” Siesta wrapped up
her speech.
“But, yes.” She gave me two light pats on the shoulder. “You’re
able to view things from multiple angles now. Continue to develop
that trait.”
“…I haven’t heard that irritating compliment in quite a while.”
“And so…” Siesta fixed her straightforward blue eyes on me. “I
want you to stay by Nagisa’s side and support her.” As she said it,
she took her left hand from my shoulder. Just as I was about to
respond—“Assistant, it looks like it’s about time.”
“Time? …!”
The alley was dark; the sun had gone down completely.
As if seeping out of the darkness, or from the shadows of the
electric lights, the white demon appeared.
One of the twelve shields that protected the world—the
Vampire, Scarlet.
His glaring golden eyes were fixed on the person next to me, as
if he were sizing up his prey. When he spoke, I saw red blood on
his teeth.
“It’s been a long time—Daydream.”

The white demon and the whereabouts of

the soul
His white suit seemed to float in the darkness, and his red necktie
reminded me of blood.
This man’s name was Scarlet—and he was an actual vampire.
I’d first encountered him a few weeks ago, in the parking
garage under a TV station. Ever since then, it had been really
hard to say whether we were enemies or allies.
 “We finally meet,” Siesta said. Smiling a little, she gazed at the
vampire who was leaning against the wall.
Apparently she’d adjusted our schedule so that we’d meet him
here. The vampire never appeared outside while the sun was up.
Siesta hadn’t gone to that musical just for fun.
“Ha! I see, I see. You missed me so much that you returned
from the dead, hm? What an admirable woman.” Scarlet nodded
to himself with apparent satisfaction.
“Um, no. I came to see you because I just happened to have
business with you, that’s all.”
“There’s no need to be embarrassed. Not as my former bride
candidate.”
“Scarlet, what did you just say? ‘Bride’? Siesta is? Whose?”
“Assistant, don’t make the conversation more complicated. And
don’t draw your gun over a thing like this.”
…She could say that, but from the way Scarlet had talked
before, there was definitely some sort of deep history between
these two. There was a decent possibility that he had something
on Siesta and was threatening her, for example. If so, as her
assistant, wasn’t there, you know, something I should do?
“And we’ve met again sooner than I expected, human.” As I was
thinking, Scarlet’s eyes had turned to me.
“…Yeah. We came to pick your brain about something.” I had
plenty of other things to discuss with this guy right now besides
his relationship with Siesta. The ace detective and I exchanged
looks, then got down to business.
“Scarlet.” Siesta took half a step toward the vampire. “Do you
know how to return consciousness to a human who won’t wake
up?”
That was why she’d come to consult the Vampire after the
Inventor.
As a vampire, Scarlet could raise the dead. Those he revived
came back empty of everything except the strongest instinct
they’d developed while they were alive. In other words, we
thought he might be able to draw human instincts or awareness
to the surface. Siesta was asking Scarlet how to wake up our
sleeping friend.
 “Where do you suppose human souls dwell?” Scarlet asked us
instead of answering. “In the brain, or there?” His golden eyes
looked down at the left side of Siesta’s chest.
Where in the body was the human “heart,” or soul, located?
Even if I got a little more specific and replaced those terms with
“consciousness”—even then, philosophy, psychology, medicine,
and the other sciences would each give different answers.
Philosophy put more weight on thought. Psychology emphasized
sensation. Medicine made distinctions based on stimulus and
response. There were infinite ways to interpret human
consciousness.
In Siesta’s case, possibly due to the effects of the seed, her
consciousness had been in her physical heart. Meanwhile, since
Hel was Natsunagi’s second personality, she’d probably slept in
her mind, as a backup of sorts. Since Natsunagi was the main
personality, was her awareness also generated by her brain? In
scientific terms, that might be the case.
“………”
I realized that Scarlet was gazing at me, a faint, cold smile on
his face. “The whereabouts of human consciousness… Well, I
don’t know the answer to that myself.” He looked as if he were
showing off.
What, you act all mysterious, and then you don’t know, either?
“That was the world’s biggest waste of time…”
“And he acts so proud of it.” Siesta gave Scarlet a disgusted
look.
“There’s no help for that. The Undead I create arbitrarily come
back with an instinct intact. My will has nothing to do with it.”
“You mean it doesn’t happen because you want it to?”
“No, just as I’m not living like this because I want to.” Scarlet’s
response was inscrutable. I wanted to ask what he meant, but his
beautiful, terrible profile gave me pause.
“The one thing I can say is this,” he told us. “Even if it’s only a
strand of their hair or a bit of a tooth, as long as I have a physical
piece of them, the dead will come back. In that sense, human
instinct, or consciousness, must dwell in every fragment of their
DNA.” By the time Scarlet finished that sentence, he’d resumed
his usual aloof expression.
Human consciousness ran through the entire body, from the tips
of our toes to the crowns of our heads, circulating like blood. It
was as if an inexhaustible will lived in the eyes that existed to see
tomorrow, in the hands that took up a sword to protect someone,
in the heart that didn’t stop beating even after death.
“Bat’s dead.”
Then, I’d remembered one of our mortal enemies, and I told
Scarlet about him.
Scarlet had been with Bat on the night I met him; he’d said
their interests had aligned. One thing led to another, and Bat had
eventually sided with me and Saikawa instead of Scarlet.
Achieving a long-cherished ambition, he’d finally fought Seed and
had fallen in battle.
“I see,” Scarlet murmured. He didn’t seem to feel anything in
particular about the news. “If you bring me a piece of him, I can
revive him.”
He probably wasn’t trying to be a jerk. As a vampire, he was
just making the suggestion as a matter of course.
“No, it’s fine.” I didn’t even have to speak for the dead. I knew
full well Bat would never want that. After all… “He already got his
wish.”
He didn’t need to fight anymore. I wanted him to rest in peace.
“I see. I don’t understand it myself, but no doubt that’s a good
thing.” Scarlet gazed into the distance. The night wind toyed with
his silver hair.
“There’s one other thing I want to ask you,” Siesta said. “Do you
know what sort of deal Arsene struck with Seed long ago?”
That was the second issue we had on our hands right now:
What had Arsene gotten from Seed in exchange for the sacred
text? That might be the hint to solving the mystery behind this
chain of incidents.
“Who knows? I haven’t been to that wearisome council in ages,
so I know nothing about that sort of thing.” Scarlet shrugged,
refusing to give us the answer we were looking for again.
“Besides, the only things that interest me are my enemies.”
 Did he mean the world’s enemies, as a Tuner? Or—
“Scarlet, what are you fighting against?”
The vampire didn’t answer. His golden eyes gazed at the
faraway moon as if it dazzled him.
“Ah, but there was one thing I needed to tell you.”
Remembering something, Scarlet turned to look at us again.
“While I have no way of knowing about the Phantom Thief, I can
provide information about the deceased primordial seed. As a
reward for defeating him, you see.” His smile was as arrogant as
ever. “When I negotiated with Seed, he asked if I would help him
extinguish the sun.”
That had probably been what Scarlet had mentioned earlier, the
“united front” Seed had proposed. I’d asked him what sort of
negotiations they’d had before, but he’d evaded the question that
time, pretending not to hear.
“So that’s what it was, huh?” Frankly, when we’d learned that
Seed’s weakness was the sun, I’d had an idea that that might
have been it. Scarlet was just as bad with sunlight as Seed was;
that was why Seed had negotiated with him.
“Why did you turn him down, though? That was a pretty good
offer for a vampire, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. It was an entertaining suggestion, and I thought it would
be amusing to go along with him. However…” Scarlet’s gaze
shifted from me to Siesta. “It would have meant my former bride
candidate could no longer nap in the sunlight, and I took pity on
her.” His expression softened.
“…Well. If we’re comparing the number of times we’ve seen
Siesta’s sleeping face, then I’ve—”
“Assistant, I don’t see the point of competing with him on that.”
I wasn’t competing. I was just stating facts.
Still, at this point we’d asked Scarlet everything we needed to.
We probably wouldn’t make any more progress regarding
Natsunagi’s consciousness or the Phantom Thief. On that thought,
I signaled to Siesta that we should probably be going.
“There’s no telling what the Phantom Thief may do. You be
careful as well,” Siesta told Scarlet as we turned to leave.
 “You’re very considerate toward your husband,” the guy
murmured, sounding satisfied.
Who’s “Siesta’s husband,” huh? I’ll kick your ass.
“But it’s true that there has been suspicious movement lately.”
Scarlet’s golden eyes narrowed. “About a month ago, I received
the corpse of a certain man. The sender asked if I would purchase
it for a million dollars.”
It sounded almost like the organ trade—although the act of
buying and selling human corpses was probably significant to a
vampire who could raise the dead.
“So the corpse didn’t belong to an ordinary human?” I asked,
picking up on the direction of the conversation.
“Correct. I did not purchase it, but no doubt it was a fair price
for the individual.”
Then Scarlet told us about the dead man he’d seen a month
ago.
“It was the corpse of Fritz Stewart, the Revolutionary.”
 The curtain rises on the next story
The next day, Siesta and I were in a room of a certain building.
It was past four in the afternoon.
We sat side by side on a sofa meant for visitors, waiting for the
person we were meeting to arrive.
“Your deduction skills have improved,” Siesta told me. She’d put
the tea set she’d brought with her to work and was enjoying a
cup of tea.
After parting with Scarlet the night before, I’d put together a
hypothesis about the chain of incidents centered around the
Phantom Thief, and once we returned to the hotel, I’d spent the
entire night discussing it with Siesta. Having reached a certain
conclusion, we’d come to visit this person in order to confirm our
answers.
“I could sense that you’d grown last night as we walked down
the street. Who’d have guessed you were the type who’d evolve
even further in combat?” Siesta was talking as if I were the hero
of an action manga. “You’ve grown up while I wasn’t looking. The
days when I changed your diapers are just a fond memory now.”
“That definitely never happened. If anyone’s a baby here, it’s
you. Just how late do you think you slept in today anyway?”
In a repeat of yesterday, Siesta hadn’t woken this morning and
slept until noon. In the evening, after I’d shaken her over and
over, she’d finally crawled out of bed.
“It’s all right once in a while, isn’t it?” Siesta primly shrugged off
my sarcasm.
I’m saying it’s a problem because it’s not “once in a while,”
okay?
“Besides, the other party is also busy. This was the only time
available.”
“Well, we did get here by the appointed time, but still…”
In the middle of our conversation, the door abruptly opened,
and someone walked in. He hadn’t knocked. That was only
natural: He was the owner of this office.
“Did I keep you waiting?”
 The man’s name was Fritz Stewart.
He was wearing an expensive suit and a business smile. Instead
of sitting down across from us, he took a seat at his desk in the
back of the room. We hadn’t seen him since the Federal Council
two days ago.
“I’m sorry; work’s piled up. Do forgive me if I take care of some
of it while we talk.”
Fritz—who was the mayor of New York City, as well as a Tuner—
opened up his computer and began typing busily.
“Is this cleanup from all those incidents?”
“…Yes. That’s right, Fuubi Kase told me you’d resolved one just
the other day.” Glancing over at us for a moment, Fritz smiled. “I
appreciate your help.”
We were talking about the terrorist incidents that had occurred
here in the city with the goal of having the Phantom Thief
released. As the mayor, Fritz was having a tough time dealing with
all of them.
“She’s as much of a busybody as ever.” Smiling wryly, he took a
gentle dig at Ms. Fuubi. It had come up at the Federal Council,
too; Ms. Fuubi had overstepped the boundaries of her job to help
the Ace Detective, and now she was pursuing the Phantom Thief
on her own.
“And?” Fritz asked, his pen kept skimming over the documents
in front of him. “I was told you’d made a discovery in this string of
Phantom Thief–related incidents.”
Exactly: That was why we were here to see him.
“Yeah, actually. We know where he is.”
The moment I said it, Fritz’s hand stopped moving. He looked
up, frowning while seeming perplexed. “You already know where
the escaped Phantom Thief is?”
“Hey, don’t underestimate the Ace Detective and her assistant.”
…Although it had taken a hint from another Tuner for us to reach
that answer.
“Tell me, then.” Fritz’s emerald eyes were focused on us.
“Where is Phantom Thief Arsene now?”
“Right here,” I told him bluntly.
 Siesta was holding up a small round hand mirror. The mirror
reflected a man whose eyes were as cold as ice, something even
he probably hadn’t been aware of.
“—I’m the Phantom Thief ? That’s quite the joke.” Averting his
eyes from his reflection, Fritz went back to typing. “I introduced
myself just the other day. My name is Fritz, and my position is
Revolutionary.”
He rejected our conclusion without even meeting our eyes.
“No, you aren’t Fritz Stewart. After all…” Siesta put the mirror
away. “Fritz Stewart is dead. You, the Phantom Thief, have taken
the deceased Revolutionary’s place.”
Fritz Stewart the Revolutionary was dead. Scarlet had told us as
much last night. Then, who was the guy we’d met at the council
two days ago? The vampire was a rogue who generally steered
clear of the mundane world and didn’t put in appearances at
Federal Councils, and apparently, he hadn’t known there was an
impostor around.
Still, one thing was certain: Somebody had assumed the
Revolutionary’s identity and attended the council.
“In that case, hypothetically, let’s say Fritz Stewart is a fake.”
Fritz—or rather, the man who’d called himself by that name—
stopped typing entirely. “How can you be sure his true identity is
the Phantom Thief ?”
That was a perfectly natural question. If I said, “Because it
would be easiest for a fellow Tuner to take his place,” nobody
would buy it. However, there was a reason that sort of switch
would be easy for the Phantom Thief.
“Because the Phantom Thief can take on Fritz’s shape using a
seed.”
That was what I’d guessed Seed had paid Arsene for stealing
the sacred text. Then Arsene had taken the form of Fritz, his
fellow Tuner, and had stolen the position of Revolutionary.
“Not only that, but the fact that none of the other Tuners have
noticed the switch is proof in and of itself.” Siesta gave another
reason to believe that the fake Fritz was actually Arsene. “You’ve
passed yourself off as Fritz Stewart for an entire month. You’ve
attended the Federal Council, an assembly of Tuners, and boldly
acted as mediator. Even so, none of the others—myself included—
noticed that the Revolutionary was an impostor. The only
conceivable explanation is because of your transcendental ability
as the Phantom Thief.”
Siesta wasn’t being overconfident in her own powers of
observation or in those of the other Tuners. The group had dealt
with many, many global crises, and their skills were definitely up
to the task. Even then, not one of them had suspected that the
Revolutionary’s position had been stolen—because they’d been up
against the Phantom Thief.
“If Arsene steals from someone, that person will never notice.”
It was just as Siesta had said last night.
“I see. And you noticed it because you were the Singularity—or
perhaps that would be a bit too simplistic.”
The man was still seated at his desk. Assuming a faint,
somewhat composed smile, he went on.

“Then, why do you suppose I needed to take over Fritz’s

identity?”

His tone was soft. Mellow, warm, and pleasant. That gentle
voice enveloped me, and for a moment, I didn’t even register the
change in the way he spoke. It was completely different from the
cold tone I’d heard several times at the council. This was his real
voice.
“—Assistant.”
I snapped back to reality with the force of a bursting water
balloon.
My partner was right next to me, and I remembered what I
needed to do. Right: This guy had just confessed that he was
Phantom Thief Arsene. …And yet he was still calmly trying to get
us to tell him his motive for switching.
“Phantom Thief Arsene,” Siesta said, although the man still wore
Fritz’s shape. “You changed your form and took over Fritz
Stewart’s identity—so that you could use the media to brainwash
people around the world.”
 That might only be a theory. However, it was true that Arsene
had a special skill that let him control people. Meaning it wasn’t a
stretch to assume he’d taken over Fritz’s life in order to spread his
voice around the world and exercise that power to its maximum
potential.
“—I see,” Arsene murmured, although it almost sounded like a
sigh. Then silence fell.
“Let me clarify just one thing to avoid any misunderstandings.”
Arsene was the one who broke that silence. He placed both
elbows on the desk, steepling his fingers in front of his chin. “I
had absolutely no part in Fritz Stewart’s death. He just happened
to die at a convenient time, so I took his place, that’s all.” His
voice was like being surrounded by soft ripples as he insisted he
hadn’t been involved in the man’s death.
“Then, what are you after?” Siesta rose from her seat and stood
in front of him. This time, she wasn’t asking why the Phantom
Thief had taken the Revolutionary’s place. We’d deduced that
correctly. “Fritz Stewart died a month ago, but he seems to have
been making consistent media appearances still. Meaning you
must have broken out of jail at least a month ago and have been
living as the Revolutionary ever since. …So, why?” she asked.
“You’ve been free all this time. Why have you been manipulating
complete strangers into attempting to release you?”
That was the question we’d shot down as impossible while we
were out last night. If he’d been able to escape whenever he
wanted, then there was no point in going out of his way to choose
collaborators outside prison.
However, not only had Arsene been able to flee at any time;
he’d already been aboveground and free a month ago. So why
had he been making people in London and New York try to break
him out of prison for no reason whatsoever?
In response to that completely natural question, Arsene said,
“The fact that there is no point is, to me, the greatest point there
is.”
His answer was incomprehensible; it sounded like a Zen koan.
Siesta and I both looked confused. Arsene watched us. “Don’t you
understand?”
 “It’s an experiment. To what extent are people able to do
meaningless things on someone else’s orders?”

It was a thought experiment that seemed to exist beyond the

realm of reason. To Siesta, whose ideas were underpinned by
solid experience and logic, that sort of thing was anathema. The
phantom thief and the detective: Like spear and shield, they’d
been at odds with each other since time immemorial and were
destined to fight.
“Do you think we’re going to let you continue that experiment?”
In that relationship, the detective was sometimes the one who
took the offensive. Siesta, who’d risen to her feet along with me,
pointed her familiar musket at the enemy.
“Rest assured.” Paying no attention to the muzzle that was
pointed at him, Arsene continued in a leisurely voice. “The
experiment is over; I’ve collected sufficient statistics. I’m sure
they’ll get me through to the next stage.”
“Look, there is no ‘next’—”
“Besides…” Arsene got to his feet, cutting me off. “What the
primordial seed gave me was only a fragment of a seed. I’m
unlikely to develop unwanted side effects, but in exchange, its
function is limited. That means, as it stands, I won’t be able to
maintain this shape. I’ll have to go soon.”
“…A fragment of a seed? You broke the Federal Charter and
stole the sacred text for that?”
For some reason, Arsene seemed disappointed with my
question. “I never let those I steal from realize what I’ve taken,
yet you know I stole the primordial seed’s sacred text. Doesn’t
that strike you as odd? You two were just telling me about this,”
Arsene scolded us.
He was right. We did know Arsene had stolen the text. However,
that was because Siesta and Mia had set up the theft beforehand,
so it hadn’t seemed particularly strange…
“Don’t tell me—are you saying the sacred text wasn’t all you
stole that day?” Still holding Arsene at gunpoint, Siesta cross-
examined him, keeping him pinned down.
“…I see. So you had another objective?”
 Siesta and Mia had realized Arsene was planning to steal the
sacred text. They were on high alert. Even so, he had slipped
through their guard and stolen something else—without letting
them catch on.
“Then, all along, your real aim was…”
Siesta’s blue eyes narrowed. She’d finally realized. She and Mia
had thought they were using Arsene, but they were the ones
who’d been used.
“Idly accepting what I’m owed isn’t in my nature. When I really
want something, I steal it myself.”
Then he walked right past us.
“You think you can escape?” Copying Siesta, I pointed my gun
at the enemy.
“Escape? I’ve never considered ‘escaping’ from anyone. Not
even once.” I heard an unsettling click right by my ear. “It’s just
that no one ever manages to catch up to me.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw shiny black guns. Men had
appeared out of nowhere, and both Siesta and I had guns pointed
at the backs of our heads. We had no choice but to put our hands
up.
“…Are you manipulating these guys, too?” From the way they
were dressed, they seemed to be city employees. Arsene was
probably controlling them with his ability—
“No.” Arsene stopped walking for a moment. “They’re all helping
me of their own free will.”
Leaving that screwy explanation behind, he headed for the door.
“I’m fairly sure you heard me earlier.” However, a lone girl
stopped him. Men in suits had her at gunpoint, but Siesta spoke
over her shoulder to our departing enemy.

“A new Ace Detective will be taking over for me soon. Her

passion is bound to capture you someday. Nagisa Natsunagi
would never lose to the sort of enemy who uses human hearts.”

In response to the Ace Detective’s declaration of war, the

Phantom Thief said…
“I’ll look forward to stealing that passion.”
 He delivered that final remark with excitement, and then he was
gone.

Those dazzling three years I spent with

her
After our showdown with the Phantom Thief, Siesta and I stopped
by a restaurant instead of heading straight back to our hotel.
We’d planned to hold a review meeting about our failure to
capture Arsene over dinner, but…
“Take it easy, Siesta.”
Where in that thin body of hers did all the food she ate go?
Siesta cleaned plate after plate with lovely table manners but at
dizzying speed. We had no time to talk about Arsene.
“But, you know, I need to eat while I can.”
“What was the ‘you know’ for? You can eat again whenever you
want.”
Siesta wasn’t listening. She was scanning the menu again. I was
slightly exasperated…but it did also strike me as sort of nostalgic.
Back when we were together constantly, we’d eaten at the
same table like this all the time, discussing cases or making plans
for future work or talking about nothing in particular… Anyway,
the sight I remembered most from those three years might have
been Siesta blissfully enjoying her food, the same way she was
doing that now.
“Come to think of it, what’s your favorite food, Kimi?” she asked
out of nowhere while we were waiting for our next order to arrive.
“Uh, what? Is there a reason you’re talking like we just met?”
“No, it just occurred to me that we’d never discussed things like
that.”
I see. Come to think of it, she was right. It felt like we’d never
talked about stuff like that or covered any of the basic topics;
we’d just bantered.
“Actually, I don’t even know your real name or age or where
you’re from.”
“If you put it that way, I’ve practically never heard what you
really think, Kimi.”
 Yeah, she wasn’t wrong about that. Even if we hadn’t asked
those questions, though, we’d walked together and sometimes
stood back-to-back, and we’d understood each other. I’d also
never considered whether that had been right or wrong.
“Basically, I like anything that has a deep, rich flavor.”
That wasn’t why I said it, and it seemed kind of late, but I
answered Siesta’s question anyway.
“Deep, rich-tasting foods? That’s not even a type.”
“The thing is, as long as it has a definite taste, it satisfies me.”
Especially during those three years, almost everything I ate had
been pizza or some other kind of junk food. …Maybe that was
why. My strong memories with Siesta had been the only ones I’d
remembered, as if they were linked to those vivid flavors.
“What about you, Siesta?”
“Mm, that’s a tough one. There’s nothing I dislike.”
As she answered, Siesta paused in the act of reaching for her
glass. Thinking back, I did get the feeling she found everything
she ate delicious. The only time she’d grimaced was when I’d
made that lousy curry… Maybe she really didn’t have any
favorites.
“If I were having my very last supper, though…” Siesta
responded to my inquiry with a hypothetical. “I think I’d like to
eat it with the person I most enjoy spending time with.” Smiling
faintly, she gave an answer that didn’t quite match the original
question.
“…I ate too much.”
Still fully dressed, I collapsed onto the hotel bed.
“Heh-heh. Yes, your stomach’s definitely sticking out.”
Siesta had cleared more plates than I had, but it was like
everything she’d eaten had evaporated or something. She sat
down in a chair by the window, wearing a cool smile. We’d finally
finished our long dinner and returned to our hotel. …Speaking of
finally, there was one more thing.
“Still, that wasn’t like you. You never back down that easily.” On
the bed, gazing at the ceiling, I brought up the Arsene incident
again. A few hours ago, surrounded by those men in that office,
Siesta and I had ended up letting the Phantom Thief get away.
“I didn’t know how Arsene had gotten those men to obey him. I
couldn’t use force.”
…Oh, I see. If we hadn’t withdrawn, there was no telling what
order he would have given them. To ensure the safety of
everyone present, she’d had to pretend she was helpless.
“Besides, even if I lost, the Ace Detective hasn’t,” Siesta said
firmly. “Someday, Nagisa’s bound to defeat the Phantom Thief.”
“…Yeah. Now we’ve got another reason we have to wake her
up.” There was no way she’d let an enemy who plotted to control
others’ hearts get away.
Nagisa Natsunagi. With her passion, I was sure…
“But as far as you’re concerned, Kimi, that’s not the biggest
reason.” I heard the bed creak. Straddling me, Siesta peered into
my face. “You just want to wake Nagisa up because you want to
see her again.”
“…Don’t just say people’s thoughts aloud. At least ask first.”
“I’m right, though, aren’t I?”
The room was dim. The moonlight that filtered in through the
curtains made Siesta’s smile even more alluring.
“…Dunno.” I knew there was no need to put her off. Even so, it
was awkward to be seen so thoroughly, and I found myself
looking away.
“Male tsunderes aren’t popular, you know.”
“Mind your own business.”
Today, though, Siesta wouldn’t let up. “Tell me one thing you
like about her, then.”
What’s the “then” for, huh? Actually, something like this
happened just three weeks ago. …In which case, it wouldn’t be
fair if I didn’t answer this time, too.
“…Natsunagi, right. Well, you know. She’s, uh……cute, isn’t
she?”
“………”
Why did she clam up? Should I have mentioned her personality
first or something?
 “Oh, it’s just that hearing the word ‘cute’ come out of your
mouth gave me a nasty chill.”
“Not fair.” That’s not a reason to get goosebumps. I plucked up
my courage and said something I don’t normally say. Praise me
for it, would ya?
“Heh-heh. Still, this is getting entertaining.”
“Don’t tease me for your own amusement. Whatever it is, it’s
obviously not going to be any fun for me.”
“Well, it means that even when Nagisa called you names or
brushed you off, in your heart, you were thinking, My partner is
way too cute, right?”
“Quit analyzing it so calmly! And I didn’t make that ‘cool guy’
face!”
…Dammit, Natsunagi. Thanks to you, I’m getting humiliated
here.
“Yes, right there, that’s the one I meant.”
“Like I said, quit reading my mind.”
And you. Hurry up and get off me already. I pointed at the bed
next to mine, instructing Siesta to move. Man, I’m glad we
reserved a twin room.
“…Uh, you’re interpreting that gesture wrong.” For some reason,
instead of going to the next bed, the ace detective had stretched
out next to me. Had she always been this slow on the uptake?
“Oh, of course. I didn’t realize.”
Yeah, right. She’d clearly done it on purpose.
Speaking in a nonchalant monotone, Siesta gazed at my profile.
Her face softened.
“What are you after?” I asked.
“You wouldn’t stop talking about Nagisa, so I got jealous…
Would that do?”
“If you’d put more emotion into it, I might have hugged you out
of nowhere.”
“You didn’t put any emotion into that either, Kimi.”
We argued a little, then laughed.
“We haven’t changed, have we?”
“Nope. We’re just like we were a year ago.”
 The lights in the room were out. On the narrow bed, Siesta and
I gazed at each other.
“Well, your drive for sleep and food have been satisfied, so if
we’re being honest, I’m concerned you might hit me up for the
last one.”
“I told you, I’ve only got two great motivations. And what do
you mean, ‘concerned’?” Siesta narrowed her eyes as if she had a
bone to pick with me.
“You say that now, but that’s not what you said before.”
“When?”
It had been a month ago already. When we fought Chameleon
on that cruise ship, and Siesta had borrowed Natsunagi’s body,
she’d told me…
“You said, ‘To tell you the truth, I might have slept with you
once. I considered it, at least.’”
“…………” For a moment, Siesta looked rather guilty. “…Well, you
said to tell you that sooner, didn’t you? Really, it sounded as if you
were the one who was interested.”
She hit me with an impossible instant retort.
Well, back then, I had no idea I’d get to see you again like this.
“And so, if I had to say, I thought you might not be able to
control your emotions seeing me again after a year apart, and
you’d throw your arms around me or something.” Somehow
having gotten the upper hand, Siesta reproached me. …Sheesh.
“Get over yourself.” She was lying next to me, and I geared up
to flick her forehead.
“Well, I mean…” Suddenly, Siesta’s expression turned lonely.
“You pushed yourself much too hard for my sake.” She gently
touched my cheek.
…Oh. So she had known about that seed, huh?
“Even if the seed’s been extracted, you might still end up
suffering side effects from it one of these days.” Was it my
imagination? Siesta’s eyes seemed wet. “You may lose the ability
to see your beloved Nagisa or hear your cherished Yui sing. You
may lose your voice; you might not be able to fight with your rival
Charlie. Even so, you—”
 “I don’t care,” I said, hugging her tightly. “I knew I wouldn’t.
That’s why I chose the future that might have you in it.” No
matter what I lost because of it, I’d wanted to see Siesta again.
“Sorry. I just said I hadn’t changed, but I’ve learned how to be
honest about stuff like that.”
I’d failed to do it twice, and I had regretted it both times.
“…Are you stupid, Kimi?” I could hear Siesta’s weak voice from
the vicinity of my chest. “That almost sounds as if you…”
But she didn’t say the rest of it. She just squirmed a little in my
arms…then heaved a big sigh. “I suspect somebody’s going to
stab you one day.”
“Where the heck did that come from?” Even if I am a trouble
magnet, I never want to get dragged into that kind of mess.
“Listen.” Siesta poked her head up out of my arms. There was
no sadness in her face now. “Come to think of it, I didn’t ask you
last time. I think you’d probably tell me now.” With that preface,
Siesta asked me, “What did you think of those three years?”
That was another thing that had happened on the cruise ship a
month ago. While Siesta was protecting me from the enemy’s
attacks, she’d told me, “Those unforgettable three years I spent
with you are the best memories I have.”
At the time, I hadn’t been able to respond. Since she’d asked
me again, I had a chance to tell her. In that case…
“Do you even need to ask?”
Knowing it was too dark for her to really see it anyway, I gave
her my biggest smile.
“I had so much fun, it’s kind of frustrating.”
When she heard that, Siesta murmured, “I see.” She sounded
somewhat relieved. She put her arms around me, hugging me
back. “Thank you.”
Yeah, that’s right.
That was the promise we’d made a year ago: If we survived
and met again, I’d take her up on that hug.
Right now, one year later, that wish had come true.
 “What’s that ‘Thank you’ supposed to mean?” But as I joked
around with her like usual, Siesta’s warmth enfolded me. My
eyelids grew heavy, and I didn’t fight them. I fell into a deep
sleep.
—The next morning…
When I woke up, I was alone.
 Chapter 3
The true conclusion of Route X
“What do you mean, Ma’am’s gone?!”
Furious, Charlie grabbed my shirtfront. Her blond hair was
disheveled, and her sharp, angry eyes drilled into me.
“…It’s just like I said.” I didn’t try to resist. I simply told her the
facts. “Siesta left a letter saying she won’t be coming back to us.”
I thought back to yesterday morning. The moment I woke up,
I’d realized Siesta wasn’t lying next to me. Instead, there was a
letter on the desk. It consisted of her usual banter, a simple
thank-you for everything, and a goodbye.
Even though she’d spent day after day sleeping like a log until
evening, when she vanished, it happened in the blink of an eye.
I’d found a familiar musket leaning against the wall beside the
bed. It was as if she was saying she wouldn’t need it anymore.
Siesta’s letter hadn’t mentioned the most important thing: her
reasons for leaving. …No, technically, there had been something
like that. She’d said since she was retiring as the Ace Detective
and becoming a regular detective again, she was planning to do
some solo traveling. I’d grown enough as an assistant, so she
wanted me to support Natsunagi, who would be the new Ace
Detective someday. The things she’d said were sound, difficult to
argue with, and that was why I instinctively felt they weren’t true.
It wasn’t just my gut; it was experience. The three years I’d spent
with her were telling me so.
However, it was an undeniable fact that Siesta was no longer
nearby. I’d returned to Japan before the day was up, taking only
her musket with me, and today I’d gathered Charlie and the
others so I could report the situation.
“—So you just looked at that letter and shuffled back home by
yourself, when you didn’t even understand what Ma’am really
wanted? Then you haven’t changed at all in the past year,
Kimizuka!”
“Please calm down, Charlie!” A girl came between us,
attempting to mediate. “Kimizuka, tell us one more time. Did
Siesta really leave you…? Leave us?”
Saikawa turned her wavering eyes on me. We were in a certain
room of her mansion.
“You’re walking again. That’s great.”
Saikawa had been in a wheelchair until just the other day, but
now she was standing firmly on her own two feet.
“Don’t try to change the subject. Never mind me. About
Siesta…” Saikawa put a little anger into her words, most likely
gearing up to scold me…but then she didn’t. “Kimizuka, you look
terrible.”
“Ha-ha. You’re insulting me now?”
“You don’t need to force yourself to joke. Please sit down.”
Saikawa motioned for me to have a seat.
“…Come to think of it, there were vague signs hinting this would
happen.” Lowering myself weakly into the chair, I told them about
the things I’d thought on the way here. About how what Siesta
had said and done lately had seemed a little off somehow.
For example, even though she’d come back to life, she kept
saying things like “There’s no time.” She might have meant
something besides needing to defeat Seed quickly or wake up
Natsunagi.
Then, although she’d been expressing her anxieties to me,
Siesta had taken me to a distant country, had put me in contact
with new Tuners, invited me to musicals, and started
reminiscing… I’d experienced a similar contradiction between her
words and her actions a year ago, too.
Most of all, she’d stepped down from her position and
nominated Natsunagi as the new Ace Detective. She’d said that
even if she didn’t hold that title anymore, she’d keep working as
an ordinary detective; however, if this was how things stood, her
retirement took on a different meaning.
“Siesta might be—”
 “_____! That can’t be right!” After she’d heard me out, Charlie
looked down and screamed. “Ma’am really came back to life! We
finally defeated Seed! Nagisa will wake up after this, and then
we’ll finally make it to that happy ending you were talking about,
you know?! And now Ma’am… Ma’am disappears again, all by
herself ?! That can’t be…!”
“Your deduction may be correct, Kimihiko.”
Just then, someone else came in. It was Noches, the former
maid-type SIESTA; she’d had business to take care of, and she
apologized for being late. Then she began to relate a story that
seemed to reinforce my theory. “As Charlotte says, the primordial
seed has been destroyed. However, the fragments of his seed are
still here—Including inside Mistress Siesta’s chest.”
…She was right. Saikawa, Natsunagi, and I had all had our
seeds extracted during that battle with Seed the other day, but
Siesta’s was still in her heart. Up until now, she’d benefited from
the power it gave her, fighting the enemies of the world using
physical abilities no average person had.
“However, those seeds are double-edged swords. As
nourishment, they take the sight or hearing, or part of the life,
from anyone who ingests one. And eventually—”
“Wait!” Saikawa hastily cut Noches off. “We know the rest.
Albert told us what happens to humans who’ve been eroded by a
seed. But Siesta was originally Seed’s candidate vessel, wasn’t
she? Then—”
“…I see. So Siesta wasn’t fully compatible,” I said.
Noches nodded quietly.
Before Siesta and Mia plotted to deceive Seed, the sacred text
had originally foretold a future in which Siesta lost to Hel. That
told us one thing: As a vessel for the primordial seed, Hel had
been a little better than Siesta.
“As the sole fully compatible host for the primordial seed,
Nagisa Natsunagi might have—”
A remark Stephen the Inventor had made in passing a week
ago ran through my mind. Natsunagi had been the one best
suited to be Seed’s vessel, while Siesta’s body was doomed to be
eaten away by the seed in her heart—
 “Don’t tell me Ma’am is…”
Charlie cut to the heart of it.

“Is she trying to disappear before she turns into a monster?”

People whose bodies were completely devoured by their seeds
degraded. Like Chameleon, who’d lost control when we fought
him on the cruise ship, or Betelgeuse, who’d been created as a
biological weapon to begin with. That was how those who were
controlled by the seeds ended up.
Siesta had known it would happen to her one day, and so she’d
left us before she ran out of time.
“Wait just a minute. If Ma’am knows she’ll become a monster
someday… If it’s true…”
She didn’t have to say what Siesta would do.
Before that could happen, she’d—
“……!”
Charlie bolted for the door.
“Where are you going?”
“You have to ask?! I’m going to find Ma’am!”
“She’s—!” I’d shouted, although I hadn’t meant to, and Charlie’s
shoulders jumped. “She understood all of that, and she chose to
do this.”
“But even so! Just because she knows she’ll become a monster
someday, suicide isn’t the—!”
“Not that,” I said to Charlie but kept my eyes fixed on the floor.
“Siesta knows how much we cared about her and how happy it
made us to see her again. And knowing all of that, she still chose
this.”
“……!”
That meant we were dealing with an entirely different situation
now.
True, we’d brought Siesta back by superseding her will and her
intentions. However, Siesta knew about our feelings this time. On
top of that, she’d decided that this was the only way and had
distanced herself from us. We couldn’t just ignore her silent wish.
“It’s all right. For now, calm down.”
 My hand felt something warm.
“Your hands squeeze. Your shoulders roll. Your breathing is
rhythmic. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, then exhale. Your
blood circulates. When you open your eyes, your cloudy vision will
be clear.”
It was Saikawa’s usual charm. My hand hung limply, and she
took it gently. “Siesta has made her decision. Now it’s your turn to
choose, Kimizuka.”
She’d removed her eye patch, and the eyes she fixed on me
were two different colors.
“…It’s still okay for me to choose?”
“Of course. It’s your life, after all.” For some reason, Saikawa’s
smile seemed ready to dissolve into tears.
Still, considering the fact that my ego had created this situation,
I couldn’t answer so easily.
“We were always like this, weren’t we?” Charlie looked away,
murmuring sadly. “In battle we’d argue, and so of course we’d
fail, and then we’d get along worse and do the whole thing over
again.”
She was right. Every time that happened, Siesta would scold us,
sighing and asking if we were stupid. Even so, in the end, she’d
smile and point us in the right direction. …But Siesta wasn’t here
anymore. All because of my selfish wish.
“Sorry, Charlotte.”
The one who’d pointed us toward tomorrow was no longer—
“We still have a detective!” Angrily, or possibly through tears,
Charlie stomped over to me. Setting her hands on my shoulders,
she shouted, “We have another friend who’s a detective! She said
so herself that day. She said she was the ace detective who’d
inherited Ma’am’s last wish!”
What I’d seen on that cruise ship flashed through my mind. At
the time, Charlie had adamantly refused to acknowledge
Natsunagi as the ace detective. She’d thought she was the most
suitable one to inherit Siesta’s last wish.
Just now, though, Charlie had entrusted it to her. She’d
entrusted our future—Siesta’s future—to the other ace detective.
The one who was still asleep.
 “Kimihiko,” Noches called. She was holding a car key.
Would I find the answer in the place where Natsunagi slept?
Wouldn’t we just come up against another harsh reality—? I didn’t
know.
“If you don’t know, then let’s go.”
Noches, whose consciousness had once been housed in Siesta’s
body, spoke to me over her shoulder. I sensed the shadow of the
ace detective in her, and before I knew it, I’d stepped forward.

Client and proxy detective

When I opened the door of the hospital room, the girl was lying
on the bed, just as she had been before.
“I’m back,” I told her, gazing at her sleeping face.
It had been two weeks since the final battle with Seed, and
Nagisa Natsunagi still showed no sign of waking.
“I guess it wasn’t going to be this convenient, huh…?”
Saikawa and Charlie had encouraged me to come here, but
Natsunagi still hadn’t awakened. No miracles had occurred. Even
so, I wanted to talk to her about this, so I sat down in a nearby
chair.
It had been four days since my last visit. I had come to this
hospital room several times before I left for New York, and during
those visits, I’d scolded her a lot. She’d tried to sacrifice herself in
Siesta’s place, and as her assistant, I—and no one else—had to
yell at her for it.
“Do you get it, Natsunagi?”
Looking at her still face made me think of it again, and I
couldn’t help but complain to her. I said I wanted to revive Siesta,
but you know it’s not okay for you to be gone instead.
My anger didn’t faze her, though. Natsunagi kept on sleeping
and breathing peacefully.
“…Natsunagi, what do you think I should do?”
A sigh escaped me. The red ribbon beside her pillow caught my
eye.
Siesta had come back to life, and in her place, Natsunagi had
died. Even so, Natsunagi had inherited Alicia’s and Hel’s lives and
wills and returned to us once—but now here she was again,
asleep. Meanwhile, Siesta had left us and was probably
attempting to disappear from the world entirely.
“What is it with you people?”
Why did they play with my heart like this? Why make me worry?
Why couldn’t they both just stay safe? Why couldn’t they just
smile and be well and happy?
You ace detectives are always—
“—No, I know. I know I’m in the wrong here.”
The whole reason Natsunagi had ended up like this was
because I’d misjudged her determination. I’d wanted to bring
Siesta back to life no matter what it would have cost me, and
Natsunagi had wanted the exact same thing…and yet…
Then there was Siesta. She’d had that seed inside her, but I
hadn’t thought about what that might mean for her. I’d brought
her back to life due to my own selfish thoughts, and this was the
result. She was trying to disappear before she could turn into a
monster.
“Just two weeks.”
That was the amount of time I’d managed to spend with her.
Even then, we’d hardly gotten to talk during the first week, since
we’d spent it in the hospital recovering after our fight with Seed.
Ultimately, what I’d gained from sacrificing all those things was a
few days’ worth of memories to ease my regrets and the sorrow
of a second parting.
“What should I do, Natsunagi?”
I knew she wouldn’t answer, but I asked again anyway. I’d been
able to tell Siesta things I hadn’t managed to tell her before, and
she’d accepted my feelings…but she still chose to leave us.
Saikawa had told me that if that was Siesta’s choice, it was fine
for me to make choices of my own. …But was it really? Not that I
thought Saikawa’s advice was wrong, but…
I was just hesitant to second-guess Siesta again. Sure, I’d stuck
to my guns and superseded her intentions once. But if this was
the result, I had to admit it, no matter how reluctantly: Her call
had been better than mine.
“I guess I’ve already got my answer, don’t I?”
 The mental back-and-forth I’d just had with myself helped
everything fall into place. I’d been wrong, and Siesta had been
right. I didn’t even have to think about it. During those three
years, not once had she been wrong.
…But on the day Siesta died a year ago, I’d had a thought. I
wasn’t proud of it; just this time, I’d wanted her to have been
mistaken. Of course, that had been childish. I didn’t need
anybody to tell me that.
“—But I still want Siesta to live…!”
I knew full well that it was a mistake, that my wish was pure
arrogance. It was as clear as it could be, but I couldn’t think of
any way to make it happen now. I bit my lip. My nails dug into my
palms. There was still nothing we could do about the current
situation, and my vision went black.
“…What should I do, Ace Detective?”
If biting my lip wasn’t going to change anything, I needed to at
least ask the question.
That’s right. I’d been devastated before I came here, but Charlie
had told me off for it and encouraged me. She’d said if I couldn’t
find the answer, I should rely on the other ace detective.
That’s why I was clinging to her, even though I knew I wasn’t
right. If digging my fingernails into my palms wouldn’t change
anything, then at least—
“Please, Ace Detective. Save Siesta.”
Releasing my clenched, rigid fists, I squeezed Natsunagi’s left
hand.
“If you’ll settle for a proxy detective, I’ll take the job.”
Out of nowhere, I heard a familiar voice.
It sounded like the exchange we’d had that one time, in that
classroom bathed in the light from the sunset.
Actually, maybe I’d been the one who’d said it or something like
it.
The hand I was holding squeezed mine back.
“You held my hand like this before, didn’t you?”
 When I lifted my head, the girl was gazing at me. She smiled
with relief.
Those words reminded me of another day. I’d held her hand
that night in the hospital, over a year ago, when she still looked
like Alicia.
“Natsu…nagi…?” My voice was hoarse, but I managed to say
her name somehow.
Looking up at me from the bed, Natsunagi gave a wry smile.
“You sure are dumb, Kimizuka.”
Slowly releasing my hand, she flicked my forehead with her
middle finger.
“Don’t visit me in the hospital, then spend the whole time
talking about some other girl.”

Setting Nagisa in motion

“Natsunagi…”
Dazed, I called her name again.
Nagisa Natsunagi—a girl in my grade and my partner. Death had
separated us once, or so I’d thought. Then she’d spent almost an
eternity asleep. And now here she was, blinking right in front of
me.
“Yes, my name is Nagisa Natsunagi. …Heh-heh. It’s been a
while, huh?” Slowly sitting up, she flashed a goofy smile and a
peace sign at me. “…Huh? Kimizuka, are you crying? Ah-ha-ha! I
guess you reeeeally wanted to see me, didn’t—?”
I hugged her as hard as I could.
“Wait, what? …Huh? K-Kimizuka…?”
Natsunagi’s flustered voice was right by my ear, but I couldn’t
afford to glance at her face or ask how she was doing. I wanted
to stay like this forever, if she’d let me.
“Wow, I really didn’t expect this… Um, Kimizuka? …What in
the…?” Bewildered, Natsunagi became stiff and awkward. “Listen,
I think you’re breaking character. You’re not normally the type for
this sort of thing, are you?”
 “…Shut up.”
It was no good. Speaking made my nose feel stuffy.
I hugged her tightly, so she couldn’t see my face.
“…Oh, geez. Honestly. What are we going to do with you?”
A soft warmth enfolded my back.
Natsunagi was hugging me too.
“Oh, I see. Yes, of course. This was what you wanted, wasn’t
it?”

It was like a reenactment of the time I’d met Natsunagi in that

classroom. Back then, she’d been hoping I’d step into the role of
detective and find the owner of her heart. As a matter of fact,
though, that heart had already gotten its wish, and Natsunagi had
done what it wanted and held me close.
“Um, what was it again? Seriously, you’re all tearstained and
covered in snot, and you still want to cry and throw a tantrum?
You had other ways you wanted to play? …I think that’s how it
went.”
“……! You don’t have to reenact that part!” I shook free of her
arms, and we finally managed to look each other in the face.
“Pfft!”
“Heh.”
Then we both burst out laughing.
How long had it been since I saw Natsunagi smile like this?
“Kimizuka, you look awful.” She pointed at my red eyes. “You
wanted to see me that bad, huh?” she teased.
“Yeah. I did,” I replied. I told her how I genuinely felt. “I wanted
to see you and make you bawl.”
“…Mgh.” Natsunagi must have known why already. She averted
her eyes, looking guilty.
If Natsunagi woke up, I’d meant to scold her first thing. There
was no way sacrificing her own life to save her friends was the
right answer. That could never be the future everyone wanted. …
But…
“It turns out I’m not in any position to lecture you.” When I said
that, Natsunagi looked at me again.
 I couldn’t deny that I might have done the same thing if I’d
been in her shoes. As a matter of fact, I’d swallowed that seed,
and I’d been prepared to sacrifice myself when I did it.
“I was so happy you were alive that I didn’t feel like getting
mad.”
“…What’s that supposed to mean?” Natsunagi gave an appalled
little laugh. Then she wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes
with her fingertips.
“But, Natsunagi, why did you suddenly wake up?” I had zero
complaints, of course, but we couldn’t just label this coincidence
and be done with it. I asked her how this miracle had occurred.
“I wonder.” Natsunagi looked away, gazing out the hospital
room window. “The whole time I was unconscious, I was on a
lovely shore. It wasn’t dark, the way it used to be, and I wasn’t in
a birdcage that kept me from going anywhere. It was just the
clear, blue ocean and the sort of white, sandy beach that makes
you want to run down it barefoot. I stayed at the waterline,
staring at the ocean.”
It had to have been the world of Natsunagi’s subconscious.
Unlike the times when Hel had been in control of her mind, she
must have felt she’d completed her mission. That beach was her
mental image of her goal.
“But as I was staring at the ocean, a little hand thumped me on
the back.” Natsunagi placed her hand on the left side of her chest.
“When I turned around, I saw a cute, doll-like girl who looked like
she’d jumped straight out of Wonderland. She was desperately
trying to tell me something, but for some reason, I couldn’t hear
her voice.”
As Natsunagi remembered, she squeezed her hand into a tight
fist over her chest and the heart inside it.
She must have known who was in there.
“Then, I heard another girl’s voice from her mouth. That voice
was also terribly familiar, an indivisible part of me…and the next
thing I knew, I’d obeyed it and started to move.”
…Yeah, that was how we’d always been. Both as our enemy and
our ally, her voice had always set us in motion. She, the one who
bore the name of the queen of the dead, had tried to push
Natsunagi back to this world. Her word-soul power had spoken for
the voiceless girl with pink hair.
“What did she say?” I asked.
Natsunagi raised her head.
“—She told me to start running.”

Natsunagi’s dignified expression wasn’t one I’d ever seen her

wear before. Her heart and memories and consciousness were
home to many other people. I was sure that wholeheartedly
accepting their wills had given her new life. The girl who’d
agonized over her lack of identity was no longer there.
“After that, things seemed to happen so fast.” Her expression
softened. “Every cell in this body was screaming that it wanted to
see you. So I ran across that shore, ran and ran, until I caught
up…to you.” Natsunagi bumped her fist lightly against my chest.
“Why me?”
“Well, you were hopelessly depressed. Even in my sleep, I could
tell.” Natsunagi smiled wryly.
“That’s why you…”
I remembered what Scarlet had said that night: That human
instinct was found in DNA all through the body, circulating like
blood. That the dead he resurrected came back with that instinct
intact.
I didn’t know where in Natsunagi’s body her mind or soul or
consciousness slept, whether it was her brain or her heart or
every single one of her cells. I did know exactly what her instinct
was, though: her passion as a detective.
For ages, she hadn’t been anyone. Then one day, when she’d
inherited the role of detective, she’d found the path she was
meant to walk. Sometimes she’d followed Siesta, and at others,
she’d chosen a different course, but she’d never lost sight of her
pride as a detective.
So when I, her client, had called out to her, Natsunagi the
detective had responded by waking up. It was just like when we’d
fought Chameleon on the ship. Siesta’s mind had been dormant
inside Natsunagi, but since I was in trouble, she’d awakened and
stepped up. This time, Natsunagi had—
“I suspect you two like me far too much,” I joked, feeling as if a
great weight had lifted from my shoulders.
“So, about your current problem.”
“……Hey.”
Natsunagi chuckled, pulling the covers up to hide the lower half
of her face. “Unfortunately, I don’t like you or anything, Kimizuka.”
Yeah, I know that. It’s mutual. I don’t like you or Siesta one tiny
bit, either.
“But if you need us, we’ll run to you, no matter where you are.”
Natsunagi looked at me with those ruby eyes of hers. “We’ll
ignore common sense, we’ll color outside the lines, we’ll replace
the term deus ex machina with miracle, and we’ll go to see you.
…If that’s what you want.”
Natsunagi spoke for the other detective, too—the one who
wasn’t with us.
“…Say, Natsunagi?”
“Hm?” She gazed at me kindly.
“Then, if I said I wanted to see Siesta one more time…”
“Of course!” Still sitting up in bed, she confidently planted her
hands on her hips. “That’s why you came here, isn’t it?”
“…You knew, huh?”
That’s just like an ace detective, I guess. Natsunagi said,
“Pacing is important with stuff like this,” echoing a line I’d heard
somewhere before.
“Actually, I heard you when you were talking to yourself earlier.”
“…Then wake up sooner.” I’d gone and looked like a coward for
nothing.
“Basically, Kimizuka, you’re not sure whether it’s okay to reject
Siesta’s answer again, right?”
Yeah, that’s the one. Siesta knew everything regarding how we
felt and what we wished for. Was it okay to overrule the decision
she’d made, even then, for the sake of my own selfish wish?
“In that case…” Natsunagi’s voice cut through my hesitation.
“Why not just stop relying on uncertain things like feelings and
wishes?”
 Voluntarily discarding her passion, her greatest weapon, she
said:

“Let’s work together and supersede Siesta one more time. Not
just with emotion—but with genuine skill.”

Thus our war council for transcending the ace detective began.

Where this muzzle points

After the discussion with Natsunagi, I’d done all I could to get
ready—and the next day, I left for a certain neighborhood.
“It’s hardly changed at all.”
Stepping over the yellow police tape, I entered the abandoned
town. I walked along, careful not to trip on the cracked ground,
until finally I saw a great tree, larger than the rest. It was the one
that had swallowed up the shopping mall.
This was the city that had been overrun by plants, the one
where we’d fought Seed two weeks ago. Many of the buildings
had collapsed, and there was DO NOT CROSS tape all over the
place; normal civilians weren’t allowed to enter. I was there for
just one reason.
“Hey, what a coincidence,” I shouted.
I’d spoken to a lone girl who had her back to me.
She was standing there, looking up at that huge tree. Short,
pale silver hair, and a dress inspired by a military uniform.
Everything about her was unmistakable: The girl’s name was—
“What are you doing, Siesta?”
Apparently, she’d had time to prepare because when she turned
back, she was wearing her usual composed smile. “I didn’t think
we’d meet again, Assistant.”
Code name: Siesta.
My partner had disappeared and turned up again.
“Geez. What are you, a cat?”
They say a pet cat who senses its death approaching will leave
its owner before it dies.
“And who exactly is claiming to own me?” Siesta responded with
a cold, hard stare. Then she gave a dissatisfied sigh. “It appears
someone set me up.”
Tilting her head back to look up at the towering tree, she
murmured, “I heard that the seal on the primordial seed was
coming undone.”
That had been one of the things I’d done in preparation. If I
was going to talk Siesta around, I had to find her first, but I knew
there was no point in calling and asking to see her. In that case, I
thought, it would be better to summon the Ace Detective instead
of Siesta.
Natsunagi hadn’t taken over that position yet. That meant
Siesta was still the Ace Detective, and the last thing she’d ever do
was abandon a job. So I’d made Mia Whitlock the Oracle lie that
there were signs that Seed’s seal was breaking, which would lure
her to this place.
“They do say it could happen someday.”
“Then, at the very least, it’s not an immediate danger.”
“Right. As a matter of fact, it may end up being indispensable to
mankind.” I told her what I’d just heard from Ms. Fuubi the night
before. “They tell me that tree is emitting unidentified atoms that
don’t appear in the periodic table. They’re going to be real busy
analyzing those.”
That was the main reason this area had been cordoned off.
What would this great tree, the primordial seed’s seal, mean for
humanity’s future?
“I see. Then there’s nothing for me to do here. That’s good,”
Siesta said, attempting to end this conversation. This story.
“What’s ‘good,’ huh?” As she turned to go, I called after her.
“Are you planning to die?”
She stopped in her tracks.

“In the not-so-distant future, I’ll turn into a monster.”

Siesta turned around to face me. Her smile looked a little lonely.
“I first realized I might not be the primordial seed’s most
compatible vessel when I saw a sacred text that had been written
long ago. I understood that the seed lying dormant inside me
might begin to eat away at me one day.”
 “…You’re telling me that for those three years we traveled
together, you were holding that bomb all by yourself ?”
“My seed is in my heart. Maybe that’s why I’m vaguely aware of
its time limit. For now, I’m still okay, but that day is inevitable.”
Siesta placed her hand on the left side of her chest. “In the near
future—I’ll stop being able to see or hear you. Even though you’ve
been beside me the whole time. I’ll lose the voice I’d need to fight
with you. I’ll forget you, and…someday, I’ll kill you. And so…”
Even at a time like this, Siesta’s smile was beautiful. “I’m going to
leave this world before that happens.”
That was my assumption. I didn’t need to be right. I hadn’t
wanted it to be. But Siesta’s own words had just erased all doubt.
“Your feelings really did make me happy.” As I stood there,
silent, Siesta went on eloquently. “The only words I can find are
simple ones, but I was happy. You got angry for my sake. You
cried for me. And so I’m sure…I was happy.”
An ace detective was brilliant, calm, cool, and collected. As
such, Siesta sometimes prioritized logic over emotion. She
emptied her heart, exclusively pursuing results. I was aware of
that, so what she’d just said sounded like her genuine,
unexaggerated feelings.
“Then are you saying you have no regrets?”
It was an incredibly cruel question, but I asked it anyway.
“I might have had some last year.” Siesta’s pale silver hair
fluttered in the wind. She gave a small, crooked smile. “I still had
things I wanted to ask you then. But…” She tucked her hair
behind her ears. “I know you consider me precious now. I know
you enjoyed those three years. Then, even though I never
expected to, I got to go to your apartment again and have pizza
with you…and then fight the enemy, travel by air, and solve a
case, and see a musical, and hold you close. I have no more
regrets.”
Siesta spoke firmly. I saw no hesitation in her face.
In that case, my answer was—

“So why are you trying to stop me?”

 I’d drawn my gun, and Siesta gave me a piercing, cold stare.
“Sorry for being an assistant who doesn’t do what you want.”
I came here to stop you. Not to kill you or hurt you. I was
pointing my gun at Siesta in order to protect her, to keep her
alive.
“Who says I have to play along with you?”
Siesta turned a deaf ear to my resolution. That was only
natural. Why should she go out of her way to deal with my
rebellion? There was nothing in it for her. If I lowered my gun, or
if the conversation trailed off, Siesta would leave us forever—even
so…
“There’s no point in running. I’ll chase after you no matter what
it takes, even if it means using the Saikawa family fortune or
borrowing help from Charlie’s old unit. The ends of the earth, the
depths of the ocean, ten thousand meters up—I’ll follow you
everywhere.”
After all, the Ace Detective hated to give up—but I could give
her a run for her money.
“And if that sounds like too much trouble, I should fight you
here?” Gazing down the barrel of my gun, Siesta guessed at what
I was implying.
“That’s right. We’ll settle everything here. If you win, I won’t
mess with you anymore.”
“There’s no way you and I could have anything resembling an
actual fight, and you know it. Besides—” Siesta turned her back to
me, calling my bluff. “You and your friends can pursue me all you
want, but you’ll never catch me. I’ll find a deserted place and
time, and I’ll complete my story by myself.” After giving that
remark, she started to leave.
Where had Siesta’s story as the ace detective begun? Had it
been when she was born, or was it at that laboratory six years
ago, when her battle with the primordial seed was established? I
was only her assistant, and I didn’t know.
But when had my story as her assistant begun? Or what about
our story, Siesta’s and mine? …I knew that one for sure. It was
that day. That one day, four years ago.
“Oh, I see. Siesta, you…”
 What I had to say here and now had been determined back
then.
“You got scared of me, your assistant. You’re pretending the
match has already been settled without a fight, so you can force
me to admit a loss and end the game. In other words—you’re
afraid.”

The moment I said it, Siesta stopped in her tracks. There was
no way she’d forgotten whose taunt that had originally been and
when it was from.
“Are you stupid, Kimi?”
She reproached me the way she always did.
But on this battlefield, her voice seemed just a little energized.
“It’s a thousand years too early for you to provoke me.”
When she turned back to face me, she was holding a small
pistol in her left hand. “Come to think of it, we’ve never really
tried to kill each other before, have we?”
“No, although you single-handedly almost killed me.”
Even under these circumstances—no, because of them—Siesta
and I smiled at each other.
“—Now then.”
But almost immediately, our eyes turned cold.
“Are you ready for this, Siesta?”
“I could ask you the same, Assistant.”
Then, at the foot of the great tree towering over all mankind,
Siesta and I pointed our guns at each other.
 It was the first—and last—big fight we ever had.

The name of this feeling

“In that case, I won’t hold back.”
No sooner had Siesta murmured those words than she
vanished.
“……!”
I knew better than anyone on the planet how strong she was.
Siesta ran so fast, she might as well have been teleporting.
Choosing a random direction, I dodged, and almost immediately,
a gunshot rang out right next to me.
“I guess it’s not going to be possible to end you with just one
shot.”
I had the devil’s luck and had won out this time; I might be
rolling on the ground, but I’d dodged that bullet. I took cover
behind an abandoned bus. “Couldn’t you have given me a bit of a
head start?”
“There is no ‘time out’ in war. Never mind that. What do I have
to do to win this fight?”
“Look, don’t fire, and then confirm things afterward. …You win
if I admit I lost.”
“I see. Then we’ll call it a battle against time. Considering your
personality, though, I get the feeling this may drag on for quite a
while.”
Siesta wasn’t even entertaining the possibility she might lose.
Not only that, but she’d tacitly managed to insult me for not
knowing when to quit.
“Sorry, but I’m flipping our power dynamic today.” I fired from
behind the bus…but Siesta evaded with an acrobatic leap.
“Aiming for my legs. That’s kind of you.”
“No, it’s just not normal to aim for my head first thing like you
did.”
“But you won’t admit defeat unless I inflict a lethal injury, will
you?”
Even as we traded this combat-specific banter, I got my
breathing under control behind the bus, working out a strategy.
This place had been messed up nicely during the fight with Seed
two weeks ago, so at least I’d secured cover.
“Do you think you can beat me like that?”
“……!”
I’d just tripped my own death flag. I heard the Ace Detective’s
voice above me. Siesta had gotten up onto the bus’s roof and
jumped off with no hesitation, kicking my right arm hard and
knocking the pistol out of my hand.
“…! As a matter of fact, I did supersede your intentions once,
remember?” Without even glancing at the gun I’d dropped, I
ducked under the bus.
“In terms of feelings, yes. Unless you can beat me with actual
skill right now, there’s no point.”
Right again. I’d known that too, I’d stressed about it, and I’d
still stepped onto this battlefield. There was no way I could just
back down after that.
“……!”
Spotting Siesta’s legs from below the bus, I burst out from
under the vehicle, drew and leveled my second gun, and fired.
But…
“…I seriously almost died.”
As if she’d predicted my move, Siesta had also fired, and the
bullet had zipped right past my head. No, maybe it had grazed it
for a few millimeters—a small trickle of blood ran down my cheek.
“Do you want to die?” Siesta tilted her head in a show of
innocence.
Still cool as a cucumber, huh? In that case… “Well, you said so
yourself—this is war.”
Without hesitating or really aiming, I fired a series of shots at
Siesta. I wasn’t planning to kill her, of course; that would have
defeated the whole purpose of this fight. My attacks were based
in my trust that Siesta would evade. But if even one of those
shots managed to graze her, the way hers had against my cheek—
“I see.”
Siesta dodged the rain of bullets using moves that would have
done an action-movie star proud. Then she took a leap so high,
you’d think she launched herself with a trampoline, landing on top
of a mound of rubble that was several meters tall. She looked
down at me, her face expressionless.
“Are there tranquilizers in those bullets of yours?”
She’d seen right through my plan.
“……!”
“Your expression is always so easy to read.” With a laid-back
suggestion that I should work on my poker face, Siesta evaded
another of my bullets by jumping down. “Your conditions for
victory don’t include killing me. You’re only trying to temporarily
immobilize me.”
…Had she picked up on my scheme when I got impatient and
fired at random? Still… “Yeah, all the weapons I’m using have that
drug in them. Even 0.01 milligram of this stuff will stop an African
elephant or a blue whale. In other words, if even one shot grazes
you, I win.”
Forget lethal injury: She couldn’t even afford to get a scratch.
On a battlefield, that restriction would inflict the greatest pressure
imaginable. She may have read my hand, but I could use that
against her.
“I never planned to let any of your attacks touch me in the first
place.”
In the next moment, I felt a human presence right behind me.
By the time I realized it was Siesta, she’d already kicked my right
arm up again, knocking my gun far away.
“…! Look what you did! We’re just getting started, and now my
right arm’s out of commission.” With my left hand, I promptly
pulled a knife out of my jacket and pointed it at her.
“Is the tip of that coated with the tranquilizer, too?”
Siesta’s fist flew at my face; she was holding a ballpoint pen. I
knocked it away with the knife, but this time she landed a
powerful roundhouse kick to my side.
“…! …Hff.” She’d knocked the wind out of me, and I rolled
across the asphalt according to the laws of physics. Needless to
say, my entire body hurt. But that pain was no match for my
stubborn refusal to quit. I reached for the gun I’d dropped—
“Annnd you’re dead.”
 At the same time… No, Siesta had leveled her gun a moment
faster than I had, and she spoke from above me, stopping me.
When I slowly raised my head, Siesta had her gun trained on me.
She was holding it in her left hand.
“If I pull this trigger now, you’ll die. But I won’t do it. I don’t
think you’re that dumb to not understand what that means, Kimi.”
Slowly, Siesta narrowed her blue eyes. Just as I’d begun this
fight based on that hijacking incident, Siesta was trying to make
me admit I’d lost by re-creating the way she’d pinned Bat down.
“…You call me stupid all the time, but you’re ending with that?”
It was like she said, though: If I didn’t want to get hurt, if I
didn’t want to end up with a lethal injury, I needed to back down
here. But Siesta was holding that gun in her left hand, and as I
gazed at her, a conversation we’d once had came to mind.
It had been an ordinary day. As usual, we were broke, and we
were sitting at the dinner table in a cheap apartment in some
foreign country. Like the majority of Japanese people, Siesta was
poking at the side dishes with chopsticks she held in her right
hand, and I’d asked her, “Siesta, weren’t you left-handed?”
It was pretty late for that question, and she’d looked perplexed.
Well, sure. She ate her meals like that all the time, and when she
fought, she held her gun in her right hand. Even so, I’d gotten the
impression that she was left-handed because that was the hand
she’d used to pull me into this world.
“Let’s go on a journey,” she’d said. She always held her left
hand out to me, smiling that hundred-million-watt smile. That’s
why I’d gotten the wrong idea.
“Are you stupid, Kimi?” Siesta had said, the way she always did.
“I hold my gun in my right hand.”
“I think you were trying for chopsticks there.”
After we’d lobbed jokes at each other, for some reason, Siesta
had smiled. “That’s why my left hand is the only one I’ll ever hold
out to you.”
It was Siesta’s philosophy; I sort of got it and sort of didn’t. If I
tried to explain it, I would probably reduce it to something trite.
As long as I kept the answer hidden inside myself, though, I’d be
able to keep taking the left hand she held out to me. So, on that
day, I hadn’t asked her to elaborate.
If there was just one thing I understood now, it was that Siesta
was standing here with a gun in the hand she should have been
holding out to me. To borrow her words: I was no longer too
dumb to understand what that meant.
“…Yeah, you’re right. I lose.”
On my knees, with Siesta holding me at gunpoint, I pathetically
admitted defeat.
—But…
“So can I say one last thing?”
In the center of a clear, obstacle-free scramble intersection,
raising both hands to show I was done resisting, I slowly got to
my feet.
“Begging for your life?”
“Don’t go killing me after I’ve admitted I lost.”
I glanced at Siesta’s eyes; they still looked dangerous. I sighed.
“No, that’s not it. I just realized you’d asked why I was trying to
stop you, and I hadn’t told you.”
It was the question Siesta had asked right before we’d launched
into this fight. Why wouldn’t I let her die if she was going to turn
into a monster someday? Why did I follow her so persistently,
trying to stay involved? In my head, the answer was far too
obvious, but I hadn’t put it into words for Siesta.
Now that I thought about it, we’d always been like that. We
never told each other the important stuff; we’d both assumed the
other knew, and we’d always ended up just missing each other.
We’d believed in our invisible bond—no, we’d definitely had one of
those. It was just that, somewhere along the way, we’d started to
rely on it too much.
We’d never confirmed our bond in words, though. We’d thought
we didn’t need to. We’d figured that when we stood back-to-back
in the middle of a firefight, the other person would just get it.
“Thoughts transcend words. When you put it that way, yeah, it
sounds good.”
Without flinching from the gun that was trained on me, I took
one step toward Siesta, then another.
 “—What are you…?” Siesta couldn’t tell what I was trying to do.
She tightened her grip on the gun.
“I figured I’d demonstrate that you need words to properly
convey some things.”
We’d had three whole years. We’d done all that bantering.
Yet we’d somehow skipped this sort of thing a little too often.
“Why did I want to bring you back to life? Why did I think those
three years of constant trouble were fun? You know there’s only
one answer to that.”
They were such simple words, and yet I’d never said them.
Saying them out loud would’ve sounded cliché, at least to me.
“It’s because I love you.”

When I said that, Siesta’s blue eyes widened.

I wasn’t going to explain whether that “love” was romantic love
or family love or neighborly love. I hadn’t managed to put a name
to it yet, either. Even so, this feeling had been with me all through
those three years without changing a bit, and that was the
plainest, clearest term for it.
“That’s… What do I even say? I didn’t expect that.”
Siesta had lowered her gun, although she probably didn’t realize
it. She sounded rather dazed.
“You went all this time without noticing a thing like that? The
Ace Detective herself ?”
“…The problem is that your tsundere behavior is beyond
normal.”
We joked around with each other, and then we both smiled a
little.
My words really had gotten through to her that time.
“—Except…” But just then, blue flames flickered in Siesta’s eyes
again. “Some problems can’t be overcome with feelings alone.”
A gunshot rang out. The bullet whizzed right past my cheek.
“You knew that, too. Getting a romantic confession from you
won’t be enough to persuade me now.”
“I don’t recall confessing that.”
“Oh, I see. So you were proposing?”
 Why were those my only options? Smiling halfheartedly, I
obediently put my hands up again. I’d already admitted defeat.
My weapons weren’t nearby, so I couldn’t afford to resist anyway.
“I knew I’d be no match for you.”
That was something I’d known right from the start—And so…
“From here on out, we’ll take you on.”
The next instant, there was an earsplitting explosion, and black
smoke rose.
“—! A grenade!”
Registering an intruder, Siesta took a huge leap backward to
create some distance.
However, a girl interrupted our battle, cutting through the
smoke in pursuit of Siesta.
“Not even meeting your maid one last time, after all the trouble
you’ve caused her? That’s rather heartless, don’t you think?”
The maid revolted against her mistress, holding a rapier. A gust
of wind ruffled her pale silver hair. Then—
“Charlie! Now!”
From the phone in my breast pocket, a girl’s voice echoed
across the battlefield. Then I heard a gunshot. It was the sound
of a lone agent sniping the Ace Detective from a distant rooftop.
“……! So that’s…what it was.”
At the last second, Siesta managed to dodge the tranquilizer
bullet, and it took a divot out of the asphalt instead. However,
she’d caught on to my—or rather, our—plan, and she grimaced.
“Sorry, Siesta. The real final showdown starts now.”
Until we saved the Ace Detective, we would never stop.

A certain boy’s recollection

“Why are you so bad at being a team player?”
The sun was almost set, and Siesta stalked down the lane
ahead of me, sighing. In terms of walking speed, neither of us
was accommodating the other…but that probably wasn’t what she
meant.
We were on our way home after safely failing a certain mission.
It had failed for one clear reason: my hopeless inability to get
along with Charlotte Arisaka Anderson, who’d joined us for the
maneuver. No matter how often we got scolded for making the
same mistake, there was no hope for improvement until the cause
was removed.
“I’ve never teamed up with anybody before, ever. You can ask
me to match somebody’s pace now, but that hurdle’s too high.”
Siesta and I had set off on our travels around the world about a
year ago. Even before that—I should probably say unfortunately—
I hadn’t had a single person I could call a friend. It was due to my
annoying, innate predisposition for getting dragged into trouble.
People wanted to avoid it, so they ended up avoiding me. Before I
knew it, fifteen years had passed.
“Are you all right with that?”
“What I want has nothing to do with it,” I said flatly. I’d thought
about trying to change several times, though. Even at fifteen, I
sometimes sighed and wondered whether there wasn’t a slightly
better way to live. Still, as long as I had this predisposition, I
wouldn’t be able to team up with anyone, and nobody would be
able to match my pace.
“Well, I’m used to it.” Forcing a smile, I walked over the asphalt.
Forget friends, I’d never even had parents. That meant I’d had
the skills it took to live alone from the time I was a kid.
“There are some things you can’t deal with on your own,
though. Like today, for example.”
Over her shoulder, Siesta seemed to be implying that I should
make some friends. Because I hadn’t been able to get along with
Charlie today, I’d come close to taking an enemy bullet. Even so,
Siesta had ultimately stepped in and rescued me.
“I may not always be around, you know.”
…The woman had dragged me on this journey, and now she
was making irresponsible comments out of nowhere.
“That said, if I find companions, I might end up putting them in
danger instead.”
Considering my knack for attracting trouble, the possibility was
pretty high. Those were the stars Kimihiko Kimizuka had been
born under. Rather than saying I’d resigned myself to that fate, I’d
reached enlightenment instead. I didn’t need friends who’d walk
with me.
“Where are you going?”
The next thing I knew, I heard Siesta’s voice behind me.
“Are you stupid, Kimi?”
Then it came up beside me, on my left.
“That’s how easy it is to walk with somebody.”
The setting sun dyed the pavement orange, and two black
shadows stretched across it.
“Of course I’m not your lover, and I’m sure I’m not even your
friend. I don’t even know whether you could call me a companion.
But…” Siesta faced forward as she spoke. “Right now, I’m
standing next to you.”
The orange light shone gently on her pale silver hair. When I
stole a glance at her profile, it seemed more dignified and
beautiful than any famous painting or sculpture.
“You’ll have comrades too someday.” Looking over at me, Siesta
gave a soft smile. “And I’m sure you’ll combine your strengths to
accomplish something.”
…I dunno about that. I can’t really picture it. Then there was
that predisposition of mine. Even if Siesta was right, those future
comrades might all be weirdos.
“Well, if it ever happens, I’ll introduce you.”
“Yes, I’ll be looking forward to it.”
Treading on our long shadows, we started down the sunset
lane, side by side.

A blank shot of an oath, told at ten

thousand meters
The grenade had shrouded the battlefield in thick black smoke. A
lone girl leaped through it, her maid uniform fluttering in the
wind.
“We’re counting on you, Noches.”
Holding my useless right arm, I slipped into the shadow of some
rubble.
“I see. So these are your companions now.”
 Just before I made it, though—for just a moment, Siesta’s blue
eyes found me through a gap in the windblown smoke.
The wish to stop her from dying belonged to all of us. If you
defined companions as people who shared a common goal, then
the girl who was sprinting with a sword in one hand definitely
counted.
“Still, I never dreamed you’d rebel against me.”
Siesta leveled her gun at Noches, preparing to fight back…but
the weapon flew out of her hand, sniped from a distance.
“Charlotte, Yui. You too?”
Siesta glanced at a building in the direction from the bullet but
promptly returned her gaze to her immediate opponent. “Noches.
I don’t believe you were made for combat,” she grumbled at her
former maid, dodging a one-handed sword thrust.
“Mm, yes. I anticipated this situation and bluffed.”
“You’re telling me you laid the groundwork two full weeks ago
to make me let my guard down? Those are some extremely
thorough preparations.”
Siesta’s response was cool; she probably hadn’t taken Noches
seriously. Had she realized we’d borrowed the power of a certain
Inventor again?
“My former mistress taught me to prepare to resolve an incident
before it occurred, you see.” Noches crouched down, then closed
the distance between them in a rush.
“Is that sword coated with tranquilizer as well?”
It was. If it so much as grazed Siesta, we’d win this fight on the
spot.
“…! I may be an android, but I think you’re more overpowered
than I am, Mistress.”
Siesta had pulled out that ballpoint pen again and used it to
knock the sword out of Noches’s hand.
“Oh? They do say the pen is mightier than the sword, though.”
“…You’ve got a comeback for everything, don’t you?”
At that, Noches drew a pair of pistols. Firing two shots in a
magnificent display of ambidexterity, she nailed her earthbound
target… Or she would have if the target had been anybody else.
“—Not one of your attacks will ever work on me.”
 Launching herself off the ground, Siesta flung herself backward
as if she were performing a Fosbury flop. The bullets cut through
space beneath her.
“Then we’ll just keep going until one does.”
Noches kept up a barrage of bullets as if our lives depended on
it. She took an endless series of heavy weaponry out of her maid
uniform. As I took in the situation, I thought about what I should
be doing, then attempted to relocate.
“An endurance contest? That’s not very smart.”
Meanwhile, Siesta kept evading Noches’s bullets with peerless
accuracy. She jumped up from the asphalt, ran across walls of
buildings, sprinted over roofs, leaped into empty space, and finally
reached the elevated train tracks. The primordial seed’s attack
had left them thickly covered with vines, and no trains ran on the
deserted rails.
“I won’t let you escape.”
Noches went after Siesta, bounding off of abandoned cars and
telephone poles as footholds.
“…They’re completely ignoring me.”
That was convenient, though. I couldn’t take the shortest
possible route to the tracks the way they were doing. I ran
through the empty, ruined city for several minutes, finally
managing to make it to the station.
I jumped the unmanned ticket gate, dashed up the stairs
without pausing for breath, then sprinted all the way to the end of
the platform, stumbling as I went. Then I gazed down the tracks
with misty eyes—and saw Noches, down on one knee; Siesta had
her at gunpoint. She must have taken her guns, and she had
Noches pinned.
“Charlie! The wind died!”
Just then—the voice of a certain idol filtered onto the battlefield
from the wireless earphone Noches had happened to drop. A
bullet fired from nowhere in particular skimmed past, below
Siesta.
The sniper had fired from a building several hundred meters
away. With Saikawa’s left eye reading the wind currents for her,
Charlotte Arisaka Anderson’s sniping was even more accurate.
 True, Seed had retrieved Saikawa’s seed, but the ability that
dwelled in her left eye had remained. It was as if Seed had been
trying to leave that sapphire eye in this world on its own.
Now, if only the pressure of their combo attack slowed Siesta
down—
“—That’s twice. That attack won’t work, either.”
But my hopes were immediately shattered. First, Siesta kicked
Noches out of her way. Then she turned back, pointing her gun at
the blond agent who’d been sneaking up on her from behind.
“…Ma’am. You weren’t surprised.” Charlie froze. She was
holding a dagger at the ready.
Since Charlie had been sniping from a distant building, there
was no way Siesta could have anticipated that she’d climb up onto
the tracks. However—“I knew my assistant and Noches were
letting me hear Yui’s voice on purpose. The instructions she was
giving you were a bluff. You were actually lurking nearby the
whole time, waiting for a chance.”
—She’d caught on.
Staring down the barrel of the gun, Charlie bit her lip and
tossed her knife away.
“I never thought you’d turn on me too, Charlie.”
“Apprentices always surpass their masters eventually.”
Just then, another gunshot echoed, and a bullet skimmed
beneath Siesta.
“I’m impressed she can do all that with only her left eye as a
guide.”
The bullet struck the rails with a fierce metallic clang,
momentarily diverting Siesta’s attention. Charlie grabbed the
chance to back up, putting some distance between them. Then
she drew her gun and pointed it at Siesta.
“You thought you could beat me with a quick draw?” Siesta
extended her right arm too, aiming her own gun at Charlie.
“…You’re right. I might not be able to beat you yet, Ma’am.
But…” Charlie’s voice grew stronger. “Maybe we can.”
That was the signal.
“Why did I get this job when I don’t have a license?”
 Straddling the bike we’d prepared, I shook my head and
cranked the accelerator. As the engine roared, I jumped down
from the platform onto the tracks. And then…
“…! Why do you have that, Kimi?”
Charlie threw herself off the tracks. In her place, I charged at
Siesta, holding the Ace Detective’s musket at the ready.
“…I don’t believe I gave that to you.”
“Nope. I’m just here to give it back.”
Ever since that day four years ago, as your assistant, it’s been
my job to give this to you.
“But first…” My target was twenty meters away. Steering the
bike with my knees, I held the musket with both hands and fired.
“I see. I really wasn’t expecting that one. …Still.” Siesta’s blue
eyes turned toward me as I drove down the deserted tracks on
the motorcycle.
“—That’s three. I believed you’d team up.”
Siesta pulled the trigger of the gun in her left hand. The shot
was so accurate, it could have passed through the eye of a
needle; the bullets we’d fired collided in midair with a bang,
canceling each other out.
By the time it happened, though, my motorcycle was right in
front of Siesta. If I used the momentum to crash into her…
“…Dammit!”
Yanking the handlebars to the side, I threw my weight to the
right in an attempt to avoid the collision. Of course, I was flung
off into empty space—
“Are you stupid, Kimi?”
I felt as if I’d heard a voice scolding me for being reckless.
Then, for just a moment, my body seemed to pause, hovering
lightly in midair.
“…Owww.”
Right after that, though, I rolled onto the tracks. I felt as if I’d
gotten a full-body lashing with a whip. But there was no time to
groan in pain or catch my breath. Lifting my face from the gravel,
I checked on the situation—and what I saw was…
“This is a battlefield, Charlotte.”
“________!”
 Siesta’s bullet grazed Charlie’s right shoulder. That shot was
probably an indispensable courtesy for an agent who risked her
life in battle.
“…Not yet. Ma’am…I still…” Charlie got back up. Her shoulder
was bleeding, yet she still gripped her gun, trying to correct her
teacher’s error. As Siesta looked at her apprentice, for just a
moment, the muzzle of her gun seemed to waver. Was she
thinking of where she should shoot in order to be sure she’d
immobilized her target, or—
“…! Charlie!” Just then, a girl’s shadow appeared. The voice
belonged to a certain idol, the one I’d been hearing over the
phone a moment ago. Right now, I was hearing the real thing
from ten meters away.
Siesta sighed, then murmured, “—Fourth time. I knew about
that dedication, too.”
She must have been paying attention to the intervals between
the gunshots and the impacts and realized the sniper was
gradually coming closer. Saikawa stepped in front of Charlie, gun
in hand. Siesta pointed her own gun at her.
“I won’t let you.”
Just then, Noches slipped in like the wind and kicked Siesta’s
right hand up. Her gun flew high in the air.
“Sorry, but your timing is perfect.”
Instead of flinching back, Siesta landed a precise kick to
Noches’s abdomen.
“_____!”
Someone shrieked, but I couldn’t tell who. Noches went flying.
She collided with Saikawa and Charlie, taking them out with her,
and all three of them rolled onto the gravel ballast between the
rails. Finally, no one was blocking Siesta’s way.
“Are we done now?”
Siesta closed her eyes, taking slow, deep breaths. When plenty
of time passed, she opened her eyes again. I couldn’t read any
emotion in them. The Ace Detective was her usual self.
“Nagisa is still asleep; she can’t come here. In that case, who’s
next? The Oracle or the Assassin…? The Vampire? Well, it doesn’t
matter who it is; I won’t lose.”
 Using her left hand, Siesta picked up the musket I’d dropped
onto the rails, then loudly fired it into the sky.
“To protect the world, I will kill myself. To achieve that, I will
defeat you. By defeating you, I can protect you. This is my final
job as the Ace Detective.”
Siesta was a Tuner, one of the guardians of the world, and this
was a hero’s oath. A seed that could destroy the world lay asleep
inside her. To keep it from sprouting, she would end her story with
her own hands.
“And so you are my final enemy—Kimihiko Kimizuka.”

Siesta pointed her musket at me. I was back on my feet.

“Geez. You say my actual name for the first time ever, and it’s in
a situation like this?” Smiling with chagrin, I trained my own gun
on Siesta.
Still, for the flawless ace detective, this was unusual—that oath
of hers needed two corrections. The first was…
“…Your companions never learn, do they?”
Three figures had gotten to their feet behind me, and Siesta
sighed.
It wasn’t just me. Nobody here had given up on standing in her
way.
She’d also gotten one other thing wrong.
“Siesta, we won’t let you complete that final job.”
I’d already seen a way to win this.

A certain girl’s recollection

“And? What sort of partner do you think you could make it work
with?” I asked my assistant.
We were sipping black tea in an open-air terrace café. That day,
he’d messed up during a certain mission, and we’d held a
postmortem session about it on the way home. In fact, we
weren’t finished yet. I went on, turning the conversation his way,
hoping to convince him to make some friends.
“What type of person could I get along with…?” Across the table
from me, my assistant mulled it over, unexpectedly serious. “A
kind, big-sister type who can tolerantly embrace all my flaws,” he
answered finally.
“You’re talking about your taste in girls, not a companion.”
Honestly. And here I was attempting to have a serious
conversation. “Not only that, but you just described me to a tee.”
“How, exactly? You’re the polar opposite of that.”
I hadn’t been playing dumb, but he hit me with a comeback
anyway. I don’t understand this boy.
“You keep focusing on me, but what about you, Siesta?” he
asked. “Do you have any companions?”
Several faces rose in my mind, including Charlie’s, of course.
The Oracle in her high clock tower, for example. The red-haired
police officer—or was she more of a comrade than a friend?
In addition…I had the feeling there had been others. I’d
definitely had people I could call companions, long ago. My
memory of them was oddly hazy, though, as if someone had
sealed it… I knew they’d been there, but I could no longer recall
the girls’ names or their faces.
“…Maybe that’s why I keep pestering you about them.”
Because I’d lost mine. In exchange, I wanted my assistant to
have them.
“I don’t get what you mean by ‘friend’ or ‘companion’ in the first
place.” My assistant didn’t seem to have heard me. He was
sounding like a middle schooler with delusions of omnipotence.
Although at his age, he technically should have been attending
middle school.
“You put the other person first sometimes… You want to. I think
that sort of relationship counts as ‘friends’ or ‘companions,’ don’t
you?”
There were no clear standards, of course. Still, I felt it was
necessary to attempt to put formless concepts into words once in
a while.
“Isn’t that what we are, then?”
I hadn’t been expecting that remark, and my hand froze
partway to my teacup.
“…When I couldn’t make it work with Charlie today and almost
got myself shot, you put yourself on the line to protect me. That
means you think of me as, uh… I mean, you know…”
My assistant’s eyes went to my bandaged left shoulder; his
expression was a complicated mix of emotions. Even though, to
me, a wound of this level was nothing to write home about.
“I protected you because of our contract.”
It was a promise I’d made to my assistant a year ago. I’d told
him I would protect him. I’d taken him on this journey on that
condition. That meant it was simply my job to put myself on the
line when he was in danger…
“For all that, you looked pretty panicked today.” For some
reason, my assistant was gazing me, as if he’d stumbled onto
something entertaining. “Actually, Siesta, you tend to get pretty
rattled when I’m really in trouble.”
“________!”
He’s awfully impertinent for an assistant. I just—I only—
“Haah…”
I couldn’t work up the energy to respond. Instead, I heaved a
rather weighty sigh. The important thing to me was protecting my
clients’ interests. As long as I could do that, I was satisfied.
“Come to think of it, Kimi, you didn’t order coffee. That’s
unusual.”
Suddenly curious—eager to change the subject, really—I
pointed this out to my assistant. He generally did order hot coffee,
but this time he was drinking tea, like me.
“It’s just a black tea kinda day.”
“—I see.”
We sat on the terrace, sipping the same tea and gazing at the
same setting sun.

That’s how I define “living”

“Siesta, we won’t let you complete that final job.”
On top of the long elevated track, my assistant pointed his gun
at me. Taking a cue from him, the other three surrounded me.
The four of them formed a hollow square, positioning themselves
at diagonals to each other, apparently determined not to let me
get away.
 “…Are you people stupid?”
If you do this, even if you get your wish, the seed will eat away
at me until I become a monster. There’s no stopping that.
“Can’t you understand that disappearing is the last job I’m
capable of ?”
My final duty. To tell the truth, this should have been over and
done with long ago. Last year, to be exact: when I’d died in order
to seal Hel. I’d entrusted my last wish to my assistant, Nagisa,
Yui, and Charlie. Through Noches, I’d set them free of the
problems and curses that bound them. Once that was done, my
job should have been complete.
But my assistant and Nagisa had overruled the future I’d
visualized. The result had been several kinds of chaos, and Nagisa
had fallen victim to the distortion. And yet, although I’d meant to
seal Hel as my final job, she had defeated the primordial seed and
ended the story in a new way.
That meant the fact that I was still here was just an extension
of that battle. It was redundant. This was an epilogue that had
never needed to be written. …Even so. I was on this battlefield, I
had taken up this gun again, and so…
“I will never abandon my job. I’ll lay my life on the line and
fulfill the duty of the Ace Detective.”
Several gunshots echoed, and the final battle began in earnest.
“—I was already sick of seeing bullets about four years ago.”
Bullets flew at me from four directions, but if one grasps the
angle of the muzzle down to the millimeter, it’s possible to be
faster than a gun. The bullets ended up striking the gravel ballast
or nothing at all, and I ran with the wind to leave them behind.
I was up against four enemies, but they were all injured
already. If I picked them off one by one, they wouldn’t be a
problem. First, my apologies, but—
“Yui Saikawa. Your left eye is trouble.”
“……!”
That eye’s kinetic vision was far beyond what ordinary humans
could achieve. In combat, it was bound to be more useful than
any heavy weaponry. Planning to take that power away from
them, I ran up to Yui. She looked startled.
 I had no intention of killing her, of course, or of damaging that
blue eye. My assistant had brought the musket I was holding.
That meant it was most likely loaded with tranquilizer bullets. …
No, he might have assumed that I’d steal the gun, in which case it
was possible that only the first bullet was a tranquilizer. I’d just
have to test it. I’d graze Yui with a bullet, and if all went well,
she’d sleep for a little while. Rapidly coming to that conclusion, I
began to squeeze the trigger—
“_____!”
Right then, Charlie took cover behind Yui. At this angle, I’d
shoot her—and I’d hit her in the head. The shoulder would have
been acceptable, but a head wound could end up being fatal.
“…That’s not like you at all, Charlie.”
Grumbling over my apprentice’s bad judgment call, I temporarily
lowered my weapon and put some distance between us.
“Mistress Siesta. This is a battlefield. We deal in lives here,
correct?”
Suddenly, I sensed someone coming in for a fatal blow. I
twisted away, and Noches’s sword swept through the spot where
I’d been standing a moment earlier. The blade was coated with
tranquilizer; if it grazed me, I’d be finished. The sheer number of
restrictions was maddening, and I brought my gun to bear on her.
Her body was mechanical, and with a few exceptions, she’d be
fine no matter where I shot her. So this time, I relaxed and—
“Noches!”
As if to shield the maid, my assistant darted out in front of her.
“…! Are you stupid, Kimi?!”
At the very last second, I fired into empty space. There was no
telling what my assistant might do, and if I hit him in the wrong
place, I could kill him.
“Your instincts are as bad as ever, Kimi.”
In terms of recent events, I remembered his battle with
Chameleon on the cruise ship. He’d put himself in the wrong place
that time too and had ended up taking the enemy’s attack. No
matter how you looked at it, I—or in this case, Noches—was
better at absorbing enemy attacks than he was, and yet—
“…Is that what this is?”
 Just then, a terrible hunch ran through my mind. At the same
time, a bullet streaked right past my face.
“I’m sorry, Charlie. Siesta seems to have caught on more quickly
than we expected.”
“Well, she is the first and only teacher I decided to respect until
I died.”
A few meters ahead, Charlie was smiling proudly. She pointed
her gun at me again.
“If you don’t dodge, I’ll hit you.”
It was immediately clear that she wasn’t talking to me.
“Yeah. It’ll probably be okay, though.”
“________!”
Bang! My assistant was standing behind me. Just as the
gunshot rang out, I grabbed his shirtfront, and we fell together,
evading Charlie’s bullet.
“Because Siesta’s going to save me. See?”
Flat on the ground, my assistant broke into a smile. Then he sat
up and pointed his gun at me.
“Is every last one of you that stupid…?!” I whirled around,
scanning my four enemies. “So this is your final ploy for cornering
me?”
If I tried to attack one of them, someone else would step in to
shield them. Yet they’d pull their triggers with no hesitation, even
if there was a risk of hitting one of their companions. It was a
foolish plan, riddled with contradictions. Did they want to protect
each other, or was stopping me their top priority? At a glance, I
couldn’t tell which it was. However, if there was an answer that
would resolve those inconsistencies—
“Yeah, Siesta. There’s absolutely no way you can kill us.”
The next moment, Noches’s bullet bore down on me…and on
my assistant behind me.
“…!”
Sweeping my musket to the side, I knocked it away. Meanwhile,
Yui took aim at Charlie, who was on my other side.
“I told you—!”
There wasn’t even time to talk. As Yui fired, I pressed my
trigger as well; our shots collided in midair, and the one that was
headed for Charlie was knocked off course.
Although I’d said this was a war, I’d been maneuvering around
so that the others wouldn’t die. Sooner or later, the countless
bullets that were flying every which way would mortally wound
them. I’d been instinctively avoiding that outcome. However, the
four of them were taking advantage of my hesitation by
intentionally putting themselves in danger, trying to confuse me
and restrict my movements.
“You were particularly hesitant when you attacked Saikawa,
who’s not used to fighting, and when I almost passed out on the
motorcycle, you saved me on reflex. You’re a softie. Not being
able to kill your companions is your strength and your one
weakness.”
…The old me wouldn’t have hesitated at a time like this. I’d
prioritized executing my duties, believing I’d bring about
happiness for the greatest number of people that way. As a
matter of fact, I was confident that doing so had protected many
of my clients’ interests.
As a result, the old me had considered that sort of hesitation
self-indulgence. And yet as far as one person was concerned, it
was kindness, and to another, it even counted as passion. Before I
knew it, I’d learned these things. That hesitation was the reason
my heart was still pounding. At this point, it was part of my heart
itself.
“…What a cowardly move. Don’t you think you’re treating your
lives too lightly?”
“First of all, Ma’am, your life is riding on this battle. It would be
rude of us not to stake ours,” Charlie declared bravely. She
sounded like a true agent. Operating on the same logic, I’d shot
her in the shoulder once, and I couldn’t think of a response for
her. In that case, what I needed to do now was—
“I won’t let you get away!”
Yui’s left eye had seen what I was about to do. Just as I was
about to jump off the elevated track—a loud boom distracted me.
The ground under my feet shook violently. Then, with a sustained
rumble, it crumbled away.
“……! Explosives.”
 Had Noches set them up? I didn’t have time to check, and there
would have been no point anyway. The elevated track I’d been
standing on a moment ago had turned into rubble, and I was
tossed into the air, joining a rain of gravel and scrap iron.
“________!”
The free fall lasted for about ten meters. There were no
obstacles; if I’d been prepared to jump, I could have landed
without trouble. I’d been caught by surprise, though, and I’d also
been swallowed up in an avalanche of gravel. While I did manage
to make the safest possible landing, I banged myself up royally on
the asphalt.
The strategy they’d put together must have been based on trust
that I’d survive something like this. …But even if I was spared,
they’d be—
“…Assistant!”
“I swear… You never think about yourself first.”
I aimed my musket toward the voice and saw my assistant
standing beyond the clouds of dust, a gun in his left hand. By this
point, I lost count of how many times I’d seen this configuration.
Behind him, the other three climbed out of the rubble. I guessed
Noches had protected my assistant, while Charlie had kept Yui
safe.
“Haah…! You look…awful…”
My assistant’s right arm hung limply, and he was bleeding from
his head. The black jacket he was so proud of was all ragged.
“…Haah… So…do you.”
Didn’t he know there were things you should never say to a
girl? Honestly!
“…! ……Haah.”
I couldn’t hide my rough breathing or my heart rate, though.
The worst part was that I’d sprained my leg. Now I wouldn’t be
able to make a clean escape either way.
“…Why did it end up like this?”
It shouldn’t have been this way. Why did my assistant and I
have to hold each other at gunpoint in the first place? This story
should have ended when the primordial seed was sealed. But I
didn’t want Nagisa to remain unconscious, and I’d decided to
watch the story just a little longer. To see it until the end of my
assistant’s Route X.
I’d boarded a plane with him for what I’d decided would be the
last time. We’d traveled overseas, got caught up in an unexpected
incident, and encountered a new enemy. My assistant considered
the fight with the Phantom Thief an extension of the primordial
seed crisis. Therefore, I would remain the detective, Kimihiko
Kimizuka would remain my assistant, and the two of us would
continue to fight the world’s enemies, Phantom Thief included… If
I’d said I hadn’t imagined that future for even a moment, I would
have been lying.
However, I’d been right the first time: I couldn’t go any further
than this. I couldn’t spend forever soaking in that tepid epilogue. I
would simply carry out my role as a player on Route X, in my
position as the Ace Detective. Technically, I should have died a
year ago. The fact that I’d been involved in this at all was a
miracle in and of itself.
And so, now I confronted Kimihiko Kimizuka, my final enemy—
no, the protagonist. I had no intention of losing. Of course I
didn’t. Losing would mean that I’d be saved by the protagonist. I
couldn’t allow such a lukewarm story to play out this way.
“You are justice, and I’m evil. That’s fine. It’s what I’ve always
wanted.”
Using just my good leg, I launched myself off the ground. This
battle would be over soon. Gun in hand, I raced toward my last
opponent.
“Kimizuka, go right!”
That was Yui’s voice. Following her instructions from a distance,
my assistant flung himself to the side, evading my bullet.
“…! Are you seriously okay with that?!” Even as he rolled on the
ground, he fired at me. I dodged, moving only my upper body.
“Siesta, tell me. What’s your wish?”
I heard more gunshots, this time from Noches and Charlie, far
behind me. If they so much as grazed me, I’d lose.
“I only have one wish: I want you to live. All of you.”
 That was why I turned my long-barreled gun on the girls: to fire
the bullets that would let them live.
“That can’t be it!”
_____! Stubborn. My assistant had blocked my path again, and

my hands started to tremble slightly. My heart pounded loudly,

and my shallow breathing made my vision go hazy.
“—How would you know?!”
“You said so yourself!” he shouted. The grief in his expression
was intense. He said it had happened a year ago, after the fight
with Hel, when the pollen had put him to sleep. The comment
must have slipped out just before my consciousness vanished. A
wisp of thought I’d never meant for him to hear.
“I don’t remember anything of the sort,” I told him, firing to
shake off my hesitation. I hadn’t taken aim, and I missed him by
a mile. I’d strengthened my resolve, though. Evading the bullets
Charlie and the others fired from far away, I began my final
shootout with my assistant.
“What, you’re saying you don’t remember something you said
yourself ?” He couldn’t possibly have time for idle chatter, but as
he fired, he kept talking. “If you won’t say it, I will.”
…………
“You don’t want to die, do you?”
Impossible. A wish like that, now of all times?
“We’ll figure it out somehow.”
You can’t.
“I’ll find a way to let you live!”
Listen, I told you that’s not possible.
“You always wished happiness for your clients, and those clients
are all the people on this planet. How could you be the only one
who doesn’t count? That can’t be right!”
You’re wrong. I was happy.
I was quite content—or I should have been.
And yet…
“Siesta, I want you to live.”
 If you say a thing like that to me, I’ll—
“_____!”
My assistant fired at my left arm; it was a shot meant to keep
me alive. On reflex, I moved my arm, sweeping my musket
sideways and knocking the bullet out of the air. …Even so, my
contradictory thoughts asked my mind the same question.
What is your real wish?
“—I…”
I asked myself one more time. I’d already died once. There was
no need to keep up appearances; I didn’t need pride. I’d throw
away shame and my reputation, get rid of all calculations and
deception.
For now, I’d forget my role and the position I was in, pretend
my history and the things I’d said had never happened. There was
no point in thinking about some nebulous future. Just for now, I’d
pretend not to see my responsibility toward this world.
Say I was the only one who existed here, in this moment. What
would I wish for? What dream would I want to come true? Right
now, it didn’t matter whether it was possible or impossible. This
wasn’t about whether it was reckless or unachievable. If there
was just one thing I wanted—
The answer was simple.
“—I want to drink tea with you again.”
I wanted to live.
“Right. Wish accepted.”
My assistant pointed his gun at my face.
I see. So that’s the way you smile now.
“You talk like a detective,” I responded lightly.
If I did nothing, his shot would just barely graze my cheek.
If it did, I’d get my wish.
My dearest partner, the protagonist, would save me.
That had to be the happy ending everyone was hoping for.
With the bullet that would end everything right in front of me, I
told him:
 “But a detective mustn’t lose to her assistant.”
I’d never show him my back.
It wasn’t right to let the assistant see his detective admit
defeat.
I dodged the bullet, then turned the musket I’d had for my
whole life as the Ace Detective on him.
“Yeah, that’s right. I really am no match for you. That’s why…”
My assistant’s lips moved.
“She’s going to take over that wish of yours for me, Siesta.”
In the next moment, sensing someone behind me, I turned and
readied my musket.
“…Why are you here?”
My eyes widened.
“—As the queen of the land of the dead, I forbid you to come to
this world.”
I was facing a girl with short black hair, dressed in a military
uniform.
“Why are you…? Hel?”
The next moment…
The girl in the uniform threw her arms around me, hugging me
tightly.
“Tricked you. I’m sorry. It’s me, Nagisa.”

Buenas noches
“Wh-why…?” I murmured.
However, I’d actually anticipated that Nagisa would come here.
I’d borrowed her body once, awakening in order to help my
assistant. In the same way, if it was for his sake, Nagisa would
come running no matter where he was. People might call it
“improbably convenient” and laugh, but that was how we were
wired.
“It’s been a long time, Siesta.”
Her arms gently released their hold on me.
Nagisa’s soft smile was right in front of me. She’d chopped off
her long hair.
 She got me good. Who’d have thought she’d appear disguised
as Hel?
“You haven’t changed, Nagisa,” I commented, a bit spitefully. I
was somewhat chagrined that she’d outfoxed me.
 “Really? I think I changed my look pretty drastically.”
“I meant on the inside. And what is this anyway? Did you get
your heart broken or something?”
“…I really wish you wouldn’t just decide I’m the losing heroine.”
Nagisa gave me a long look with narrowed eyes, and then we
smiled at each other—But…
“…Hm? Huh?”
For some reason, I felt weak all of a sudden, and my knees
buckled.
“Whoops!” Nagisa hugged me again, this time to keep me from
falling. I didn’t recall getting hit with a tranquilizer bullet, but…for
some reason, I was suddenly sleepy.
“I’m sorry,” Nagisa apologized in a small voice, right in my ear. I
really couldn’t stay on my feet, and I dropped to my knees, still
leaning against her.
“What on earth…?”
Come to think of it, I could feel a tiny prickle of pain on my left
upper arm. I forced my heavy eyelids open and examined that
spot. There was no blood. When Nagisa had first hugged me,
something had—
“—It’s a tranquilizer.”
That was my assistant’s voice.
He came toward us, still in his ragged jacket, leaning on Noches
for support. “It’s a special drug a certain underground doctor
compounded for us. I hear it’s based on the pollen that put me to
sleep.”
“…So that’s what it was.”
The weapons my assistant and the others used must have been
covered in it. The Inventor had left us a week ago, but apparently
he’d returned. He’d probably heard that Nagisa had awakened
and wanted to keep an eye on her progress. Then my assistant
had proposed this plan, and he’d helped out.
“But what then? What are you planning to do to me once I’m
asleep and unable to resist?” Frustrated that I’d fallen for his
scheme, I teased my assistant, resting my head on Nagisa’s lap.
“Don’t be an idiot. All this time, and still no trust?”
Yes, that’s the face I wanted to see.
 When I smiled, my assistant sighed and did the same. But then,
as he explained their reasons for putting me to sleep, his face
grew serious again. “This way, we should be able to temporarily
stop the seed in your heart from growing.”
Oh, I knew it. Closing my eyes, I listened to my assistant. He
had a tone that was brusque yet somehow gentle.
“After Natsunagi woke up yesterday, when she and I were
brainstorming ways to save you, we picked up on something
weird. While you were asleep in Natsunagi’s heart, when
Chameleon almost killed me, you came to save me just once.”
It had happened more than a month ago. On a large cruise
ship, I’d borrowed Nagisa’s body and fought Chameleon alongside
my assistant. Nagisa had talked me into using her body.
“The problem was that ‘just once’ bit.” Sounding rather sad, my
assistant explained, “Why did you only wake up that one time?
Why didn’t you even try…? It was all to avoid activating the seed
that had taken root in your heart. Meaning as long as you’re
asleep, as long as you stay unconscious, that seed won’t grow.”
He was right.
Had Nagisa been the one who’d realized it? No, it might have
been my assistant, since he’d spent the past few days with me.
On our trip to New York, I’d slept even longer than I used to. It
had been a defensive reaction, an unconscious attempt to protect
myself.
“But Assistant…you’ve also realized there’s no point to this,
haven’t you?”
Opening my heavy eyelids, I saw that Noches, Charlie, and Yui
had joined Nagisa and my assistant. They were all watching me,
and it was a little embarrassing. …Still, I understood. These were
my assistant’s current companions.
It’s all right. He’s all right now.
Relieved, I told him he didn’t have to do this. “Putting me to
sleep is only a stopgap measure. Besides, there’s no guarantee
that this will arrest the seed’s growth entirely. A few years down
the road, the seed that will destroy the world may sprout and turn
me into a monster. I may kill all of you someday. And so, really—”
 “We knew that when we chose this.” My assistant knelt next to
me and continued. “Anyway, Stephen’s the one who gave me this
tranquilizer. You know what that means, right?”
“…I see. You really don’t cut corners anymore, do you?”
The Inventor, Stephen Bluefield, refused to work on hopeless
cases. That let him focus his efforts on lives that could still be
saved. Since he’d prescribed this drug to me, I must still have a
chance. He wouldn’t forgive me for giving up on life. After all, I’d
been the one to quote his philosophy at him earlier.
“—It looks like I’ve been utterly defeated.”
Detectives must protect their clients’ interests and grant their
wishes.
Nagisa had made both our wishes—for the other to live—come
true at the same time.
That was something the old me hadn’t been able to do. I’d only
been able to make it happen with my own death. However, Nagisa
had once made the same mistake as I had—and then she’d found
this answer. She’d definitely beaten me.
“Ma’am! Ma’am…!”
My right hand was warm with tears and another’s body heat—
Charlie had taken my hand in both of hers, and she couldn’t keep
from crying any longer. No matter how much time passed, my first
apprentice was always adorable.
“…Heh-heh. I see. In the end, you two surpassed me as well.”
The drug was really taking hold on me now, and my eyelids
grew heavier. Still, pretending to gaze up at the sky, I peeked at
my assistant’s and Charlie’s faces. Have you two started getting
along a little better? I didn’t know, but there was one thing I was
sure of.
“You’ve gotten stronger, haven’t you?”
Strong enough to surpass me.
The remark seemed to startle my assistant; his eyes went wide.
Then his expression softened. “Yeah, actually, Charlie and I were
faking like we didn’t get along. All part of the plan. We’re actually
a great team and best buds. Right?”
“Um, huh? …Yes, that’s right! I—I love Kimizuka!” In response
to my assistant’s forced setup line, Charlie gave an extremely stiff
smile.
“…Heh, heh-heh. I see. That’s good.”
I’d never dreamed I’d get to see these two with their arms
around each other’s shoulders, even if it was just an act. I
laughed in spite of myself.
“You’ve got it rough too, Nagisa. All these rivals.”
“Aaaaah! Aaaaah! I can’t heaaar yooou!”
When I teased her, Nagisa clapped her hands over her ears in
an exaggerated gesture… Then, like my assistant, she grinned.
“Hey, Siesta?”
“Hm?”
The wind ruffled Nagisa’s short hair.
“Thank you for giving me a place to belong, Ace Detective,” she
said, smiling through her tears. Now that sounded familiar.
“You took the words right out of my mouth.” Reaching out with
some difficulty, I wiped her tears away with my fingertips. “Thank
you for teaching me about emotions, Ace Detective.”
Because Nagisa was there… I’m sure I’m able to smile now,
surrounded by this irreplaceable happiness, because of your
passion.
“Siesta.” At Yui and Noches’s gentle encouragement, my
assistant took my left hand.
“Assistant.” Squeezing his hand back, I said the words that
suddenly came to mind. “If you ever lose your energy, the first
thing you need to do is get a lot of sleep.”
That seemed to puzzle him; still, as I blinked slowly, he watched
me.
There were a few last things I wanted to make sure I told him. I
wasn’t able to handle complicated thoughts at this point, so I just
drew on my recent memories. “And then bathe, all right? Cleanse
your body, cleanse your mind. Then eat lots of food.”
“…Right, like earlier.”
“Don’t just eat pizza, though. Try to strike a healthy balance and
get moderate exercise. And then… That’s right. You have lots of
companions, so if you’re ever worried about something, talk it
over with them right away. You tend to hold everything in.”
 “Hey, you have no right to tell me that.” My assistant geared up
to flick my forehead with his middle finger, the way he had earlier
—but then he gently brushed my bangs aside with his fingertip.
“You’re talking about nothing but me again.”
“Am I? I’m sleepy. I can’t really tell.”
However, in terms of regrets, that was about all I had left. As
long as my assistant ate plenty of food, and laughed with his
friends, and lived through mediocre, peaceful, extraordinary days,
that was enough for me.
“Haaah. Good grief.” From the look in his eyes, he seemed to be
testing me. “You really like me far too much, don’t you?” he
asked, trying to hit me with an extra-large helping of payback.
“Yes, you’re right. I like you.”
“…Don’t just give it to me straight like that.”
Mm-hmm. As the Ace Detective, I can’t let my assistant have
the upper hand. With Nagisa’s help, I sat up next to him. He
heaved a big sigh, then smiled wryly.

“Are you stupid or what, Siesta?”

My response was obvious.

“Geez. That’s not fair.”

We both cracked up, and then Nagisa, Charlie, Yui, and Noches
were all laughing. Even as tears stained their cheeks.
“Someday, I’ll…no, we’ll wake you up. I swear we will. And so,
until then—”
My assistant squeezed my left hand.

“Good night, Ace Detective.”

 * * *
That was the last thing my assistant whispered to me, the girl
who loved her naps.
A ray of sunlight shone through the thick clouds, illuminating us
warmly.

“Yes, I’ll be waiting.”

Once again, someday.
In the sky, at ten thousand meters.
 Epilogue
A week had passed.
By school standards, summer vacation was long over, and class
—which I’d skipped as a matter of course—had begun as usual.
As far as the calendar was concerned, it was autumn.
That said, the light that shone through the window was still hot,
and the afternoon sun was bright, so I closed the hospital room’s
thin curtains.
“Hey, are you listening?” said a woman’s husky voice from the
telephone.
Of course it was the red-haired policewoman, Fuubi Kase. It felt
like she’d been calling an awful lot lately. Maybe she’d fallen for
me.
“Yeah, I’m listening. You were talking about how the police had
a commendation for me, the super high school kid who saved the
world.”
“That’s not even a thing.”
No, huh?
“It’s about Seed.” Sighing in mild disgust, Ms. Fuubi brought up
the enemy of the world we’d defeated a few weeks back. “That
huge tree where he’s sleeping really is a bit special.”
She was talking about the huge tree that had swallowed the
shopping mall in the heart of the city. Earlier, she’d mentioned
that the tree where Seed was sealed held atoms that humanity
had never encountered before. Apparently that investigation had
made some progress.
The subject was way out of my league, though, but the Ace
Detective had spent years fighting the primordial seed, so it
wasn’t unrelated to her. I had a hunch we weren’t going to be
able to ignore it forever.
“Yggdrasil.” Ms. Fuubi pulled a foreign-sounding word out of
nowhere.
“What brought that on?”
 “It’s what they named the tree. Since it’s under observation and
all.” I heard her exhale cigarette smoke on the other end of the
line.
Yggdrasil. Also known as the world tree in Scandinavian
mythology, the enormous tree was said to encompass nine
worlds, one of which was ours. Would humanity end up coexisting
with that thing forever? And how would it affect us…?
“Sorry, Ms. Fuubi. My friends will be arriving soon.”
That question didn’t have a quick or easy answer. Glancing at
the clock, I got ready to hang up.
“Ha! Now, there’s a word I never thought I’d hear you say.”
“Well, people change,” I told her, and heard an unusually
cheerful sigh in response. “Okay, so, see you around.”
“Yeah. Give my regards to the ace detective.” Without specifying
which one, Ms. Fuubi hung up.
And with perfect timing, the door to the hospital room rattled
open. “Siestaaaa! We came to visit you… Oh, you’re here too,
Kimizuka. I thought you would be.”
The girl who came in was Yui Saikawa, the world’s cutest idol.
With a small smile, she looked from the girl who slept on the bed
to me, who was standing beside it.
This was the hospital run by Stephen the Inventor. I’d been
here since this morning, visiting Siesta.
“He always is. No matter when I visit, that guy is here, too.”
The blond girl who’d entered after Saikawa folded her arms and
sighed, looking at me. That’s weird; after a certain recent
situation, I’d assumed we were best buds.
“—Whoops! Whoa. Sorry, you two, lemme through! I’m just
going to set this on the side table!”
Nagisa Natsunagi was the last one in; she was carrying a basket
piled high with fruit. She’d been officially discharged from the
hospital, and now she was the one visiting a friend there.
“Thanks, you three,” I told them. Natsunagi was going to
school, Saikawa was working as an idol, and Charlie had various
jobs to do. Whenever they had time, though, they came to visit
Siesta.
 “Um…?” However, Saikawa tilted her head curiously. For some
reason, all three of them seemed either bewildered or put off.
“Why are you thanking us just for coming to visit Ma’am,
Kimizuka? Exactly what are you to her, huh?” Charlie gave me a
clammy look.
“You haven’t been to school at all, Kimizuka. You’re aaalways
here with Siesta,” Natsunagi said.
Saikawa and the others pointed at me, complaining.
Yeesh. What were they mad about? “Taking care of my partner
is part of my job, isn’t it?” As I said it, I was looking at Siesta.
She’d been asleep for the past week. So far, there hadn’t been
any drastic changes, and the seed’s growth seemed to be
suppressed. Someday we’d destroy that seed without harming the
rest of her, or find some other way to wake her up safely. That
was my wish and the goal of our current story.
“Your partner, hm?” The next thing I knew, Natsunagi was
looking at my face.
“What?”
“Ohhh, nothing.”
Geez. Not fair.
“……Heh-heh.” I hadn’t said it aloud, but she’d probably
guessed what I was thinking. Smiling, she gazed at me for a long
time. Then, finally, she tucked her short hair behind her ears and
looked away.
This had been our daily routine ever since Siesta fell asleep.
That day, something had decisively changed. However, there were
other things that hadn’t. I probably had one foot in this new
routine, which wasn’t like tepid water at all.
“Still, we’re pretty short on time. We’ll need to leave soon.”
Charlie checked her watch.
After this, we were headed out on a journey to a certain
destination.
“All four of us, traveling together! I can’t wait!” Saikawa twirled
in place, giddy with the idea of our impending three-day trip.
“We’re not going for fun, you know…”
We were responding to a summons from the Federation
Government. They were holding an advisory council regarding
Natsunagi’s decision to inherit the position of Ace Detective, and
the rest of us were going with her, timing our trip for the long
September holiday. The venue for this one was in Singapore.
“I wonder if I’ll get the chance to wear my new swimsuit…”
“You’re the central figure here, but you’re having the most fun
with it.” Natsunagi was giving me serious déjà vu.
“You want to see my swimsuit too, right, Kimizuka?”
I hadn’t gotten to see it on the cruise ship, after all.
…In that case, yeah.
“Well, I guess we could get away with blowing one day on fun
stuff.” When I said that, a smile like summer sunshine lit up her
face.
“All right, shall we go?” Saikawa stretched her arms toward the
ceiling. “We’ll be back, Siesta!” Waving energetically, she left the
hospital room. And then…
“Ma’am, I’ll come again as soon as we get home, I promise!
What kind of souvenir would you like? Meat? Okay, I’ll buy you
lots of meat!”
Charlie spoke to Siesta in the same tone she always used…but
then, with a smile that was just a little sad, she kissed Siesta’s
right hand, then left the room.
“In the end, I’m the only one who barely got to see her,”
Natsunagi murmured, gazing at Siesta’s face. “There was so much
I wanted to tell her and fight with her over…” The only time
Natsunagi had gotten to meet Siesta was on that final battlefield.
Having two ace detectives in the world at the same time was
apparently even tougher than I’d imagined.
“Still, we’ll meet again someday.” Natsunagi pressed her lips
together with determination.
Siesta and Natsunagi had met six years ago, and then again last
year. I hoped from the bottom of my heart that I’d get to see the
two of them reunite one day.
“I’ll… No, we’ll find a way to wake you up, I swear. Wait for us.
Until then, you can leave the Ace Detective’s will to me,” she
promised Siesta. Then, with a glance at me, she left the room.
“Singapore, huh? We went there together, way back when.”
 I recalled those distant memories. We’d played on the beach
and played in the casinos…but as usual, we’d gotten pulled into
crazy incidents, too. It was the same old trouble-ridden adventure
tale. It was sort of nostalgic and, at the same time, something I
never wanted to do again.
“…Still. One of these days, one more time…” We’d go
somewhere, just the two of us. I remembered making that
promise in New York while we watched the musical.
“Okay, I’ll be back.” I was the last one in the room. Gazing at
Siesta’s peaceful face, I told her, “I guess it’ll be four days before
we see each other again.” I was a little reluctant to leave her.
There was no answer. Of course there wasn’t.
The detective was already—
—No, she wasn’t.
That’s right. There’s really no need to feel sad or uneasy.
After all, the detective’s not dead anymore.

She’s just settled down for a long, long nap.

Thank you for buying this ebook, published
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