Chapter 2.2

I can forgive everything but that triumphant look

"Charlie?"

I knew this girl.

Charlotte Arisaka Anderson.

She was sixteen, and although she was an American citizen, she had Japanese blood as well. She was an agent who flew all over the world on orders from the organization she belonged to, and on Siesta's request, she'd worked with us a few times—meaning she knew me, too.

"Are you okay?" I asked Charlie nervously. "...Yes, mostly."

Holding her injured right shoulder, Charlie slowly sat up on the bed. I straightened up, too, stepping back.

What was she doing here, though? Why had she sneaked into my room with a weapon…?

"Oh, I see what's going on. Siesta asked you to do this, didn't she?"

Was this the "step" Siesta had said she'd taken? I see… Yes, with combat skills like Charlie's, we'd be able to fight the enemy on equal terms. Apparently, I'd jumped the gun, and now I was guilty of excessive self- defense.

"…She sure did. I swear… You just lunged at me out of nowhere." "Look, I'm sorry, okay? But you did come in here with a gun." "Well, Cerberus might have gotten in ahead of me."

I see. Yeah, that's true. I might have been a little too wary myself. A little more of that, and I would have had Siesta laughing at me for freaking out.

"Hmm. Something smells." Charlie sniffed audibly. "Does it? Did you fart?"

"Are you familiar with the word tact?"

"Well, my ace detective partner sure isn't." I went over to the window to air out the room for Charlie.

"Still, you're better than I thought you were, Kimizuka. You completely crushed me," she said behind me. "Even if you did use a trick, I never thought you'd manage to pin me…"

"Yeah, I guess it really is the first time I've ever beaten you one-on-one."

That training Siesta puts me through all the time must be paying off, I thought. I set a hand on the curtain, and just as I opened the window—

"No, really, could I actually beat Charlie?"

It was a completely pathetic self-evaluation, a deduction with zero pride. The thing is, though, I knew.

I knew how strong Charlotte Arisaka Anderson was. I also knew that Siesta was the first to acknowledge that strength. Charlotte would never lose to a guy like me.

"…Uh, more important."

I had a simpler theory, too.

"That short-tempered sore loser would never admit she lost this easily." Especially not to me, her mortal enemy. Therefore—

"Who are you?"

I turned around, directing my question at Charlie…or more precisely, at the individual who was passing as Charlotte Arisaka Anderson.

"Ah—you've seen through my disguise, then?"

The voice shifted from Charlie's into a deep male voice. In the next moment, her face and body warped and changed into a sturdy middle-aged man in a black robe.

"Well, no matter. Either way, I shall take your heart." "…! So you really are Cerberus?"

That ability to transform must be where he'd gotten his code name. The guard dog of Hades had three heads, a symbol of an ability to change into other people. If his nose was sharp, too, of course the police would have a hard time with him. No wonder they hadn't managed to catch him yet.

"Bad news, though. Your Jack the Ripper imitation ends today." I'd retrieved the Magnum during that fight, and I pointed it at his forehead.

"You do seem quite capable. I thought you were that ace detective's lackey, but I shall have to revise that impression."

As Cerberus spoke, he quietly closed his eyes and put his palms together in front of his chest. The gesture reminded me of a priest, although the impression was lessened somewhat by his pompous way of speaking and sturdy build. However, I was only able to think that for a moment, before—

"The moon is full tonight. It makes the blood sing."

The next moment, Cerberus's muscles began swelling up, and then thick fur spread over his body. He looked just like—

"Wait, you're a werewolf…?"

Aren't you confusing Cerberus with something else? But this wasn't really a situation for snappy comebacks.

"If you get shot, don't come crying to me."

I squeezed the trigger, firing bullets—but… "Save those words until after you've hit me."

With truly beast-like agility, Cerberus evaded them. "Ghk…!"

Once he'd dodged all my attacks, the huge creature lunged at me.

There were sharp claws right in front of my face, and I had no weapons. Realizing I was a moment away from tragedy, I squeezed my eyes shut—

"Get down."

Hearing the voice from the phone receiver, at the last moment, I managed to drop into a crouch.

"—Khah, hah!"

The next thing I heard was a gunshot and a low groan. When I opened my eyes, the beast-man was lying there, dark blood streaming from his shoulder.

"…So opening the window saved my butt?"

Remembering that I'd never ended that call, I put my phone to my ear and spoke to her.

"Hey, why did you wait this long? You'd better not tell me you were sleeping."

At that…

"I did make it in time, so does it matter?"

By then, I was hearing the voice from the phone and right behind me. Making the grumpiest face I could manage, I turned around—and there,

standing on the sill of the large window and looking very pleased with herself, was a white-haired girl.

"Did you miss me?"

The crimson devil, the ice queen

"Well, now," said Siesta.

She lunged at the fallen Cerberus, musket at the ready, then straddled him and jammed the muzzle against his skin.

"Hmm, déjà vu."

The scene from the plane, three years ago, flashed through my mind's eye. That time, too, Siesta had shoved her gun against Bat's head to get the hijacking under control like an action movie heroine.

"Why you…! When did you make your approach?" Cerberus growled from where she had him pinned; his expression was agonized. "My nose told me nothing of your presence…so why?"

Yes, that had been Siesta's plan: use me as a solitary decoy, while she lurked someplace beyond the range of Cerberus's nose… But then she had stepped onto the battlefield unnoticed.

"Apparently, there's still a little of that smell left." Siesta sniffed. "It smells?"

"Huh? Didn't you notice before you opened the window, Kimi? Until a minute ago, this room was filled with a special type of gas."

"Gas? Oh, come to think of it…"

When Cerberus had still been disguised as Charlie, he'd been bothered by the smell in the room. It couldn't be… But when had it happened?

"Those." Siesta pointed up at the ceiling—or to be more precise… "The sprinklers, huh?"

That was probably the real "step" that Siesta had taken. She'd seen that I was carrying a Zippo lighter around, predicted the possibility that the sprinklers would come on during this fight, and rigged up gas to apply along with the water. The gas had numbed Cerberus's superhuman nose, and he'd failed to notice Siesta.

"…As always, you're way too prepared."

It was as if Siesta had known everything that was going to happen before it happened.

"The upshot is, I win. Accept it."

Siesta shoved the muzzle of her gun at Cerberus again. Thinking I'd contact Ms. Fuubi while I had the chance, I took out my smartphone—and that's when it happened.

"I cannot allow myself to be apprehended yet."

No sooner had Cerberus spoken than his body rapidly began to shrink. "—! His transformation ability!"

In a moment, Cerberus was as small as a child, and he slipped out of Siesta's hold.

"Assistant! Shut the window!"

We're not letting him get away…!

Hastily turning to the window behind me, I tried to cut off Cerberus's escape route, but…

"Too late."

By then, he'd already resumed his beast-man form and was leaping lightly over my head.

"I have a mission. One more. I must obtain just one more fresh heart, and until then…"

He leaned out the window, and— "You can leave yours, Cerberus."

A spray of blood.

Then Cerberus's head—only his head—fell out of the window and down.

After a moment, his decapitated body slowly toppled over backward. "…Huh?"

My mind couldn't process what I was seeing. Why was Cerberus dead? Who was it? Who'd done this?

"Assistant!" That was Siesta. She sounded more flustered and tense than I'd ever heard her. "Be careful."

She was pointing her musket at the window, but its muzzle seemed to be wavering slightly.

"This is the first time we've met in person, isn't it, ace detective," said a bitterly cold voice.

The speaker, who was sitting on the windowsill, swung the saber she'd used to cut down Cerberus, shaking off the blood.

"You're…"

A girl with short black hair and red eyes. She wore a wine-red military uniform, and multiple sabers hung from her waist. She seemed to be about

Siesta's age. Between her service cap and her high collar, I couldn't make out her face all that well.

But the flawless ace detective was wary of her. Who in the world was—? "My name—my code name—Is Hel," she droned from her perch in the

window, cleaning the blood off her sword with a cloth. "Code name… So she's another one?"

"She's one of SPES's highest-ranking officers," murmured Siesta. She was standing next to me now, and her expression was grim. "In Norse mythology, Hel is the name of the queen who ruled Niflheim, the country of ice."

"So there's no system to their code names, huh?"

At the very least, it was clear that she was in a different league from Bat and Cerberus.

"Well, now."

Hel descended from the windowsill and proceeded straight to Cerberus's corpse, without so much as a glance at us. She crouched down—and plunged her sword into the left side of his chest.

"…Ughk." The gruesome sight made me feel sick.

With a face that held no emotion, Hel stuck her arm into Cerberus's chest…then pulled something out of the pooled blood.

"Now we have the final piece." Hel's gory right hand held what looked like a small lump of black ore. "Now then, I'll take this back with me and commence the operation…"

"Do you think we'll let you?" Siesta glared sharply at Hel. The aim of the long-barreled gun was perfectly steady now.

"Well, well." Hel returned Siesta's gaze. "But you cannot shoot."

"What are you talking ab…—?"

Abruptly, as if she'd noticed something, Siesta's eyebrows rose.

"And you cannot take a single step from that spot. You cannot speak." Hel's bloodred eyes glinted ominously.

Siesta's eyes widened. Her mouth flapped as if she were a fish who'd poked her head out of the water in search of food, but she didn't say a word.

"It can't be— A pseudohuman ability…"

If Hel was also a member of SPES, then she would have had some sort of special power. If she could do this, was it an ability that controlled what others did…?

I was in too much of a panic to think through it rationally, though. She had Siesta nailed down. In that case, our enemy's next move was obvious.

The girl in the red military uniform sprinted toward me. "Now, why don't you come see hell with me?"

In that moment, my mind lost its link to the world.