Chapter 3.2

 Looking for one solitary route

Having escaped from the tower without incident, the two of us were walking through the streets of London. The sun was long down.

"Wh-why is this happening…?" Mia Whitlock was looking around uneasily, following two steps behind me. Her cool attitude from earlier had vanished; her shoulders were hunched defensively, and she took short, quick steps. "What on earth was that?"

An explosion had occurred out of nowhere at the clock tower. As we'd fled the building, alarms had been going off, and we'd passed dense areas of flames and smoke.

"Search me. Terrorists, maybe?"

"—How can you be so calm?!" Mia's tone sharpened, and she came up beside me. "Ngh! Yelling made me dizzy…"

As she finally let her emotions show through, Mia sank weakly to the pavement. Apparently, she really did nothing that required leaving her room.

"Terrorist acts aren't exactly unusual, you know." "They aren't exactly 'usual,' either."

I held out my hand to Mia, and she took it to get to her feet again. "You should get a little more exercise. Go outside once in a while." "Ew, no. It makes me tired."

"Don't say that with a straight face. What are you, a NEET?" That seemed to make Mia a little uncomfortable. She started off briskly on her own. "You should branch out. Pick up a hobby. Just one friend can make your world a little

brighter."

"Even if it did, it's going to end soon anyway."

"You are so negative!" Although in her case, she wasn't actually exaggerating, which made it kind of hard to put in a good comeback.

"…Quiet down. You'll startle me; don't do that." Mia turned halfway back, gazing at me reproachfully.

"Uh, sorry. I accidentally slipped into the way I talk with my usual crowd." "That's the way you talk with them…? You all must have so much energy."

So somebody's finally mentioning that, huh? Well, it's not an issue I can do anything about on my own. Are you listening, Yui Saikawa and company?

"…Haaah. Honestly, nothing good happens when you're around." Mia heaved a deep sigh. "Things were hard a year ago as well." Clasping her hands behind her, she looked up at me coldly.

"Oh, right. That happened at that clock tower, too, didn't it?"

A year ago, Siesta and Hel had fought here. Piloting a robot and a biological weapon, they'd gone on a full rampage at the tower. Back then, though, Mia had been inside. I was sure she'd watched the whole thing through the window.

"Imagine being the person who has to clean up after that."

I see. Even though they'd been completely out of control, we hadn't drawn a single rubbernecker, and no media outlet had reported an accident. Someone very powerful must have been working in the background. I really wished she'd direct her complaints to the white-haired ace detective, though.

"Let this be my apology, then." Mia was walking on the side nearest the buildings, and I caught her hand and pulled her to me.

"Huh?" Her eyes widened, and then a broken flower pot smashed into the pavement right where she'd been standing.

"Okay, let's go." I released her hand and resumed my evening stroll.

"…I knew it. I get nothing but trouble when I'm with you." Mia seemed to be fed up with my trouble-magnetism; the hunch in her back had gone from kitten to scared kitten. For the past little while, every move she'd made had reminded me of some forest critter.

However, as far as I was concerned, this was peanuts. If I was going to show her that the future really could change, I'd need her to stick with me for a while longer.

"Didn't Siesta teach you things always change quickly?" I asked Mia. She was still just standing there.

"What kind of lesson is that? Boss— Ahem. The Ace Detective and I only

gamed online together every once in a while."

"How exactly do you Tuners relate to each other?" She'd just disclosed an unexpected "mentor/junior" relationship. I was Siesta's assistant, Charlie was her apprentice… In that case, had Mia been one of those cute junior members who was actually a surprising amount of trouble?

As I was wondering about that, a tall red bus pulled up to a nearby stop. Great timing.

"Listen up. In our world, factors like common sense and feeling conflicted and stalemates tend to slow things down, so we just skip over those."

"What's 'our world'? What's with the abrupt explanation?"

"Never mind, just keep up. This story moves fast." Nailed it, I thought as I stepped onto the stairs of the bus.

"I digress, but you don't look like the type who has many friends." "If you're going to digress, don't be mean about it."

"Then I'll just move to the main topic: I can't be your friend." "Yeah, just help me realize a stupid dream. That'll be enough."

We sat down next to each other in the last row of seats on the first floor of the bus.

"—Say, are you always like that?" Mia asked. She'd taken the window seat and was gazing out at the dark streets.

"Like what? Dashing, considerate, and actually pretty cool?" "You don't have to force yourself to play dumb."

I wasn't playing dumb.

"I'm asking whether you always act without a plan."

Without a plan, huh? True, even now, I had no idea where this bus was going. I didn't know what stops we'd pass, or when, or what sort of people would board on the way. —However.

"I've got an ultimate goal. Someday, I'll bring Siesta back to life." That's the only future I want, and the end of the story I'm aiming for.

"And you really think that can be done?" Mia didn't seem startled by my vow.

She'd probably already known about it. Maybe that was why she'd gone so far to avoid Natsunagi and me; she'd realized it was an outrageous wish.

"I really couldn't tell you."

I don't know. I think that's why I came to see you. Because I don't know.

But…

"I think it would be all right to have at least one super-convenient route."

I hoped it was. "..."

Mia didn't agree or disagree with what I'd said. She just kept looking out the window.

Even if earning a perfect happy ending turned out to be too hard.

Even if somebody had to put up with a little hardship here and there, and the little losses added up.

Even so, they couldn't all be cruel endings where everybody lost everything. "The future must branch into different routes. Our wills are going to determine

which one."

Olivia's will had led me to that clock tower; my actions were pulling Mia into things she didn't expect. Using our wills, our actions, we could change those future routes in all sorts of ways. In which case…

"Don't you think there could be a route where Siesta comes back to life?"

Once again, I hit Mia with the first and greatest reason I'd come to see her. "—You are the only one allowed to say that," Mia murmured. I didn't know

what she meant.

However, reality wasn't kind enough to give me a chance to respond. "Sorry, but I guess we're going to have to put this chat on hold." "Huh?"

Just as Mia turned to look, a woman's scream echoed through the bus. When I glanced toward the front—a man in camo was standing there, holding a rifle.

"A busjack, huh?"

My knack for getting dragged into stuff was at the top of its game.

 That leap will cross the world line

"Th-this is why I didn't want to go outside…"

In the seat next to me, Mia was doing that forest critter thing again. She'd curled up into a little ball and was hugging her knees. Would it be rude to say she was cute? (Or pathetic, even?)

"Well? Didn't see this future coming, did you?"

"How can you gloat at a time like this…?" Mia glared at me resentfully. She'd finally started making eye contact. "My ability isn't nearly as convenient as divination. If I want to make an intentional attempt to see a future that would dramatically affect the world, I need to set the stage to a certain extent… So I

don't know what's going to happen next," she finished in a little voice.

"—Freeze! Don't move a muscle—I can't guarantee what'll happen to ya." The next moment, a shot rang out as the busjacker fired his rifle at the roof.

Then he pointed the muzzle at the passengers, us included… Geez. Apparently, we can't afford to make any dumb moves.

"If our comrade is freed, you people will get to leave the bus. We're all in the same boat 'ere. Ha-ha!" The man, who was dressed like a soldier, laughed a whole lot like Bat.

Okay, so he was trying to get his jailed comrade released. Was he planning to negotiate that with the police? This didn't seem like a great approach to take.

"What should we do?" Mia asked quietly.

The mood was extremely tense, but fortunately, from our positions in the very back, we were able to get an accurate picture of the situation. Including Mia and I, there were eleven regular passengers, the driver, and one criminal at the front with a gun. The enemy had a weapon, and there were lots of ordinary citizens around, so we couldn't move carelessly.

"Uh, actually, what do you think we should do?"

"So you're essentially useless when it really counts." Mia dropped her forehead into her hand. "Olivia…," she said, calling her attendant's name. "Cute" and "pathetic" really were two sides of the same coin. "Enough. The world's going to end soon anyway…"

"Look, like I said, don't be such a pessimist." It's possible to be too much of a downer, all right? Not only that, but in her case, she was taking it way too seriously for it to even be funny. "Uh, listen. Even I can act, all right? As long as the detective tells me what to do."

"Please have a little pride, okay?!"

"Mia, is it okay if I hold your hand for a little bit?" "Were you listening to me?"

I didn't hear a no, so I gripped her small palm. She froze up.

"…I've never held a man's hand before," Mia muttered very fast, giving an excuse I hadn't asked for. She sighed. Her hand was even colder than I'd expected it to be. "What would Boss have done at a time like this?"

Maybe she was stretched too thin to keep up appearances; Mia was openly calling Siesta "Boss" now.

"For starters, she'd either drink tea or tease me." "That was entirely unhelpful."

Well, yeah. After all, she was the type who'd take a good, solid nap on a hijacked plane.

"…I may be a Tuner, but I'm not very good with this sort of thing." Mia looked down, murmuring in a self-deprecating way.

Yeah, it wasn't as if all the Tuners had great combat skills. It was only the three I'd happened to meet before.

There might be some who only had an intellectual advantage, and others who'd been scouted for their abilities, like Mia. The balance of those twelve kept the world in harmony.

"I don't have the Assassin's ironclad sense of mission, or the Vampire's world-destroying strength, or the Ace Detective's courage to stare death in the face. That's why I wasn't able to shut down Boss's bet back then."

"Mia, you're…"

"—Who is that?! Who's talking?!"

The next instant, the busjacker aimed his rifle at the passengers. Something must have gotten him worked up. He walked up to each passenger, one by one, pointing the rifle at them by turns…but before he got to the very back, he turned around and headed for the driver's seat again. He hadn't noticed us.

"As you said, the future does change, sometimes." Mia spoke in an even softer voice than before. At that volume, the noise of the engine would probably cover it. "Two days ago, I went to Japan. The quality of a future I'd observed only recently had changed, and I wanted to find out why."

"I see. So that's why you were on that plane."

Mia almost never left her tower, and yet she'd been on a flight from Japan to London. I was finally about to learn the reason.

"I knew the future regarding SPES. It should have ended with the sapphire girl's death at the hands of the Assassin and the loss of Seed's vessel. That route had been averted, though. You and your friends were there, at the center of the change."

…Yeah, that's right. We'd chosen to protect Saikawa, meaning Seed had survived. Technically, that choice could easily have made the world our enemy. As a Tuner, and as the Oracle, Mia had a duty to lead the world in the right direction, and she hadn't foreseen that ending.

"The future does change. But where it ends never does."

The bus had stopped for a red light, and Mia looked out the window. Up at the front, the hijacker was yelling at the driver, "Don't stop the bus!"

"The Ace Detective genuinely did change the future. And then, that same day, she died." This was something Mia hadn't told me about yet. Siesta's bet, the one she'd started to talk about before. The one she hadn't been able to stop. "Originally, in the sacred text written by the previous Oracle, the battle between SPES and the Ace Detective ended with the latter's defeat."

"You're saying Siesta would have lost to Seed and Hel?"

"Yes. Boss would die, and Seed would make Hel, the survivor, into his vessel. The outcome in the sacred text was the worst one imaginable." Mia told me it had probably been written roughly a decade ago. "But four years ago, Boss met you. Then, little by little, the two of you began to change that future."

…I hadn't done a thing. Back then, Siesta must have been trying to twist destiny itself.

"I felt as though maybe, if this went on, we might avoid Boss's death. About eighteen months ago, I read the future regarding SPES again. And the ending—" "—Was that Siesta and Hel would take each other out, and Seed would lose

his vessel, huh?" As I said it, Mia squeezed my hand tightly.

That was what had actually happened to us last year. Even if the future had changed slightly, the ultimate endpoint—the bad ending where Siesta died— hadn't changed even with all our efforts.

"Of course I didn't want to give up. I'd destroyed my family with my own two hands. I hadn't been able to save my parents. Even so, I owed Boss for what she did for me, and if nothing else, I wanted to avert the future where she was sacrificed… I think she must already have been prepared for it herself, though."

…Yeah, that was the kind of person she was. She knew what her fate would be, and even then, she'd stood by her principles as a detective. Even at the cost of her life, she was determined to seal a great evil and save her friend, Natsunagi. She'd make her client's wish come true.

"And unlike me, Boss had been fighting SPES directly. She realized that Seed wanted the sacred text, and at the same time, she'd been preparing for the Phantom Thief's betrayal. She came to me and proposed using those things against them."

"So she let Seed and the rest steal the sacred text on purpose? When she knew the future it predicted wasn't accurate…?"

That had been Siesta's secret plan. A trap, really. The original ending in the sacred text was that Siesta would be defeated, and Hel, the survivor, would become Seed's vessel. Once she knew that that future would no longer come to pass, she'd intentionally let the sacred text fall into Seed's hands.

Seed had seen that false future and felt reassured. He hadn't picked up on Siesta's bet. That was why his plans had gone off the rails, and why Seed was currently trying to use Yui Saikawa as his vessel, when she'd only been intended as insurance.

"As you say, it is possible to change the future. However, the final outcome doesn't change," Mia said again, in a voice that held no emotion.

"True, lives have been saved by that changed future. Wishes have been granted. That said, other lives were lost. I…I know this is selfish, but…I would have preferred a future where the person who was precious to me had survived." That had to be the regret the Oracle couldn't shake. She hadn't been able to save the benefactor who'd rescued her from hell. Mia had single-mindedly sought a future where Siesta would survive…but in the end, Siesta's determination as the detective had won out. When it came, the ending had been

the same worst-case scenario for Mia.

And so Mia didn't act. She didn't try to change the future. She simply… observed. Just as she'd watched Siesta and Hel's fight unfold from the tallest clock tower in London last year. Mia Whitlock would carry out her duty, writing down the futures she saw, until the day the world met its end. If there was anything I could say to her, it was—

"We're planning to transcend Siesta's will, too." Mia's eyes widened.

Was it because of what I'd said, or because I'd gotten to my feet as I said it?

"—Who is that?! Who keeps talking?!"

The busjacker pointed his rifle at me, but the muzzle wavered uncertainly. Of course it did: The guy couldn't see me.

"Telling us not to chat during a busjack? You've got that backward." Holding Mia's hand, I crouched down low.

"Don't pull a busjack during an important conversation."

Apparently, we had an extra on this stage. There were ten meters or so between the NPC and me. Assuming my random trouble didn't flare up on the way, this fight would be over in seconds.

"Wait, what are you doing?!"

"Don't worry, he can't see you, either." That was the power I'd gained when I swallowed Chameleon's seed. It was why I'd been holding Mia's hand this whole time. "I'll bring her back to life, and then I'm gonna tell her 'Take that.'"

Don't think I'll let you manipulate me forever. Maybe you think you died alone and made yourself look all cool, but I'll flip that ending on you. I'll change the future; I'll show you.

"…Are you serious?"

"If I wasn't, I wouldn't have come all the way overseas."

Just then, the busjacker guessed our position from our voices and fired at us.

The passengers' screams filled the bus.

Mia and I dodged the bullet by sliding into some empty seats.

"So please. Help me find a future where Siesta comes back to life." "…Do you really think it exists?"

"If it doesn't, I'll make it. This time, I'll be the one to drag the world in with me."

I grabbed Mia's hand again and set off running. The busjacker was right in front of us now.

"I can't run…that fast…!"

After years cooped up in her room, Mia tripped over her legs. She was gasping for breath.

…Oh, I see. She hasn't noticed yet, huh?

"Mia, take a good look at your feet."

Just as I said that, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a gleaming black handgun. A second busjacker had been pretending to be a passenger. Come to think of it, the military-type guy had said "our" back at the beginning. Sheesh. Maybe I shouldn't have thought about random trouble causing problems.

"Kimihiko!" Mia screamed my name. "You handle that one, Mia."

I dropped her hand and tackled the second busjacker, who'd gotten up from his seat. When the man took a blow to the gut from something he couldn't see, he gave a sharp shriek and dropped his weapon. —Except I'd let go of Mia, so she was visible now.

"—! Where'd the kid come from?!"

When the girl suddenly materialized right in front of him, the guy in camo looked shocked. However, his confusion gave us a brief opening.

"Mia! Even if you don't want to change the future, it's already too late! You know what I'm talking about! Think about what it means that you're wearing those shoes right now!"

The moment I said it, Mia's lilac eyes went very wide.

Yeah, there you go. Those must have been a present from the Ace Detective.

A gift for her high-maintenance junior who wouldn't leave her tower. At this point, Siesta's thoughts couldn't reach her, but they'd taken solid shape and made Mia take a big step forward.

"Dammit, you little—!" The busjacker fired at Mia without bothering to aim. But it was too late. Those bullets streaked through empty space.

Why, you ask?

If you want to know, look up. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

Ah, I guess it's too late for that, too.

Right then—the toes of the girl who'd jumped high in the air kicked the camo guy's head for a home run.

Yeah, I'd known about those for four years.