Chapter 1.3

 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."