Chapter 3.2

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.