The Detective is Already Dead

Chapter 74: Chapter 3.3

Foreshadowing the distant future

"I'm exhausted... I'm never going outside again as long as I live..."

Mia was trudging down the dark street, her shoulders slumped so dramatically you could practically hear the aura of gloom around her.

Thanks to her gravity-defying stunt, we'd managed to subdue the busjackers, and now we were on our way back to the tower. I hoped the uproar over the terrorist incident would be winding down by now.

"Why do all these bizarre things happen when I'm with you?" Mia, who was walking next to me, sent me a reproachful glare.

"Hmm? Was that my fault?"

"...You really are a jerk. I'm being sarcastic, of course." Mia sighed for the umpteenth time.

"I guess your luck ran out when we just happened to end up on the same plane."

Come to think of it, that must have been when Mia Whitlock's trials began. "...That's right. I had to spend hours crammed in a meal cart thanks to you." Hey, so we'd deduced that part correctly, too? Yeah, that must've been rough. "And why were you two on that flight anyway? I'd intentionally tried to take

the flight after yours..."

She must have had Olivia make the arrangements. However, at the last minute, my talent for getting dragged into things had kicked in and changed the future.

"Well, I was saving this cat that was stuck up a tree, and we ended up missing

our first flight. That's all." "That's all?!"

"What do you mean? Cats matter. If you act like they don't, Siesta will get mad at you."

There was a time when we got hired to look for this lost cat, and when we found it, the cat was so cute that she kept insisting she wanted one, too.

"So it's because the Ace Detective conditioned you?" "...You're not entirely wrong, but watch your wording."

That said, the fact that I turned out the way I am was due to this troublesome predisposition of mine. The days I spent before meeting Siesta must have affected me, too.

"But in that case—" Out of nowhere, I felt a soft tug on my jacket sleeve. "It's your fault this happened to me," Mia whispered, half a step behind me.

In the moonlight, on a sidewalk illuminated by streetlamps, I turned back. Our eyes met.

"I'll say it as often as I have to: It was your fault I left my room. It's your fault that I got pulled into all this awful trouble. And also...it's your fault that I've started wanting, just a little, to change the future. All of it. It's all your fault. And so..."

Mia Whitlock looked up at me. "Take responsibility, all right?"

Her expression was troubled, and yet it also seemed somehow hopeful. It was the most human look I'd seen on her face all day. It actually struck me as beautiful.

"Yeah. I'll take responsibility. Whenever you want, as often as it takes." Now we were accomplices.

The guy the gods had abandoned at birth and the girl who kept getting unwanted blessings from them—had just joined forces.

The enemy we were out to take down was— Sure, I'll be a little melodramatic about it: the future the gods had ordained. As opponents went, that was plenty.

For the first time, we smiled at each other, then shook hands.

"Well, there are a few women I've promised to marry, so you'll probably end up waiting a while."

"...That is completely not what I meant, I'm positive you're lying, and that is not what I meant. That really isn't what I meant, all right?!"

While we were still busy with that entertaining conversation, we made it back to the clock tower. We rode the dedicated elevator up, and when we opened the door to Mia's room—

"Oh, Kimizuka. Welcome back."

Somebody I hadn't expected was waiting inside.

"Huh. You've got another cute girl with you. What, is she one of your potential brides, too?"

"What do you mean 'too'? What's that about?" I joked with the detective. She'd glanced at Mia, then pinned me with a cold look. "It looks you got everything sorted out on your end, Natsunagi."

Natsunagi was sitting at a table, all by herself, sipping tea. "Yes. Thanks to her."

A few hours ago, I'd split up with the detective at a graveyard. Apparently, her other partner had helped resolve the Medusa incident.

"Welcome back, Madam Oracle."

There was another person in the room as well. Olivia bowed to Mia respectfully; she was wearing a classic maid uniform. "Today deviated slightly from your usual routine. How did you like it?"

"Olivia, you dummy." With a light thump, Mia buried her face in Olivia's chest. That gesture described their relationship eloquently.

"And you, Mr. Kimizuka. I've caused you rather a lot of trouble." "You sure have."

Olivia was wearing a salesman's smile. Taking out my wallet, she handed it to me. When I checked the contents, the master key was in there as well. Geez. In terms of these past few days, it looked as if the Oracle's attendant had been the brains of the operation, rather than the Oracle herself.

"So now everyone's here." Smiling, Olivia poured tea for Mia and me, then motioned for us to sit. "Ignore me, if you would. Please discuss the matter at hand." She took a step back, then stood there quietly.

The matter at hand would be the reason Natsunagi and I had come to see the Oracle. We were here to have Mia observe a future where Siesta came back to life. At this point, I knew Mia's ability only worked for phenomena big enough to seriously affect the world, but Siesta was a Tuner, one of the world's guardians. Her life or death would probably count.

"Let me ask you again." The Oracle herself was the first to speak. "The two of you truly intend to reclaim the Ace Detective, correct?"

Mia, who'd seated herself at the head of the table, looked straight at Natsunagi

and me.

Did we really have that sort of determination?

Did we intend to forge our way through conflict after conflict in order to work a near-blasphemous miracle?

She was asking us about our resolution, in her capacity as a Tuner. In response, I said, "If there really is no such route in the futures you observe, then we'll give up."

—Still.

"If there's even one solitary route on the far side of an infinite stretch of hell, we'll clear away every obstacle to it with our own hands. That's our ambition."

Even as I said it, I thought I sounded way too cool. But it was all papier-maché.

I needed to bluff, but I was sure we'd never have a chance. And that was why I issued a declaration to one of the world's enforcers, as if I were the protagonist of this story or something.

"We won't just wish. Today, starting now, we'll take action." Natsunagi made her own oath to the Oracle with no hesitation, even though she'd never seen her before this evening.

"No matter what it costs you?"

"Yes. Unfortunately, we've already come too far to turn back," I said. Right. I'd already paid the price when I swallowed the seed that day.

I didn't plan to tell Natsunagi or anybody else straight-out, but I was prepared to offer anything—one of my five senses, or even my life—to the plant that had made its home inside me. Unless I put that much on the line, I knew this wish of mine would never come true.

I'd conveyed my determination to Mia without putting it into words, and she focused her eyes on me. "Vampires may exist here, but it's still impossible for humans who've died to come back to life just as they were. That means I can't observe the future of the deceased, and there's no point in attempting it. However..."

There was a rather ephemeral beauty in her smile.

"Kimihiko Kimizuka—if you really desire to become the world's singularity, then perhaps..."