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Chapter 18: Chapter 3.4

I can\'t remember when it was, but I\'d told Siesta she was more like a special agent than a detective.

"In my mind, the definition of a detective is always \'Someone who protects the interests of the client.\' I take pride in that work. That\'s why I always have been, and always will be, a detective."

Siesta had still insisted that that was what she was.

I\'m sure that when she said "client," she meant every other human on the planet.

She\'d said that being an ace detective was in her nature, and she\'d smiled.

That smile was almost too bright for me.

"She\'s all yours now!" I yelled to Saikawa as the distant flash of memory

passed.

Protect the client\'s interests: no more, no less. If I could just do that, it would be enough.

So what if you make a deduction? If you don\'t use it to save people\'s lives, there\'s no point.

Natsunagi had tried to save the people who were still on the ship at the cost of her own life. Saikawa had managed to rescue her in the nick of time. Without a doubt, they had both inherited the ace detective\'s last wish.

"They\'re gone..."

I watched the small boat race over the water; it had already carried the two girls far away.

I couldn\'t put either of them in any more danger. From here on, this was my job.

"You\'ve certainly sealed your fate."

Chameleon\'s tone was still polite, but his formerly expressionless face was suffused with anger.

I\'d seen the bullet cut off his "tongue," but he wiped the blood from his lips, then began extending that tongue again. It was like a lizard severing its own tail, then regenerating it.

And reptilian was what he was. This guy had completely discarded his humanity.

"I\'ll show no mercy now. I won\'t fail to do you the honor of killing you here."

The next moment, Chameleon\'s "tongue" came speeding toward me. Like Bat\'s tentacle, its tip morphed into a sharp blade.

" !"

Even if I\'d seen similar movement before, it wasn\'t an easy thing to dodge. I tumbled, evading, but it grazed my shoulder a bit. "Ghk! Ow..."

Besides, four years ago, Siesta had been the one who\'d dodged those attacks, not me. If this was how it was gonna be, maybe I really should have learned more self-defense.

"Dammit!"

In desperation, I fired at him.

To be honest, from here on out, I was flying blind.

It had been close, but I\'d managed to rescue Natsunagi. And if Saikawa had come racing to us, that meant most of the other passengers must have

been evacuated as well.

In that case, it was okay now. I didn\'t mind being the only one to go down with the ship.

"...Whew."

I was able to get to my feet somehow, then loaded more bullets into my gun. These six were the last ones.

"Well, well. Such clear resolve in your eyes. Do you intend to die alone?"

Temporarily retracting his tongue, Chameleon narrowed his eyes, shooting me a glance.

"Sorry, but no. I\'m taking you with me. Two guys committing suicide together on the ocean isn\'t the greatest ending, but that\'s why nobody\'s hired me to write their movie."

"Even now, you can still express yourself so eloquently, hmm? I believe you may be more suited to the profession of comedian than scriptwriter. If you run a variety show in hell\'s second district, no doubt your audience will be showering you with tips."

Exchanging our unfunny gallows humor, we kept each other pinned down with our eyes.

"Not that I have any intention of giving you my life in the first place. In addition, those girls you believe you helped escape—I\'ll take their lives soon after I\'ve taken yours." The way Chameleon licked his chops made my stomach turn.

"Why would you go that far...?"

Even if Natsunagi said she\'d carry out Siesta\'s last wish, she was just a high school girl. Why would he go after her so tenaciously?

"It\'s all because of that heart." Chameleon\'s lip curled in exasperation. "I myself was only just informed of it, but—it isn\'t normal."

It wasn\'t...normal?

Was he saying Siesta\'s heart held some sort of secret?

"Well, there\'s no need for you to know. However, I will tell you that circumstances changed for us very recently."

"...What are you talking about...?"

"To my relief, apparently the situation is not as grave as we had feared. In addition, the legacy the ace detective is said to have left on this ship is about to sink with it. Victory is ours. Ha-ha, ha-ha-ha." Chameleon gave an unpleasant, mocking laugh. "After I kill you, I\'ll pursue those girls to the

ends of the earth, the bottom of the sea, the heights of the sky. I\'ll torture them again and again and again, constantly, ceaselessly, until they cry and plead with me to let them die. I won\'t stop until the very end."

I heard something inside me snap.

"Oh dear, I fear I\'ve spoken a bit too much. Let us finish this, shall we?"

It didn\'t even take me a second to realize I was going to slaughter this guy. "Do you require time to say your prayers?"

"No. Unfortunately, I\'m an atheist."

"Is that so? In that case—" Chameleon closed his mouth.

Sorry, but the end of that sentence is mine.

"—Die."

The "tongue" flew toward me like a bullet, but I slid and evaded it, getting in close to the enemy.

My self-control was gone. I jammed my gun against his jaw, but—

"How very naive." The tongue curled back in an instant like a whip, striking my hand.

"Ghk...!" I nearly dropped the gun, and while I was struggling to hang on to it—

"You\'re wide-open." "Ngh... Khak..."

—that long tongue sank into my torso, and I went flying as if I\'d been hit with a metal bat.

"Can\'t—breathe..."

I slammed into the deck, and my lungs stopped working properly. I\'d probably busted a few ribs, too. I felt the blood retreating into the depths of my body, my temperature falling.

If this keeps up, I\'m gonna die.

It was so abrupt. But this wasn\'t a hunch—it was a conviction.

"You must know a mere boy could never win against a pseudohuman." Chameleon was coming closer. Somehow I managed to get to my feet, and

I leveled my gun at him.

...But I could barely even see him.

Maybe because I was breathing shallowly, I couldn\'t line the sight up properly. My feet were very unsteady, too.

"There, you see? You can\'t protect anyone." "Just shut the fuck up!"

I was firing at random. Most of the bullets missed their target, and the one that did fly straight at him, the guy deflected with his tongue.

So he could change its hardness at will, too, not just its length?

"You will perish here, and I will most assuredly kill the girls you helped escape with my own hands."

"...Ghk... Fuck you! Shut up!"

I set my finger on the trigger, one more time...but nothing happened. I was out of bullets.

"Yes, everything you\'ve done has been useless. You, and those you tried to protect, will all die. Just like that damnable ace detective."

I\'m going to die. That\'s fine. After all, I should have died a year ago. In a way, I already have.

Natsunagi, though. Saikawa.

I have to protect them, at least.

I have to protect the clients\' interests, their lives.

I told Charlie I\'m no detective, I\'m just an assistant, but even if that\'s all I am—

"The ace detective\'s last wish...was passed to me." To my surprise, my legs actually moved.

I remembered what Saikawa had said.

My hands squeeze. My shoulders roll.

My breathing is rhythmic. I close my eyes, take a deep breath, then exhale. My blood circulates. When I open my eyes, my cloudy vision will be clear.

Maybe that sapphire eye had come to dwell in me. It couldn\'t have, not really, but what about my ears? I pinned my hopes on my acoustic system.

—And I heard it.

I wasn\'t the only one, either. Everyone heard that noise. "A helicopter?"

When I looked up—there it was, in the pitch-black sky. "Kimizuka! Get down!"

The words were so distant I wasn\'t sure if I\'d heard them, and I threw myself onto the deck, taking cover.

In the next instant—

"Eat lead, asshooooole!!!"

Along with the ear-splitting roar of a strafe attack, a rain of bullets fell from the night sky, striking Chameleon.

"Gwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!" High in the sky, in the helicopter\'s open hatch—

"I see you\'re having some trouble with that fight, Kimizuka."

—stood Charlotte Arisaka Anderson, long golden hair streaming in the night wind as she blazed away with a machine gun.

Buenos días

"Charlie..."

Dazed, I looked up at the aircraft hovering in the dark sky.

The rotor blades of the armed helicopter created ring-shaped ripples on the ocean.

In the open door, Charlie was holding a machine gun, and in the pilot\'s seat was—

"Hey, it\'s been a while, you damn kid! Finally decided to turn yourself in?!" Ms. Fuubi was using the helicopter\'s loudspeaker to mock me.

"Anybody with eyes can see I\'m the victim here!"

When I objected, Ms. Fuubi pointed at something on me.

...Oh. Fair.

A violation of the Firearm and Sword Possession Control Law. For the first time, she\'d caught me red-handed. Geez, she\'s talking like she\'s a proper police officer or something.

But wasn\'t she the one who just brought out a military helicopter? "It\'s fine if I do it! I\'m a cop!"

I\'m not so sure about that. Also, quit reading my mind.

Seriously. Don\'t make me smile. Don\'t reassure me; don\'t make me feel I\'m not actually all alone yet.

"Ghk... Damn, you..."

I heard a growl that seemed to come from the depths of the earth.

Still bleeding, Chameleon got to his feet unsteadily. His narrow eyes were bloodshot, and he was gazing at Charlie and the helicopter that hovered in the night sky.

"It\'s been a long time, pseudohuman. I never wanted to see you again." "Oh yeah, I recognize you...!" Chameleon\'s manners were slipping. This

was probably what he was actually like.

"You too, Kimizuka. I thought I really wouldn\'t be seeing you after this, but..."

"...Tch. Were you planning this right from the beginning?"

Wipe out the enemy with force. It was a pretty Charlie-esque way of doing things.

Having sensed the enemy early on, Charlie had promptly gotten off the ship and returned with more firepower. Probably could\'ve talked it over with me first, but... No, we\'d never wasted time on that. Siesta used to give us hell for it, too.

"...Still, I\'m glad you came, Charlie."

Who\'d have thought the day would come when Charlie would rescue me, after all this time?

"Hmph! You can\'t possibly have expected me to just shut up after a little girl like her spoke to me like that."

"Uh, you two are the same age."

I see... So Natsunagi\'s words lit a fire under Charlie as well. I bet even Natsunagi herself wasn\'t aware of it, but there was something about her—

"Okay, Kimizuka, you stay back! It\'s my turn now!" Charlie called. She leveled the machine gun that was mounted near the door, taking aim at the pseudohuman again.

Too bad, huh, Chameleon? When that girl\'s got a weapon, dragons and tigers are no match for her.

"Go on, let\'s see you dance!"

With a one-liner like that, it was hard to tell who the villain was as Charlie began spraying the deck with bullets.

"...Ghk!"

Even with those injuries, Chameleon managed to dodge agilely. Every so often, he\'d swing his hardened "tongue" and knock bullets away.

"Rgh! You insolent—"

It was an air-to-ground battle.

But Charlie had the stronger position.

Chameleon had his hands full trying to block the bullets raining down on him, and all he could do with his unrivaled weapon—his tongue—was defend. Faced with a never-ending storm of lead, he had no choice but to desperately run around the deck.

"Kimizuka!" Abruptly, Charlie shouted to me in a voice loud enough to be heard over the gunshots. "I hate you! I hate your guts!"

Oh, you do, huh? Well, the feeling\'s mutual. Sorry, but I\'ve never even considered trying to get along with you.

"But... But! You were the one Ma\'am chose! It wasn\'t me—it was you! So as much as I hate you...I just have to leave it to you! If the woman I loved

chose the guy I hate more than anyone, then—I have no choice but to trust you, don\'t I?!"

Her scream was like a prayer.

She didn\'t let her tears show. Instead, a rain of bullets poured down from the sky.

I was sure Charlie was trying to grant her teacher\'s final wish. "Kimizuka! This time, let\'s make this mission a success together!" Yeah, I know. Trust me—I know.

I was planning to do that all along.

"Rraaaaaaah!"

Possibly because she didn\'t want to waste the time it would take to reload, instead of relying on the door gun, Charlie picked up new weapons one after another, mounting an unbroken attack on Chameleon.

If she kept pushing like this, we could win.

As I stayed under cover, I was starting to believe, but— "—Enough."

—when she changed weapons, there was a slight pause in the attack. Chameleon slumped, leaning forward—and abruptly vanished. "Charlie! Watch out!"

"Huh?!"

The next instant, the helicopter tilted dramatically. "Ghk! He got us!"

From what I could see, the rotors were fine...but something was leaking from the body.

"...Fuel, huh?"

A fluid that seemed to be gasoline was dripping from the vicinity of the engine, falling onto the deck where we stood.

The helicopter was flying significantly lower than it had been earlier. If they didn\'t get that altitude back, there was no telling when it might crash. However, Chameleon had completely camouflaged himself, and we couldn\'t see him. If things were like this, then...

"Rgh! I can\'t even tell whether I\'m hitting him or not!"

Charlie kept attacking indiscriminately with the machine gun, but she didn\'t seem to be landing hits. In the cockpit, Ms. Fuubi was gripping the control stick, desperately trying to right the leaning helicopter.

Dammit, once he gained the advantage by going invisible, we couldn\'t

even touch him.

How were you supposed to fight someone you couldn\'t see? If Siesta was here, what would she...?

"Ha-ha. Now your attacks won\'t hit me! Not even that ace detective could touch me!"

The enemy was still invisible; his triumphant voice was the only sign of him.

...Never mind that—what had he just said?

Even the ace detective hadn\'t been able to touch him?

Had something like that happened? How did I not know about it?

"I can see it in my mind\'s eye even now—that damnable girl yielding to me in humiliation!"

Oh. I see now.

It was this guy.

It was him. What happened to Siesta was because of him.

I\'d finally found her mortal enemy, in the truest sense of the word.

And yet for some reason, my mind still felt calm. I had no emotions now. All I had was the mission to annihilate SPES—to annihilate this monster. Until that was done, I wouldn\'t stop moving.

"...! You killed Ma\'am!" Charlie\'s angry shout echoed over the battlefield.

Yeah, I get it. I know how you feel better than anybody. But, Charlie, right now, you need to look at me.

I brought two fingers up to my lips, gesturing. "Kimizuka? —Okay. All right."

I assume you understand that I wasn\'t blowing a kiss.

So. Let\'s end this already. It\'s time to slay this monster.

"I\'ve also been thinking it\'s about time this woman quit smoking." "...Yeesh. Fine, do what you gotta."

Charlie ignited the cigarette lighter she\'d taken from Ms. Fuubi, then let it fall.

...Onto the deck, which was covered in the leaked fuel from the helicopter. "Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!"

Fire blazed up all at once, burning the whole area around Chameleon.

Naturally, I was in range for some damage myself. But I\'d always been planning on going down with this guy if I had to.

"H-hot... G...gonna..."

Apparently, his skin\'s color-changing function didn\'t work in that harsh environment, and Chameleon\'s shape materialized again. He was surrounded by a pillar of fire, and he\'d fallen to his knees, his long tongue hanging loosely.

"Time to die."

Then there was one dull gunshot.

With all her immeasurable emotions behind it, Charlie pulled the trigger.

" ! Gaaah!"

With an inarticulate scream, Chameleon spat up blood.

The bullet had pierced his hardened "tongue," and it fell to the deck with a clunk.

However, I could see the torn-off tongue began regenerating from the root again, and I headed toward the raging flames. Then I picked up the "tongue," which had a tip as sharp as a blade.

"—! Dammit, damn, I\'ll—"

The reptile in front of me was saying something.

"K...kill. You...too...shame...fully...like that...ace...detective..."

Ah. As long as that tongue kept regenerating, this thing would keep talking, huh? In that case—

" ! Ghaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

I slashed through Chameleon\'s newly regenerated tongue, using the one I\'d picked up.

This is a blade. A double-edged sword you grew yourself.

I struck again and again, shouldering the thoughts of so many people: my former partner, her comrades, the ones who\'d inherited her last wish.

"Stuh...stoooooooooooooooooop!"

Ha, as if. Maybe you should have a taste of what you did to us.

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!"

If you\'re going to regenerate over and over, I\'ll just cut through it every time.

Don\'t ever speak again.

"Aa... Aa, aaaah..."

By now, the noises from the thing in front of me didn\'t seem to mean anything anymore.

But my right hand didn\'t stop. I hadn\'t done enough yet.

Bleed more, more, more.

Bleed enough for Charlie, for me, for Siesta. Please, I\'m begging you. More, more— "—Please just die already."

I had no idea how many times I\'d lopped off that tongue. Telling myself this was the last time, and praying that it would be, I raised the blade high, and—

"...!"

While the blade was still above my head, the ship lurched violently, and in the next instant—

"Not...yet."

By the time I noticed, it was too late. "...—!"

Chameleon\'s long tongue was wrapped around my torso. I hadn\'t cut through it completely yet!

"Change...of...venue."

Then he slammed the long "tail" he\'d grown into the deck. "Ghk...!"

The burned, fragile planks fell away, and Chameleon dropped down to the deck below, dragging me with him.

"Dam...mit!"

Our midair battle lasted just a few seconds.

I was still holding the remains of that hardened "tongue," and I shoved it into Chameleon\'s mouth.

"Ghuh, gah!"

The tongue that had been strangling my abdomen loosened very slightly. Battered as I was, I managed to get Chameleon pinned under me somehow and let him hit the floor.

"Ow, ow, ow. Dammit, I was so close..." Where was this? What had we fallen into?

The black smoke that billowed in through the hole in the ceiling made it hard to see, and I couldn\'t make out anything clearly. I\'d heard Ms. Fuubi and Charlie calling me as we fell, but I couldn\'t hear them now.

"First off, I need to regroup..."

I had no weapon, and I didn\'t know where I was. I couldn\'t fight properly here.

Dragging my leg, I put some distance between myself and Chameleon, who was just as beat up as I was.

"...Wait, this looks a whole lot like I\'m running away."

As I mocked myself in my dimming mind, I tried to figure out why I was still trying to survive after all this.

"...Natsunagi, huh?"

"I won\'t die. Whatever happens, I won\'t die and leave you behind."

Once again, I remembered what she\'d said.

That\'s right. Since Natsunagi made that promise...I couldn\'t die and leave her behind, either.

After all, we hadn\'t even said good-bye.

When I finally reached the wall, I took another look around. "Ha-ha, nice. Well done."

I\'d been here just the day before. This place was magnificent and debauched, a seething mass of human desires, a paradise of dreams, or hell— a casino.

A truly fitting location for a final showdown.

" , —you, —kill you."

Chameleon had regained consciousness. He got to his feet, leaning forward.

My enemy was also torn up, but my hands were empty. I didn\'t even have a weapon.

How was I going to fight?

...Not that I actually had any options.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!" Chameleon roared, and the way he looked made me wonder if he even knew who he was anymore.

Come on, bring it.

I stepped forward with my left foot, pulling my right fist back.

My weapon was my body. From this point on, it was mano a mano. "Wooooooooooooooooooooooooorgh!" Chameleon bellowed, and his

long, bloodied tongue flew straight at me. "Rrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" I tensed my lower body and rotated

my hips.

Then, using my right arm, I wound up as far as I could, and— "—Are you stupid, Kimi?"

I heard a voice.

At least, I thought I had.

But, I mean...there wasn\'t anybody around to cut into this fight, was there? "Hand-to-hand combat with a monster? That\'s not just reckless. It\'s

insane."

The next thing I heard was a gunshot—and then Chameleon\'s scream. I saw a pool of blood. His long tongue had been sliced cleanly in two. "There, now that tongue will never be able to attack me again."

I\'d heard something like that before.

Then the owner of the voice leaped in through the hole in the ceiling and landed right in front of me.

I recognized her back. There was no way I could have mistaken it for anyone else\'s. Between this and that and the other, we\'d barely been apart recently.

Why was she here, though? She\'d gotten away on that boat a minute ago with Saikawa. Hadn\'t she?

It was a natural question, but a certain theory made it vanish like mist. I was about to test that theory, but before I could, she turned around.

Then she, Nagisa Natsunagi, said:

"It\'s been a long time, hasn\'t it?"

Ah. There it is.

I\'d know it anywhere. That hundred-million-watt smile was what I\'d wanted to see for so long.

"Yeah. Was that enough of a nap for you—Siesta?"