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Chapter 59: Chapter 3.3

"I thought you had a little more sense than that, Charlotte. I guess you\'re no different from that brat over there."

"...!" Charlie gave Fuubi a sharp glare, then promptly returned her gaze to SIESTA. "Ma\'am..."

Dark blood was flowing steadily from the wound in the left side of SIESTA\'s chest. Charlie ripped some fabric from her own clothes and tried to use it to stanch the flow.

"...Really, Charlotte, are you stupid?" Weakly, SIESTA took Charlie\'s hand. "I\'m not your \'Ma\'am.\' " She smiled faintly. Somewhere along the way, her tone had reverted to the one SIESTA used.

"Never mind this. The person you two should be dealing with is over there." With a trembling hand, SIESTA pointed at the one standing beyond us.

"But if it keeps..."

"It\'s fine. Emergency shutdown measures will be enough to deal with this." SIESTA smiled again. I didn\'t know whether she was lying or not, but for now we\'d just have to believe her.

"—We\'ll be right back."

Exchanging small nods, Charlie and I gently carried SIESTA over to the guardrail. Then we turned to face our greatest enemy.

"Ha! Look at you two. You were just pretending you didn\'t get along, and now you\'re trying to team up?" Fuubi sneered. She stuck a cigarette between her lips and lit it, shielding it from the wind with one hand.

"You\'re really sure about this, Charlie?" I checked in with Charlie, without taking my eyes off Fuubi. "You\'ve got a lot to lose if you go against her."

Due to her job, Charlie had made enemies of all sorts of people and organizations. Fuubi was the Tuner who\'d picked her up after Siesta; without her support, Charlie\'s current position would be majorly threatened. There

might even be more attempts on her life.

Most of all, she was voluntarily taking a stand against the mission she\'d always believed in. Even if I was the one who\'d talked her into it, I had to make sure this wouldn\'t be too much.

"It\'s pretty late for that." Charlie spoke firmly; she didn\'t look at me either. "Forget me, what about you? Are you prepared for this?"

"Of course. If running for it would work, I\'d love to."

"...You call that \'prepared\'? Are you sure you\'re speaking proper Japanese? Intelligence was the only thing you had going for you, right?" Charlie put a hand to her chin.

Don\'t worry about it. The fear\'s just scrambled my brain a little, that\'s all.

"Hey, Charlie, I just had a great idea about the fight we\'re headed into." "That\'s our resident brain, all right. What strategy did you come up with?" "If we survive this, let\'s get married."

"Huh? Ew, no."

"No, no, that was a reverse death flag." "I\'m not so sure about that concept."

"Before you head into a life-or-death crisis, you make a wish you\'d never want to come true. Then you end up living and get what you asked for. It\'s an exploit."

"Our resident brain is an idiot." Next to me, Charlie clutched at her head. Sorry. At this point, no brain could be much use.

"But..." Charlie raised her head and looked at me. "Apparently we\'ve matured enough to attempt to compromise and work together, at least." She smiled, and I was sure she was remembering our first disastrous attempt at teamwork.

"Are you done with your strategy meeting?" Fuubi exhaled a big puff of smoke.

She\'d waited for us... Nah, probably not. She\'d just wanted to have that cigarette. And now our time was up.

"We\'ll catch her between us! Charlie, you go in from the right!" "Okay!"

Charlie and I split up, aiming our guns at our target from two angles. Fuubi was grinding her cigarette butt under her toe. Sorry, but we can\'t afford to wait for you to be ready.

I leveled my gun, turning it on Charlie, who was right in front of me—

"...Why am I seeing Charlie?"

Charlie was looking back at me, eyes round. Fuubi had been between us. Where had she gone? "So you didn\'t have a plan, huh?"

Right after we heard that voice— "...!"

First, I couldn\'t breathe.

Then I heard the sound of something sinking into bone.

The pain came a few seconds later, after I\'d rolled several meters over the ground.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah...!"

The shock and pain made me scream pathetically.

I didn\'t even know what she\'d done to me. Had she punched me? Kneed me? Something might already be broken. The pain was so bad I almost passed out.

"One down."

Promptly losing interest, Fuubi turned her back on me. "...!"

Charlie pointed her gun at the other woman, warily putting a little more distance between them. While she was doing that, I managed to drag myself out of the way to the road\'s shoulder.

"What next? You\'re on your own now." Charlie\'s gun didn\'t seem to concern Fuubi. "Are you going to keep up this pointless resistance and delay the resolution of the problem?"

"..." Charlie listened to her, face stern, gun still leveled.

"Listen, Charlotte. I\'m going to ask you one more time: What is your job? Weren\'t you going to take up the ace detective\'s last wish? Don\'t you care what happens to the world?"

"...I do care. I just can\'t believe doing things this way would make Ma\'am happy."

"Ha! Are you crazy? It doesn\'t matter whether it makes her happy," Fuubi scoffed. "Can you save the world with ideals? No. All we have to do is kill Yui Saikawa, and there you go. World saved."

"I\'m sure Ma\'am wouldn\'t want to save the world by sacrificing somebody."

"Oh really? If sacrificing herself would do the trick, I\'m pretty sure she\'d

do it in a heartbeat."

"What do you mean...?" Charlie\'s eyebrows drew together, as if she didn\'t know where Fuubi was going with this.

"Don\'t you get it? Here, let\'s review. Originally, Seed considered people who had a seed and could make full use of its power candidate vessels."

"Ma\'am and Hel..."

"Right. But the ace detective\'s clever scheme shut that plan down. She lost her ability to be a vessel by throwing her own life away."

Fuubi\'s theory went like this: A year ago, Siesta had chosen to die. She\'d said she\'d done it to protect Natsunagi and make her wish come true...but there was another reason she\'d kept hidden. In her final job as ace detective, Siesta had put together a plan to defeat Seed.

"Then you mean Ma\'am had picked up on Seed\'s true objective, and so she..."

Siesta probably hadn\'t told Charlie everything either. When she heard the deeper truth behind Siesta\'s self-sacrifice, her gaze wavered uncertainly.

"That\'s right. In order to protect the world, the ace detective sacrificed herself without a second thought. And remember what she said? You four are her final legacy. Know what that means? —She\'s telling you, You take up my last wish and die for the world\'s sake, too."

"...!" That interpretation of Siesta\'s final words made Charlie\'s eyes go wide.

"Charlotte, you\'re brilliant. Don\'t let that lousy excuse for an assistant fool you. You need to understand the real meaning of the ace detective\'s last words and carry out her will."

"I..."

"Frankly, Nagisa Natsunagi isn\'t gonna cut it. She\'s too weak. That means there\'s nobody but you, Charlotte. You take up her legacy and become the ace detective, a Tuner." Fuubi\'s expression suddenly softened. "It\'s fine. If you\'re nervous, I\'ll train you again. You just carry out your mission. Kill Saikawa, defeat Seed. If you do that, you\'ll be the ace detective in both name and deed. Lucky you." Fuubi stroked Charlie\'s hair. "That was always your dream, right? Now it\'ll come true."

"The ace detective? Me...?"

"That\'s right. So let\'s go do that last job." With that, Fuubi turned her back and went over to the motorcycle SIESTA and I had ridden here. She was

planning to use it to go after Saikawa and the others.

—But.

"What are you trying to pull, Charlotte?" Fuubi spoke without turning around.

She could probably tell without looking, just from the aura of hostility: Charlotte had her sword leveled at her back.

"Don\'t you want to be the ace detective?"

"...No. That was never my ambition." Charlie closed her eyes. Maybe she was reminding herself—or maybe she was finally facing her true feelings.

Thinking of the girl who\'d been her teacher for five years, she squeezed the blue pendant that hung around her neck and shouted.

"Siesta was a beautiful, strong woman! She was what I wanted to be!"

Tightening her grip on her saber, Charlie slashed at Fuubi\'s back. "Boring." Fuubi still hadn\'t turned around, but she dodged the attack

lightly, without glancing at it. "...!"

"You\'re selling me short. Did you really think you could beat me one-on- one?" Before she\'d even finished the sentence, Fuubi drew her gun from her back and pointed it at Charlie\'s forehead. "Playtime\'s over."

Charlie\'s sword didn\'t quite reach her, and she was forced to her knees. Fuubi wouldn\'t hesitate to pull the trigger now. It also didn\'t look as if

Charlie had any chance of turning the tables on her own. We\'d been completely checkmated.

"You\'re right. On my own, I can\'t beat you." Charlie openly acknowledged her own defeat...or so it seemed. "But we haven\'t lost yet."

She looked up at Fuubi with blazing eyes, and in the next moment— "Shift right nine millimeters and down seven— Now, Nagisa!"

With a noise that reverberated in my stomach, a shot was fired from high altitude.

"—!"

The bullet streaked out of the dark sky, knocking the gun from Fuubi\'s hand. And the person who\'d fired it—

"That\'s one of Siesta\'s Seven Tools, all right. It\'s not shaky at all."

A familiar musket was protruding from the open window of the cockpit of a small fighter jet.

"...Well, look at that. You actually came back on your own."

Fuubi glared up at the fighter jet in the dark sky. "I guess that means you\'re ready for this—Yui Saikawa and Nagisa Natsunagi."

That was the final answer

"Yui, Nagisa..."

Charlie looked up at the fighter jet flying near the lighthouse. It was a two- seater; Saikawa was in the pilot\'s seat, and Natsunagi sat behind her.

"I heard you\'d gone to the airport. So you went to get that?" As Fuubi gazed up at the sky, she looked thoroughly unamused. She rolled her neck, cracking it. "First you pilot a small boat, and now it\'s a fighter jet. Compulsory education covers a heck of a lot these days."

"Any well-rounded young lady should be at least this capable... Or so I\'d like to tell you, but it\'s almost entirely on autopilot. A certain someone with very good ears is piloting it remotely, relying on my eye."

Saikawa responded lightly to Fuubi\'s sarcasm. Apparently that quasi- pseudohuman was keeping an eye on our fight from some distant location.

"Ha! Are you two planning to side with this girl? She tried to kill you both, remember?" Fuubi snorted at Saikawa and Natsunagi.

"...!" Charlie bit her lip. She understood the weight of what she\'d tried to do better than anyone.

But Saikawa said... "Yes, I\'ll save her. After all, she\'s my friend."

Someone had tried to kill her, and she was still calling them a friend. She went on, speaking directly to a very stunned Charlie. "Then after that, we\'ll have the fight to end all fights. You don\'t mind, do you, Charlie?" Saikawa grinned down at her.

"For your information, you won\'t just be fighting Yui," Natsunagi said from the rear seat. Her expression was prim.

Oh, right. Earlier, Charlie had hit Natsunagi with a devastating attack, too. Natsunagi\'s voice was dripping with sarcasm. "Got that? When we fight,

we\'ll double-kill you: once for me, and once for Yui."

Down on the ground, Charlie heard her out. "...Bring it anytime." Her eyes were just a little damp, but she was smiling.

"Relax. That future\'s never going to come."

A cold voice. The Assassin sprinted through the dark, bent on destroying the future Charlotte wanted.

"...!" Tightening her grip on her saber, Charlie faced down her incoming enemy.

Fuubi\'s gun had been shot out of her hand, and she was using a short survival knife now. Naturally, Charlie\'s weapon had a better reach, but Fuubi\'s skill far exceeded hers. Fuubi\'s outlandish moves forced Charlie onto the defensive, and then—

"Too slow."

—exploiting a vulnerability, she snapped the iron sword with a spin-kick, then knocked Charlie backward.

"...!"

There was a dull thud, and Charlie rolled across the asphalt. Immediately, Fuubi leaped to close the distance.

"Nagisa, do it!"

Just then, an airborne sniper targeted Fuubi. Saikawa used her eye to issue accurate directions; with her help, Natsunagi aimed the musket without

hesitation and fired. "Sorry, but I can\'t afford warning shots." She kept firing at Fuubi; they\'d brought the plane down a little to make it easier for her.

"You\'re in the way," Fuubi muttered, evading the bullets that struck the ground at her feet. And then...

"Huh?" Looking up, Natsunagi saw—a red-haired assassin leaping into the night sky. She\'d caught the plane with a grappling hook and was holding on to a rope that hung from it. Fuubi jumped onto the cockpit, and then—

"...!"

She flipped her knife in a reverse grip and took aim at the startled Saikawa. "No you don\'t!"

From behind Saikawa, Natsunagi fired at Fuubi. The bullet pierced her right shoulder, and the woman staggered back. —However ...

"Pain? You\'ll need a little more than that to keep me from fulfilling my mission." Fuubi\'s expression didn\'t change even as she fell from the plane, and she threw her knife into one of the engines on top of the main wings. There was a terrible grunch and a scorched smell. Black smoke billowed up, the plane listed to the left, and then they lost control.

"...! Nagisa, hold on to something!" Saikawa gripped the control stick desperately, but the jet kept losing altitude until it scraped across the asphalt in an emergency landing. The ground jolted upward as if an earthquake had hit, knocking me off my feet.

"...Yui..." "Na...gisa..."

Natsunagi and Saikawa had gotten banged up pretty badly in the landing. They were obviously in pain, but the plane was in danger of exploding, and they managed to crawl out.

"So you finally came down here." Fuubi started toward the two girls, her movements smooth and menacing. Dark blood was streaming from the Assassin\'s right shoulder, but she still launched herself powerfully off the ground.

"—I can\'t have you forgetting about me yet." A figure cut in between them. "I told you, remember? I\'m not alone. That\'s what lets me commit myself to my job."

"Charlotte, huh? But I\'ve already destroyed your weapon."

In the black smoke, Fuubi pivoted on her right leg and raised her left leg high. But then—

"I\'ll borrow your help too." The smoke cleared, and there was Charlie, holding SIESTA\'s rapier.

"...!" Fuubi couldn\'t stop. Her left leg swung toward the sword Charlie had thrust out, but—

"Kkha, hah..."

The agonized cry had been Charlie\'s. Fuubi had kicked her again, knocking her back several meters.

"Charlie!" Saikawa dragged herself toward the other girl. "Are...are you all...right?"

"...Ghk. Yes... But one of my legs is out of commission now."

Charlie had gotten the wind knocked out of her, but even so, she managed a smile. "This is how I... How we

do things. Even if we can\'t win on our own, if we all combine our strength..."

"You\'re still playing friends? This is so pointless." Fuubi sneered.

"It\'s not...pointless...!" Natsunagi spread her arms. She stood as if to shield Saikawa and Charlie, who was on her knees. "We are...the final hope Siesta left. None of us will lose, and we won\'t give up. We\'ll all...win together...!"

Fuubi spoke quietly, either to her, or maybe to Saikawa, or to Charlie. "What...are you people?"

Her red hair had come loose, streaming in the night wind.

"You talk about companions, bonds, friendship, feelings, love, ties, connections—a last wish. What good is any of that to the world?" Fuubi\'s voice grew rougher and angrier. "Yui Saikawa: Your death will save the world. Charlotte Arisaka Anderson: If you kill Yui Saikawa, you\'ll save the world. Nagisa Natsunagi: If you were as strong as the former ace detective, you would save the world. So why don\'t you do it? What, you can\'t? Oh, well, I understand everything now. So just—!" Like the blazing flames, Fuubi screamed, her face filled with rage. "If you can\'t do that! If you\'re helpless...! Then at least be ashamed of yourselves. Don\'t sabotage the people who are fighting to save it!"

That scream might have been the first time I\'d ever heard her say what she really felt.

"You\'re right." After a short silence, Natsunagi murmured, "I think what you\'re saying is probably correct. You\'re more right than I am, anyway. I\'m sure there are people who would call that justice."

"If you understand that, then—"

"But," Natsunagi interrupted Fuubi. "The detective was too right, and she died." Justice didn\'t necessarily win. "So I want to choose something I know might be wrong. Even if it isn\'t correct, even if justice doesn\'t win, even then

—I want to choose a future where the people who are precious to me are smiling next to me."

I don\'t want to let anyone else die.

Natsunagi flat-out rejected Fuubi, and maybe Siesta as well. "Then we\'ll never see eye-to-eye."

I was sure Fuubi\'s fury hadn\'t cooled—but she seemed to have given up on changing her mind. "That makes this easy. The last one standing wins."

It was the simplest conclusion, and the most brutal one.

...But that was the only method left.

Actually, I don\'t think talking was ever an option here. "Evil, meet your doom."

The Assassin ran like the wind. Soundlessly, so fast you couldn\'t even see her, she went to ensure justice was done.

"Nagisa!"

"Nagisa—!"

Natsunagi was still standing in the way, arms spread wide. Behind her, Charlie and Saikawa screamed.

"It\'s all right. Even if I can\'t see her, she\'s definitely watching me. She can hear my voice, too. Meaning—that ability will work."

Then Nagisa Natsunagi\'s red eyes glowed.

"Fuubi Kase, you can\'t take a single step from that spot." Fuubi stopped dead.

"...!"

She stood petrified, her eyes wide with astonishment.

Just one more step—her knife had frozen just before it plunged into Natsunagi\'s chest.

Natsunagi\'s red eyes were using the mind control. When she talked to Hel, then accepted her, she\'d become able to use that ability.

"...! This isn\'t...enough to—!"

However, the Assassin wouldn\'t stop until she\'d destroyed her target.

"Don\'t think you can stop me with an ability you just picked up!" Slowly, bit by bit, breaking down the mind control through sheer force of will, the knife descended toward Natsunagi. "Don\'t think nobodies like you three can stop me by yourse..."

Fuubi\'s eyes were wild with rage—but suddenly, her face went blank. "Wait a second... \'You three\'? The robot\'s out of the picture, but how long

have I been fighting just the three of you?"

Realizing she\'d missed something, she spoke to her targets without really thinking it through.

"Hey, where is he? Where has Kimihiko Kimizuka been for the past few minutes?"

It definitely wasn\'t arrogance. It was an accurate self-assessment.

Earlier, she\'d disabled the powerless, lousy excuse for an assistant with one attack. She had me outclassed in every way. Even if I\'d eventually recovered, as long as she could see me, she\'d be able to deal with me. On that note, Fuubi had focused exclusively on Charlotte, and on the newcomers, Natsunagi and Saikawa. Her decision hadn\'t been a mistake.

Except for one thing.

If she\'d made just one miscalculation, it was that...

"Kimihiko Kimizuka—you swallowed Chameleon\'s seed, didn\'t you!"

...the risk in gaining a pseudohuman power hadn\'t scared me one bit.

"I don\'t give a damn about side effects. You can take my senses or some years off my life, as much as you want of whatever you like. I\'ll let you eat it all," I told the seed of the parasitic plant that had settled inside me. Meanwhile, I made myself invisible and raced up to Fuubi. Right now, all I wanted was to KO that disgusting police officer. She\'d twisted my beloved partner\'s justice, and as long as I could hit her for it, that was enough.

Are you sure it\'s enough?

I felt as if someone, somewhere, had whispered those words to me.

It\'s fine. It\'s not like I\'m causing trouble for anybody, I told the speaker, clenching my fist.

I mean, it\'s true, isn\'t it? "This is my story."

Then I punched the justice of this world in the face and sent it flying.