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Chapter 67: Chapter 1.4

With practiced movements, Olivia offered us cups. The seats Natsunagi and I were sitting in were as soft and fluffy as sofas.

"So this is first class..." I was used to traveling economy, and just from the cushiness of these seats, the difference between that and this was blindingly obvious.

"Those seats were unoccupied to begin with, so do make yourselves comfortable." Smiling, Olivia stood in the aisle between us. There really didn't seem to be any passengers besides Natsunagi and me in first class.

"Are you sure it's okay for us to use them, though?" Looking apologetic, Natsunagi poured an expensive-looking drink into a chilled glass on the side table, then gulped it down. So much for her reservations about upgrading to first class. At least drink the herbal tea she just gave you.

"Yes, I asked permission. Besides, this may not be the sort of thing we can talk about in front of the passengers." Olivia gave us a wry smile. "Well? Is it true that you know where Miss Whitlock is?" Her eyes narrowed.

After Natsunagi and I had realized the truth of the matter, we'd summoned Olivia, and she'd designated these seats as the venue for our talk.

"Of course. That's what we came here to tell you... But can you take over from here, Natsunagi?"

"Mm-hmm, absolutely." Natsunagi drained a second glassful of her drink, and then:

"It was you who hid Mia Whitlock, wasn't it—Ms. Olivia?" That was one heck of an opener.

"I see." Olivia gave a little nod. "I'd really like to argue against that assertion,

but let's hear your theory first. I imagine that's the standard procedure." She prompted Natsunagi to go on, looking perfectly composed. "What made you imagine that I had imprisoned Miss Whitlock?"

"Because that was the only remaining possibility," Natsunagi said. It was something she'd already told me. "No matter where on the plane Kimizuka and I looked, we couldn't find her. In that case, it's logical to assume she was hidden in a location where amateurs like us would never find her, isn't it?"

"...Ah. So you think a professional had a hand in this."

"Right. I'm confident that Mia Whitlock is being kept somewhere that isn't accessible to us. Like the cockpit, for example... Or maybe an in-flight meal cart." Natsunagi's eyes darted to the silver service wagon beside Olivia.

The cart was generally used to serve drinks and meals, but one slim woman could probably fit inside it. Of course, there was no guarantee that that was where she was, but Olivia was a member of the cabin crew. With her cooperation, that "single exit" from the locked room definitely existed on this plane.

"Right now, Mia Whitlock is in your custody, Olivia. Isn't that right?" Natsunagi confronted the guilty party with the evidence of her crime.

As a matter of fact, this fit another of Knox's Ten Commandments: "The culprit must be mentioned in the early part of the story." And all this began when Olivia asked whether there was a detective on the plane.

"...Hmm. That's an interesting theory." Olivia slowly closed her eyes, nodding quietly. "But what motive could I have for attempting such a thing? Why would I take Miss Mia Whitlock captive? She's one of our passengers."

She had a point. When solving mysteries, a deduction wasn't enough. As she said, we couldn't establish our theory if we couldn't present a criminal motive.

"Why did you imprison Mia Whitlock, an important passenger? That's simple." I supplemented Natsunagi's deduction, as an assistant should.

"Um, it's fine if I say that bit, too."

"Natsunagi, let me show my stuff once in a while."

Now that I'd (decided that I'd) gotten Natsunagi's permission, I filled Olivia in.

"Because Mia Whitlock is the Oracle, one of the twelve Tuners who protect the world."

Olivia's eyes narrowed. "'Oracle'? What are you talking about?" "It's too late to play dumb. We know you're on this team."

I thought back to my first conversation with Olivia today. She'd teased me about traveling with a different detective this time...and she'd also said she'd decided to count on us after seeing Natsunagi's name on the passenger list. Olivia knowing me wasn't strange, but it was weird for her to know Natsunagi. Not only that, but she'd immediately assumed that Natsunagi was a detective. In other words, Olivia knew too much about us.

"But what makes you certain that Miss Mia Whitlock is this 'Oracle'?" "The fact that you set up this pain-in-the-butt riddle for us in the first place."

Olivia knew about us, and yet she'd pretended not to and brought us this problem. She clearly had a reason for this, and her goal was probably to keep us from meeting the Oracle and achieving ours.

I remembered the remark Ms. Fuubi had made before we left Japan, about how nobody ever got to meet the Oracle. With that in mind, it wasn't too much of a leap to link the vanished passenger with the Tuner.

"You have some sort of mission, and you couldn't let us meet Mia Whitlock.

Meaning you hid her somewhere on this plane."

It had to be a coincidence my knack for getting dragged into trouble had created for us. Since Natsunagi and I had missed our plane, we'd ended up on the same flight as the Oracle. However, the Oracle never met anyone else. There was a possibility that we'd recognize her, so she'd avoided us and hidden somewhere on this plane—with the help of Olivia, a cabin attendant.

"I see, yes, that does sound plausible. However..." Olivia wasn't done fighting our deduction. "You must have realized that your theory includes one major inconsistency."

...Oh, she'd caught that, huh? And that particular inconsistency could wreck the basic premise of our deduction. "If you don't want us to meet the Oracle, why did you ask us to solve this mystery? That's what you mean, right?"

"Yes, exactly. If, as the detective claims, I am the one who caused this incident...I don't believe it would be logical for me to ask you to solve it."

Of course, as cabin attendant, it hadn't been that strange for Olivia to explain the problem to us. However, if she was the culprit, we had a contradiction on our hands. It set up a bizarre situation, in which the criminal had actively asked the detective to solve the case.

—That said, the detective already had a theory that resolved that contradiction, and I let her be the one to tell it.

"Because of your mission, you were doing your best to keep us from meeting the Oracle," said Natsunagi, as if Olivia's true intentions were an open book to

her.

"Somewhere in your heart, you wanted to bring us into contact with the Oracle. Either that, or you posed this riddle to test us, hoping that we would be worthy of meeting her."

That was why she had asked the detective to solve this case. It was like Bat's hijacking: More than anyone else, the culprit herself had hoped the incident would be resolved.

"...Brilliant work." Finally, with a faint smile, Olivia acknowledged our theory. "Correct. It was I who spirited away Miss Mia Whitlock. You accurately deduced both my objective in causing this incident and the reason I asked you to solve it."

"...Then who are you?" Natsunagi asked Olivia the one question our earlier detective work hadn't been able to answer. "We understand that you didn't want to let us meet the Oracle. But why are you helping her?"

It was clear that Olivia had been the one behind this...but she was a flight attendant. Why had she done it?

In response, the woman said, "I belong to a family that has served the Oracle for generations. In a way, I am her servant." She confessed her identity gracefully. "The Oracle does not actively meet anyone, even other Tuners. Thus, when someone requests an audience with her, I screen them beforehand."

...Thought so. Olivia had asked us to solve a puzzle she'd set up herself in order to judge whether Natsunagi and I were worthy of an audience with her mistress.

The one who'd written the scenario for this mystery was Olivia herself, and she'd cast the two of us as readers who were supposed to solve it. That was why, just this once, applying Knox's Ten Commandments had worked. If she was this levelheaded and rational, then her panic over seeing Bat had probably been an act.

"So this was a test to see whether we could meet the Oracle."

"Yes. Or maybe I simply hoped it would be." Borrowing the word Natsunagi had used, Olivia quietly closed her eyes.

She must have meant she'd hoped we'd be worthy of meeting the Oracle. Her mistress was supposedly impossible to meet, and yet she'd wanted us to beat the odds.

"Is there a future you'd like to change?" Natsunagi asked her.

It sounded as if she'd realized something.

She was asking if Olivia was attempting to betray her mistress, a girl who was said to know every possible future. Just like a certain white-haired maid who was willing to betray her mistress, as long as it was for that mistress's sake.

"—Well, I'm afraid we've chatted a little too long. I need to return to my duties." Slowly opening her eyes again, Olivia turned to leave without answering Natsunagi's question. "Please keep those seats. We're still a long way from our destination."

"Hold it. That's a very kind offer, but more importantly—does this mean we don't get to meet the Oracle after all?" I'd just assumed we'd meet her now, since we'd passed the test.

Olivia chuckled. "Personally, I would like you to, but...whether you'll meet the Oracle or not, only God knows."

Putting her face very close to mine, Olivia smiled a bewitching and very grown-up smile.

Announcing the end of the romcom

Ten-odd hours later, our plane had landed without further trouble, and we'd arrived at the London hotel where we'd be staying that night. We checked in, then took our luggage to our room.

"And? Why are we at a hotel?" Far from celebrating our safe arrival, Natsunagi gave me a dissatisfied look. "Weren't we going to your love nest with Siesta, Kimizuka?"

Like I keep telling people, it wasn't a love nest. Still, as Natsunagi said, we had originally planned to head for that apartment when we got to London. We would have saved on hotel costs that way. Problem was...

"There wouldn't be much point without the key." I pulled out the linings of my empty pockets.

"Haaah. Things like that don't normally get stolen, do they?" "I'm not normal; that's probably why it happened."

This is the curse I was born with. My knack for getting dragged into stuff.

When we'd first left the airport, we'd set off for Siesta's apartment. Partway there, though, I'd realized my wallet was missing. That all-important master key had been in it. After tripping at the starting line, we'd decided to temporarily base ourselves out of this hotel.

"Still, whoever got it was pretty good. I've been running into pickpockets for

ages, so it takes more than average skills to steal anything off me."

"You sure are used to some unpleasant stuff... Well, what are we going to do now?"

"We did file a police report, but I doubt they'll find it anytime soon." "Then what do we do? Break down the door with a drill?"

"Don't just try to destroy our love nest!" "Geez, even you're saying it now." C'mon, I was kidding.

"We've got one other goal besides searching for Siesta's legacy: meeting the Oracle. Why don't we work on that one for now?"

Of course, if it looked as though we wouldn't find the master key, as Natsunagi said, we'd probably have to force our way into the house and break the lock on that drawer. My one worry was that Siesta might have rigged a bomb to go off if we didn't unlock everything properly...

"The Oracle, huh? She thinks she's got us thoroughly licked, doesn't she?" Natsunagi grumbled. Then, with a frustrated "Argh!" she dived onto the bed.

"You're telling me where you'd want to be licked by the person you like?" "It wasn't a fetish thing!"

It wasn't, huh?

On the bed, Natsunagi lay on her stomach and kicked her legs petulantly, venting her bad mood. I kept catching glimpses of her panties, but pointing this out would cause more trouble than it was worth, so I just kept quiet and ogled.

"...Maybe on the neck."

"Look, I have no idea how to react if you actually answer that question." Not only had the attack been extremely vivid, but delayed. She got me good. "—You're the one who asked, Kimizuka."

Natsunagi got up, sitting on the bed with her legs splayed out in a V, and pouted at me. "That wasn't it. What I was trying to say is that the Oracle mocked us, and I'm not okay with it."

Yeah. First we'd had to play along with that riddle, and then we hadn't been allowed to meet her anyway. Apparently Natsunagi hadn't liked that at all... But.

"Well, Ms. Fuubi's a fellow Tuner, and even she hasn't met her. It would have been weird if we'd connected with her that easily."

Actually, you could say that connecting with her at all had been a good start.

...Although that hadn't been a coincidence so much as the work of her servant Olivia. "For now, we'll just have to take it one step at a time. We'll get to the

Oracle on our own next time, and we'll have her find a future where Siesta comes back to life."

There was no telling whether that future existed, of course. My wish was too much to hope for, but I still said it firmly. Just as I'd sworn on that rising sun.

"So help me out, Ace Detective. Keep helping me get Siesta back."

"...I guess I'll have to." Natsunagi seemed to have settled down a bit. She gave a faint smile.

"If you'll settle for a proxy detective, I'll take the job."

She seemed to be echoing the promise I'd made to her in that classroom after school. Back then, I'd said I'd help her find her heart's former owner as an assistant, not a detective. Right now, I was sure what Natsunagi wanted most wasn't to become the Ace Detective, but to reclaim Siesta.

"For now, want to come up with a way to see the Oracle?"

"Sounds like a plan. Oh, but first, I want to take a shower... Step outside for a bit." Natsunagi tried to shoo me out of the room.

"Except this is my room, too."

"Y-your room? Huh? Why?! You didn't get us separate rooms?!"

"All the other hotels were booked up. Even here, this was the only available room. Tough it out, all right?"

"—If it's not at least a room with twin beds, I can't!" "It's fine; that sort of thing doesn't really bother me." "It! Bothers! Me!"

For some reason—most likely anger—Natsunagi's face turned bright red, and she somehow started bouncing on the little double bed, even though her legs were still splayed out to the sides.

"We were living under the same roof until just the other day." "That was completely different! And it's just the two of us now!"

"Don't worry, I won't get up to anything like what you're thinking."

"! Wh-why are you so completely determined not to let anything like that happen with me?!"

"Would you decide whether you want something to happen or not?" "I'm annoyed that you don't even see me as a girl!"

Apparently the hearts of eighteen-year-old girls were complicated. Natsunagi flopped over onto the comforter, where I was going to be sleeping later. I wished she wouldn't muss the covers up like that.

"...What is this? Do you really and truly hate me or something, Kimizuka?"

"Why are you asking questions that are going to get me decapitated if I answer them the tiniest bit wrong?"

Had Natsunagi's self-esteem always been this low? With a bemused smile, I opened the closet door so I could hang up my jacket. Then I spotted the book.

"Oh... Is this why I can't do it?" Natsunagi was murmuring. "I always get emotional right away. Siesta didn't. The difference in affection means..."

She seemed to be conducting some sort of mournful review session. I think that's healthy.

This was probably my chance to restore her morale, though.

I was sure whatever future awaited us, we wouldn't see it coming.

"Natsunagi, recognize this?" Taking the book out of the closet, I held it out to her.

"Huh? That's..." Natsunagi's eyes went wide.

She'd shared some memories with Hel, and she knew what this was, too. We'd fought over it in London last year.

"Yeah, there's no mistake. It's the sacred text."