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Chapter 77: Chapter 4.1

"Ngh, I feel sick...," Natsunagi muttered, clapping a hand over her mouth. However, she definitely (probably) wasn\'t running me down. She was seasick.

Out on the rolling waves, Natsunagi clung desperately to the gunwale of a small boat, already groggy.

I rubbed her back for her. "Are you okay? Do you need to throw up? I\'ll pretend I didn\'t see it, so don\'t worry about that."

"Throwing up here might ruin my appeal as a heroine, so I\'ll hold it..." "You\'re hilarious."

I\'d been on a boat with Natsunagi before, but it had been a big cruise ship, so she\'d been fine that time.

"I can see the island already. It\'ll be over soon."

That\'s right: We were currently bound for the island SPES had used as its secret hideout, way back then. We were headed there just to learn more about our enemy Seed. A year ago, that completely unforeseen encounter with him had kept us from investigating properly. This time, we might find something useful.

On that thought, we\'d decided to leave England and make for this island, and so here we were. A certain someone had been kind enough to bring us all the way out here.

"We should arrive in another fifteen minutes. Detective and Assistant, get ready, please." Olivia, the Oracle\'s servant, emerged from the pilothouse. She hadn\'t just arranged a flight from London for us; she\'d piloted the boat all this way.

"I had no idea you could sail."

"Yes. If I apply myself, I can fly a fighter jet as well."

At that level, I get the feeling she should switch careers from cabin attendant to pilot.

"Still, I really can\'t thank you enough for doing this for us," Natsunagi said,

even though her face was still pale.

"It\'s all right. Serving my mistress has accustomed me to fielding self- indulgent requests." Smiling quietly, Olivia started back to the pilothouse. However, she soon came to a halt, and she spoke to us without turning around.

"Besides, I believe you two will create the future Madam Mia hopes for."

A little while after that, we said a temporary good-bye to Olivia and stepped onto the island.

I hadn\'t seen this in a year: a small, remote, desolate island that seemed completely uninhabited. But we headed inland in search of the research facility we knew was there.

"Walking is tough..." Last year, I\'d made this trip on the back of a motorcycle Charlie had ridden like a pro. "What do you say, Natsunagi? Don\'t you think it\'s about time you got your driver\'s license?"

"Uh, don\'t rely on me for that. It\'s really more your job, Kimizuka." Natsunagi eyed me with disdain, now that her seasickness had worn off. "Hmm... A guy who\'s not interested in cars... I see no future here..."

"Why are you thinking about a future with me, Natsunagi?" Personally, I\'d like to spend my future in the passenger seat of a capable woman\'s car. Since I am the assistant and all.

"Actually, it\'s pretty late to bring this up, but," Natsunagi went on, changing the subject beside me, "do you think there\'s any new information about SPES left on this island? I mean, it just seems as if Charlie or somebody like that would already have checked."

She had a point... Really, I didn\'t even have to ask Charlie to know she\'d probably made a trip out here. In fact, while I\'d spent the past year doing nothing, she\'d been hunting for Siesta\'s legacy and gearing up to subjugate SPES.

"Charlie\'s not suited to brainwork, though."

"If she were here right now, she would end you for that."

...Well, those were the roles Charlie and I had always played.

"Besides, I thought there might be something only we could pick up on."

I\'d lost Siesta on this island a year ago. I had history here. Meanwhile, Natsunagi had spent her childhood at the SPES testing facility. Considering we both had missing memories, we might pick up on some new fact.

"I...see." Natsunagi put a fingertip to her chin, thinking. "In that case, before we go to the research facility, there\'s somewhere I\'d like to stop first."

She named a certain spot she hadn\'t visited in a long time.

The first trio

"Is this the place you told us about earlier?"

"Yes. It hasn\'t changed in six years... Although the ceiling feels a little lower, I think," Natsunagi said, exploring the room.

We were in the little cardboard secret base she\'d known so well six years ago. "This is where the three of us put together our battle plan for defeating the

pseudohumans," she said, picking up one of the stuffed animals that sat by the window.

The "three" she meant had been Natsunagi, Siesta, and Alicia. She\'d said so herself, during the conversation she\'d had in the mirror with Hel the other day. The rebellion against SPES had begun here, with those three.

"Ali had always been suspicious about this facility, and she checked into various things on her own." Natsunagi took a thick file folder off a shelf. The forms inside it were filled with what looked like personal information for the children who\'d been raised at this facility. As Natsunagi flipped through them, I glimpsed a photo of a young girl with beautiful blond hair. Had a little kid like her been put through Seed\'s vessel experiments, too?

"Six years ago, though, Ali—Alicia—died. Then Siesta died last year. I\'m the only one left." Natsunagi bit her lip.

She had a past she\'d forgotten, a mission she hadn\'t been able to carry out. I\'d steeled myself the same way she had, but I couldn\'t easily guess the pressure resting on Nagisa Natsunagi\'s small shoulders.

"I\'m sorry for taking up time like this."

Natsunagi put the folder back on the shelf, then gave her cheeks a sharp smack, pulling herself together. Renewing her resolution was probably part of the reason she\'d wanted to come here, to a place filled with memories of Alicia and Siesta.

"No problem." I opened the closest cardboard box.

I\'d vaguely guessed I might find a clue in there, but all I found were a few of the small guns Alicia had made.

"Come to think of it, Alicia made the basic model for Siesta\'s musket, didn\'t she?"

"Yes, Ali really could make anything. It was like magic." Natsunagi smiled, remembering.

She\'d been such a noble, courageous girl that just hearing about her made me wish I could have met her myself.

"Oh, there\'s a bomb here. Want to take it along?"

"...Did your friend have proper certification for handling dangerous substances?"