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Chapter 144: Chapter 2.2

"Nobody would ever think to look for it here. That\'s the whole point," Charlie responded. She was cleaning up the worktable. "The enemy would never expect to find a hideout under a theme park, you know?"

"\'Enemy\'? Who exactly are you fighting?"

"Well, that\'s a good question. I don\'t get as many opportunities to use this place these days."

The way she phrased that made it sound as if she\'d used lots of camouflaged hideouts in her work as an agent, way back when. Now she was using this one to do maintenance on Siesta\'s gun, which Siesta hadn\'t used for a while.

"Wasn\'t this sort of thing usually Stephen\'s job, though?"

Stephen Bluefield, the Inventor, was the one who\'d originally made Siesta\'s

musket. I\'d assumed maintaining it would be his job as well.

"I hear he\'s gone missing. He was a doctor to begin with, though; he might just be focusing on medical work somewhere."

...Ah. In that case, maybe Bruno hadn\'t managed to get in contact with him, either.

"So Ma\'am is going to be the Ace Detective again," Charlie murmured, her hands falling still. Since Siesta had asked Charlie to work on her gun, she must have explained why it was necessary... Actually, even if Siesta hadn\'t said anything, the agent would know about a situation like that.

"Just as a temporary proxy, but yeah." That was what Noel had promised, at least. "Are you attending the Ritual of Sacred Return, too, Charlie?"

Naturally, the agent\'s name had been on the guest list. I\'d assumed Charlie would make up her mind without any input from me, but since we\'d run into each other, it wouldn\'t hurt to discuss it.

"A long time ago..." Instead of answering my question, Charlie began to tell an old story. "As an agent, I was given an assignment to protect a girl in a disputed area. Her parents were both high-ranking military officers. They were likely targets for the enemy, so they wanted me to keep their daughter safe."

Charlie had never talked much about her work. She probably had a duty to keep things confidential, of course, but she also seemed to be holding back for her own reasons.

"For three weeks after that, that girl and I lived in a war zone by ourselves, evading attacks."

If Charlie felt the need to tell me about this, it was probably going somewhere.

I listened quietly.

"We huddled together in a simple dugout, listening to the sound of artillery fire. Our food ran low, so we shared water and crackers with each other and desperately talked about our dreams. We kept our eyes fixed on the future, and we survived."

"That was your \'normal,\' wasn\'t it, Charlie?" I wasn\'t sympathizing with her

—sympathy would have meant irresponsibly denying the way she\'d chosen to live. It was the last thing I should do.

"What do you think the hardest part of our escape was?"

I tried to visualize her situation. The incessant gunfire, the hunger, the sanitation issues, the mortal danger... No, Charlie would have prioritized her young charge\'s life over her own.

"The hardest part was that the day after we started living that way, I was

informed that the girl\'s parents had died in combat. For the next three weeks, I kept that fact hidden from her."

That answer would only make sense to those who\'d stood on a real battlefield. Charlie had lied because the girl needed hope if she was going to survive. She couldn\'t take that away.

"Finally, there was a cease-fire. I evacuated the girl to the embassy, and once we were there, I told her the truth. —She cried and called me a liar."

Charlie had kept her voice cool up until this point, but I could see the uncertainty growing in her emerald eyes.

You weren\'t wrong. But I knew that sort of superficial comfort was useless. I couldn\'t sympathize, much less share her feelings. All I could do was listen.

"Sorry for rambling on like this." Charlie seemed to be feeling chilly now; she shrugged into her jacket. "It\'s just that, sometimes, the fact that those kinds of situations were routine to me scares me. I\'m weak, aren\'t I?" she murmured.

"All people are," I told her, and she forced a smile.

If she\'d gone out of her way to tell me this, she probably wasn\'t sure yet. She didn\'t know whether she had the courage to live through any more days like that. If she attended the Ritual of Sacred Return, would it force her to deal with disasters again?

"But you all are going anyway, right?"

"Yeah. Both detectives say we are, so that\'s that."

"If you said you didn\'t want to, I bet they\'d stay home for you." "Why would I say that?" I laughed the suggestion off.

Charlie gave me a long, pointed look. "You\'re worried about them, aren\'t you?"

I didn\'t answer. I was watching Siesta and Nagisa on the monitors. They were laughing as they rode the merry-go-round in that dark, deserted amusement park.

"I can tell. I know what you\'re thinking." That made me turn around.

"When you really loathe somebody, you know exactly what makes them tick." Charlie gave me her biggest, brightest smile.

Geez. Had there ever been a more irritating grin?

"Lying to somebody you can\'t stand is pretty pointless, isn\'t it?"

In other words, since there was no love lost between us anyway, Charlie was saying I should tell her what I really thought.

"Yeah, I\'m worried," I murmured, gazing at the monitors again. "They really seem to be enjoying themselves, and...frankly, the thought that they might end

up in danger again scares me so much I can\'t sleep. Really, it makes me wish they were there, sleeping next to me."

"Okay, that\'s creepy."

"Don\'t just cut me down like that." I cleared my throat, then tried again. "But I am uneasy. If we don\'t attend the Ritual of Sacred Return, though, they\'ll always be shackled to the Tuners. —The story won\'t be able to come to an end."

That meant we didn\'t have a choice. Not everyone gets the right to choose. We had to keep moving forward, believing that the path we walked would lead us to the credits we were hoping for.

"I see. That\'s all I\'ve got to say, then," Charlie told me. "I guess I\'ll go play, too," she added, starting to leave the hideout.

"Just so you know, I didn\'t tell you what I really thought because I hate you or anything," I called after her. Nor had it been because she didn\'t matter. "I told you because we\'re comrades."

Charlie\'s eyes widened slightly. "I see." That was all she said as she turned away.

In the moment she turned, I caught a glimpse of her profile. I thought I saw a vaguely happy smile there, but it had to have been my imagination. Right?

A night sky at ten thousand meters

When I opened my eyes, I was up on a roof at night.

No... It wasn\'t like I was waking up. It was more as if I\'d been distracted and had just now noticed where I was.

The roof didn\'t belong to a building, a hotel, or any place on my university campus. It was the roof of my high school, and once I figured that out, I knew this was a dream.

I had no reason to sneak into the old school building. Either my high school days were still hanging around in the back of my mind and had made a random appearance in my dreams, or else...

"It\'s been a long time, my dear partner."

Suddenly, I sensed someone beside me. She was sitting, hugging her knees the way I was, but the gesture seemed strange coming from someone wearing a military uniform. I knew this girl\'s name.

"Hel."

Her red eyes smiled at me in a familiar, bewitching way. "Did you call me here?"

Hel, who\'d been Nagisa Natsunagi\'s alternate personality, had also been a SPES executive. At the end of our final battle with Seed, she\'d vanished. Did this mean she was still watching over us somewhere?

"You\'re having a very convenient dream," Hel said, without answering my question. Her eyes left me, facing forward.

A convenient dream. So this was just a regular dream of talking with Hel on the roof at night, courtesy of my subconscious?

"Come to think of it, I was playing the King Game with Saikawa and the others a minute ago. I\'d just become the king, and I was about to have Saikawa wear a maid outfit and call me \'Master.\' Hurry up and send me back to reality."

"Never say anything that dumb in your sleep again. You know, it\'s been a week since you hung out with Yui Saikawa or Charlotte, and even if you did play the King Game, it\'s your fate to be humiliated your entire life."

Reality was way too unfair to me. Well, if that was how it was going to be, I\'d soak in this dream Hel was showing me a while longer. "So how\'ve you been, Hel? ...I guess that\'s a weird thing to ask, huh?"

"A bit. I\'ve never had a physical body. I can\'t truly live or die. Maybe that\'s why I can still talk with you like this, Kimi." Hel stood up. "You seem to be doing extremely well and having a lot of fun, though."

"Do I?"

"Yes. You\'re with your two beloved detectives."

Describing them as "beloved" was uncalled for, but I couldn\'t deny that my days were pretty enjoyable. Noches had picked up on that as well.

"You can be proud of that. It\'s happiness you brought about, something you won. Just a few years ago, you were up on this roof lamenting the unfairness of the world."

"You mean the time I spent here with Nagisa?"

"That\'s right. The night when my master remembered her origins. It caused her great pain."

Yeah, the stars had been pretty then, too. Right after Nagisa had remembered who she really was and the crimes she\'d committed, I\'d sat here with her as she sobbed, out in the night wind.

I\'d sworn to carry half the unfairness she bore, almost two years ago. But the Nagisa who\'d cried back then didn\'t exist anymore.

"—Really?" A sudden gust of wind blew, making Hel\'s military uniform flutter wildly. "My master wasn\'t the only one. Are there really no crying girls anywhere in the world anymore?"

Hel\'s red eyes gazed at me, her word-soul ability forcing me to think.

A little under two decades of memories began to flow through my mind, as if my life were flashing before my eyes.

I had a nasty knack for attracting trouble. I\'d seen enough heartrending tragedies to fill more than a couple of books, but the disasters had ceased a year ago. People\'s lives were peaceful and ordinary again. They must be. And so—

"Since we\'ve met like this, I want you to promise me something," Hel said, without waiting for my answer.

"\'Don\'t make Nagisa cry,\' right?"

I\'d made that promise to Hel before, and she\'d said that if I broke it, she\'d kill me enough for two—or, more concisely, double-kill me.

"Yes. You\'re an adult now, though, so I think I\'ll ask you to grow up even more and take it further." Hel had been gazing at the distant stars, but now she turned back, wearing a peaceful smile. "Don\'t make either of them cry—Nagisa Natsunagi, or the friend she holds dear."

The friend Nagisa held dear? Who could that be? Several faces came to mind.

I tried to respond, but then... "—Kimihiko. Hey, Kimihiko."

Somebody called my name, and I awoke with a start. "You were having a bad dream. Are you okay?"

A girl with red eyes and black hair was watching me worriedly. Her long hair hung down near my face, and I absently caught a few strands of it between my fingertips. "Your hair\'s grown."

"As compared to when? Are you still asleep?" She really did look just like that other girl, though.

Instead of answering, I asked, "What time is it?" I\'d slept a little too long; I rolled my shoulders and neck to loosen them up.

"And hey, people, don\'t play cards with me in the middle," I scolded. The detectives were sitting on either side of me, and their playing cards were scattered across my tray table.

We were ten thousand meters up, in a passenger plane bound for France. I glanced at my watch; about two hours had passed since takeoff.

"It\'s a trip, and you\'re sleeping right through it, Kimihiko. That\'s weirder."

"I agree. Assistant, the true pleasure of a trip starts while you\'re in transit.

You\'re not appreciating that."

For some reason, both Nagisa and Siesta got mad at me instead. You\'re kidding. I\'m the bad guy here?

"You two haven\'t changed. You\'re as laid-back as ever, in a good way."

Even if we were headed into danger, they were determined not to let the fun that was right in front of them go to waste. It had been like that both when I was traveling with Siesta, and when it was just Nagisa and me. They enjoyed every moment with everything they had.

"Of course, if it comes down to it, I\'ll switch gears immediately. Especially considering what we\'re dealing with this time," Siesta reassured me.

We were on our way to attend the Ritual of Sacred Return, which was scheduled for tomorrow. However, according to Noel and her people, the unknown crisis would be waiting for us there, too.

Last week, Charlie had been particularly uneasy. She\'d said that if I really tried to talk them out of it, Siesta and Nagisa would probably rethink their participation. I\'d ended up ignoring her advice, though, and now here we were, on the plane. And there was one major reason for that.

"Now that we know Bruno\'s in danger, we can\'t just let the situation play out," Nagisa murmured.

A few days ago, an anonymous letter had arrived at the Shirogane Detective Agency.

It had said, The world\'s wisdom is about to perish.

We didn\'t know whether it was a warning from the messenger from Another Eden, or from someone else entirely. But either way...

"Something\'s going to happen to Bruno at this ceremony, but we\'ll head it off.

After all, we\'re detectives," Siesta said.

Over the past week, we\'d done as much as we could. We\'d imagined all sorts of situations and taken preventative measures. Even without a specific client, detectives were always there for the people.

"The detectives and their assistant really haven\'t changed," a voice said from above us, suddenly.

A woman had been standing in the aisle, listening in. Now she smiled, filling a paper cup with coffee.

"We have a hundred and twenty percent chance of running into you on planes, huh, Olivia?" I joked, accepting my wake-up drink.

Siesta and Nagisa greeted her with "It\'s been a long time."

Olivia wasn\'t just a cabin attendant. She was the servant of the Oracle, one of the Tuners who protected the world, and we\'d met several times before.

"How\'s Mia doing? Actually, is she coming to the ceremony?"

The Oracle was a former shut-in, and I hadn\'t seen her lately. That said, Siesta gamed with her online quite a lot, and I\'d heard Mia over their voice chat every so often.

"Yes, my mistress is looking forward to seeing the three of you. Just the other day, she was busy picking out a new dress so she could wear it when you met."

"She did what?! Can she get any cuter?" Nagisa was smiling.

Mia would be nineteen this year. I couldn\'t wait to see her all grown up.

"Is she there already?" Siesta asked. I\'d heard that Mia was still living in that clock tower in London, but...

"Madam Mia is currently carrying out her duties alone, in a certain country in northern Europe."

"She went alone...?" I asked, in spite of myself. Knowing just how reluctant Mia had been to venture into the outside world, this change surprised me. And besides... "What duties? She doesn\'t have that ability anymore, does she?"

"That\'s right. At present, Madam Mia no longer prophesies global crises. However, she still worries about the world. She takes frequent journeys so that she can see what\'s happening with her own eyes. Just as you once did," Olivia said, gazing at us kindly. "In addition, something that will require us to act may happen soon."

...Oh, so Olivia and Mia knew the unknown crisis might occur at the ceremony, too? That was why Mia was still doing everything she could, even without her power.

"If Mia\'s traveling, does that mean you\'re here for your regular job today?" "Yes, I\'m performing my duties as cabin attendant as well, but..." Taking an

attaché case from the service cart, Olivia showed us its contents. "Here. The origin text."

The impossible appearance of this rare item made me freeze up. This was what Noel had told us about: the volume scheduled to make its first appearance at the Ritual of Sacred Return. The most important one. Why was it here?

"The Oracle instructed me to give this to you, Mr. Kimizuka, no matter what rules were broken in the process."

"...To me? I don\'t get it. Does she want me to deliver it or something? That can\'t be right."

If Mia was going to attend the ceremony herself, she should have brought it with her, or at least had her servant Olivia handle it. Plus, Mia was the only one who was allowed to read the sacred texts at all. That had to be even more true of

the origin text.

"Even so, the Oracle has entrusted this to you. As for what she meant by it..." Olivia handed the origin text to me.

"I believe that may be up to you, as \' .\'"

A vibration ran through the plane, drowning out the noise around us.

Had we hit some major turbulence? For a moment, I felt as if I\'d passed out.

The next thing I knew, I was gripping the origin text tightly. "...! Olivia, are you okay?" I asked. My mouth had gone dry.

"...? Yes. Never mind me, you\'re the one who\'s..." Olivia was gazing at me curiously.

"Seriously, Kimihiko, what\'s the matter? You\'re sweating like crazy." Nagisa was also watching me, looking puzzled.

I wiped my forehead. How was I sweating this much after such a brief moment? "...Yeah, I\'m fine. Never mind that, what time is it?"

"Huh? Didn\'t you just ask me that?"

I looked at the watch on my left wrist. It had only been a little over two hours since takeoff. The coffee sitting on the tray table was still hot.

"Assistant?"

When I tried to look out the window, I made eye contact with the other detective. Siesta was staring at me; she seemed mystified and just a little uneasy. "I\'m fine," I said again.

"That\'s what people say when they aren\'t fine."

"The way the plane shook back there scared me, that\'s all. I\'ll calm down if you hold my hand or something."

"Are you stupid, Kimi?" "Man, that\'s not fair."

It seemed like it had been a while since we\'d had one of these exchanges. Maybe it was because there were fewer opportunities to feel the world was unfair these days—so maybe it wasn\'t such a bad thing. Actually, wasn\'t it better not to have people calling me stupid? I was getting all mixed up.

"Sorry. I really am fine now."

That dumb little mental tangent had helped me to relax a bit.

While I was reassuring Siesta, I stowed the origin text in my carry-on bag. After another ten-plus hours of flight time, we reached our destination.

Then we waited to pick up our checked suitcases...but for some reason, mine never showed up.

By the time I\'d finally recovered my luggage, bemoaning my talent for inconvenient incidents, Nagisa and Siesta were already gone. They\'d given up on me and headed for our hotel pretty fast.

"Why are they both so mean? At least one of them should be nice."

As I was walking through the airport, grumbling to myself, I spotted a tall man talking to a young girl. He was speaking French, and I couldn\'t catch a lot of it, but he kept pointing to the camera he was holding. Was he telling the girl he wanted a photo?

"Well, I get why he\'d want her to model for him."

The gray-haired girl had a cool, expressionless face, and she was wearing a particularly eye-catching Gothic Lolita dress. She was my friend... Well, maybe I wouldn\'t go that far, but anyway, she was definitely Noel de Lupwise.

Had she come to the airport to meet us? I decided to lend her a hand and headed over toward them. I thought about going full TV drama and saying, "What do you want with my girl?" but I wasn\'t sure I really wanted to do that.

Come to think of it, I remembered Noel mentioning something about how she wished I\'d been part of her family. In that case...

"Oh!" Noel had spotted me.

Stepping in front of her, I faced the man with the camera and said, in clumsy French...

"What do you want with my little sister?"