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Chapter 146: Chapter 2.4

Now that we were a bit older, the form of that ritual had changed slightly. Sometimes we had wine or cocktails after our meal instead of tea or coffee. Either way, it was an important part of our work communication, and so we\'d gone to a pub, but...

"Haaah. What did that thing in the crow mask want, anyway?" Nagisa sighed, setting down her mug of beer.

Two hours ago, the messenger from Another Eden had appeared on that small boat, then left just as abruptly. Since there was nothing we could do about it, our group had split up. Then, even though we hadn\'t resolved the incident, Nagisa, Siesta, and I had come to this bar in the hopes of venting some of our frustration. And Nagisa and I weren\'t the only ones drinking...

"Some people say melons are vegetables, but I think they\'re fruits, you know. A long time ago, a famous comedian said that if something goes well with mayonnaise, it\'s a vegetable, and if it doesn\'t, it\'s a fruit. So I tried putting mayonnaise on melon, and it was absolutely delish, so guess what? Melons are actually vegetables."

The white-haired detective was babbling incoherently over a glass of red wine. Her skin was flushed, and her eyes were glazed. As I\'d anticipated, she was a little more wound-up than usual.

This was how Siesta usually got when she drank, so I\'d banned her from having alcohol...but Nagisa and I had looked away for a second, Siesta had gotten some wine into her system, and now here we were.

"Heyyy, Assistant. Are you listening?" Siesta pouted, trying to pick a fight with me.

"Yeah, you were listing your favorite fruits. Hurry up and tell me your top three." Casually fielding the drunk detective, I sipped water. If I drank too much myself, I might do something stupid.

"...Somebody\'s not really into this conversation. What, drinking with me isn\'t fun for you?" Siesta glared at me. "You\'ve seemed bored this whole time. You\'re barely reacting to anything I say."

Yeesh. When Siesta had gotten drunk before, even brushing her off like that would have put a cheerful smile on her face. She must\'ve built up a tolerance. I hadn\'t thought I was being that openly critical of her behavior, but she\'d picked up on it anyway.

"About what happened on the cruise." Setting my glass down, I averted my eyes. "Why did you say that to the enemy, there at the end?"

"...Say what? I don\'t really remember."

If she was playing dumb, that meant she remembered it clearly.

Siesta had said she\'d march into Eden and fight to protect the world or her companions, even if it meant breaking a nonaggression pact. That remark of hers was the biggest reason for the frustration that was smoldering inside me.

"The Ritual of Sacred Return is tomorrow. Once that\'s over, you and Nagisa won\'t be Tuners anymore. You won\'t have to deal with Another Eden."

"We don\'t know whether they\'ll manage to complete that ritual. Until we settle the unknown crisis the crow-masked messenger and its friends are plotting, I\'ll keep fighting. Which part of that do you have a problem with, Kimi?"

Siesta drained her mineral water. The ice in her glass clinked. Her head must have cooled down, too.

"Why do you need to be the one who does that, Siesta?" "Because I\'m the Ace Detective."

"Technically, you\'re still a proxy." "I\'ll do it even if I\'m just a detective." "—! Why would you go that far...?"

Our exchange was brief. Neither of us was drunk anymore, but our heated emotions hadn\'t cooled.

"Because you two did this for me." Siesta turned her blue eyes on me, then promptly averted them again. "Long ago, you risked your lives to save me, so I\'ll do the same. This has nothing to do with jobs and missions. If anyone tries to hurt something that\'s precious to me, I\'ll fight with everything I have, and I\'ll protect both of you."

She snapped her mouth shut after that.

The pub\'s quiet background music and other customers\' conversations filled the silence between us. It had been a long time since I\'d argued with Siesta like this.

Nagisa was the one to break the silence completely. "Okay, that\'s enough." She clapped her hands once, sharply, softening the tension. "And while I\'m at it, hiyah!"

There was a dull thunk as her fists connected with my head and Siesta\'s. "Ow! Hey, Nagisa...!"

"...That was mean. What was that for?"

Siesta and I turned accusatory looks on her, but she didn\'t back down. Instead, she heaved a big sigh. "I\'ll double-kill you both. Well? Did that calm you down a bit?"

...If that was what she\'d been trying to do, the clap at the beginning probably would\'ve been enough. Sheesh.

"Sorry. I guess I had a little too much to drink. Blame it on the alcohol, okay?" I apologized to Nagisa.

"I\'m sorry, too, Nagisa. Blame it on our assistant this time."

She was so damn mean. I glared at Siesta from under half-closed eyelids, and she snubbed me.

Nagisa sighed again. "Haaah. Geez." And then... "But I guess that\'s where it\'s at for both of you," she murmured quietly, gazing at the ceiling. "C\'mon, Siesta. Let\'s head back to the hotel. Can you stand?" Nagisa helped Siesta up, and they turned to go.

"So you\'re just leaving me here?"

"If you\'re together, you two will just fight again, right? A little distance is a good thing sometimes. Besides," Nagisa added, "you have another job to do, right, Kimihiko?"

...Yeah, I did. It was a job Siesta had asked me to handle. In preparation, I relocated to a seat at the bar by myself. "Okay, Nagisa. Take care of Siesta."

Siesta had her back to me. I could tell she\'d heard me, but she left with Nagisa without giving me another look.

"Even I\'ve never seen Daydream like that before."

How long had he been there, watching us? The old man was sitting three seats away, drinking whiskey, wearing the same suit he\'d worn earlier.

Bruno Belmondo. The person I was waiting for.

"I arrived a little early. Your lively dinner was a nice show to go with my drink." Bruno smiled. I\'d stayed behind because I needed to talk with him a little more. I never thought he\'d been watching us the entire time, though.

"Sorry you had to see that weird infighting."

"No, no. It was novel to see her display that sort of emotion. Still, I imagine she did it because it was an earnest exchange with someone who required honesty. I don\'t think it was wrong."

Bruno set his glass down on the bar. At some point, all the other customers had left the pub. The only sound was pleasant jazz playing softly in the background.

"Now then, could you tell me why you called me here? You said this talk would be confidential." Bruno drained his whiskey, then looked over at me, a few seats away.

"Yeah. Bruno, why are you so set on fighting this unknown crisis?" This was the same thing Siesta and I had just argued about.

It might have seemed strange for me to ask him about that now. However, as the assistant, getting the answer out of him was my job.

"Why would you bring that up now? Isn\'t it a bit late for that?"

"I thought it might be a hard question to answer if Noel was around."

Because they were family. There are some things that are hard to say to someone precisely because you trust them. That\'s how it works for me, anyway.

"Because I am a Tuner. Because it\'s a hero\'s natural duty. Isn\'t that answer enough?"

"I\'m not asking about your profile."

During a job just the other day, I\'d learned you can\'t assume you know somebody just because you\'re familiar with their social status, job title, and career.

"—Long ago, I traveled."

Bruno seemed to have given in. Still facing forward, he began telling his story. "As a young reporter, I left on a rambling journey to learn about the world. In the midst of my travels, I was drawn to a certain country\'s culture and ended up spending many years there."

What I was hearing was the past of an extremely learned information broker who\'d lived more than a century. I listened carefully.

According to Bruno, while the country was small, it had plentiful energy resources and was quite wealthy.

"Its abundance was bait for invaders, however. Before long, the neighboring military states pressed the country to sign a series of unfair treaties. The country\'s king accepted all the terms they set. He believed he had no choice if he wanted to protect his people."

Bruno had been against that policy, but at the time, he\'d been a mere traveling journalist. He didn\'t have the power to make a country do anything.

"Contrary to my expectations, the country\'s peace was preserved. It wasn\'t as wealthy as it had once been, but at the very least, its people weren\'t ravaged by war. The king\'s wise decision had protected the country. I felt ashamed," Bruno murmured.

He said it had been a mistake for him to weigh the country\'s wealth against its citizens\' lives. That king was beloved by his people, and he\'d lived out his life happily until his death from old age.

"What country are we talking about?" I asked. His story had ended happily, and I was curious about what had happened after.

"It doesn\'t have a name," Bruno said simply. "In today\'s world, it no longer exists. Fifteen years after that king passed away, the country\'s economy collapsed. It was carved up by the alliance and vanished off the map."

Considering Bruno\'s age, this had happened about a hundred years ago. There probably wasn\'t anyone else on the planet who could give a firsthand account of what had happened. It was a true story only Bruno could tell.

"The great king died in ignorance. He passed away beloved by his people, unaware of his crime."

Bruno\'s eyes narrowed, as if he was faintly remembering a distant day. I didn\'t know what to say.

"The moral of this story isn\'t that we must take up our weapons and fight; only that we must search for a way to protect the world, and that our efforts must be constant."

I couldn\'t find the words I needed to say. Even so, I could tell that Bruno\'s philosophy wasn\'t wrong.

"If the world is approaching another turning point, we must act with purpose. At the coming Ritual of Sacred Return, we must demonstrate our determination to protect the world, even if the unknown crisis is an attempt to get in our way."

This was Bruno Belmondo\'s resolution: a great will which had nothing to do with his title or profile, formed by the history he\'d lived through.

"Therefore, boy, I would like you to pay more attention to Noel than to me. Protect the young person who has a future rather than an old life that\'s nearing its end, won\'t you?"

I wasn\'t a detective, but I was human, and that meant I had to grant Bruno\'s request. Except...

"What if I save both of you? Won\'t that work?"

I knew it was an arrogant suggestion, but I made it anyway. That was what my partners would have said if they were here, I think.

"You\'re right. The Ritual of Sacred Return should take place. The detectives and I will guarantee that it does, so would you let us handle things tomorrow and spend the day somewhere safe instead?" I took a certain object out of my bag. "This is the origin text, and I swear to take it to the ceremony."

"...I see. Did the young Oracle entrust it to you?"

Mia Whitlock, the Oracle who saw all futures, had handed me the reins of tomorrow\'s fate.

"The Oracle has already lost her power, though. There is no one in the world who can truly predict the future." Bruno shook his head, refusing to change his answer. "Can you bring about the tomorrow you wish for in the midst of such uncertainty?"

"But instead of the future, you know everything about the world, right?" I pointed out.

Silence fell for a moment... But only a moment.

"Yes, that\'s true. I know. I know everything. However, I merely know it. I can\'t necessarily deduce the right answer. I may even give a wrong one."

That was Bruno\'s calm analysis of his own position and abilities. He said that simply knowing, simply having all the data, didn\'t guarantee that people could come up with the right answer on their own.

In my case—I\'d always had someone who could show me whether I was right in those moments. If I went way back in time, the man who\'d called himself my teacher had been that person. Then it had been Siesta. After she was gone, Nagisa had come along. Now I had lots of friends who would help me search for answers.

But Bruno was supposed to be all-knowing. What if he got an answer wrong?

If that day came, what then?

"If I give a wrong answer someday, no doubt someone will appear to correct it. That is how the world is kept in tune." Bruno drained the last of his whiskey.

"You really think someone who can correct the world\'s wisdom will come along?"

"Yes. What do you suppose a person like that would be called?" I didn\'t have a clever answer for that question.

With a merry laugh, Bruno got to his feet. "Ha-ha. There\'s no way I\'d know.

After all, such a person would be beyond me."

Then, walking with the aid of his cane, Bruno left by himself. Liquor made us human again.

Both the detective and the sage, the maiden and the old man. Everyone, equally.

When everyone was gone, I stood up to leave, too. Just then, my phone, which was resting on the bar, lit up. It was a notification from my messaging app. I had a text from Nagisa.

"When you get back, want to talk for a bit?"

Just as I picked up my phone to respond, a call came in from a withheld number.

"Coincidences never happen alone, huh?"

Should I respond to Nagisa\'s text or take the call? I hesitated, and then I—

Even if justice dies

When I got out of the car that had come for me, I found myself at a temple, or maybe the site of a ruin.

Bright moonlight streamed into the roofless building, and vines coiled around the structure here and there. Parts of the walls and pillars had crumbled, but I could still tell that this place had once been majestic.

The rain that had been falling since the evening had stopped at some point.

In addition to the moonlight, minimal lighting had been installed on the ground, providing visibility even at night. As a result, I saw the person who\'d summoned me here quite clearly.

"It\'s been a long time, Stephen."

The man was wearing his familiar white lab coat, and he was standing with his back to me. His hands were busy with something. "I\'m sorry to ask this of you after calling you here, but wait just a few minutes," he said. The screen of the small monitor in front of him showed a pulsing red organ—a throbbing heart. Then a hand holding a scalpel appeared on the screen, but that hand wasn\'t human. It was a robotic arm.

"Remote surgery?"

The technology had become practical several years ago. At this point, it was possible for surgeons to perform operations from a different location by using a robot proxy.

However, I\'d heard that only a handful of doctors could conduct remote operations that required high-level skill and precision, such as heart surgery and live-donor liver transplants. They would have to be virtuoso doctors like Stephen Bluefield, the former Inventor.

"They told me you were missing."

I\'d never dreamed I\'d meet him here, of all places.

"As long as people live, there will always be work for doctors. Even now, people are screaming for help to save fading lives in the hidden corners of the world," Stephen said, without looking back.

Surgery performed by moonlight. On the screen, the robotic arm followed the movements of his fingertips perfectly.

"In many areas of the world, there are still land mines that were buried in wartime. Remote surgery is also useful in regions that aren\'t easily accessed."

Maybe there were no more global crises, but it wasn\'t as if war had disappeared entirely, and the aftermath of past disasters hadn\'t been completely cleared away.

Even now that Stephen was no longer the Inventor, he was still working as a doctor. It was similar to the way Siesta had continued working as a private eye, even though she wasn\'t the Ace Detective anymore.

"Thank you for waiting."

Then Stephen powered down the monitor and turned to face me.

The whole process struck me as remarkably fast, but apparently he\'d just

performed the steps only he was capable of, and doctors who were physically on-site were taking care of the rest. This was more efficient and let him help the maximum number of patients. He\'d told me about his philosophy as a doctor before.

"Thanks to you, both Nagisa and Siesta are doing great. Once again, I\'m grateful."

It had been about a year since I\'d last spoken with Stephen.

The former Inventor had saved the lives of both detectives multiple times, and a year ago, he\'d had a hand in the event that had awakened Siesta.

"No, I haven\'t done a thing," Stephen said, gazing up at the night sky. He wasn\'t trying to be modest.

"So, Stephen. Is what you told me true?"

At the bar where I\'d talked with Bruno, I\'d gotten a phone call. When I\'d followed the instructions I was given and climbed into the car he\'d sent for me, I\'d ended up here.

"If there really is a way to prevent the unknown crisis, then tell me about it."

I hadn\'t believed him right away. I\'d decided to accept his invitation because if I didn\'t hear him out, there\'d be things I wouldn\'t know.

"It\'s true. We\'ve been searching for a method the entire time."

We? Was there somebody else here? As I looked around, the room was flooded with bright light from the floor. Those shafts of light illuminated an enormous object that towered behind Stephen.

"A gun turret?"

The thing was like a monument, so tall I had to tilt my head back to see it. Now that I was paying attention, I saw that it was covered in vines. The iron cylinder towering into the sky really did look like a cannon.

"This is an ancient relic. It isn\'t used anymore," Stephen told me. His eyes were on the object, too. "Where do you suppose the muzzle is pointing?"

In the next moment, I realized there were two silhouettes near the weapon. No, not just near it: One of them was actually sitting cross-legged on top of the enormous gun.

"That\'s..."

The man was wearing a biker jacket and a robotic-looking mask that covered his whole head. His face, which was turned toward us, was blinking with a weird green light. I knew that guy. I\'d first seen him ten years ago—in a certain movie

that had been shown all across the US and become an instant blockbuster.

Full-Face, a former Tuner. His position was Hero.

In the Full-Face action movie series, a man who wore a motorcycle helmet developed superhuman powers one day and fought an evil organization. Surprisingly, the starring actor was a hero in the real world as well. Just like in the movie, he used actual superhuman powers, and he\'d defeated all sorts of dangerous enemies with his own hands.

The other individual, who was standing near Stephen, was a tall, veiled woman in a dress with slits up the sides. Even though I couldn\'t see her face, I could feel her aura as if it were an electrical current.

She was the former Tuner Youkaki. Her position had been Revolutionary.

She was so stunning that her beauty alone was said to be a weapon that could bring down nations. She\'d inherited her position after the death of Fritz Stewart, the previous Revolutionary. How many countries had been destroyed as a result of her covert maneuvering? Although her peerless beauty was renowned, her face was always veiled, and regular people never got the chance to see it.

"Stephen, are you telling me the three of you have been searching for a way to prevent the unknown crisis?" I asked. It was hard to believe. Both Full-Face and Youkaki preferred to work alone, and it was rare for them to show themselves like this. Besides...

"If you\'ve gotten this many former Tuners together, Bruno must have contacted you as well. Didn\'t he ask you to prevent the unknown crisis with him?"

"Yes, but I turned him down," Stephen said bluntly. "The Information Broker has his eyes on the same goal as us, but he\'s far too unwilling to compromise. If it\'s for the sake of justice, he\'s prepared to return his body to the dust this very moment. And I think that\'s dangerous." He turned to me. "Kimihiko Kimizuka. I believe we feel the same way, correct?"

I wanted to deny it.

He\'d seen right through me, though.

After hearing about Bruno\'s past at the bar, I had seen the uncompromising justice he envisioned, and I believed his philosophy wasn\'t wrong. However, I hadn\'t wanted it to be the right answer. Bruno\'s concept of justice was so flawless it scared me.

After all, I\'d had a partner like him. Someone who hadn\'t hesitated to lay down her own life.

"We sensed the danger in that consummate justice, and so we began to search

for a way to bring about a new peace through a different approach. The key is to find a point of compromise. We\'ll strike a balance between justice and evil, order and chaos."

That mindset was just what I\'d have expected from the pragmatic Stephen. As a doctor, he ultimately wanted to save the greatest number of lives, which meant he wouldn\'t touch patients if there was no hope of saving them.

"What is this method? What do we have to do to end this without hurting anyone?" As I asked Stephen the question, I realized deep down that I\'d been looking for such a method this whole time myself.

It was like how Noel had prayed for Bruno\'s safety even as she tried to prevent the unknown crisis. I\'d known this event would occur, but I hadn\'t really wanted Siesta and Nagisa to go back to being Ace Detectives.

Ever since the end of the Great Cataclysm, I\'d had just one wish—for both detectives to have peaceful, happy lives. That was all.

"The only way to protect the world is this."

As Stephen spoke, a new shadow crept up to him.

"—We have only one request."

It was the thing in the crow mask, the one we\'d encountered on the cruise. It gazed at me with those hollow eyes, its red robe flapping in the wind.

"We struck an independent deal with the messenger from Another Eden. Of course, the Federation Government is not involved."

"...A deal? What do they want?"

Another Eden had originally been trying to nail down some sort of treaty with the Federation Government. So they\'d approached Stephen\'s group with a deal that would take the place of that one?

"The origin text hidden in your jacket. All we have to do is give them that, and this will be over." Stephen pointed at me, his keen eyes watching me from behind his glasses.

Had he known I possessed it when he called me here? "Why the origin text, though? What do they want it for?"

"The origin text is supposed to have a special ability that will activate when it\'s given to the person who should rightfully possess it. Another Eden fears that the power will be used against them."

"The origin text wasn\'t what they asked the Federation Government for, though. Why the sudden change of heart?"

Even on the cruise ship today, the thing in the crow mask had asked for the world\'s secret. That couldn\'t actually be the text.

"That was the compromise we reached after discussing the matter. They\'ve promised that as long as they have the origin text, they\'ll do no harm to the world."

This was hard to believe.

These were all just verbal promises. There was no guarantee they\'d keep them.

Besides...

"If we give them the origin text now, the Ritual of Sacred Return won\'t happen tomorrow. And then I won\'t get what I\'m after."

If the ceremony wasn\'t held, the promise Noel had made me about letting Siesta and Nagisa leave the Tuners would fall through.

All I wanted was for the detectives\' peace to be guaranteed after we headed off the unknown crisis.

"No—the Ritual of Sacred Return will proceed as planned. Use this." Stephen took a book from his bag.

"A second origin text...?"

No. This looked very similar, but it had to be a fake. "Will it fool Mia? Even if you made it?"

"We won\'t need to fool the Oracle herself. We simply need to trick everyone else, and only temporarily. Think about it," Stephen told me. "Mia Whitlock intentionally gave that to you. It means she won\'t interfere with the choice you make."

"...You mean even if she realizes this is a fake, she\'ll accept it?" "Yes. She must know that\'s her final job as the Oracle."

While hearing him out, I searched for a solid reason to reject Stephen\'s proposal.

If I gave them this book, what would happen? I visualized the potential threats and risks. Were those risks enough of a reason to refuse their request? —Think. I thought and thought, and finally, something I\'d seen long ago crossed my mind.

"—I want to drink tea with you again, Kimi."

It was something the detective had said once. It had been her way of saying I want to live.

"Come to think of it, I haven\'t had any tea for a while."

Out of nowhere, I remembered that Siesta had looked a little lonely today.

Once we\'d cleared up this incident, the three of us should go have a leisurely afternoon tea somewhere.

I heard a footstep. The thing in the crow mask had walked up to me. "You want this that badly?"

My hand tightened on the origin text. No matter how I thought about it, I couldn\'t find a decent reason to turn down Stephen\'s proposal.

"People may call this a makeshift justice, but..."

Even so, if this made it possible to protect both the world and those two, then...

"We have a deal."

The turning point of fate left my hands.

In the moonlit temple, I\'d chosen a future.