The Detective is Already Dead

Chapter 102: Chapter 2.6

The detective, beaten hollow

After the Federal Council, Siesta and I went to a trendy cafeteria near our hotel for a light dinner. We got ourselves some pasta and scones and other things, and then we planned for the fallout of that council.

"What's this about, Siesta?" I asked. She was twisting up neat forkfuls of pasta. "Are you seriously stepping down as Ace Detective?"

At the Federal Council about an hour ago, Siesta had declared that she was leaving the position of Ace Detective, and had nominated Natsunagi to replace her. However, the other Tuners (except for Mia) had seemed perfectly unruffled by her announcement.

"Oh, that? I just assumed you were going to ask about the Singularity." As primly as ever, Siesta dabbed at her lips with a napkin.

"If I said I wasn't curious, I'd be lying...but there's something else I need to prioritize now."

"I see. I thought you'd yell at me for not telling you about important things like that beforehand." From the way she was talking, Siesta had been aware that I was that sort of thing. At least for now, though, that information was

relatively unimportant to me. "Let's say I really do have some sort of effect on the world. That won't influence what I do."

I'd had this insanely troublesome knack for getting dragged into stuff my whole life. At this point, giving it a different definition wasn't going to change anything about how I thought or lived. There was just one thing I needed to do, one wish I want granted.

"...I see. Heh-heh. You really have grown, Kimi." Seeming to have convinced herself of something, Siesta resumed her meal.

"And? I'm asking why you suddenly said you were quitting as the Ace Detective."

She'd wrapped things up in a vague sort of way with a good story, but Siesta had a particular talent for glossing over the important details.

"My mission as Ace Detective was to annihilate SPES, nothing more. Now that I've done that, I don't think it's odd for me to resign from the position."

"...Didn't you tell me you were born to be a detective?" As I asked her that, I was studying the glass near my hand. I could see my own warped reflection in the water.

"That's right. And so, now that I've defeated my mortal enemy, I'll go back to being an ordinary detective. That's all." Watching me, Siesta smiled. "From now on, this is your story." Her manner was mild, but the way she spoke left me no room to argue.

"I see..." She was right, though. Even if Siesta stopped fighting the enemies of the world, she'd still be tackling the mysteries and evils that lurked in everyday life. She might have quit being the Ace Detective, but that didn't mean she'd completely vanish from my life—

"Assistant?" Immediately, I realized Siesta was peering at my face.

"...No, it's nothing." I'd decided to quit relying on the detectives for everything, and yet here I was, taking it for granted that Siesta would be with me. It surprised me, and I cleared my throat before I continued. "So you're appointing Natsunagi to take over?"

"Right. It's all thanks to Nagisa that I'm able to move like this, and that we managed to defeat Seed. I'm sure she'll be a better Ace Detective than me... No, Nagisa was better suited to it all along. She's beaten me hollow." Siesta leaned against her chair. It was as if she was admitting defeat to the Alicia version of Natsunagi we'd met in London a year ago. "Of course, that's assuming she still wants to be the Ace Detective. She may have lost the

power of that seed and gone back to being an ordinary girl." "...Yeah. We'll just have to ask her about that."

We exchanged nods, then went over our game plan. No matter how much Siesta wanted Natsunagi to take over as Ace Detective, it wasn't going to happen unless Natsunagi woke up.

"That's true. We don't have much time, but we'll wake Nagisa up for sure."

At the Federal Council, we had been told that Siesta's intention to resign would be officially communicated to the higher-ups on the condition that we summoned Nagisa Natsunagi to the council. In other words, unless Natsunagi woke up and agreed to inherit Siesta's will, Siesta would stay the Ace Detective.

"We didn't get to see Scarlet, though."

Siesta had planned to get a hint about how to wake Natsunagi up from the vampire, but unfortunately, he'd never showed.

"It might still have been too early. He should be fine indoors, but..."

The vampire only came out at night. Like Seed, he didn't get along with the sun. "Still, only seven Tuners attended."

The ones who hadn't come were the Vampire, the Inventor, the Phantom Thief (whom I still hadn't seen), and two more... Oh, one of those would have to be the Enforcer that Siesta had mentioned, huh?

"It's actually unusual for more than half to turn up. We were lucky we got to see the new Tuner, the Magical Girl," Siesta murmured, relieving her dry throat with a sip of tea. Saying this after the other girl had ripped her a new one—talk about imperturbable.

"She said she'd taken over for the Magician? Do positions really switch out that easily?" Although in this case, she might just have changed the name of the role.

"Oh, yes. It happens a lot. There have been more than twelve Tuner positions before, and they're tailored to their particular eras. I seem to recall that there were Exorcist and Master Swordsman positions once, long ago."

"So there's a lot of turnover."

"That's what happens when you fight the enemies of the world," Siesta said with a sad smile.

I'd only been talking about the fact that the positions changed, but Siesta had probably taken it another way. There were new Tuners on a regular basis

because they were killed in the line of duty.

"As a matter of fact, it sounds as if the Enforcer I knew also disappeared during the past year."

...I see. So it wasn't just that he'd skipped the council. Does that mean another person had already taken over the Enforcer role, or had the whole position been switched out for another one?

For those three years, while Siesta had fought the enemies of the world, she'd known what was going to happen to her someday. I'd been right next to her the whole time, and I'd never picked up on her resolution.

"More importantly, we need to think about Nagisa right now." As always, Siesta got the conversation back on topic as if she'd read my mind. "I mentioned it earlier, but I think her consciousness has fallen into a deep sleep." Putting a fingertip to her chin, she began considering Natsunagi's current condition. "She thinks she's fulfilled her role. Once she came to terms with that, she felt relieved and fell asleep. That's what I did, too," she said; she was speaking from experience.

Siesta had also left her mind to live on in Natsunagi's heart and gone to sleep.

"...Hm? Then how did you do it that one time?" "What one time?" Siesta tilted her head slightly.

"You know, on that luxury cruise ship. When I was fighting Chameleon after he lost control, you borrowed Natsunagi's body and came to help me, remember?"

At the very least, Siesta had awakened and came running to me then. "...Did that happen?"

"Look, there's no way you can play dumb about it."

But for some reason, Siesta averted her eyes, apparently puzzled.

"Oh, I see." Just then, a certain possibility occurred to me. After being her assistant for so many years, I'd picked up some deductive skills, too. "You mean since I was in deep trouble, you panicked and woke up because you couldn't bear to just stand by and do nothing."

"..."

"On an unconscious level, you were worried sick about me." ".............. "

Siesta was doing her best to hang on to her composure, but even so, her eyebrows twitched.

When I remembered the way she'd rushed to the scene in a mecha when I'd been kidnapped, that actually didn't strike me as out of character. In other words—

"Siesta, you like me that much, huh?"

A whole year later, I'd been given the opportunity to get her back. ".............. Are you stupid, Kimi?"

I was rewarded with the weakest put-down I'd ever heard from her. "...Haaah." Siesta heaved a long sigh. "Should you really be having

conversations like this with me, Kimi? If Nagisa heard you, I think she'd be very angry." She stared at me, looking rather disgusted.

Now that I'd reunited with my partner after a year apart, she seemed to be more expressive than before. It was probably because she'd spent that year in constant contact with a girl who always held strong emotions. On that thought, I told her, "Yeah, I bet she would be."

—That's why.

"That's why I want her to wake up and scold me already." That was my only wish right now.

"...Kimi, I suspect you like Nagisa far too much." Siesta smirked.

I had no idea how to respond to that prompt retort, and as I was racking my brain...

"—Nobody move!"

A man's voice and a gunshot suddenly echoed throughout the café. Wondering what happened, I turned to look and saw several masked men pointing their guns at staff members and customers.

Apparently, we had yet another incident on our hands. Geez. Talk about destroying the mood. Biting back a wry smile, I waited for the detective's instructions.

"Assistant. Seriously, could you do something about that predisposition of yours?"

"Yeah. That's actually the second-biggest wish I've got right now."

The enemy's name is Arsene

The next day.

Having received a summons from a certain individual, Siesta and I were visiting the New York City Police.

"Hey, did you enjoy yourselves last night?"

We were shown into a reception room where a female police officer sat on a sofa as if she owned it, a cigarette in one hand. With a line that reminded me of a certain famous RPG, Fuubi Kase smirked at Siesta and me.

"I don't get what you mean by 'enjoy ourselves.'" Playing dumb, I sat down on the sofa across from Ms. Fuubi, next to Siesta.

"Oh, you know. The young lady over there looks sleepy. I thought maybe you'd kept her up all night."

"...This ace detective always looks sleepy." I glanced over at Siesta. She was rubbing her eyes; it wasn't clear whether she was listening to me and Ms. Fuubi. Now that I thought about it, she did seem to be having a harder time waking up than usual...but I swear to God we hadn't done anything last night. Not that I should even have to point that out.

"Actually, Ms. Fuubi, why are you so comfortable at the NYPD?"

A rank-and-file Japanese police officer had occupied this room as if she was the boss and was puffing away on a cigarette. And I thought she'd said she'd quit smoking.

"Oh, this? I'd love to kick the habit right this minute, but..." Ms. Fuubi smiled thinly. "I figured I'd smoke enough for that guy too for a while."

I hadn't expected that. In her own way, she was paying her tribute to her deceased enemy.

"...And? You wanted to talk about yesterday's incident?" I meant the masked mystery men who'd attacked the café where we'd had dinner the night before. Unfortunately for them, one of the diners had been the Ace Detective. In the end, Siesta subdued them before I could even attempt to do something cool, and we'd handed them over to the police.

Since we'd at least partially completed our objectives, we'd been thinking about heading back to Japan today. Right before we did, though, Ms. Fuubi had contacted us about the incident, and so here we were.

"Yeah. We got the crew you hauled in yesterday to cough up their motive for that attack. And, y'know, they said something kinda interesting."

Anything Ms. Fuubi said was "interesting" was definitely going to be a pain in the butt for us. Drooping in resignation, I listened to what she had to say—

"They said, 'Free Arsene.'"

The moment Siesta heard that, she flinched. So much for the sleepiness from earlier. Then she put a fingertip to her chin, looking grim. I didn't yet know why, though. Arsene? Who was that?

"He's the Phantom Thief."

"...! The Phantom Thief ? You can't mean..."

Siesta nodded. "That's right. One of the twelve Tuners—the traitor, Phantom Thief Arsene. Although I'm told that isn't his real name," she added. She seemed conflicted.

The traitorous Phantom Thief Arsene. The Oracle, Mia Whitlock, had explained the reasons behind that modifier to us earlier.

The Phantom Thief had made some sort of deal with Seed and stolen the sacred text from Mia. Tuners were supposed to be allies of justice, of course, and this had been a blatant breach of faith. As a result, he'd been confined in an underground prison.

"They tell me there've been frequent acts of terror here in New York lately, with the goal of setting him free. That Fritz louse is hard-pressed to deal with them all." Exhaling a puff of smoke, Ms. Fuubi brought up the name of the Revolutionary, who worked as a politician.

"It isn't just New York, either. We're getting scattered reports of similar occurrences from around the world. What do you think? Ring any bells?" Ms. Fuubi's sharp eyes turned to me.

"Don't tell me... Was that busjacking in London part of this?" It had happened about three weeks ago, when I was taking a bus through London with Mia. I was pretty sure the man with a gun had demanded that the police "free his comrade." By "comrade," he'd meant Phantom Thief Arsene?

"Does the Phantom Thief have that many friends?" Companions who'd hijack buses or barricade themselves into buildings in New York, London, and all around the world in attempts to rescue him...

"I had heard he had a lot of collaborators," Siesta responded. "But I doubt..."

"Yeah, the people working to get him released definitely aren't his friends." Ms. Fuubi finished Siesta's thought for her. "They didn't know anything specific about the Phantom Thief other than his false name, Arsene."

Ms. Fuubi seemed sure about that, so the men probably weren't lying to

protect the Phantom Thief. If so... "You're saying they were just disposable pawns of his?"

"That, or..." Ms. Fuubi stubbed out her cigarette in an ashtray, cutting me off. "Arsene may be controlling them however he wants."

Ordering people around the world, individuals he'd never seen, to break him out of prison.

"...Is that even possible?" Did Arsene have a technique that let him use complete strangers like puppets?

"I don't know how he does it specifically. But..." Siesta's expression was unusually grim. "He is the Phantom Thief: He can steal anything, even human hearts and wills."

"...! But if Arsene is plotting to break out of jail, can't we stop it somehow?"

I'd been told he was locked up deep underground in some unknown country. In that case, if we took proper steps before he made any further moves—

"Yeah. It would have been great if we'd done that, but..." Ms. Fuubi answered in Siesta's place, blowing smoke toward the ceiling. "According to the incompetent higher-ups, Phantom Thief Arsene has already escaped."

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