Chapter 15: Chapter 3.1
Yesterday's enemy is today's enemy, too
"I didn't think we'd be seeing each other again after all this time, Kimizuka." We were on the deck of a luxury cruise ship.
The individual who'd interrupted my conversation with Natsunagi and Saikawa was Charlotte Arisaka Anderson—and it was the first time I'd seen her in a year, since the day Siesta died.
"Yeah, it surprised me, too. How've you been?"
"You have no reason to be concerned about my health." Oh yeah? Well, good to see you haven't changed a bit. I thought I'd fire back with a lighthearted jab, but—
"...Really, what on earth have you been doing all this time?"
Suddenly, Charlie's tone came down a step, and there was a sharp light in her large eyes.
"'All this time'?"
"Since she died." Charlie bit her lip. She was as beautiful as ever, but her expression was harder than it used to be.
"What have I been doing...? Nothing, actually." Thinking back over this past year, I answered honestly.
I could have said I'd done something, but only very recently. After I met Natsunagi.
"Yes, I imagine not," Charlie answered derisively, as if she'd been expecting that answer. "You caught bag snatchers, went around searching for lost dogs and cats, received commendations from your local police... And you think that makes you a hero?"
Oh, so she knew, huh? She knew about my tepid life. "Kimizuka—didn't you have any intention of inheriting Ma'am's job?"
...I see. So that was what she'd wanted to say all along, huh? She'd been checking into what I was doing this past year because she wanted to say that.
I seemed to remember Ms. Fuubi saying something similar to me at one point.
However, my answer to that was:
"For those three years, I was just the assistant. All I can do is assist." And the one I was meant to assist was gone. I was powerless.
"...That's right. You were her assistant, Kimizuka. Her only assistant. So..." The sea wind carried her whisper far away. Charlie's long eyelashes came down slowly, as if she was thinking about something. "Well? What are you doing here, then? Changed your mind?"
By the time Charlie asked me that question, she'd reverted to her usual firm expression.
"What am I doing here? Uh, I'm on a cruise."
"...I see. You don't even know." Charlie gave a disgusted sigh. "So it's only a coincidence that you're on this ship."
"...Is there something here?"
I glanced at Saikawa, but she shook her head emphatically. Apparently, she had no idea what this was about.
"Ma'am's last wish." "Huh?"
"Just before she died, in order to bring down SPES, she left her last wish— her legacy—all over the world. One piece of it is dormant somewhere on this cruise ship. The analysis took time, but that information is sound," Charlie said. "Although the analysis team isn't part of my organization."
I remembered that part of the work wasn't exactly her forte. Siesta had teased her about it quite a lot. Still—
"Siesta's legacy is on this ship...?" And Charlie was here to search for it.
And today, by coincidence, I just happened to be on the same boat.
Coincidence? Really?
"But since you have no intention of carrying out Ma'am's dying wish, it's none of your business. You can just rot in your tepid life forever." With that, Charlie turned to go.
"No, hang on a second. Charlie..."
"I'm not who I was a year ago," she said. "I'm not the girl who couldn't save Ma'am."
With that, Charlie told me good-bye...well, told her past self good-bye, in all likelihood.
"I inherited that last wish."
The voice that rang out then was clear and carrying, the sort that traveled all the way to distant islands.
Natsunagi stepped out in front of me, facing Charlie straight on. "And you are?"
"I'm Nagisa Natsunagi—the ace detective."
This was getting dangerous; I could almost see the sparks flying.
"Nagisa Natsunagi...?" Charlie said quietly, putting a hand to her chin, and then—
"Oh, you're the..."
Her eyes went to Natsunagi's heart. That had to be one of the most important items of information linked to Siesta. Had Charlie tracked that down as well?
"I don't suppose you'd want to play detective somewhere else, would you? I don't want to see you using Ma'am's life for a game of pretend," Charlie said frostily, with obvious irritation in her eyes.
"I'm not playing!" Nagisa shot back, setting her hand over the left side of her chest. "I was given this life, and that has to mean something! Siesta entrusted it to me! And so, I'll be the one to find that legacy—I swear on this heart!"
She'd snapped at me like this once, too; it was fierce and fiery, a declaration of war.
For a moment, Charlie's eyes went wide, as if Natsunagi had overwhelmed her.
"—I see. Do whatever you want," she said, promptly turning on her heel. "There's no way you could ever replace her. I'll be the one to inherit her last wish."
As I watched her receding back, I couldn't think of anything to say.
"Aw, she left..."
Finally, Saikawa spoke up. Maybe she didn't want the mood to get too heavy.
"Um, I'm sorry," she continued. "If I hadn't invited you two onto this ship, this would never have..."
"No, it's not your fault, Saikawa." I immediately rejected that idea. I couldn't let my personal situation spoil Saikawa's gesture of kindness. "It was more like, you know, a collision of really unfortunate coincidences," I said, partly to convince myself as well. "You too, Natsunagi. I'm sorry for pulling you into all that."
"..." "...Natsunagi?"
When I looked at her, her fists were clenched, her shoulders were trembling, and...
"Nnnnnnnnggggghhhhhhh! Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
...her face turned bright red, and she started pounding her knees with her fists, again and again.
"Kimizuka, do you think this is a greeting from abroad, perhaps?" "No idea... Makes me think of a gorilla more than anything, but..."
"A gorilla, hmm? Did you know their official scientific name is Gorilla gorilla gorilla...?"
"Yeah. And all of them have type B blood..." "Would you shut up about gorillas?!"
Finally, the gorilla—er, Natsunagi, whose face was as red as an apple, launched into an angry diatribe at someone who had already left.
"Arrrrgh, what a jerk! I'm playing pretend, huh?! I... Just how does she think I felt when I...!"
Yeah, I know. I know you're serious.
If anyone was wrong back there, it was me.
I'd been Siesta's only assistant, and I had failed to carry out my role. Not to mention I didn't even want to inherit her last wish.
No wonder Charlie'd had it with me. I was the one who deserved the blame, not Natsunagi.
"I am going to be the one who finds it. Her legacy. Count on it," Natsunagi said, as I'd suspected she would. Her eyes were narrowed, and her fists were tightly clenched.
"I think you're getting a little too worked up about this." "Huh...? You...think so...?"
"Why don't you go cool off in the pool? We've got time for that. Right, Saikawa?"
"...! Yes! There's even a waterslide!"
Of course there was; this was a luxury cruise ship owned by the Saikawa family. Natsunagi's swimsuit purchase was about to pay off.
"Are you coming, too, Kimizuka?"
"Uh, I'm..." I gave it a little thought. "Sorry. There's something I need to do."
Yeah. The one who really needed to cool down was me.
"...I see." Natsunagi's shoulders drooped a little, but she didn't try to get any details out of me. She signaled to Saikawa, and they both turned to go.
"See you later, then."
"All right, Kimizuka. I'm gonna burn the sight of Nagisa onto my retinas!" "...Yui, actually, maybe let's not go into the pool together, okay?"
Welcome to hell, the land of dreams
For a little while after Natsunagi and Saikawa had left for the pool, I stayed on deck, thinking.
I met an enemy (comrade) of mine again after a year. It would have been easy to call this encounter a coincidence.
But I knew we were in too deep for that.
Natsunagi had taught me as much during the incident with her heart—you can't just brush off people's feelings or your reunions with them. The word coincidence is too irresponsible and fatalistic.
I had to assume that every meeting and reunion in this recent chain of events meant something. Reaching that conclusion, I knew where I should be going next.
After all, what I had to do now was talk things out with the right person. As for where I'd find her... Well, we'd known each other long enough that I could pretty much guess.
I made my way through the vast ship, opened a door that was larger than the rest, and—
"Ha-ha. Ah, memories."
The first thing I saw was long rows of slot machines. Toward the rear, there were green tables where you could play roulette and baccarat, with dealers running the games.
This place was magnificent and debauched, a seething mass of human desires, a paradise of dreams, or hell itself—a casino.
Casinos were illegal in Japan, but once you were out on the ocean, that law no longer applied.
...Still, this really did take me back.
Las Vegas, Macao, Singapore—a few years ago, when I'd been traveling all over the world with Siesta, I'd learned to gamble. On the occasional days when we'd used what little money we had to win big, Siesta and I had lived it up.
Speaking of "living it up," there was one day when we both drank liquor— something neither of us did as a rule—and got pretty drunk, and then... No, actually, I won't tell that story. I'm sure it happened because we were, you know, young and thoughtless.
Past stories aside, the important thing now was whether she was here, and...yep, there she was.
"Ngh, why...? That's my seventeenth loss in a row. Nobody else is losing..." She was slumped over a poker table, the blond hair she was so proud of comically disheveled. "Urgh, this just can't be right. One more time... One more time!"
Apparently having failed to learn her lesson, she took a twenty-dollar bill out of her wallet, intending to have the dealer convert it into chips for her.
"What are you doing, you moron?"
Seriously, I can't just stand by and watch this. I landed a karate chop on that blond head.
"Wh-who's there?" Her shoulders flinched, and then she turned awkwardly to look at me.
"What kind of idiot gambles herself to tears?"
Charlie was sitting there, her eyes watery and pained. "Nnnnngh!
Kimizuka, I can't win..."
"What happened to all that spirit you had when you were picking a fight with us?"
Well, Charlie always had been like this.
When the talk turned to Siesta, she tended to forget herself, but generally, she acted her age... Actually, her mature looks only made her childish moments more prominent. Frankly, she was kinda unreliable—and to borrow Siesta's words, not the brightest bulb.
...I didn't say it, all right? Siesta did.
"Why are you messing around with poker?"
"...Well, they say this is Ma'am's legacy, so I thought if I kept winning at the casino, it might, you know, turn up as a prize or something..."
"I see. Good to see you're still dim as ever."
Although, thanks to that, I did manage to guess where she'd be right away. "What's that supposed to mean?!"
"It means Siesta was really seeing you." "Huh?! Ma'am really saw me? ...Heh-heh."
Don't give me that "heh-heh" business. One second she's crying, then she's mad, then she's laughing... Seriously, there's always something going on with her.
"Switch with me a sec." "Huh?"
I took Charlie's place in front of the young female dealer. "I'll win back what you lost, at least."
"...A-and what are you going to ask me for in return?" Charlie backed away, hugging herself. This is why people say you're stupid.
"I'll settle for a conversation." "...Conversation?"
"Later. We'll go back out on deck." I handed the dealer a twenty. "Just watch. I've always had a knack for poker."
I'll show that ace detective, wherever she is, the difference between you and me.
That's why I can't be a detective
"—I can't believe you lost."
As I stood on the deck, staring vacantly at the ocean, someone was snarking at me from the vicinity of my knees, in a tone that would ordinarily be unthinkable.
Charlie leaned against the railing with her back to me. "What the heck was that? You stroll in like 'Oh, I'm so cool, I've always had a knack for poker' and then you go and lose?" Charlie was sitting on the deck, hugging her knees. She looked up at me teasingly.
"Oh, shut up. I just sort of thought I could pull it off, okay?" Long story short, I got destroyed at the casino.
Humans have a hopeless tendency to see the past through rose-colored glasses. When I thought back carefully, I remembered that it had been Siesta, not me, who'd won big at the casino with that knack for poker. I'd only been granted her leftovers... That's one hell of a trap.
"That is beyond pathetic. Not only that, but you got sucked in even worse than I did and blew all the money you had. Talk about stupid. Talk about sick."
"I already feel terrible, so don't pour salt in the wound, thanks."
Haaaah. Maybe I'll borrow money from Natsunagi when she gets back from the pool. Swallow my pride, et cetera.
No, this was a time to ask Saikawa. Everybody should have a rich friend. "Heh-heh. But yes, you were right," Charlie said. "That was pretty funny." Was it actually a joke all along?
Charlie gave a contrived-sounding laugh. "Pfft! Snrk, snrk."
Come to think of it, it was the first time in a year that I'd seen that smile. For a little while, we laughed together quietly.
"—So? What did you want to talk about?"
The wind blew, changing the peaceful atmosphere.
"Siesta." As I answered, I rested my arms on the boat's railing and gazed out to sea.
"...We already had that conversation. It's over."
"Says you. Communication is a game of catch, you know." Up till now, my conversations with Charlie had always been more like dodgeball.
"What could I possibly have to talk about, a year later, with Ma'am's assistant, who didn't try to carry out her last wish?" Charlie's voice was cold again.
Unsurprisingly, that was something she just couldn't compromise on. I'd been chosen as Siesta's assistant, and then after she'd died, I hadn't tried to carry on her legacy. I'd averted my eyes from the beings I should have been fighting and stayed in my lukewarm life.
And I was the one who hated myself the most for all of it. Yes. I bet that's why Charlie was—
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to worry you," I said.
She'd been concerned about me, her enemy—her comrade—all this time. "...I'd like it if you wouldn't presume to know what I'm thinking."
"You even read all those newspaper articles about me." "I—I just happened to see them; that's all."
"And then you came all this way, just to see me." "I told you that was a coincidence!"
"Ow!"
Charlie's fist sank into my lower thigh... I guess I teased her a little too much. But really, I probably had worried her. I did feel bad about that.
"Still," she said, "since you did apologize, I'll give you one chance." "Oh yeah?"
Charlie got to her feet and came to stand beside me. "Why didn't you try to become a detective in Ma'am's place?" Her eyes shone like emeralds, and they wouldn't let me get away. It was too late to lie or pull a fast one.
"...She... Siesta said something to me."
I remembered what had happened on that day, four years ago. In the sky, at ten thousand meters.
On the plane that Bat had hijacked, Siesta told me—
"You—be my assistant."
That was what she'd said.
"That's why I can't be a detective. I couldn't four years ago. I can't now that she's dead, either. I'm sure I'll never be able to. I'll always be hers: the ace detective's assistant."
I can't be her. But I can continue to live for her.
"...Dummy." The corners of Charlie's lips curved up in a way that looked a little sad. "You're the one who's stuck in the past with Ma'am, not me."
Was that true? Maybe so.
Even now, I'm sure. Siesta is my—
"Well, it doesn't matter." Charlie smiled, then looked up ahead, far out to sea. "You should find Ma'am's legacy, and your own answer, your way. Because I'm planning to do it my way." Charlie pressed her lips together tight.
I swallowed the "Thank you" threating to escape me and went for a
grateful-sounding "Sorry" instead. "Her legacy, huh...?" Once again, I started to think about what Siesta had apparently left on this ship. "If your team got that information, Charlie, the enemy might have it, too... You think it's possible?"
"You mean SPES?" "Yeah."
When it came to information warfare, they gave as good as they got. On top of that, Siesta had been one of their greatest enemies. If they knew she'd laid the groundwork for something, they were bound to try to...
"It is a definite possibility. Well, I do technically have an idea, but..." "A-an idea? You have an idea, Charlie...?"
"...I see you're desperate to fight me," Charlie said, flashing the holster she wore on her hip.
What did it mean that all the girls I'd met lately carried handguns?
"I told you, remember? I'm not who I was a year ago." The way she was puffing up was still more or less the same, though. "Oh, speaking of that. Kimizuka, starting today, let me borrow your cabin."
"Huh? Why? If you're part of the tour, you've got your own."
"I have nothing of the sort." Charlie tilted her head, straight-faced. "After all, I'm a stowaway."
"Don't give me that!"
Come to think of it, she was particularly good at covert maneuvers...
C'mon, just pay the money. Don't use it to gamble.
"Give me the key to your cabin."
"That's not fair at all. Actually, how did you get onto the boat? Did you use optical camouflage?"
"Heh-heh. Industry secret."
For some reason, Charlie seemed extremely proud of this. She was puffing her chest out so far I wondered if her shirt would split open, so I wished she wouldn't stop.
"Optical camouflage, hmm...?" Charlie put a hand to her chin and murmured softly. Thanks to her mature looks, the pensive expression really suited her. Although for as long as I could remember, that face usually meant she was thinking What should I have for dinner tonight...? or something along those lines, so it wasn't much help.
"Listen, Kimizuka?"
Abruptly, Charlie looked up and asked:
"Do you suppose there's a way to get off this ship in the middle of the ocean?"
The sourc𝗲 of this content is free(w)𝒆bnov(𝒆)l