Chapter 151: Chapter 4.1
The light of passion
The first time I'd encountered the origin text's special power had been yesterday, when Olivia had handed it to me on the plane.
When I took it, I'd been able to see the future.
It had felt like a really vivid dream, or an extremely specific sixth sense. Things that were probably going to happen had raced through my brain like a jolt of electricity.
In that dream, I'd refused to take the origin text, believing someone like me shouldn't accept it casually.
Olivia had been perplexed, but she'd kept the book and returned to her normal duties... But then our plane hadn't made it to France. Olivia had been attacked and wounded by somebody onboard, and we'd made an emergency landing at a nearby airport.
And—someone had stolen the origin text. "I was wrong."
Not accepting the origin text had been a mistake. I regretted it fiercely, and the next thing I knew, I was back on the plane. Olivia was standing in front of me, and once again, the origin text was firmly in my hands.
At first, I hadn't understood what had happened. I'd asked Olivia if she was all right, then checked the time with Nagisa, only to find out that no time had passed at all.
I've returned to the past, I thought.
When I thought it over later on, though, I realized I hadn't time traveled—I'd just seen the future.
In other words, when the origin text's bearer wasn't sure what to do about a major decision, it would show them the futures that would result from their various choices. Since it was similar to the Oracle's clairvoyance, I deduced that I'd basically been borrowing Mia's power.
I immediately thought, I shouldn't tell anybody about this yet. If it was information I should share with Siesta and Nagisa, Mia would have told me so to begin with, and she hadn't. She hadn't even told Olivia. She probably thought I
should be the only one to know about this power. Therefore, since Mia was the text's rightful owner, I respected her wishes.
I had one other concern, though: It was possible that even Mia wasn't aware of the origin text's true power. If so, I wasn't even sure I should ask her about it. As a result, I'd decided to take a little more time to observe the book closely.
I'd walked around with it for a while, but nothing odd had happened. I'd experimented by hesitating over a minor choice, trying to see any futures related to it, but the origin text's power hadn't activated. Either it would only show futures related to major turning points, or I wouldn't necessarily be able to use it whenever I wanted.
The next time the origin text had shown me the future had been last night, after I'd argued with Siesta and talked with Bruno. The turning point had been whether I would meet with Stephen or Nagisa. I'd chosen the former and let go of the origin text. I'd tried to protect the detectives' ordinary lives by choosing a transient peace. I don't have to tell you how that went.
—And so...
"I'll do it over."
On that dark road where I'd met Scarlet, in a gap in space-time, I made my decision. However, strictly speaking, I was returning from the future to the present. I'd cancel the potential future where Mia and Siesta were sniped by an assassin and choose another one.
Right at my feet, the path forked in two. On one route, I met Stephen and gave the origin text to the messenger from Another Eden, but I'd already seen where that would end up. As a result, I now chose the route where I went to meet Nagisa instead. Besides, in that first future, Nagisa had told me something:
When you're not sure what to do, look at me.
I'd put my trust in those words now. Nagisa had run to the fallen Siesta at the end of that future. This time, I'd chase after her.
"I'll start over from here."
I started down the second route. Soon, light enveloped me, and the next thing I knew, I'd returned to the previous night.
That means the story starting now happened right after I'd parted ways with Bruno at the pub.
This is the world where I didn't answer that call from Stephen, and chose to meet Nagisa instead.
"...Sorry to keep you waiting. Brrrr, it's cold."
It was a starry winter night, and we were in a park with a view of the illuminated Eiffel Tower.
Huddled up in her coat, Nagisa arrived at our meeting spot. I was waiting for her with my collar turned up against the cold.
I told her I'd met Bruno and summarized what we'd talked about. From my perspective, this was the second time I'd done this, but that was inevitable. When she heard I hadn't managed to persuade Bruno not to attend the ceremony, Nagisa sighed. "I see... Still, we could have talked about this at the hotel. It didn't have to be here."
"If I went back to the room now, Siesta would just be griping about me." "Huh? How did you know? —Wait, ignore that, she's not doing anything of
the sort."
Her eyes were darting around way too much. She'd been the one to tell me about that in the first place.
"Sure, she was a little angry, but I think she was more bewildered than anything." With a little smile, Nagisa told me what Siesta had been like right after we'd fought. "'Why won't my assistant understand?' she said. 'I'm only doing my job as the Ace Detective.'"
"...True. She's probably in the right, here. I'm wrong."
"Wow, that's unusual. Want to hurry back and apologize, then? I think she'll forgive you pretty easily."
"I can't do that." Nagisa looked perplexed, so I explained. "I want her to get it wrong, too."
Siesta's sense of justice was too correct. She wouldn't hesitate to keep fighting to protect the world and the people around her, no matter the personal cost. She'd tried to go to sleep forever once—twice—to that end. Now that the disasters had finally ended, the chain of tragedies had halted, and the world was at peace, I wanted her to throw that approach away.
"She was becoming more and more like who she used to be, wasn't she?"
So Nagisa had noticed, too? My sigh came out misty white as I gazed at the distant tower.
Two weeks ago, when the Federation Government had summoned us, and Noel had requested that she become a Tuner temporarily, Siesta had begun to revert to her old self.
Once she'd learned about the unknown crisis, she'd agreed to become a proxy Ace Detective. After that, she'd met Ms. Fuubi, remembered events from when she was a Tuner, and encountered someone who resembled an enemy she'd once
fought. Picking up her musket again had reminded her of the sensations of being on the battlefield, and she'd asked Charlotte to do maintenance on the weapon for her.
The danger to Bruno had given Siesta an even greater sense of responsibility as the Ace Detective, and our encounter with Another Eden on the cruise ship had made her mission more real than ever... I couldn't help but worry about that. The Ace Detective's justice was too flawless.
"What about you? Did it make you remember old times, too, Nagisa?" Naturally, Siesta wasn't the only one I was worried about.
Nagisa Natsunagi, the other detective, had also sacrificed herself to save Siesta once. She'd tried to return her heart to its former owner, to revert the world to what it should have been. She'd said it was because she was only a proxy detective.
"I never forgot."
"...You mean you haven't changed at all since then?" The proxy detective who'd sacrificed herself.
"Yes. But listen, I haven't forgotten how kind you were to me that time, either." Nagisa's ruby eyes were blazing brightly. "You got angry, and you cried. I believed I was doing the right thing, and you said I wasn't. All of that makes me who I am now. That's why I've never forgotten. I was right and wrong, both at once. I'm sure it's the same for Siesta," she said.
So my feelings had reached her? Did Siesta remember, too? That was why, like me, she wasn't sure what to do.
"You know, Kimihiko, you always did like the detective way too much. You still do." Smiling, Nagisa stepped in closer. For some reason, she put the muffler she'd been wearing around my neck. Then she tied it up and gave it a tug. "Take that!"
"Hey, that hurts."
"Our positions have been flipped pretty much all the time lately, so I thought I'd remind you who's boss once in a while."
"Yeah. Three years ago, just for that one moment, you were a total sadist."
"J-just for that moment? Oh, come on... You make it sound like I've been a masochist the rest of the time."
Nagisa looked unhappy with that, but it was way too late to correct the trajectory of her character now.
"Say, Kimihiko?" Her tone turned a little serious again. "What did I look like before?"
For a moment, I didn't understand what she was asking.
In another moment, I realized she meant the old stories I'd brought up earlier. "Your memories are precious to you, Kimihiko. How did Siesta and I smile in
those memories? How did we look when we were angry, or when we cried? How did we shine?"
Of course. The detectives hadn't smiled all the time.
Our journeys hadn't been all fun and games. We'd gotten into plenty of dangerous scrapes, and we'd made it through life-or-death situations many times.
And on the other side, the detectives' faces had been flooded with fierce emotion; they'd looked...
"Kimizuka." Natsunagi called me by the name she'd addressed me by back then. "Which versions of us did you like?"
I'd... Back then, I'd—
"No, that's not it." Nagisa put her index finger to my lips before I could speak. "Now isn't the time or the place. I'm not the one you should be saying that to, either."
"...Yeah, you're right. I'll hang on to it for now." Nagisa smiled and gave a little nod.
"Well, should we head back?"
A look at the clock told me it was almost eleven. Tomorrow's a big day; we should probably hit the sack as early as possible, I thought, turning around. Out of nowhere, someone caught my hand.
Needless to say, it was Nagisa.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have talked like I knew everything." Her forehead thunked lightly against my back.
"What are you talking about? You gave me plenty of strength," I told her. For as long as I'd known her, Nagisa had always said the words I wanted to hear. It was something she could do because she never let the fires of her passion die.
"No. I was speaking as the detective earlier. I'm going to say what I really think now." She kept her forehead pressed against my back. "I'm sorry for always making you do the worst parts. I'm sorry for shoving the decisions onto you. Thank you for trying to give us peace."
Her voice was slightly choked up.
"There were things that scared me, really. Fighting with my life on the line, long ago. The Great Cataclysm. We're on the cusp of getting involved in all this again now. And you're trying to save me, so..."
"...Stop it."
I was in no position to have Nagisa thank me. How many times had her words saved me, spurred me to act, made me look forward? Wishing she and Siesta could live peaceful, ordinary lives wasn't my repaying a favor. As a matter of fact, it was just my own ego. That meant Nagisa didn't owe me any gratitude.
"No, that won't do. At least one person has to acknowledge you out loud, Kimihiko. I bet Siesta's clumsy, so I'll say it. Thank you. Thank you for being our assistant, and our greatest partner."
Nagisa's voice, and her forehead, grew warmer.
Right now, those tears were what concerned me more than anything. "Yeesh. I promised I wouldn't make you cry."
Hel would yell at me in my next dream. Turning around, I unwrapped the muffler and rewound it around its owner's neck. "I don't need apologies or thanks. I want you and Siesta to live in peace because...I like you two way too much, that's all. So don't worry about it."
I was aware I was saying one of "those" lines, but I told her anyway. That proved I'd grown up a bit.
Nagisa looked at me, startled. Her mouth hung open slightly. Her fingers dug into the muffler a bit as she averted her flushed face and found something to criticize.
"That was lousy." Apparently I needed more practice at putting mufflers on girls.
Then, something bright caught my attention at the corner of my vision. "Hm. That's pretty." The Eiffel Tower was lit up differently now. Come to think of it, I'd heard it flashed like this every hour after sunset for just five minutes.
"Well, Nagisa? Since you got to see this view, will you overlook the fact that I made you come out in the cold to meet me?" I joked, but just as I was about to turn back to her, something hot and soft touched my left cheek.
Nagisa had kissed me.
"...That's appreciation for all your hard work, all right?" As her lips left my cheek, a hot sigh escaped them.
"A gesture of gratitude from a detective to her assistant, who always does his best. That's all it is. And so..." Nagisa covered her mouth with her muffler. "If you get the wrong idea, I'll half-kill you."
Compared to her usual counterstrikes, that one was pretty weak.
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