Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 5 - Chapter 21

The scales of justice 

The introductions were over, and the positions of the seven?Tuners?present today were revealed. The?Revolutionary?Flip Stuart,?Informant?Bruno,?Blackrobe????,?Famous Detective?Siesta,?Assassin?Fuubi Kase,?Priestess?Mia Whitlock, and— 

"Hey, why does Rel have to be the only one to be swept off her feet?" 

The girl with the bright orange hair, still calling herself by the nickname "Rel", stood up, slamming the desk with a bang. The impact knocks her black stick onto the floor. 

"I'll say it again, Kimihiko Kimizuka: you, be Rel's familiar." 

She's the seventh?Tuner?and?Magical Girl?, Reloaded. She's about the same age as Siesta and I, but she's wearing a Magical Girl outfit from an anime, and it suited the adorable face she just showed me for a moment. 

However, from the beginning, her words and actions had been consistently uncharming. I wonder if ‘familiar’ was her way of calling me her errand boy. If that’s the case. 

"…I don't see how that's going to benefit me at all, you know?" 

"Of course you do. I'm sure you're tired of being an assistant to this famous detective. It would be more fun to be a cute Magical Girl's dog." 

"Did you just say dog?... I mean, why me?" 

I didn’t need to jog my memory, and I was certain I’d never met this girl before. Why is she trying to place me in the position of a dog…or an assistant? 

"Of course, Kimihiko Kimizuka, that’s because you are the world's—" 

"—I'm sorry, but Assistant shall never be yours." 

Siesta interrupted this exchange. Reloaded had been the one jostling since this meeting started, but Siesta seemed to think it was time for a fight, and although she didn't have a weapon in her hand, she started a cold war across the desk. 

"What? Are you trying to be possessive? I didn’t think you'd like a jealous woman." 

"I'm not talking about those silly feelings. This is a contractual issue." 

"Contractual? After three or four years, contracts are usually revised." 

"I'm sorry, but my assistant has a lifetime contract with me, and he has no time to be your sidekick." 

…There was some mysterious contract with Siesta that I was not aware of. 

Would this lifetime employment mean that I’ll have to be with Siesta until death? That's unreasonable.…….…ah no, I guess not. 

"Are you going to fool around like that?" 

Reloaded then continued to bicker with Siesta again. 

"If only Rel could use?Singularity?, she'd be able to work more efficiently…" 

"No, Reloaded, you’ve always done a proper job as the?Mage?." 

At that moment, Flip gave Reloaded a few words of praise to defuse the situation. 

"…I said I’m not a?Mage?, I’m a Magical Girl. I told you I'd change my job title in exchange for becoming a?Tuner?." 

Reloaded, however, disapprovingly put a hand at her cheek and glared at Flip. 

It seems that this Reloaded girl has been appointed as the new?Tuner?, replacing the old granny who was the?Mage?Siesta had mentioned. It seems that there is no retirement system for?Tuners?, but if that's the case, then what were the reasons for the previous?Mage?'s resignation? My doubts and queries just piled on for quite a while, but no one, including the clear-faced?Famous Detective?sitting next to me, could give me the answers. 

"Well. So much for the digression." 

And so Flip Stuart, the moderator of the Federation Conference, spoke with a voice that caused my gut to sink. We were finally going to get down to business. I had heard that one of the purposes of the conference was a kind of debriefing on the defeat of the?Primordial Seed?, but what was the outcome? 

"It was late, but once again, Daydream, thanks to you, the?Primordial Seed?crisis is over." 

Flip turned to Siesta and complimented her on her work as the famous detective. 

"The secret society?SPES?, including its collaborators scattered around the world, will soon be destroyed. It has also been decided that the isolated island they have been illegally occupying will become the territory of the Mizoef Federation. The crisis surrounding the?Primordial Seed?has now been resolved. Good job." 

Then several claps sounded. There was Mia on the screen, Olivia, and then Flip and Bruno congratulated Siesta on completing her big mission. 

"…I." 

But Siesta's face was anything but radiant. 

Six years ago, she encountered the?Primordial Seed?, and four years ago, she embarked on a journey with me to fight?SPES?. Counting the number of things she's lost, there's no way Siesta could show a smile on her face. She’s not someone who would smile at a time like this. 

"It’s not like your work is of particular note, is it?" 

The self-proclaimed?Magical Girl?then gave Siesta a cold stare with her cheek propped up by an elbow, 

"And several of the other Tuners in the room have also broken the rules." 

She then begins to rat out people other than Siesta. 

But I already had an idea of who Reloaded was referring to. 

"Flip, you're aware of this, aren't you? The?Assassin?and?Priestess?have overstepped their bounds." 

…As expected. Indeed, the two were helping Siesta defeat the?Primordial Seed?, which was her mission. 

Mia had shown Siesta the?Bible?, which was originally forbidden to anyone but the?Priestess?, and Fuubi-san helped Charl and I fight?SPES?after Siesta died. Reloaded raised the issue of whether or not all of this was a violation of the Federal Charter rules. 

"…S-senpai is not at fault." 

The girl's voice came from the computer screen. 

"That was my decision, so senpai is…" 

"Huh? So? I don't see how that's an argument." 

"…Olivia, how do I get off this call screen?" 

Mia, who wasn’t used to talking with others…let alone arguing, was defeated by Reloaded's pressure and tried to retreat from the screen. Poor little thing. 

"I'll tell you something about that." 

At that moment, the?Informant?Bruno raised his right gloved hand. 

"In fact, I've received a suggestion from the?Assassin?. It's true that the Federal Charter states that a single world crisis should be dealt with by a single?Tuner?." 

—But, Bruno tapped the floor with his cane. 

"?Assassin?said that as long as one has enough time to finish the duties given, anyone should be allowed to help other?Tuners?. In fact, I do also help other?Tuners?with their missions, although it's not my job to do so. I can understand where she's coming from." 

Bruno's comment drew all eyes to Fuubi-san. 

Did Fuubi-san know that her actions would eventually become a problem and brought it to the attention of?Informant?, who was the oldest and seemed to understand the nature of her work? 

"If someone is in trouble, we help them. It's a natural thing for a policeman." 

Fuubi-san, despite the attention she was attracting, kept her relaxed attitude and tried to make light of the situation. And then, 

"Well, it may be difficult to understand for a kid who is too occupied with her own duties to even have time to care for others." 

She snorted, clearly mocking someone else. 

"Are you talking about Rel?" 

"Oh, so you do have some self-awareness." 

"Huh?" 

"Ah?" 

…Fuubi-san, you're not exactly good at socializing. 

"I understand the situation now." 

Flip's expression did not change, and he accepted Fuubi-san's and Bruno's arguments for the moment. 

"It's true that the?Primordial Seed?is a threat rarely seen in recent years. It would be acceptable if some irregularities were allowed." 

"...! A mere moderator doesn't have the authority to decide such things, right?." 

But Reloaded was not satisfied with the decision, and snapped at Flip. 

"Yes. When it comes to formal rule changes, the federal government will have the final say." 

—However, Flip's tone changed again. 

"I have made such a ruling as my first priority is to keep this meeting running smoothly. Do you have any objection to that?" 

The chilling voice made my heart ache. Reloaded, who had been so arrogant, seemed to flinch for a moment, and then gave up trying to argue. 

"Well, then, I guess it's decided." 

As if not daring to read the tense atmosphere, Bruno's hushed voice broke the silence. 

"A new era requires new rules and new values. I'm proud of the young people who are not afraid of change…or maybe this is just an old man struggling to keep up with the new times." 

Bruno said, gently stroking the cane in his hand with his fingertips. 

"Thank you for your concern." 

Fuubi-san bows her head to the?Informant?. 

Like Siesta, she seemed to have genuine respect for Bruno. 

"Haha, it's a request from a cute little girl." 

"…Thank you for your concern." 

Fuubi-san, who answered with the same line, showed a rare perturbed look, and I couldn’t help but laugh…that was close. 

"So, let's get down to business, shall we?" 

—And Flip's cold eyes turned to me. 

Oh, I see, I realized. The purpose of this meeting wasn't just a debriefing on the defeat of the?Primordial Seed?. In other words, this. 

"What's your opinion on the change in the future written in the?Bible??" 

This was a place to denounce me for reversing Mia's prediction and seeking an entirely new Route X. 

"I heard that in the original future, Daydream would die, and a new?Famous Detective?would wilt along with the?Primordial Seed?. But you overturned it, distorted it—and as a result, Daydream came back to life, but the new candidate for the Famous Detective, Nagisa Natsunagi, died." 

No, I heard she's in a coma, Flip said, looking at me with one eyebrow raised. 

"Do you really think this is what you…or Daydream, would have wanted?" 

Flip directed this question to me alone. Do I think Siesta would have wanted Nagisa Natsunagi to die and come back to life?  I couldn’t answer that question, because I already know the answer. 

"?Singularity?" 

Flip said as he looked at me, the other?Tuners?all looked at me in unison. 

"It's the irregularity that always appears when the times change dramatically, that overturns the future as the?Priestess?sees it, that changes the established way of the world—" 

That's you, Flip told me. 

Singularity— that's what Scarlet used to say. Or maybe Mia once said something similar while looking at me. 

The one who would change the future, the one who will move the world, the Singularity…that’s me, Kimihiko Kimizuka. I laughed in my mind, thinking, you gotta be kidding, there's no way that could be true, and then I thought of all the foreshadowing that had occurred in my life. 

For example, I've always had this annoying tendency to get caught up in trouble, and it's because of my?Singularity?that unexpected things have been happening around me. By the way, Hel once told me that my nature was essentially the kind of thing that would change things and cause incidents, and that I was the center of the world. And most of all, there was a certain famous detective who took me 10,000 meters above the ground in order to change the future, when disaster was around the corner. 

Suppose it's all because I was that?Singularity?, that’s why incidents happened around me, and the famous detective and enemies of the world gathered around me, and eventually, even the future the?Priestess?saw was changed. The real reason why I was able to do something as forbidden as bringing the dead back to life was— 

"I ask of you,?Singularity?. How do you relate to the world from now on?" 

Flip asks me once again. 

"Well, thanks to the help of the other?Tuners?, Daydream was revived, just as you had hoped. We also managed to get rid of the?Primordial Seed?by accident, but this is merely a one-off. I don't think results are everything." 

Flip Stuart crossed his fingers and rested his elbows on the desk as he watched me fall silent. And like me, Fuubi-san and Mia couldn’t open their mouths to argue. They may not have said what they did was wrong, but they knew it wasn’t right. 

Even though my choices angered Fuubi-san and made Mia cry, I still managed to convince them. I tricked them. Then it's up to me, no one else, to tell them. 

"Assistant?" 

Siesta looks at me in surprise as I suddenly stand up on the spot. 

Until now I've only relied on the detectives. For the past three years, I've been standing next to Siesta, overconfident that as long as she was there, the case would be over, that my hopes would be fulfilled. But I got my comeuppance and lost Siesta, and I spent a year in vain, unable to forget her, and met another detective. 

Natsunagi can live her life as only Natsunagi can. Even though I told her so, I ended up asking her to continue working as a detective, and before I knew it, I had become dependent on her. And like those past three years, like the year I spent in a lukewarm bath, and for the past few months that I've been standing up again, I've been clinging to and being helped by the detectives—but, 

"Isn't it about time we switched places?" 

That's probably why I stood here on this day. 

My legs were trembling slightly, but it’s nothing to be worried about. It’s just me feeling tired from sitting in the same position for so long, or perhaps, a shiver. 

"Flip, so you're saying there was a problem with us trying to bring Siesta back to life, is that it?" 

I look over at the?Revolutionary?and everyone present at this meeting. Surrounded by the?Tuners?, I was a mere civilian, and I wasn’t supposed to speak. With the gazes of the heroes who had protected the world, what could I say? 

"In summary, that's what I'm going to say." 

Flip answered for them all. His face remained unchanged, and he spoke not as a politician on the outside, but as the?Revolutionary?in control of the underworld. 

"In the correct history, the?famous detective?should have been sacrificed to save this world." 

The detective should have been dead, so the guardians of the world deemed. 

Hearing this, my heart was strangely restless. The rules of the?Tuners?, the stories recovered in the?Bible?, whether or not I was the?Singularity?, none of that mattered. There was only one thing that mattered, and I had already decided what I had to say. 

"I see. So Siesta shouldn't have come back to life, huh? Do you really believe that? Then you'd better quit this job right now." 

Because they couldn’t understand something so simple. 

They don't deserve to protect the world, do they? 

"The loss of Siesta is a loss to all mankind, the world, the universe." 

Ever since I met the detective that day, 10,000 meters above the ground, those two had been there for me. They've saved me. But now it's the opposite. Whether I'm the?Singularity?or not, it doesn't matter. The world doesn't matter to me. The only things I can't compromise are... 

Siesta and Nagisa Natsunagi. 

I'm not letting the detectives die. 

"……" 

Silence fell over the room, and all I could was the sound of your own heartbeat. Some of the seven?Tuners?glared at me, some smiled with interest, and some stared indifferently into the void. Then, after a few dozen seconds of silence that felt like an eternity. 

"…That’s what I think, but I'll leave the rest for you big shots to decide." 

"Are you a fool?" 

I couldn't take the silence any longer, so I slunk back to my seat and was greeted, as I expected, by Siesta's blank stare. Eventually, Siesta sighed heavily and said, 

"But thank you." 

Her expression was somewhat troubled. Even so, there was a smile on her pursed lips. 

"Well, I can't let the Assistant work this hard and not say something, can I?" 

Then, Siesta stood up for me. 

"Of course, I'm ready to take responsibility for this incident." 

Then, looking around at the people in the room, she said in a calm manner. 

"I hereby resign my position as a ?Tuner?, and officially appoint Nagisa Natsunagi as the next?Famous Detective?in my stead."