Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 5 - Chapter 6

The order beckons. 

"I'm sorry." 

Then, after a moment, Mia bowed to us again. 

But that's not what she said earlier. 

"The future surrounding this?Primordial Seed?is unobservable to me now, no matter how I try." 

The original plan was for Mia to observe the future surrounding SEED, the?world's enemy?, but that had ended in failure. 

"No, that's to be expected. I know it's not always so convenient to see what you want to see." 

"…That, too, I suppose." 

But Mia glanced at me as if she wanted to say something. 

"What's wrong? Something you can't say?" 

The people around me usually weren't the type to shy away from speaking their minds. 

"Maybe she's implying it's your fault?" 

The first to reply was the white-haired girl next to me. 

"You think I'm the reason why Mia can't see into the future?" 

That's ridiculous. I looked at Mia and she awkwardly averted her gaze. Really, me? 

"What did I do?" 

"You changed the future." 

Siesta took over and said plainly. 

"In the future I originally envisioned, you, Nagisa, Charl, and Yui would have defeated?SPES?…SEED." 

Of course, so she said, it was just a wish. That was Siesta's dying wish… Me and Natsunagi, Charl and Saikawa, we're Siesta's legacy. 

"But from there, all of you started walking a path that even I couldn't have imagined." 

…Yeah, that's right. I couldn't give up on Siesta, so I started exploring the possibilities with Natsunagi and the others. It's a future that neither the Priestess nor the Famous Detective could have imagined. 

And so here we are—Natsunagi lost her life, Saikawa got abducted by the enemy, and Charl in critical condition. We've taken a route too far from Siesta's expectations and my ideals. 

"Now, the future is too uncertain." 

Mia, who has been listening to us with her eyes closed, slowly opened her eyelids and spoke, 

"As a result of your disruption of the future, there is no longer a set route for the battle against the?Primordial Seed?. There is no longer anything I can observe, including the process of who will win." 

That's the conclusion of the?Priestess?Mia Whitlock. Even she, a Tuner who could see the future, couldn't foresee the end of this story—but. 

"But that doesn't mean we've lost yet." 

It certainly wasn't the route I had envisioned. I lost three of my most important friends. But at this moment, there's still one last hope next to me. 

"Right, Siesta?" 

I stare at that hope called the famous detective. 

If the future's uncertain, we'd just have to defeat the enemies of the world with our own hands. 

And then we'd get all of our friends back. That's the ending Siesta was aiming for. 

"Yes. That's why I came back." 

Siesta's fleeting smile wasn't the confident face of a hero. 

But in this current situation where there's no light, just having her next to me gave me hope that I could still see tomorrow. 

"Assistant." 

Siesta pointed at my chest. I noticed my smartphone vibrating in the inside pocket of my jacket, checked the name, and answered the call. 

"Yo, shitty brat, about time you got out of the blankets, huh?" 

I could hear a puff of smoke from the speaker. 

The person on the other end of the line was none other than Fuubi Kase— the one who had first informed me of the death of Nagisa Natsunagi. 

"Fuubi-san, we still have Natsunagi after…" 

"—Kimihiko Kimizuka." 

A chillingly cold voice came from the phone. 

"If you have time to cling to hope, take your weapon." 

…Ahh, I knew. That's the person called Fuubi Kase. 

She's an?Assassin?with the mission to eliminate all world crises, an ally of justice—no, an enemy of evil. She's never one to believe in feeling emotions or 1% of expectations, only believing in solid logic and the abilities she gained to defeat the world's enemies. I knew very soon that the circumstances that required them were imminent. 

"—!" 

It all started with a sudden ringing in my ears. 

It felt as if a giant bell was ringing in my ear, and then I was afflicted with a migraine and nausea. I involuntarily let go of the phone and dropped to my knees. 

"Kimihiko? …Senpai!" 

Mia rushed over to me but soon turned her attention to Siesta as well. 

It seems that Siesta and I were the only ones experiencing this mysterious phenomenon. 

"This…is?" 

Siesta, who's kneeling on the floor like me, was clutching at her chest and wincing at this mysterious phenomenon. 

"The enemy's here." 

I could hear Fuubi-san's voice again from the smartphone on the floor. 

A moment later, I hear explosions from afar. 

"What is it this time…?" 

The migraine and nausea subsided a little, so I stood up and looked at the scenery outside. 

"What's going on?"' 

From a height of 450 meters, I saw giant?feelers?attacking a group of buildings.