Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 7 - Chapter 1.6

 The guard dog in the iron cage

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

It was the day after we got back from Kyoto.

As I stood in front of the station, checking my watch, I heard a click and felt a gun muzzle shoved against the back of my neck.

Actually, that was a misunderstanding: When I turned around, I saw that Siesta was merely making a “gun” gesture with her thumb and forefinger. She might have temporarily become the Ace Detective again, but she didn’t have her beloved musket back yet.

“That’s a new look for you.”

We were about to head out on an errand, and instead of her usual dress or the formal kimono she’d worn yesterday, Sierra was in casual clothes: baggy jeans and a patterned jacket. The cap she wore gave her a boyish look—or maybe it was closer to street style. Either way, she didn’t seem like her usual self at all, and I ended up looking her over carefully.

“Ogling women like that usually gets you arrested.” With a chilly sigh, Siesta returned my gaze.

“Only ‘usually’? Does that mean I’m safe this time?”

“As long as I’m the one you’re ogling, yes,” Siesta retorted, then resettled her cap on her head.

“What happened to your regular clothes?”

“I wanted to wear the outfit I bought when Nagisa and I went shopping.”

“You didn’t invite me to that party.”

“Why are you trying to crash a girls’ outing?”

“I’m glad you two get along so well.”

Siesta and Nagisa were more than work colleagues—they were best friends.

A tragedy had torn them apart once, but now they’d finally managed to regain the friendship they’d had.

“I do feel a little strange in clothes someone else picked out, though.” Even as she spoke, Siesta was gazing at her outfit happily.

She’s changed a bit, I thought.

I didn’t know exactly which time to compare to, but Siesta was clearly softer around the edges than she had been when I’d first met her, or when we’d traveled together. She’d started smiling.

Of course, her old attitude—indifferent, to the point of stoicism—had probably been her defining trait, but I’d wanted her to be more human, more susceptible to trivial emotions. And so this Siesta was the one I—

“Shall we go?”

As I stood lost in thought, she held out her pale left hand to me.

That hand was the one thing that hadn’t changed.

It was the same at ten thousand meters, and also here, with our feet firmly planted on the ground, this close to each other.

After that, Siesta and I climbed into a taxi and went to prison.

By “prison,” I mean exactly what it sounds like…but I wasn’t an incoming convict. I’d come to meet someone who was being held here.

“Do you think we’ll really get to see her, though? I admit it’s going incredibly well so far, but…” I asked Siesta as we followed a corrections officer through the building.

We’d tried to meet this prisoner many times before, but they’d never granted our requests for an interview.

“Yes. As long as we’ve got this, it’s a sure thing.” Siesta flashed the notebook that marked her as a Tuner. The Federation Government had officially issued it yesterday.

“…I see. This’ll be the first time in a year, then.”

We walked down some stairs, and down more stairs, until we finally reached the deepest part of the basement: a small, completely sealed steel room.

With a dull noise, a heavy shutter retracted to the side, revealing the figure behind the bars. A woman was sitting there with her chin in her hand. She had the eyes of someone who would kill anyone—even a god.

“You’ve got fifteen minutes,” the corrections officer said, then left us.

Taking a deep breath, I called the name of the woman in the cage.

“It’s been a long time, Ms. Fuubi.”