Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 7 - Chapter 1.7

 Because everyone had their own justice

“Hey, you damn kid, it’s been a while. Did they finally arrest you, too?”

She looked at me with the hyper-focused eyes of a beast stalking its prey. Was her red hair colored like the blood of the criminals she had executed in the name of justice? She had several former titles.

For example, former police officer, and former Assassin—Fuubi Kase.

Now, she was incarcerated here as a criminal.

“I didn’t get arrested. Sorry for never living up to your expectations,” I said, bowing my head in a patently fake way.

Ms. Fuubi narrowed her eyes, then gave a smile that didn’t go past her lips. Our positions and situations might have changed, but she definitely hadn’t.

“Fuubi, what are you doing now?”

When Siesta asked her about her lifestyle, Ms. Fuubi snorted. “What does it look like I’m doing? They even exempted me from prison labor, so I’ve got nothing to do but strength training.”

So was that the reason behind the murderous hostility? Now that she mentioned it, Ms. Fuubi hadn’t become gaunt—if anything, she was more toned than before. Although her abs were hidden beneath her clothes, I suspected she might have found a way to get the fabled twelve-pack.

“So hey, you chose this one as your legal wife, huh?” Ms. Fuubi asked me, shooting Siesta a glance.

“It’s not like that. Nagisa’s just busy with something else right now.”

“Uh, I didn’t mention her name, did I?”

…I’d fallen for the oldest trick in the book.

“And? What brings you to this dump?” She raked her fingers through her hair, which was a whole lot longer now.

“Well, actually…”

I told Ms. Fuubi about the Federation Government official killings Noel had told us about yesterday. Siesta took a few reference documents out of her bag and passed them through the bars. They were copies of reports on the unknown crisis; the Federation Government had sent them over this morning.

“Why would you people tell me about this?”

Ms. Fuubi skimmed through them, getting the gist of things, then gave us a piercing look. “Did you think this was my doing again?”

I didn’t have a prompt response for that. About fifteen seconds passed in silence.

“Unfortunately, even I can’t kill people from a jail cell.” Fuubi Kase broke the silence herself. “Maybe you were hoping I’d give you some sort of hint, either as a former cop or somebody who once pulled off something similar, but you’ve come to the wrong person. You’re missing a lot of intel here.”

I should’ve known. Ms. Fuubi shoved the documents back at us. A whole lot of them had been redacted by the Federation Government.

“Apparently the locations where the officials were killed are confidential, so they can’t tell us.” Flipping through the documents, Siesta gave a little sigh.

The places where the incidents had occurred, the times and dates, the code names of the murdered officials—all of it was censored. The only thing we knew was that there had already been thirteen victims.

The Federation Government ruled the world from the shadows, and I could understand why they’d keep such a tight lid on information. Even so, if they were going to make Siesta and Nagisa proxy Ace Detectives so they could investigate this, you’d think they’d be a little more cooperative.

“It’s like they aren’t seriously planning to have you investigate it,” I said. A little irritated, I thought back to yesterday. Unlike all the other officials we’d met, Noel had seemed reasonable.

“Sorry I can’t help. Is that all you needed?” Ms. Fuubi stretched lazily, starting to retreat to the back of the cell.

“No—there’s another reason we’re here.” When I called her back, Ms. Fuubi stopped where she was, although she looked as if she probably had a few choice words for me.

“I just wanted to see you, Ms. Fuubi.”

I’d been worried about her, all this time.

She gazed back at me steadily. There was an emotion in her eyes that I couldn’t read.

She’d been arrested about a year ago, right after the end of the Great Cataclysm.

Since the world had attained lasting peace, the Federation Government had decided to dismantle the Tuner system. As the Assassin, Fuubi Kase had stained her hands with all sorts of dark deeds, and no sooner had she lost her privileged position than they’d decided to jail her.

To put it bluntly, she’d been charged with treason. The pretext was that she’d killed a Federation Government official, but there was no telling whether that was actually true. In any case, the higher-ups had decided that Fuubi Kase’s excessive meting out of justice made her a dangerous element.

“Are you okay with this?” Siesta asked her.

Did she think it was fair that the government had decided to lock her up?

“One era’s terrorist is another’s celebrated revolutionary. You hear that one all the time.” Ms. Fuubi turned to face us. “What happened to me is the same thing—or the reverse, that’s all. I steeled myself for this to happen the day I took on the Assassin’s mission.” Somehow, the look on her face seemed clear and refreshed. “I may not look like it, but I’m a cop before anything else. If the world is peaceful and its citizens are happy now, then that’s fine. I couldn’t ask for more.” Her expression softened.

“But Ms. Fuubi, didn’t you say you wanted to get to the top?” When I’d first heard her say that, I’d assumed she wanted to climb the ranks as a police officer. But when I thought about it later, I realized what she’d really meant was—

“Kimizuka.” Ms. Fuubi almost never said my name. Quietly, she shook her head. “I already have my answer. I joined the force in order to get it. This peaceful world is enough for me.”

Come to think of it, when had it been? I’d asked Ms. Fuubi why she’d wanted to be a police officer before. Had it been a year ago? Right before the Great Cataclysm? …What had that been about? That had been a pretty important conversation, I think.

“Still, some mysterious enemy’s going around killing the ones who shoved me in here, huh? I see. That’s a nice, peaceful world.”

Ms. Fuubi smirked. Was she deliberately putting on an evil act?

However, she’d said she had nothing to do with this incident.

I believed her. I didn’t have a choice.

“It’s kind of noisy.” She looked absently up at the ceiling.

Siesta seemed to have picked up on something as well; she cupped her ears, listening carefully. Was something happening above this underground cell, in the area where the regular prisoners were housed?

“That knack of yours is still going strong.”

“It’s a coincidence, seriously.”

Please let it be a coincidence. Siesta and I exchanged looks, then turned on our heels. If the detective and her assistant were here, they couldn’t just ignore trouble.

“You weren’t wrong,” Siesta said, stopping for a moment. “The justice of Fuubi Kase, Assassin, wasn’t wrong, either.”

I couldn’t see her face as she said this, nor Ms. Fuubi’s.

However, I knew the detective was right.