Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 7 - Chapter 4.3

 March of evil

After the ball, we relocated to the venue where the Ritual of Sacred Return would be held.

It was just before seven. So far, events had played out in roughly the same way as the other future. That was partly because I’d been careful to do the same things, though.

If I changed our environment or what I did too drastically, I wouldn’t be able to count on the future I’d seen anymore. I’d been retracing my previous route as closely as I could, making only the changes that were absolutely necessary. This time, again, I did just one thing differently.

“Will these seats do?” Noel asked.

“Yes, here’s fine.” I nodded, lowering myself into a seat at the front of the hall, on the left side of the first floor. There were only about twenty meters between us and the altar here.

“Sorry to make you reseat us like this.”

“No, I understand why you would want to have as clear a view of the ritual as possible. This will be the Tuners’ final performance.”

…Yeah, that’s right. Assuming they manage to complete the ceremony.

“By the way, what happened to Siesta? She’s really late,” I asked, turning to Nagisa. I hadn’t seen Siesta since the ball.

“When girls leave their seats, don’t let the reasons concern you.”

“Oh, the bathroom, then?”

“Did you abandon your tact by the side of the road?” Nagisa’s glare was like an icy knife. What, was I rude?

“It should begin in about five minutes,” Noel said, just as she had the first time.

I used that time to get my thoughts in order.

At this point, things were going smoothly. I’d faced the detectives squarely, made sure the Oracle and I were on the same page about the situation, and made my own position firm. However, there were a lot of unknowns from here on out.

During the ritual, someone would probably attempt to snipe Mia again. Why Mia, though? In the previous future, it had happened just as she was about to burn the origin text. They might have attacked so they could steal it.

But that origin text had been a fake. Did the sniper not know? …No, that wasn’t even possible. I’d definitely seen the thing in the crow mask holding a black rifle in the hall. It knew everything. That meant it had sold us out on purpose.

“So they have a goal besides stealing the origin text,” I muttered, quietly enough that no one would hear me.

I had no idea if “they” included Stephen and the other Tuners or not. However, the thing in the crow mask that had come from Another Eden was our enemy for sure. The unknown crisis was definitely going to occur. We had to shut it down.

“We’re back where we started.”

On the day Noel had summoned Siesta and Nagisa, they’d retaken their authority as Tuners; then, on Bruno’s request, they had become Ace Detectives again. Now we’d fight the unknown crisis that was going to occur at this ceremony, as they’d originally discussed.

Fate wouldn’t change easily, but we could change the way we fought. I was as ready for this as I’d ever be.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.” Just then, the latecomer seated herself next to Nagisa.

“You sure took your time, Siesta.”

“Yes, I was fixing my makeup. How does it look?” She tilted her head.

“I almost didn’t recognize you. You look like a different person.”

“That’s surprisingly direct.”

During our casual exchange, a low bell rang from some untraceable location. And then…

“Let us begin.”

At Noel’s signal, my second Ritual of Sacred Return began.

The hall’s roof retracted, the masked dignitaries appeared, the conch shell sounded, and the kindling was lit. Everything I’d seen the first time was happening again.

Then Mia took the stage. Olivia handed her a sacred text, and she tossed it into the flames, performing her role as the Oracle. White smoke climbed into the sky, and one of the dignitaries who surrounded the platform read a scroll in a foreign tongue. There were other things I needed to focus on right now, though.

“Where is it?” I scanned the hall carefully. The thing in the crow mask had to be here. It was definitely lurking somewhere with that rifle, ready to attack the Oracle.

In the first future, it had been in the seats on the second floor, on the opposite side. As far as I could see from where I was, it wasn’t there now. Had it picked up on the fact that I’d concentrated security there?

“…Kimihiko, it’s almost time,” Nagisa whispered in my ear. Mia would pick up the origin text soon. If something was going to happen, it would be then.

I’d told the two detectives how events were likely to play out. Naturally, they’d been dubious, but they were going along with my plan. I couldn’t afford to blow it now.

Before long, the moment came: Olivia handed Mia the origin text. Mia accepted it, then held it out to the blazing flames.

By the time I finally found the thing—in the second-floor seats on the opposite side, just like before—it was already pointing its rifle at Mia.

“! How did it do that?”

I was sure it hadn’t been there earlier. The thing in the crow mask had appeared all of a sudden, almost as if it had teleported.

“Mia!” I shouted.

Up on the platform, Mia’s eyes narrowed sharply. I’d told her about the attack in advance, too. Yelling her name now wouldn’t help her dodge a bullet traveling faster than the speed of sound, though.

“It’s all right. If we know the future, we can respond before it happens,” said the white-haired girl in the blue gown… Several seconds ago, actually.

By the time I shouted Mia’s name, the girl in blue had already lunged for the platform.

The gunshot rang out a second later.

As everyone else covered their eyes or their ears, I kept my eyes fixed on the stage.

Mia had ducked and covered. Standing in front of her, the proxy Ace Detective had swung the musket in her right hand like a sword and knocked the assassin’s bullet away.

“Enemy attack!” Bruno Belmondo shouted.

This time, I was able to take a better look at what I hadn’t managed to see the first time.

Bruno was sitting on the right-hand side near the front, opposite our group. He pointed at the red-robed figure in the crow mask, but the enemy responded by turning its gun on Bruno.

“Grandfather!” Noel screamed.

The contents of that letter raced through my mind as well. I’d planned for this, though. The White Suit soldiers who were stationed around Bruno fired first, and the thing in the crow mask dropped its rifle. It didn’t seem to like its chances against those numbers. It took a superhuman leap back, putting a lot of distance between them.

“Nagisa, do it now.”

“I’m on it. Rill’s first.”

We exchanged nods, then started carrying out our plan. Since we’d been expecting this, our top priority had to be getting people off the battlefield. When I scanned the venue, people had already begun to evacuate on their own, so we helped out. Starting with Rill, who couldn’t walk, Nagisa helped the other noncombatants escape.

“Siesta! Get Mia out!” The Oracle was the sniper’s target, and we had to make sure she got away as well. I watched the white-haired girl pick up Mia, then head for the exit along with Olivia. That meant we’d protected the origin text, too.

“Now we need to get Bruno out of here…”

When I looked back at the opposite side of the venue, I spotted a dozen White Suits surrounding the thing in the crow mask in an open space on the lower floor. In addition to their guns, the soldiers were leveling heavy weapons and swords in shapes I’d never seen before at the attacker.

For some reason, the thing began to hop lightly.

Boing, boing, boing.

It bounced rhythmically several times, then winked out of sight. A few seconds later, several human heads flew into the air at once. Blood sprayed, dyeing their pure white uniforms red.

How had it beheaded the White Suits? The thing itself was the only one who knew. Then it landed on the floor, and its head turned toward the distant Information Broker.

“Bruno!”

As I shouted, the security team realized that the situation had gone south and rushed over to provide backup. They all fired at once, but the bullets vanished in thin air. This was the same thing crow-mask had done on the cruise. Then the thing made “gun” gestures with both hands.

Bang, bang, bang.

I hadn’t heard any real shots. However, every soldier those fingers pointed at collapsed as if they’d actually been shot.

But the soldiers had slowed down the enemy, and the time they’d bought would save the life of the world’s wisdom. As Bruno grimaced at the carnage in the hall, he made it through the exit with the help of his guards.

“Noel, we should hurry, too.” I grabbed Noel’s hand and we made for the nearest exit—but the figure in the crow mask appeared right in front of us. The black mask was right in my face, and my legs locked up. It wasn’t just from fear. Before the malice of a superior being, my instincts wouldn’t let me move.

“______”

Its black, hollow eyes told me nothing. Just then, an ally’s bullet whizzed between us. With a superhuman acrobatic maneuver, the thing in the crow mask was gone. All it left behind was its bestial smell.

“…! Mr. Kimihiko, this is…” Noel was looking around, wide-eyed.

Maybe I’d let my guard down once that thing was gone. Before I knew it, a group of more than fifty new enemies had invaded the hall.

The men wore gas masks and were dressed all in black, and they carried rifles and machine guns at the ready. Falling into a predetermined formation in the blink of an eye, they surrounded the hall, which still held nearly three hundred people.

“More residents of Another Eden…?”

Naturally, our situation wasn’t good. The thing in the crow mask didn’t seem to be in the hall anymore, but it had taken out almost all of our armed allies.

I wasn’t sure if this was good luck or bad, but as far as I could see, neither Ace Detective was in the hall. That meant they must have gotten away safely with the other hostages. On the other hand, it also meant they weren’t going to be able to help me. Mia, Rill, and Bruno were gone as well. The only people left were helpless, normal humans.

“Mr. Kimihiko, we have to do something…”

“It’s all right. The enemy doesn’t plan to kill us right away, at least.”

This formation was meant to keep us from escaping. This was going to become a negotiation.

The next moment, my guess turned out to be right.

The roof closed, and an image appeared on the screen at the front of the hall.

Once again, the being we saw was wearing a crow mask. Was it the one that had just been here, or was this someone else?

I couldn’t even tell if it was a man or a woman. In a strange voice that sounded synthesized, it told us the motive behind their attack on justice.

“Federation Government. Here and now, you will reveal the secret of the world which you have hidden.”