Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 8 - Chapter 1.7

 Magical miracle girl’s action

“What is that?”

When we reached our destination, I found my eyes riveted to the sight.

An enormous fir tree decorated with all sorts of ornaments stood in a shopping mall plaza, and something that looked like a human figure draped in white cloth hung from the very top.

“It’s a Fair-Weather Doll,” Reloaded murmured; she’d parked the motorcycle somewhere out of the way. “That’s what the ones that look like white cloth dolls are commonly called. It’s one of the beings that’s causing Pandemonium.”

“So it’s not a suicide?” I sighed in relief, feeling the tension drain out of my shoulders.

“Never mind that, look down.”

“‘Down’? …Hey—”

I suddenly felt pressure on the back of my head—Reloaded was forcing my head down. I protested, although I kept my gaze on the ground. “What are you trying to pull?”

“Don’t meet its eyes,” she ordered briefly.

This was coming from an expert, so there was probably a reason. I looked away from the fir tree…then noticed something else. “Why is everybody ignoring it?”

The thing on the tree obviously didn’t belong, but none of the people in the plaza seemed to notice it. They were just taking photos and admiring the tree as a work of art.

“Do you believe in ghosts, Kimihiko?”

“I’ve met an alien, so I sort of have to believe in ghosts, too.”

As a matter of fact, I’d seen something pretty similar about twenty-four hours ago.

“Right. You and Rill can see that thing, but many people can’t. Ghosts, devils, evil spirits—all those things on the edge of reality actually exist here.” Keeping her eyes carefully away from the tree, Reloaded looked around. As the Magical Girl, she must have run into many similar enemies before.

“So I’m over on this side now, too, huh?”

During that three-year journey with Siesta, I’d been in constant contact with the extraordinary. Apparently, it had sharpened my senses to the point where I was able to register that sort of hazy entity.

“Rill gets the feeling you’ve always been that way, but…”

Reloaded’s eyes came to rest on a young man in the distance. He was looking up at the sky, and his eyes seemed rather vacant.

“No, wait,” I said. “He’s looking at the tree.”

By the time I realized that, fear had risen to the man’s face.

He’d spotted the Fair-Weather Doll.

“—Can we just leave him like that?”

“Be quiet. The more people perceive the Fair-Weather Doll as something to fear, the stronger it will get.” However, even as Reloaded was speaking, the man began to shake—with terror, I’d guess.

“What is that guy seeing? Isn’t it just a white cloth doll like I saw earlier?”

“Fair-Weather Dolls can change their form at will.” Reloaded had gotten out her grimoire. Did it have the details on that thing? “Anyone who makes eye contact with it will see what they most fear in that white cloth. That must be what that man is experiencing now.”

“Then this is no time to stand around analyzing it!”

Just then, I caught a glimpse of a white shape. The thing was about two meters tall, and it swiftly changed direction, rushing straight at the man. Then I heard a brief, low scream as the attack began.

“…! Kimihiko, where are you going?!” Reloaded scolded, but I was already running. We didn’t have time to sit there talking.

“That thing gets stronger as more people get scared of it, right? That means we should take care of it fast!”

I sprinted toward the Fair-Weather Doll and the man it was going after. At the very least, Natsunagi never just stood there at times like this.

“Hey!” Reloaded called after me. With her receding voice in my ears, I brainstormed ways to shut down that bizarre phenomenon.

“How am I gonna fight a ghost…?”

I didn’t carry a gun, of course, and I wasn’t armed now. I couldn’t see physical weapons working on a ghost anyway. Prayer beads and salt seemed like better options. As I thought, I kept chasing the man and the phantom.

The enemy was an odd one, though. Even as it floated after the fleeing man, the Fair-Weather Doll kept its face turned in the opposite direction. Toward me. Like it was refusing to take its eyes off me.

Before I knew it, we’d turned onto a dark, nearly deserted street. If the enemy insisted on keeping me in its sights, then bring it. I followed it, rounding corner after corner, determined not to lose it. For now, I had to catch up with those two…………

“How did I know it was looking at me?”

The question occurred to me out of nowhere. The Fair-Weather Doll’s head had been covered by that white cloth the entire time. I shouldn’t have been able to tell which side was the front and which was the back. And yet I was sure it had its eyes fixed on me.

I’d been making eye contact with the Fair-Weather Doll.

“Where am I?”

The next thing I knew, I was in a pitch-black construction site. I looked around.

Aside from me and the Fair-Weather Doll, there was nobody there. I didn’t even see the young man it had been chasing. It was as if he had been an illusion, too…and that’s when it hit me.

“Was I looking that thing in the eye all along?”

The Fair-Weather Doll was floating a few meters away. Suddenly, its white cloth opened up, spreading out, changing color, shape, and size, until I found myself staring at—

“Hey there, Betelgeuse.”

The monster looked like a huge, five-meter-long lizard. It had nothing resembling eyes or ears—only a gaping mouth and a low, unpleasant growl that sounded more like a machine’s than a beast’s.

This must be the enemy I subconsciously feared most. No surprise there—it had killed Siesta once.

“After all that, it’s just this guy?”

That story was over already.

Brave warriors had defeated this monster ages ago. It wasn’t something I should be fighting now. Plus, I knew it was an illusion.

“Dodge right.”

In the next instant, a flash whirred past me and stabbed into the nightmare.

With a low groan, the thing turned back into a sheet-draped doll, writhing in midair as if it was in pain.

“Are you stupid?”

The voice made me turn around.

For a moment, I thought I saw someone I really missed.

I knew it wasn’t her, though. She wasn’t here.

“Thanks, Reloaded.” I wasn’t speaking to a detective armed with a musket but a magical girl holding a staff.

“That’s a bad habit of yours,” Reloaded said, coming closer. “You just charge the enemy without a plan when you don’t have the power to actually help.”

She shoved one of the staff’s pointy bits into my face. It hurt a little—a lot, in fact.

“My former employer tended to send me into the fray first. Every chance she got, in fact.”

“Ah. Rill has some sympathy.” The set of Reloaded’s lips softened slightly, and she withdrew her staff. “Good news, then. From now on, all that is Rill’s job.”

“Wasn’t I supposed to be an attack dog?”

“You’re just a pet with a good nose. All you have to do is lure out the enemy,” Reloaded said.

She wasn’t looking at me anymore. She was glaring with sharp eyes at something behind me.

When I turned back, there was the Fair-Weather Doll, and its spread-out fabric had sprouted a mass of knives.

“Wait, we weren’t done yet?” I muttered.

A moment later, the doll slashed at us with all the knives at once.

“Down!”

It almost sounded like a dog command, but no, it was an alert directed at me. Reloaded tackled me, shoving me to the ground, and I got a face full of gravel.

“…I think that might’ve done more damage than the knives.”

“Well, you thought wrong. There, look.”

Reloaded had landed on her face, too. She slowly got up and pointed at the spot where we’d just been. The ground had a large scar, as if it had been cut with a large blade. This was a construction site, and steel girders clattered down right next to us as well. Assuming none of this was an illusion…

“So that wasn’t a whirlwind or something.”

“It’s like a sickle weasel, although Rill isn’t a fan of comparing it to another monster. Pandemonium entities attack physically by mimicking natural phenomena.”

“I see. That aside, Reloaded, I hate to point this out when you’re giving me a serious explanation, but your nose is bleeding.”

It was probably because she’d slammed her face into the gravel. Looking a little uncomfortable, Reloaded wiped the blood away with a tissue. Guess she hadn’t noticed it.

“…This is nothing.” I didn’t know who she was making excuses to. She got to her feet, moving rather heavily. Immediately after that, though—

“Okay. Time to clean up.”

—she vanished.

The next thing I saw was a magical girl racing through the night sky.

I didn’t know whether it was science or magic, but she moved freely through the air, leaving a star-shaped afterimage every time her shoes came down on empty space. The mass of blades protruding from the Fair-Weather Doll’s white cloth turned toward the magical girl.

“Reloaded, it’s gonna do that slash attack again!”

Her shoes were probably the same special-made kind that Siesta had used, or an improved version. With those magic shoes, she could evade the enemy’s attacks even in midair.

Or so I thought, but…

“No, that wouldn’t be efficient enough.”

The Magical Girl’s expression changed.

The wind blades slashed through the dark sky, and Reloaded charged right into the attack. Slits opened in her clothes and skin, and bright blood flowed from the cuts she hadn’t managed to avoid.

It was raw, unthinking courage, but it wasn’t reckless.

As a matter of fact, she was selectively striking away the slashes that could have been lethal with her staff. Once she made it through the wave, the Magical Girl reached the floating villain.

“Sorry. Rill doesn’t have time to waste on you.”

She swung her magic staff like a sword—and cut the enemy in two.

The severed halves of the white cloth fluttered into the night sky.

“What did Rill tell you?” Reloaded looked down at me from midair. “Being afraid when you’re up against a Fair-Weather Doll is a bad move. You’re not augmented, so you’re one thing, but if Rill got scared of the enemy’s attacks and started evading…”

“You’re not done, Reloaded! Behind you!”

“Huh?” When she turned around, there was the Fair-Weather Doll’s cloth, still spread wide.

…And Reloaded made eye contact with it.

Anticipating the worst, I did what I could do right then. Assistant, Familiar, whatever—I didn’t care what my title was. My job was to help my partner; that was all.

“—Rill won’t let you get away!”

But the Fair-Weather Doll was the one forced onto the defensive. Reloaded’s surprise had slowed her down for a moment, but then she launched herself off thin air in pursuit of the enemy.

The Fair-Weather Doll answered by turning its white cloth black, trying to escape by melting into the darkness. In that case—

“I dunno whether that’s a fair-weather doll or a ghost, but nobody needs them when the sun’s out.”

—I switched on the construction-site lights, illuminating the darkness. They revealed a vague white shape floating in the distance.

“Rill!” By the time I’d accidentally called her by her nickname, her staff had already begun to shine bright blue.

“Huh! You do pretty good work.”

I still couldn’t tell whether it was magic or science, but I knew that the light was the source of justice that vanquished evil. Passing the fleeing enemy so fast that she was just a blur, Reloaded circled around ahead of it, pointed her staff at it, and shouted:

“Let tomorrow be sunnyyyyyy!”

Pale-blue light enveloped the night sky, and then…

…this time, the Fair-Weather Doll really had vanished.

“Is the enemy shut down for good now?” I asked Reloaded—Rill—as she slowly descended to the ground.

“Yes. It needs human fear to manifest in the first place.”

“I see. So basically, all humanity just has to be as brave as I am.”

“You got plenty scared.” Rill gazed at me coldly, then thumped my breastbone with her staff.

“What did that Fair-Weather Doll look like to you, then?”

Just a minute ago, I’d seen Rill stop moving for a second. She’d probably seen some sort of illusion, too.

…Or so I thought, but Rill just said, “Who knows?” and looked away. “Rill’s not scared of anything. All she saw was white fabric.”

The night wind tugged at her hair. Her voice had been firm, but I couldn’t see her expression all that well.

“Still, you’ve got really strong legs,” I told her, remembering how athletic she’d been up there. That definitely wasn’t the sort of power either magic or science could just give her.

“Well, of course.” She turned to face me, sweeping her orange hair back with one hand. “Rill used to be a pole-vaulter.”

It was the first innocent smile I’d seen from the Magical Girl.