Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 8 - Chapter 2.2

 What magical girls wear on the town

After that, my patrol with Rill was as rough as ever.

Specifically, a murder of white crows the size of eagles had descended on a busy entertainment district after dark and begun mobbing people. Rill said the crows were part of Pandemonium, and that they were trying to give the human race a warning of some sort. In other words, they weren’t actually attacking; they were just yelling in their ears.

But nobody understood that, of course. People panicked, and Rill and I had our hands full dealing with them. We should have listened to what the white-crow demons were saying, but of course, we had no way to understand birds or other animals. In the end, Rill attracted the crows to her shining magic staff, taking their entire rampage on herself…and while she did that, I played static at a frequency only crows could hear over the neighborhood’s emergency broadcast system to shut down the riot.

“All according to plan,” Rill said calmly, flipping her hair back. Her face was all scratched up, but that didn’t seem to bother her. As always, she prioritized efficiency. She never flinched from the enemy or from injuries. Something about that side of her reminded me of the former Ace Detective, but I also sensed a decisive difference between them. I still couldn’t pin down what it was, though.

“Why am I still going along with her anyway?”

My reward for helping Rill with her job had been the information about the vampires, and now I’d heard it. In that case, why was I still going on the patrols? And why am I meeting her again today?

I was currently standing near the clock tower in front of the train station, waiting for Rill to show up.

Was it because she’d saved my life, or was it because I’d developed the desire to know what I could accomplish as the Singularity? Or was it…?

“You really did get here early today,” a girl’s voice said.

I turned around. A beauty in a warm-colored coat was standing there.

…Oh. It was Reloaded.

“You’re early, too. Way early. There’s still twenty minutes left until we said we’d meet.”

What would she have done if I hadn’t gotten here ahead of time?

“If you’d showed up late two days in a row, Rill would have fired you.”

“Now there’s a tightrope I wasn’t expecting to walk.”

Who’d have thought she’d stay in work mode even when she was dressed like that?

“…What?” Noticing my gaze, Rill looked perplexed.

“I was just thinking I’d never seen you out of uniform before.”

It had taken me a second to realize it was her earlier because of her hairstyle and the way she was dressed. Her long orange hair was tied back.

“Rill doesn’t dress like that on her days off. She’s only a magical girl for work.”

So that was why. Meaning she wasn’t particularly attached to those clothes?

“For a pet, you certainly are pushy. Calling your master out on her day off…”

I was indeed the one who’d suggested we meet. Because…

“Yeah. Today is a team-building day.”

As I’d seen multiple times now, Rill always prioritized efficiency, and she’d charge right at the enemy without being afraid she’d get hurt. Sure, it was working for her now, but I kept warning her it could end up having irreversible consequences someday.

I’d suggested to Rill that we get to know each other a bit better—I wanted to find out why she was so aggressive about her job as a Tuner.

On Christmas, Natsunagi had tried to learn more about me. As Rill’s business partner, I needed to do the same for her.

“Besides, yesterday, you said there was somewhere you wanted to go if we were doing this, right?”

I was the one who’d set this up, but Rill had decided on the itinerary.

“Rill knows. She’s taking you for a walk today.”

With a little smile, Rill strode off. Even in white sneakers, her steps were light and agile.

“So where are we going? You’ve got somewhere in mind, right?” I asked. I was staying three paces behind her.

“Wow, you’re following just like a real dog.”

“That’s not fair. If you really think of me as a pet, then give me more treats.”

“Rewards are much better when you have to wait and wait and wait for them.” Rill turned to face me, still walking backward. “Stay.”

I got the feeling my training was proceeding apace.

“Well, I guess my training started five years ago anyway.”

“Did the Ace Detective put an invisible collar on you or something?”

After a few minutes of small talk as we made our way, Rill came to a sudden halt. “We’re going in here for a bit.”

“Here” turned out to be a small florist located on the first floor of a run-down building. Unsure what we were doing here, I followed her in. The shop was filled with flowers in all the colors of the rainbow.

Rill began picking up flowers and studying them. …Was she shopping? I started looking for flowers to put in Siesta’s hospital room myself—might as well. We were the only customers in the place.

“Why have you been the Ace Detective’s assistant for so long?” Rill asked, still browsing.

I hadn’t been Natsunagi’s assistant for “so long,” so she was probably talking about Siesta specifically. Was this more small talk, or was this what she’d wanted to discuss with me today?

“No clue. I understand that about as well as I understand why I’m your familiar.”

“Ah. So you have a deep-seated predisposition for being a servant.”

“It’s a predisposition for getting dragged into trouble, actually.”

“What’s the difference?” Rill tilted her head.

What was the difference?

“I’ve definitely wandered around and into trouble for as long as I can remember.”

“You don’t appear to be wandering now.”

Was that how it looked to other people? Come to think of it, Mia had told me something similar…

Noches had just pointed out that I seemed to be all over the place, though. She really was way tougher on me than everybody else.

“Still, there’s one wish I want to make come true, no matter what. That goal has never changed at all.”

“You mean waking the detective up again?”

I met Rill’s eyes. So she’d known about that, too.

“Didn’t you feel any hesitation about wishing to bring back the dead?” she asked.

“No. None,” I said immediately. “I wanted to make that wish come true. I’d risk anything for it.”

“…Oh,” Rill murmured briefly. She looked at the ground for a moment. “This is just Rill talking to herself. It’s a rumor she heard somewhere.” She raised her head. “You are the world’s only Singularity. The world has chosen you, and what you choose becomes the world’s choice. From now on, Rill is sure that’s the sort of life you will live.”

“…Well, that sounds like a hell of a time.”

There was no way my hands would be able to hold the whole world. But if Rill was right… If I wouldn’t be able to get that wish unless I took responsibility for the world as the Singularity, what should I do, then?

“Okay. Rill’s getting this, and then we’ll move on.”

Rill took her flower to the register, and that was the end of that for now. I followed her with my hospital-room bouquet.

After we paid and left the store, Rill led us to the station. Apparently, her motorcycle had stayed home today, so we took a train.

“Where are we going? We’re not already done for the day, are we?”

In the swaying train, Rill gently leaned in close to me. “A place where we can be alone together and get some good exercise.”

…For whatever reason, she’d given me an incredibly suggestive answer. I wanted to check the word communication in the dictionary again.

“Do you have any experience?” she asked.

“What are you talking about?” I averted my face, aware that I’d gulped audibly. The car was crowded, though, and I couldn’t move much.

“Have you done any of that with one of those girls?”

I had a vague idea who she meant by “those girls,” but I wasn’t exactly proud of it.

“What about you?” I asked. “By the way.”

Rill blinked at me, her expression sober. And then… “Rill doesn’t think a person’s value is determined by whether they’ve spent a lot of time with the opposite sex.”

“Right. I get you.”

After that, we rocked wordlessly in the train until we reached our station. I followed Rill through the ticket barrier, wondering where we were going, and five minutes later, she pointed at a large, dome-shaped sports stadium. “Here.”

When we walked in, there was a track around the entire place. As far as I could see, we were the only people there. Rill took off her coat and stretched. She kicked the toes of her sneakers against the ground, then turned to look at me.

“All right. Want to start with a little running?”