Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 8 - Chapter 2.6

 The sound of rain calls the detective

After we left the clinic, Natsunagi and I walked along side by side.

The things that had happened in there circled around and around in my head, and I looked at the sky, trying to shift my thoughts onto another track. The clouds had rolled in.

“It looks like we’re going to get some rain.”

“It really does. And here the forecast said today would be sunny.”

That was as far as our conversation went. We kept walking, taking short steps over the asphalt. At the moment, we didn’t have any real destination in mind. We could probably head for the nearest station, though. We didn’t know how long it would be before Rill woke up, so going home for now might be a good idea.

“All we talked about was the weather, and then we had nothing else to say.” Natsunagi snorted with laughter as if she couldn’t hold it in any longer. “It’s not like we’re meeting for the first time, okay?”

“Sorry. I was thinking.” I cleared my throat and chose a topic of conversation reserved for close friends only. “I heard if you take a laxative and diarrhea medication at the same time, the laxative wins, and you get the shits.”

“Could you be any worse at small talk?” Natsunagi stared at me incredulously.

“The line between small talk and trivia is a tough one to draw.”

“That wasn’t even the problem.”

“I like that you say these things but then stay in the conversation with me anyway, Natsunagi.”

“Uh-huh, glad that’s what you like and nothing else. Thanks a lot.” Natsunagi fumed, swinging her handbag around. After the way we’d parted the previous day, the fact that we were able to converse the way we always did was a bit of a relief.

“Come to think of it, how did you know where Drachma was, Natsunagi?” I hadn’t managed to ask her earlier.

“Ookami and I stumbled onto him while we were trying to find Stephen. Learning about the vampires is important, but as far as I’m concerned, talking to Stephen matters just as much.”

“…I see. You wanted to find a hint about how to wake Siesta up.”

That was what Natsunagi had been working on all this time. Was that why she’d accepted Ookami so easily when the government had sent him? She’d use every resource she had for our wish.

“Where is Ookami? He’s not with you today?”

“No. I was planning to take care of this on my own.”

…Oh, so that was why Natsunagi had visited Drachma today.

“Sorry about that, then. I got in the way.”

“Ah-ha-ha! I never expected to see you there. That was a shock.” Natsunagi went a few steps ahead of me, then turned back. “I’m glad you were, though.” She gave me a soft smile. “You were at the clinic for that girl, weren’t you?”

She meant Reloaded, of course.

“She’s really important to you, huh,” Natsunagi said easily, setting off again.

“Sorry your assistant has been so unsociable lately.”

“Ookami’s seriously going to take that position from you one of these days.”

Those words hit me like a knife to the heart.

“Still, you can’t abandon her, can you?”

“Well, no. I also get the feeling she’s a little like you, so I end up going with her.”

“Huh. Really? I wonder if we’re the same character type or something.” Natsunagi got out her smartphone, used the camera app as a mirror, and started pinching her cheeks. I hadn’t been talking about her looks… “Hm? Wait, why would being like me make you want to be with her?”

“Aaanyway, if you wanted to encourage somebody like Reloaded, what’s the best way to do it?”

Natsunagi was about to pick up on something inconvenient, so I changed the subject. There had to be something she and Rill had in common.

“Well… Even girls who seem to always have it together actually want to be taken care of a little sometimes. I think they want other people to acknowledge the fact that they’re always working hard, especially when they’re feeling discouraged or fragile.”

“I see. Figuring out specifically how to take care of her might be tough, though.”

I really couldn’t see somebody as self-assured as Rill being actively needy.

“Maybe pat her on the head or something?” Natsunagi glanced up at me, bending down a little.

“I see. That’s a really useful tip.”

“Maybe pat her on the head or something!” Natsunagi was full of energy right now. Great, that’s good.

“Hm? Is it raining?”

I felt something wet run down my neck.

Scattered drops began to fall, and then the rainstorm hit all at once.

“Okay, Kimizuka, say you’re sorry.”

“I don’t recall having a knack for making it rain.”

Neither of us had umbrellas. We spotted decent shelter under the eaves of a building, but just as we started to make a run for it…a car stopped right in front of us.

A police car, to be specific. The window rolled down, and the driver poked her head out.

“Hey, you damn brat. Want a ride?”

It was the redheaded police officer, Fuubi Kase.

Natsunagi and I exchanged looks, then climbed into the back seat. You can’t beat having a friend on the force.

“Thanks, but why are you here?” Natsunagi asked, drying her damp hair with a minitowel. The police car was already in motion again.

“A report just came in. There’s a big office building up ahead, and somebody’s apparently occupied the whole thing. I was on my way over.”

“Someone’s holing up in there? Any idea how many there are, and what they’re armed with?” I asked.

Ms. Fuubi glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “Just one,” she said. And then: “The fun thing is that the guy doesn’t look human. He looks like a tengu.”

Natsunagi looked puzzled. However, the word tengu rang a bell for me.

“That’s the leader of Pandemonium.” Rill had mentioned him during our patrol last night. The White Tengu.

Ordinarily, he lived deep in the mountains, away from humans. When he had a major warning to give mankind, he’d appear at the head of Pandemonium, accompanied by a horde of demons and spirits. Apparently, he was the one who’d been commanding that flock of white crows from the shadows last night, too.

“…So, uh, Ms. Fuubi. You’re not planning to make us deal with him, right?”

“Y’know, I really am glad I accidentally ran into you two. Today’s my lucky day.”

Apparently, this police car wasn’t a free taxi. She’d told us someone had called in a report; could they have been a Man in Black sharing intel?

“I’d do something about it myself, but you know how it is. The Magical Girl just haaates having other people horn in on her jobs.”

“But by that logic, she wouldn’t want us to— Oh, I see. You mean Kimizuka could get away with it?” Natsunagi dropped a fist into her palm as the realization hit.

“As a police officer, I’ll ‘control traffic’ and clear the area for you, so don’t worry about a thing.”

“I’m going to worry about every single thing, actually…”

Then the car pulled up near the occupied building.

The weather had already worsened past a localized downpour; water was gushing from manholes and drainage ditches. I’d been told that Pandemonium sometimes appeared in visible form as natural phenomena. If Rill had been here, she probably would have explained that the White Tengu was manipulating the weather to make himself known.

“Over there.” From the driver’s seat, Ms. Fuubi pointed at a skyscraper. So the White Tengu was up in that building?

“You sure we should be the ones to go, though?”

We’d be up against the leader of Pandemonium, and we weren’t experts. Would there be anything we could do? Waiting until Rill was back in action seemed like a better plan…

“I hear something,” Natsunagi murmured. “A voice.” She was gazing at the building.

Was somebody in there?

“They’re asking for help.”

At this distance, there was no way she could hear that. Especially not through the thunder. It had to be her imagination.

…That would have been the easy thing to say. But…

“Ms. Fuubi, make sure we can contact you at any time, just in case.”

“What, you’re deciding to go for it?”

“I’ve learned from a series of Ace Detectives that this is how you get the story going.”

“A series, huh?” Ms. Fuubi echoed. With a thin smile, she twisted around in the front seat. “Here. Present for you.” She handed me something black and shiny.

“If anybody finds out about this, I bet your job isn’t all you’ll lose.”

“Don’t worry about it. I own that one.”

“Police officers walk around with their own personal firearms now? The world really is going to hell.”

Natsunagi and I got out of the car.

We were off to find the client the detective had heard.