Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 9 - Chapter 2.02

  What this heart seeks

For the next few days, nothing particularly odd happened. We weren’t confronted by the Necromancer Elizabeth that Scarlet had told us about, nor by any of her minions, so we spent our spring vacation investigating Marie’s request. Before I knew it, it was the first day of university.

It was April 1, the one day of the year when lying didn’t come with the usual consequences. I dressed in a formal outfit that looked unbelievably bad on me (all because of the way Natsunagi insisted on styling my hair) and attended the entrance ceremony. I’d never imagined I’d be going to college.

Just two years ago, I’d been following Siesta on our rambling journey around the world. But those days had come to an abrupt end, I’d been admitted to high school, and now here I was, a university student. It was an incredibly strange feeling. How did my situation look to the girl who was still asleep in a hospital bed? Even if it was just a word or two, I wished she’d tell me.

“It’s all thanks to her,” Natsunagi said with a smile, after the entrance ceremony had ended.

However, it was the tears in her eyes that hit me the hardest, and all I could say was “Yeah.”

Our first day of university passed, and then it was April 2. We’d had orientations from the different departments and registered for our required courses. Having finished, I was waiting for Natsunagi in a corner of the campus.

We might have been in the same department, but we’d been automatically sorted into different classes by our last names. That said, college students could decide which of the lectures to attend, so the classes we were in apparently wouldn’t have much significance.

“It sure is noisy.”

I sighed as I scanned the campus. I was watching upperclassmen recruit new students for their clubs. They held up signs, spoke through megaphones, and passed out flyers to the freshmen as they left the auditorium. It reminded me of a school festival.

Just then, I caught a glimpse of Natsunagi’s face in the crowd. She was surrounded by upperclassmen and was forcing a smile, a ton of flyers in her arms. Yeesh. Guess I’d better go help. I stepped into the middle of the circle.

“Sorry, she’s with me.”

Taking the startled Natsunagi’s hand, I slipped out of the crowd and pulled her into the lecture building.

“Not, ‘She’s my girl’?” Natsunagi teased, once she’d relaxed a little.

“They weren’t trying to pick you up.”

“Ah-ha-ha. Still, college students sure are intense, aren’t they? I got a million flyers.”

“Yeah, they practically jumped you. Are you going to any of the clubs’ new student events?”

“Not today, at least. After all, it’s her birthday.” Natsunagi smiled. It sounded as if the two of us would be heading to the hospital again tonight.

“We’re stopping here first, though, right?”

I opened the door to the huge lecture hall. At a glance, the room looked as if it could hold four hundred students, and it was already at capacity. Past it, actually: A lot of students were standing. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on a spot on the platform.

A professor from the Department of Psychology. What had his name been? Moriya?

He was still in his late thirties, but his white lab coat really made him look like a scholar. The topic written on the blackboard was Human Consciousness. Natsunagi and I joined the standing students to listen in on the lecture.

“He sure is popular. I can’t believe he got these sorts of numbers for a preliminary lecture.”

“Me either. I hear the lottery to get into his class is on a whole other level.”

All university lectures were limited to a certain number of students. Whether you got to take the lectures you wanted was determined by a lottery system, and attending a preliminary lecture like this boosted your chances of being selected.

“Sorry for making you sit in on this with me, Kimizuka.”

“Nah, I was interested, too. I wonder what a college professor who uses hypnosis is like.”

Just a few days ago, Natsunagi had told me about a hypnotist who’d been all the rage in the media lately. What’s more, she’d said he was a young professor working at the university we’d be attending. I’d wanted to get out of as much of the routine student stuff as I could, but for this my curiosity had gotten the better of me.

“Do you think hypnosis is real, Kimizuka?”

“I can’t deny that it exists. But whether or not he can use it is another story.”

As a matter of fact, Natsunagi’s word-soul ability was something similar. Hypnosis, brainwashing, controlling someone—at the very least, we had to admit that special powers like those existed.

“It looks like he’s about to give a demonstration.”

The handsome Professor Moriya called a female student up onto the platform to be hypnotized. This was what everyone came to his lectures to see.

“Now look deep into my eyes.”

Professor Moriya’s low, honeyed voice echoed around the lecture hall. “Relax. That’s right, give yourself fully over to me.”

The professor touched the girl’s forehead lightly with a finger, and she crumpled as if all her strength had deserted her. A stir ran through the students. Voices filled with curiosity and surprise erupted around the lecture hall.

After that, the professor’s words went unchallenged. The girl opened her eyes, at which point he told her, “You are unable to move from that spot,” and it was as if her feet had turned to stone. When he said, “You will now burst out laughing,” she laughed so hard there were tears in her eyes.

“What do you think, Kimizuka?”

“It’s possible she could be a plant.”

Then, as if to refute our suspicions, Professor Moriya singled out a male student and called him up to the platform. He put the man under hypnosis, just as before, then said, “Vinegar will seem like water to you,” and made the guy drink an entire bottle of vinegar he’d just opened. It should have been physically impossible to tough that out…but the guy guzzled it down as if it didn’t bother him one bit.

“There, you see?” After the demonstration was over, the professor spoke to the students, mic in hand. “Human consciousness and the five senses can all be easily swayed. The words of others can quite simply divert our actions and intentions. What do you think? Isn’t it fascinating?”

Applause rang out. Frankly, it had been the sort of performance you could catch on TV all the time, but seeing it done live just hit differently. Or, well, it seemed to have hit everyone differently but me.

“I see there’s a student among you who still doesn’t believe.”

Out of nowhere, our eyes met. I was standing way in the back of the lecture hall, but Professor Moriya’s gaze was clearly focused on me.

“What do you say? It isn’t every day you get an opportunity like this. Would you like to experience it for yourself?”

Did he mean hypnosis? Unfortunately, standing in front of crowds wasn’t my thing.

“Thanks for agreeing. In that case, could you and the young lady come to the front?”

“…Hmm?”

I’d raised my right hand. For a second, I wondered if he’d somehow hypnotized me already, but it turned out Natsunagi had forced my hand into the air. Not fair.

“Oh, come on. It’s a good opportunity, okay?”

“You’re waaaay too interested in hypnosis.”

What would happen if this got added to Natsunagi’s list of weird habits? …That was a pretty scary thought.

“Now, which of you would you like to be hypnotized—you or your boyfriend?”

“We’re not a couple, as you can see,” Natsunagi said with a wry smile, glancing at my cranky expression.

“That won’t be a problem. Human hearts change easily.”

Then Professor Moriya fixed his brown eyes on me. “Besides, you really do care for her.”

Those words seemed to soak into me.

I felt sleepy for just a moment, before his next words melted into my drowsy mind, spreading all the way through it. “When I clap my hands, those feelings will grow with every passing second.”

He gave a sharp clap, and my eyes opened.

…My eyes opened? I didn’t think I’d fallen asleep…

“Kimizuka?”

At the sound of my name, I turned. Natsunagi was standing there. Nagisa Natsunagi, college freshman. Her figure was even better than it had been when we first met, and the way she’d done her makeup made her look grown-up. Her personality was still a little sharp around the edges, as always, but I didn’t hate that. The fact that she scolded me was probably proof she trusted me, and besides, she leaned on me sometimes, too. The disconnect between those two things, the way they balanced one another out…

“Kimizuka, are you okay? Your face looks a bit red.”

Natsunagi tilted her head slightly. The way she looked up at me through her lashes was charming, and in spite of myself, I closed the distance between us; it was as if her eyes were drawing me in. For some reason, I had the urge to put my arms around her slim body.

…Was it okay to do that? How could it not be? After all, Natsunagi was just so cute.

“As you can see, if his subconscious is given even the smallest push, even a young man who seems cool and aloof will embrace his girlfriend without caring what others think.”

I heard cheers.

At that point, I finally came to my senses. Natsunagi was in my arms, and her face was as red as an apple.

“…I’m double-killing you later.”

Feeling her struggle half-heartedly, I hastily let Natsunagi go.

“…Sorry. I was being controlled.”

Left with no other option, I had to accept that hypnotism was real. It was better than disgracing myself in public.

Professor Moriya gripped the mic, smiling in a way that girls probably loved. “If today’s lecture caught your interest, I hope you’ll sign up for my seminar, where we’ll study this in greater depth. Together, we’ll explore and experiment on human consciousness and hearts.”

Thunderous applause echoed around the hall. The professor had ended up using us to recruit students for his seminar. With a strained laugh, Natsunagi stepped down from the platform.

I was about to follow her when my ears caught Professor Moriya’s whisper.

“You’re currently hesitating, confronted with a big question.”

I abruptly stopped in my tracks.

“Have a talk with your consciousness. What is it your heart desires?”

The image of the white-haired detective, whose birthday it was that day, rose to mind.

What decision would I make in order to wake that sleeping beauty?

I remembered Stephen’s question:

“What is it that you want to recover? The Ace Detective’s life, or your memories with her?”

What exactly was I trying to save?

I couldn’t believe it had taken me this long, but those words from the hypnotist had made me acutely aware of something:

In the end, the only answer to that question was inside me.