Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 9 - Chapter 3.02

  To the dreamed-of future

Three days later, it was the opening day of the international expo.

The weather was cloudy, and Natsunagi and I were sitting in official guest seats inside the dome where Saikawa would be performing. The opening ceremony—for which Saikawa would be singing the theme song—would begin at five that evening, so Natsunagi and I were relaxing, waiting for it to start.

“You’re kind of restless,” Natsunagi said, noticing me tapping my feet.

“I didn’t get in with a regular ticket, so do you think I’m still qualified to call myself a Yui-nya fan?”

“Wow, I could not care less… And why, every once in a while, do you go full-on otaku? You see Yui all the time.”

Because Yui-nya the idol was something special.

“Besides, we’re here for work today.”

“Yeah, I know. We can’t do much except watch over her from a distance, though.”

We were concerned about that mummy incident. If Elizabeth or some other enemy was still trying to make contact with Saikawa, they might target a big show like this. Men in Black had been stationed all around the venue, and Natsunagi and I were here to keep an eye out as well.

“Say, Kimizuka, how’s that other thing going?” Natsunagi asked. We still had five minutes left before the performance began.

What did she mean by “that other thing,” though? The vampire rebellion? Marie’s request? Or was it what we’d discussed with Ms. Fuubi and Ookami—that business with the Phantom Thief? As usual, I had too much on my plate, and I didn’t immediately understand what she wanted to talk about.

But then I saw the look in her eyes, and I knew.

“Siesta, huh?”

According to Stephen, a heart transplant might allow Siesta to wake up, but she could lose who she was and all of her memories as a result. If that was a possibility, should we wake her up, or not?

“I’ve been thinking about it ever since that day.”

…And I still didn’t have an answer.

Would it help if we looked to the people around us? Our ally Scarlet had chosen not to seek answers to any of his problems, saying that the boundaries between matters weren’t necessarily clearly defined. That didn’t mean he wasn’t taking action, though; Scarlet stayed focused on his mission, and he was constantly working to accomplish it.

On the other hand, our client Marie was different. She was searching for the one and only answer to her problem, and would decide what to do once she knew the truth.

The two of them had nothing to do with one another, but their policies just happened to diverge. It probably wasn’t that one was right, and the other wrong. The only thing I knew for sure was that I couldn’t pretend not to see the problem in front of me—just like Professor Moriya, the hypnotist, had implied.

“We’ll have to be the ones to make that decision.”

I’d been Siesta’s assistant all this time. All I needed to do was help the detective.

Ever since she’d first fallen asleep, I’d decided to wake her up. That meant anything that came after that would also be my responsibility.

“Listen…,” Natsunagi began. “The thing is, I’m selfish. I’m greedy. I still think the old Siesta is best. I want her to wake up as the person she was before.”

…Yeah. So did I, of course.

“If someday there’s really no choice, though… If she has to have that transplant, and she loses her memories… If it means she’ll survive, I’ll accept it. I’ll grit my teeth and bear it. In the end, that’s the only option,” she said. “You know that, too, don’t you, Kimizuka?”

She wasn’t just being callous—this was a reality we needed to get our heads around. We’d do all we could, and if that wasn’t enough, we’d take the best remaining option.

Of course we would. We wanted Siesta to live, no matter what state she was in, whether she kept her memories or not. As long as she’s alive. That was how we thought. What we wished for.

“But is that what Siesta wants?”

Would she want the same thing I wished for?

“There’s no way to know, is there? When all’s said and done, I think we’ll have to base our decision on what we want. We’ll just have to be selfish and force things to turn out the way we want them to.”

While the crowd was psyching itself up for the opening ceremony, Natsunagi and I were lost in our own closed-off little world.

“Still, if Siesta really does lose her memories… If she wakes up and she’s forgotten about us and her life before this, can we really say she’s even Siesta?”

“If that happens, let’s start all over again,” Natsunagi responded immediately, catching me by surprise. “We can do it. I know we can. You and I met each other for the first time twice, didn’t we, Kimizuka?”

“…Yeah, the first time was in London. Back then, you looked like Alicia.”

At the time, Natsunagi had temporarily reclaimed the role of “main personality” from Hel, and her memories had been fuzzy. Our second “first” meeting had happened a year later, in that classroom after school. She’d lost all her memories, even the ones tied to her emotions, but Siesta’s red ribbon had kept the link between us alive, and we’d managed to meet again. If we’d done it before, we should be able to do it one more time, with Siesta—

“It’s starting.”

Fireworks went up, loud music began to play—and Yui Saikawa, the idol, made her entrance. On the far side of the stage, she beamed, waving her arms wide.

The music was the international expo’s theme song, Dreaming Future.

Cheers went up, and the arena crackled with electricity. An ocean of pink light sticks swayed. At least for now, Natsunagi and I smiled.

The intro ended, Saikawa raised her mic, and—nothing happened. We couldn’t hear her voice. On the stage, Saikawa stared at the mic in her hand, looking perplexed.

“An equipment malfunction?”

That was my first thought, but when I saw Saikawa’s reaction, I knew that wasn’t it. There was a look of panic on her face, and she was moving her lips, but no sound was coming out. Actually, if I strained my ears, I could hear something very faintly: Saikawa’s hoarse voice.

“…Now, of all times?”

There had been faint signs that this might happen.

Saikawa’s throat had started acting up every so often. Had her packed schedule made her push herself too hard?

“Saikawa…!”

The arena started to buzz. Staff members were hurrying around. Were they going to stop the music? That might make things even more awkward, though. The song had almost reached the chorus.

“—A miracle

to make the footsteps of the future

break into a run.”

I could hear the lyrics clearly. They were coming from right beside me.

It was Natsunagi, singing Dreaming Future.

She wasn’t using a mic, though. Her voice didn’t echo across the arena.

…At least, it shouldn’t have.

“……?!”

On the distant stage, Saikawa scanned the crowd in surprise.

By the time the chorus ended and the second verse had begun, everyone in the arena was singing. They held their pink light sticks high and sang Dreaming Future in Saikawa’s place. It looked just like one of Yui-nya’s regular idol shows.

When Natsunagi saw the rest of the crowd singing, she let out a relieved sigh, as if she felt the audience had it covered now.

“Did you use your word-soul power?”

Natsunagi must have infused the song, her words, with her soul and transmitted them through the arena. Her voice still held some of Hel’s ability.

But she shook her head. “No. It’s because everyone here loves Yui. They want to support her.”

Ah, right. As answers go, that one’s prettier.