Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 9 - Chapter 4.02

The midpoint between past and future

Three days after Kimizuka and I visited Stephen in the hospital, we were heading into Golden Week, and the two of us left on a little excursion of our own.

The weather was nice and sunny, and a cool breeze washed over us as we walked side by side. Next to Kimizuka like this, I could intuitively sense the difference in our heights and the lengths of our strides. Actually, it wasn’t the length of his stride so much as how fast he walked. Hadn’t Siesta ever warned him about that?

“Brr! It’s a little chilly, huh?” The wind blew, and I shivered. I should have worn a jacket; I’d gotten careless because it was May.

“Well, we are in Japan’s northernmost prefecture.”

Kimizuka, who’d been smart and worn his jacket, glanced back at me from half a pace ahead.

All of this meant, of course, that we were currently in Hokkaido. We’d traveled overseas quite a bit lately, so to us this counted as a “little excursion.”

“Isn’t this the sort of situation where you’d loan a girl your jacket?”

“I’d love to, but we live in a gender-equal society.”

“Wow, my affection levels just dropped to zero. Why am I traveling with a louse like you, Kimizuka?”

“You’re the one who brought me out here. The way you asked was weird, too: ‘Wanna go visit a ranch?’”

We glared at each other, then the two of us broke into grins.

It had been a long time since we’d bantered like this. Life had been littered with all sorts of sadness and pain lately, so none of us had been able to relax enough for that sort of thing. Still, the detective and her assistant couldn’t be all doom and gloom. We had to be cheerful!

We needed to keep our eyes on our objective, but still have the time and energy to enjoy pie and tea while we were at it. At least, that was how the previous Ace Detective had done it.

“If you’re that cold, wanna use my pockets?” Slowing down a little, Kimizuka offered to lend me a small part of his jacket. He was probably trying to tell me to put my hands in there, but…

“Where did you learn that move?”

“It was in a shoujo manga I borrowed from Noches.”

“Must’ve been pretty old.”

“Apparently it was one of Siesta’s favorites.”

As we enjoyed ourselves chatting, we turned down a road with very little traffic. But we knew where we were going, and we kept walking until a ramen shop came into view.

“Perfect. Let’s get something hot to eat,” Kimizuka said, and so we decided to grab a late lunch.

When we entered the shop, an employee greeted us with an energetic “Welcome in!” There were no other customers, and the meal ticket machine had photos of tasty-looking miso ramen on it.

“Natsunagi, they’ve got large and extra large. Which one do you want?”

“Why do you just automatically assume I’m a big eater? I’ll have a large.”

We sat down at the counter, waiting for our ramen as the delicious smell of soup drifted out of the kitchen and made us hungrier.

“Siesta can’t even eat, can she?” Kimizuka murmured, for no particular reason. “She used to love eating pizza and drinking tea, but for over half a year, all she’s done is sleep.”

Right. The whole time she slept, the only nutrients she got came through an IV drip.

Neither Kimizuka nor I had clearly answered the question Stephen had asked us yet. At the very least, though, I wanted her to be able to eat hot food again really soon. I was sure we both shared that wish.

Not long after, bowls of miso ramen piled high with corn and bean sprouts arrived in front of us, and we ate without saying much. My body and emotions had both gotten a little chilly, and the hot soup gradually brought warmth back into them. Apparently, it’s true that humans can’t make decent decisions on empty stomachs.

“We can throw in some rice to round out the meal,” the manager said with a smile. He was wearing a bandanna tied around his head.

Grateful for the offer, I told him, “In that case, make it curry rice.”

There was a brief pause.

“How spicy?”

“A seven on that famous one-to-ten scale.”

“Understood,” the manager told me, wrapping up our brief exchange and withdrawing to the kitchen.

Every line in our conversation had been a code phrase.

“Okay, I think I’ll go visit the ladies’ room,” I told Kimizuka, getting up. I left my bag on the seat.

“Leaving me out in the cold by myself, huh? Must be nice to be popular.”

“Ah-ha-ha! I’m sorry, okay? I won’t be long.”

“Yeah, I’m just gonna kill some time. I’ll leave it to you.”

Hearing Kimizuka’s words over my shoulder, I headed for the bathroom at the back of the shop. The sign on it said FOR EMPLOYEES ONLY, but I ignored it and opened the door. There was no toilet, or sink, or anything of the sort inside—just a small open space with another door. Letting out a shallow breath, I took a step through that second door. The dim space beyond was lit very faintly with warm lighting. It looked nothing like the ramen shop; instead, it appeared for all intents and purposes to be a bar.

Someone I’d been wanting to meet for a long time was sitting at the very end of the counter.

“Are you Bruno?”

The white-whiskered old gentleman quietly set down the glass he’d been holding. “Could I trouble you to entrust any electronic devices to him?”

I noticed a man in a dark suit standing nearby, holding a sack. A Man in Black.

“I left my smartphone with my assistant.”

“Ha-ha. You’re well-prepared; that’s a great help.” Smiling, the old man pointed to the seat next to him, and I sat down with a small bow. “This is our first time meeting one another, new Ace Detective.”

“Yes. I’ve been hoping to meet you for a long time, Information Broker.”

We didn’t shake hands, but we did clink the glasses that were sitting in front of us.

Kimizuka and I had come all the way to Hokkaido to see this man, Bruno Belmondo. As a fellow Tuner, I was the only one allowed to meet with him.

“I really have been looking everywhere for you. I even went to India, you know?”

“Ha-ha. My apologies. It wasn’t like I was trying to avoid you.” There was a mischievous spark in Bruno’s smile. Personally, it had felt as if he had been running away from me…but I’d caught him now, so I’d call us square.

“Still, I’m impressed you knew I’d be here today. Was it the Men in Black?”

I showed Bruno a diary I’d made sure to bring in with me: the Ace Detective’s memoirs.

Or, more accurately, a copy of it. Ice Doll, a high-level Federation Government official, had given it to me when I became a Tuner. It was a record of the various missions Siesta, the previous Ace Detective, had completed—a reference to help me take over her duties.

“In here is a record of all of Siesta’s jobs, including dates and all sorts of other details. Five years ago today, on May third, she came to Hokkaido.”

All she’d written about, though, were mundane things: She’d eaten the local ice cream, visited a ranch for a hands-on experience milking cows, things like that.

“Doesn’t that seem weird? Suddenly having nothing on her agenda except fun little stuff…?”

“Ha-ha! I’m sure she was also very busy around that time. Perhaps it was a break, to help her unwind,” Bruno said offhandedly.

“No, that’s not possible,” I told him, shaking my head.

“There’s no way she was doing nothing during Golden Week five years ago.”

I had a general idea of what Siesta had been up to right about then. I knew what name she’d been using and what she’d done for Boy K., who was destined to become her assistant someday.

“Something definitely happened on May third that year. Something she couldn’t keep a record of—for example, she may have had a secret meeting with the Information Broker, just like I’m doing right now.”

Bruno smiled very slightly.

“I had the Men in Black find a list of your hideouts for me, and this place was on it. I think you meant for the other Tuners to be able to access at least that information in the first place, though.”

“Yes. However, it wasn’t a given that I’d be here today.”

“That’s…true. But here, today, was the only place I’d be able to reach you.” My hints had been limited, and that was the only answer I’d been able to extract. “I thought this might be a test: You wanted to see whether the new Ace Detective could find this place on the day Siesta had met you here, five years after she’d done it. Or at least, I was sure you’d give me that much of a chance. And just as I suspected, you were here.”

Bruno grinned and downed his drink. “How strange. I was sure I’d locked that day.”

“…Locked how?”

“‘Locked’ information is never leaked elsewhere, and it isn’t carried over to the future. That’s the rule. The detective’s last wish pried open that lock of mine, though… I swear, you detectives, in every era…” Bruno gazed at me as if I intrigued him. “This time, I really need to make sure I lock it up securely. Tightly enough that no matter what sort of Sacred Relic is used, what happens here won’t be left for the future.”

“Uh, I don’t understand what you’re talking about…”

“Ha-ha. I mean so that even the future Singularity, for example, isn’t able to interfere with this place or time. Let yourself be the only one to remember it,” Bruno admonished me gently. “That is how things stand. Now, what did you want to ask me?”

We were finally getting down to business. He was saying he’d hear me out.

“I’d originally meant to get you to tell me a way to save Siesta, but asking about that is against the rules, isn’t it? That was why you wouldn’t meet with me two months ago.”

The corners of Bruno’s lips curved slightly, and he nodded.

Finding that out was our job. The Information Broker wasn’t a convenience that would tell us whatever we needed to know. His job was to keep the scales of the world’s knowledge balanced.

“Then what did you come to ask me? What goal are you working toward now?”

“We’re trying to stop Scarlet. Even if it’s just for the time being, right now, that will also help us save Siesta.”

“How do you plan on stopping him?”

“There still seems to be some sort of secret relationship between the Vampire and the Federation Government. We’re thinking we need to find out what it is.”

Scarlet was trying to use Siesta, his bride, to lift the curse placed on the vampire race. Yet he’d accepted the Federation Government’s mission and killed countless vampires. That wasn’t consistent behavior for someone who sought the prosperity of his people.

However, up until now, we’d only really looked at the situation from Scarlet’s side. We thought that any key to resolving this inconsistency was probably related to the Federation Government. What sort of secret relationship had actually existed between the Vampire and the government?

“I see. So you’d like me to tell you that?”

“No, I don’t think you’d tell us that, either.” Bruno chuckled as if I’d amused him. “So I’d like to ask them directly. Tell me where the Federation Government dignitaries are now.”

In response, the world’s wisdom said:

“Very well. I will form a link between you here. Let me intrude, for the sake of my future self.”

With that, Bruno held out a map.