mesbooks Chapter 107 - 3.2
Chapter 107 - 3.2
Chapter 107: Chapter 3.2
Setting Nagisa in motion
"Natsunagi..."
Dazed, I called her name again.
Nagisa Natsunagi—a girl in my grade and my partner. Death had separated us once, or so I'd thought. Then she'd spent almost an eternity asleep. And now here she was, blinking right in front of me.
"Yes, my name is Nagisa Natsunagi. ...Heh-heh. It's been a while, huh?" Slowly sitting up, she flashed a goofy smile and a peace sign at me. "...Huh? Kimizuka, are you crying? Ah-ha-ha! I guess you reeeeally wanted to see me, didn't—?"
I hugged her as hard as I could.
"Wait, what? ...Huh? K-Kimizuka...?"
Natsunagi's flustered voice was right by my ear, but I couldn't afford to glance at her face or ask how she was doing. I wanted to stay like this forever, if she'd let me.
"Wow, I really didn't expect this... Um, Kimizuka? ...What in the...?"
Bewildered, Natsunagi became stiff and awkward. "Listen, I think you're breaking character. You're not normally the type for this sort of thing, are you?"
"...Shut up."
It was no good. Speaking made my nose feel stuffy. I hugged her tightly, so she couldn't see my face.
"...Oh, geez. Honestly. What are we going to do with you?" A soft warmth enfolded my back.
Natsunagi was hugging me too.
"Oh, I see. Yes, of course. This was what you wanted, wasn't it?"
It was like a reenactment of the time I'd met Natsunagi in that classroom. Back then, she'd been hoping I'd step into the role of detective and find the owner of her heart. As a matter of fact, though, that heart had already gotten its wish, and Natsunagi had done what it wanted and held me close.
"Um, what was it again? Seriously, you're all tearstained and covered in snot, and you still want to cry and throw a tantrum? You had other ways you wanted to play? ...I think that's how it went."
"...! You don't have to reenact that part!" I shook free of her arms, and we finally managed to look each other in the face.
"Pfft!"
"Heh."
Then we both burst out laughing.
How long had it been since I saw Natsunagi smile like this?
"Kimizuka, you look awful." She pointed at my red eyes. "You wanted to see me that bad, huh?" she teased.
"Yeah. I did," I replied. I told her how I genuinely felt. "I wanted to see you and make you bawl."
"...Mgh." Natsunagi must have known why already. She averted her eyes, looking guilty.
If Natsunagi woke up, I'd meant to scold her first thing. There was no way sacrificing her own life to save her friends was the right answer. That could never be the future everyone wanted. ...But...
"It turns out I'm not in any position to lecture you." When I said that, Natsunagi looked at me again.
I couldn't deny that I might have done the same thing if I'd been in her shoes. As a matter of fact, I'd swallowed that seed, and I'd been prepared to sacrifice myself when I did it.
"I was so happy you were alive that I didn't feel like getting mad." "...What's that supposed to mean?" Natsunagi gave an appalled little
laugh. Then she wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes with her fingertips.
"But, Natsunagi, why did you suddenly wake up?" I had zero complaints, of course, but we couldn't just label this coincidence and be done with it. I asked her how this miracle had occurred.
"I wonder." Natsunagi looked away, gazing out the hospital room window. "The whole time I was unconscious, I was on a lovely shore. It wasn't dark, the way it used to be, and I wasn't in a birdcage that kept me from going anywhere. It was just the clear, blue ocean and the sort of white, sandy beach that makes you want to run down it barefoot. I stayed at the waterline, staring at the ocean."
It had to have been the world of Natsunagi's subconscious. Unlike the times when Hel had been in control of her mind, she must have felt she'd completed her mission. That beach was her mental image of her goal.
"But as I was staring at the ocean, a little hand thumped me on the back." Natsunagi placed her hand on the left side of her chest. "When I turned around, I saw a cute, doll-like girl who looked like she'd jumped straight out of Wonderland. She was desperately trying to tell me something, but for some reason, I couldn't hear her voice." Read latest chapters at novelhall.com Only
As Natsunagi remembered, she squeezed her hand into a tight fist over her chest and the heart inside it.
She must have known who was in there.
"Then, I heard another girl's voice from her mouth. That voice was also terribly familiar, an indivisible part of me...and the next thing I knew, I'd obeyed it and started to move."
...Yeah, that was how we'd always been. Both as our enemy and our ally, her voice had always set us in motion. She, the one who bore the name of the queen of the dead, had tried to push Natsunagi back to this world. Her word- soul power had spoken for the voiceless girl with pink hair.
"What did she say?" I asked. Natsunagi raised her head.
"—She told me to start running."
Natsunagi's dignified expression wasn't one I'd ever seen her wear before. Her heart and memories and consciousness were home to many other people. I was sure that wholeheartedly accepting their wills had given her new life. The girl who'd agonized over her lack of identity was no longer there.
"After that, things seemed to happen so fast." Her expression softened. "Every cell in this body was screaming that it wanted to see you. So I ran across that shore, ran and ran, until I caught up...to you." Natsunagi bumped her fist lightly against my chest.
"Why me?"
"Well, you were hopelessly depressed. Even in my sleep, I could tell." Natsunagi smiled wryly.
"That's why you..."
"What's 'good,' huh?" As she turned to go, I called after her. "Are you planning to die?"
She stopped in her tracks.
"In the not-so-distant future, I'll turn into a monster."
Siesta turned around to face me. Her smile looked a little lonely.
"I first realized I might not be the primordial seed's most compatible vessel when I saw a sacred text that had been written long ago. I understood that the seed lying dormant inside me might begin to eat away at me one day."
"...You're telling me that for those three years we traveled together, you were holding that bomb all by yourself ?"
"My seed is in my heart. Maybe that's why I'm vaguely aware of its time limit. For now, I'm still okay, but that day is inevitable." Siesta placed her hand on the left side of her chest. "In the near future—I'll stop being able to see or hear you. Even though you've been beside me the whole time. I'll lose the voice I'd need to fight with you. I'll forget you, and...someday, I'll kill you. And so..." Even at a time like this, Siesta's smile was beautiful. "I'm going to leave this world before that happens."
That was my assumption. I didn't need to be right. I hadn't wanted it to be.
But Siesta's own words had just erased all doubt.
"Your feelings really did make me happy." As I stood there, silent, Siesta went on eloquently. "The only words I can find are simple ones, but I was happy. You got angry for my sake. You cried for me. And so I'm sure...I was happy."
An ace detective was brilliant, calm, cool, and collected. As such, Siesta sometimes prioritized logic over emotion. She emptied her heart, exclusively pursuing results. I was aware of that, so what she'd just said sounded like her genuine, unexaggerated feelings.
"Then are you saying you have no regrets?"
It was an incredibly cruel question, but I asked it anyway.
"I might have had some last year." Siesta's pale silver hair fluttered in the wind. She gave a small, crooked smile. "I still had things I wanted to ask you
then. But..." She tucked her hair behind her ears. "I know you consider me precious now. I know you enjoyed those three years. Then, even though I never expected to, I got to go to your apartment again and have pizza with you...and then fight the enemy, travel by air, and solve a case, and see a musical, and hold you close. I have no more regrets."
Siesta spoke firmly. I saw no hesitation in her face. In that case, my answer was—
"So why are you trying to stop me?"
I'd drawn my gun, and Siesta gave me a piercing, cold stare. "Sorry for being an assistant who doesn't do what you want."
I came here to stop you. Not to kill you or hurt you. I was pointing my gun at Siesta in order to protect her, to keep her alive.
"Who says I have to play along with you?"
Siesta turned a deaf ear to my resolution. That was only natural. Why should she go out of her way to deal with my rebellion? There was nothing in it for her. If I lowered my gun, or if the conversation trailed off, Siesta would leave us forever—even so...
"There's no point in running. I'll chase after you no matter what it takes, even if it means using the Saikawa family fortune or borrowing help from Charlie's old unit. The ends of the earth, the depths of the ocean, ten thousand meters up—I'll follow you everywhere."
After all, the Ace Detective hated to give up—but I could give her a run for her money.
"And if that sounds like too much trouble, I should fight you here?" Gazing down the barrel of my gun, Siesta guessed at what I was implying.
"That's right. We'll settle everything here. If you win, I won't mess with you anymore."
"There's no way you and I could have anything resembling an actual fight, and you know it. Besides—" Siesta turned her back to me, calling my bluff. "You and your friends can pursue me all you want, but you'll never catch me. I'll find a deserted place and time, and I'll complete my story by myself." After giving that remark, she started to leave.
Where had Siesta's story as the ace detective begun? Had it been when she was born, or was it at that laboratory six years ago, when her battle with the
primordial seed was established? I was only her assistant, and I didn't know. But when had my story as her assistant begun? Or what about our story,
Siesta's and mine? ...I knew that one for sure. It was that day. That one day, four years ago.
"Oh, I see. Siesta, you..."
What I had to say here and now had been determined back then.
"You got scared of me, your assistant. You're pretending the match has already been settled without a fight, so you can force me to admit a loss and end the game. In other words—you're afraid."
The moment I said it, Siesta stopped in her tracks. There was no way she'd forgotten whose taunt that had originally been and when it was from.
"Are you stupid, Kimi?"
She reproached me the way she always did.
But on this battlefield, her voice seemed just a little energized. "It's a thousand years too early for you to provoke me."
When she turned back to face me, she was holding a small pistol in her left hand. "Come to think of it, we've never really tried to kill each other before, have we?"
"No, although you single-handedly almost killed me."
Even under these circumstances—no, because of them—Siesta and I smiled at each other.
"—Now then."
But almost immediately, our eyes turned cold.
"Are you ready for this, Siesta?"
"I could ask you the same, Assistant."
Then, at the foot of the great tree towering over all mankind, Siesta and I pointed our guns at each other.
It was the first—and last—big fight we ever had.