Table of Contents

[From the Future: A Prologue] .........................................................9

Chapter 1 ..........................................................................................19
A Mistake Swimsuit Episode .....................................................19
The Country of Eternal Jus�ce .................................................23
Here is, A hundred years later ..................................................31
The late-coming main heroine(?) .............................................37
Those hitmen of everlas�ng darkness ......................................44
Red will tearing apart the batlefield ........................................48
Under this untainted jus�ce .....................................................58
[8 years ago Charlote] ......................................................................68
Chapter 2 ..........................................................................................73
The code signaling the beginning .............................................73
The desired distance between two parallel lines ....................80
Tomato-flavored affection ......................................................84
Let the countdown begin ........................................................90
The Detective’s right arm ........................................................97
Negotiator, Natsunagi Nagisa ................................................106
The two opposite guideposts .................................................112
The Assassin’s Silence ............................................................118
[15 years ago Fuubi].........................................................................126
Chapter 3 ........................................................................................134
One in a while, Campus Life ...................................................134
The《Will》that spins the world ...........................................138
Her beloved child ................................................................. 147
Code of slaughter ................................................................. 153
The seed of evil ......................................................................158
The agent’s lament .................................................................167
 The story from here on ..........................................................176
The Assassin’s Disciple ...........................................................181
Causality, Ace Detec�ve .........................................................187
[A Certain Interlude in Dream] .......................................................194
Chapter 4 .........................................................................................200
Side Charlote Ⅰ ......................................................................200
Side Fuubi Ⅰ ............................................................................206
Side Charlote Ⅱ .....................................................................210
Side Fuubi Ⅱ ...........................................................................216
Side Charlote Ⅲ ....................................................................225
Side Fuubi Ⅲ ..........................................................................235
Side Charlote Ⅳ.....................................................................247
Side Fuubi Ⅳ...........................................................................260
[Epilogue] ........................................................................................272
[1 week ago Nagisa] ................................................................... 281
[From the future, another epilogue] ..........................................289
[From the Future: A Prologue]

The sound of my leather shoes stepping on glass echoed through the silent
ruins.

“Are you stupid, Kimi?”

I was scolded. Despite demanding me to be quiet, she’s quite loud herself.

“You made a noise, so there’s no point in being quiet anymore.”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s my fault.”

A dark and rough interior. I carefully walked next to the detective… Siesta.

“By the way, if you don’t want me to make noises, shouldn’t you carry me on
your back, Siesta?”

“You’re way off the rails.”

Siesta sighed heavily, then showed me her back, “want to get on?” kind.

“Which is better for your public image, piggyback or princess carry?”

“I concur they’re both terrible.”

I see, being a man is hard.

“Anyway, it’s been a while. Coming to a foreign country, doing this kind of job
with you.”

We were in a rural town in the eastern part of America, 10,000 kilometers

away from our homeland. We were looking for a certain person.

“Are you stupid, Kimi?”

“Why is that your instinct?”

“We don’t have time to reminisce. If this is a bust, we have to go to the next
one right away.”

“I know. Nagisa and Mia probably thought the same.”

As my mind wandered to the two who were also on the same mission
somewhere, Siesta stopped herself.

“Get back.”

Something was there. By the time I realized it, Siesta had already jumped out to
confront the enemy. A gunshot rang out soon after. She’d fired.

“…”

Siesta clicked her tongue. It’s missed

The enemy’s shadow moved. A dull sound, then the gun fell from Siesta’s right
hand.

“Siesta!”

I threw her my knife. Depending on who the enemy was, this thing might prove
to be more useful.

“How many years has it been since we last fought?”

Siesta smiled pleasantly as she pulled the knife out of the sheath.

In the darkness, metal sounds rang. The enemy must have had a similar
weapon. The two of them clashed knives and sent sparks flying. In this
battlefield, where the footing and visibility were all bad, this was a simple
martial fight to decide who was superior.

Eventually the sound of clashing stopped. I had then found the emergency
power of the building and turned it on. In the dimly lit room, I could see two
figures holding broken weapons. Siesta, and…

“What do you want to do? We can still fight - Fuubi.”

Siesta asked the redhead police woman, or rather, “Assassin”.

“You can fight without weapons, right?”

“If it comes to pure hand-to-hand combat, I might end up killing you.”

I forgot how to hold back, Fuubi replied with a smirk on her lips.

“…Then what? You were holding back just now?”

“Ha, you’re still a kid. Ace Detective.”

It was a draw, a draw. Fuubi leaned against the wall and lighted her cigarette. I
wondered when was the last time I saw her smoke?

“We’re looking for you.”

Fuubi glanced at me for a moment and exhaled deeply.

“Former Assassin” Kase Fuubi. A veteran police officer that knew me for a long
time, and her true identity was a hitman for the underworld. She had
apparently killed many targets by order of the Federation Government. She
was sometimes an ally, sometimes an enemy. And… what about now?

About a year ago, right after the Great Catastrophe, a crisis that threatened the
world, Fuubi was imprisoned on charges of treason. She herself seemed to
accept the charge, but during the chaos caused by Bruno Belmondo, she
escaped.

Siesta and I were looking for information about the lost memories of the world,
especially those related to “Phantom Thief”. Fuubi was the one who led the
investigation concerning him.

“Why did you know this place?”

Fuubi asked Siesta while holding her cigarette between fingers.

“You’re being pursued by the government. But Bruno must have calculated that
too. We just checked all the places he’d used as hideouts when he’d been
alive.”

The other team, Nagisa and Mia, was also arriving at another candidate
location we deemed as Fuubi’s hiding place.

“So you’re not with the other former Tuners?”

For example “Inventor”, “Revolutionary” or “Famous Actor”, they’re all

supposed to be working for the same purpose as the deceased Bruno.

“I’m not in the same boat as them. I act on my own standards.”

“You don’t trust anyone, do you? - Even now.”

Fuubi didn’t answer my question.

After a slight pause, Siesta then asked.

“Don’t you know about Charlotte? She seemed to be following you.”

That’s one of the most important topics right now. Charlotte had been out of
contact for several weeks. According to her last message for Siesta, she wanted
us to look for Kase Fuubi if we lost contact with her.

“No idea.”

Fuubi crushed her cigarette in the ashtray with a dubious look.

“First of all, I would definitely notice if anyone was tailing me.”

That was quite a boast, but… didn’t look like she was lying.

“Then, something happened to Charl before that?”

For example, she was kidnapped away by someone.

“Right now, we can’t find her even with the Men in Black’s help. Or looking at
another angle, the enemy is someone Men in Black are useless against.”

Siesta deliberately used the strong word “enemy” here.

“Then, the one who kidnapped Charl… could it be the Federation

Government?”

Did they intend to use Charl as some kind of threat? A way to get us to do what
they want? No, if that was the case, they would have contacted us by now. The
government must have another reason…

“Is that all?”

Fuubi cut in as we lost in thought.

“I have a mountain of work to do after spending a year behind bars.”

She narrowed her eyes and urged us to leave.

It felt like Fuubi could switch her cigarette to her knife at any moment.

“Really? I thought you and I had the same goal.”

Siesta said calmly. I realized Fuubi’s eyebrows twitch slightly.

“To recover the lost memories of the past. Make us remember. If you’re
working with Bruno, that should be your purpose.”

Bruno was quick to notice the crisis we’re in. For example, “Phantom Thief”, for
example, “Akashic Records”, for example, “Singularity”. Those records have
disappeared from history, human memory has been rewritten.

That’s why Bruno raised the uprising flag against the government. The man
entrusted his will to the remaining former Tuners. Even if their positions were
different, Siesta and Fuubi headed in the same direction.

“Hey, Fuubi. How much do you remember? How much have you recalled?”

The familiar silence fell again after Siesta’s question. Fuubi, who had been
acquainted with Bruno for a long time, was likely nearer to the truth than us.

“You’re looking for a tool to get your memory back, right?”

It wasn’t an answer. But Fuubi said something meaningful. She must have
heard from Bruno, the existence of “Holy Relics”.

“We’ve found two Holy Relics so far. I predict the third one is here.”

Siesta raised her index finger.

“Starting from a certain point in Japan, the first Holy Relic was found at Bruno’s
mansion. Exactly 10,000 kilometers away. Mia found the second one next to
the Doomsday Clock. 10,000 kilometers too. And now, we’re here. It’s not
much of a hypothesis, but I think it has meaning.”

“So you guess my location based on that?”

Siesta looked pleased.

“So, where is this certain point in Japan that you’re talking about?”

“Well, you’ll understand if you look at a map later.”

In fact, the rough location was easy to figure out. The certain point that Siesta
mentioned was in the Hokuriku region.

But the specific location was only known by Siesta. She’d figured it out after
hearing about the locations of Bruno’s mansion and the Doomsday Clock from
Noel and Mia respectively. Regrettably she’s not telling me.

But I had a feeling I knew. It was a place full of memories that I’d visited after
an incident during Golden Week seven years ago.

“He guided us here.”

Siesta said “he”, but who was he?

A candidate flashed in my mind. But at the same time, I felt like it wasn’t the
right time to know yet.

“Let’s split up and look for the Holy Relic.”

Siesta took the lead and walked ahead.

A plant-covered abandoned mansion. After searching for about five minutes,

Siesta called us over.
“The sound is different here.”

Siesta stomped on the floor several times, making echoes with her shoes.

“Get back.”

Fuubi made us take a five-meter distance, then she threw something out.

A few seconds later, it exploded and dust rose up.

“Let’s go get the Holy Relic.”

“What are you going to do if it’s broken?”

I made a resigned face and looked at the broken floor… a hollow empty space.
There appeared to be a small underground passage.

“I’ll go check it out.”

Taking a flashlight, Siesta jumped down forcefully. Her footsteps stopped after
just a few seconds. Then they came this way, and Siesta came back with a
yellowish pyramid-shaped object in her hand.

“It was hung on something like an altar.”

Siesta grabbed Fuubi’s arm and climbed up. What Siesta had was undoubtedly
the third “Holy Relic”.

“Assistant?”

Siesta noticed soon enough. I was hesitating.

“I know. I have to do it. Touch it and get my memory back. But I may end up
knowing things I shouldn’t know again.”
It was like that last time. I saw the end of the vampire king that I shouldn’t have
known. It should have remained in a world with just the king and the bride.

“I don’t think I have the right to interfere with other people’s stories.”

Until recently, I had forgotten I’m the “Singularity”. Maybe I forgot it on my

own. Maybe I ran away from the Singularity role and abandoned the world, as
Ice Doll once advised me.

“Or something like that.”

I know, the story won’t start unless I touch it.

Siesta smiled softly. She then overlapped her palm with mine. There were no
words. We’ve exchanged enough words since she woke up, no, even before she
woke up.

We touched the Holy Relic together.

The third time this sensation running through my body. The missing pieces
assaulted my brain. Subsequently, the story was completed.

“Ugh!”

I felt nauseous from the overwhelming amount of information that flowed in.

“Oh, right. That’s right.”

Siesta rubbed my back and I calmed down. That day, we learned the true
nature of the Akashic Records. And our decision…

“…”

For a moment, our eyes met with Fuubi’s, only for a moment.
She must have known. That the story I was about to tell would involve that
man who was deeply related to her, that hero of justice.

“Assistant, will you tell me?”

Siesta looked at me with her blue eyes.

The beginning of this story was after the Vampire Rebellion, when the world
began to fall into chaos, starting with the Federation Government. This event
concerned the twelfth Tuner “Phantom Thief”, and the ever secret “Akashic
Records”.

“Actually, I’m not qualified to tell this story. So if you have any problems along
the way, feel free to interrupt me.”

I said that as a preface.

This was a story that questioned the reality of justice.

[Chapter 1]

◆A Mistake Swimsuit Episode

August. The blue sea sparkled brightly under the afternoon sun.

If this was Japan, you would see young people in swimsuits frolicking in the
water, but the native here mainly visited the beach for sunbathing, there were
thus not many people swimming. I was sitting on the seashore, just like them,
gazing at the waves blankly.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

A few minutes later, the other person arrived. My business partner and college
classmate, Natsunagi Nagisa, in a swimsuit. During our summer vacation, we
were visiting England.

“Huh, this is different from what I imagined?”

Natsunagi was confused by the wildly different scene compared to what we’re
used to in Japan.

“Also, it’s kind of cold.”

“England doesn’t get much warmer than twenty degrees even in midsummer.”

“I didn’t know that. This’s supposed to be a swimsuit episode…”

Natsunagi glanced at the swimsuit that she bought for this occasion,
disappointed.

I felt like she said the same thing last year, but oh well.

“Anyway, we didn’t come here to have fun.”

“I know that. As ‘Ace Detective’, I was invited to attend the Federal Council.

Tuners scattered around the world gathering by the request of the Federation
Government for that conference. We received the invitation a week ago.

The purpose was not written, but the higher-ups demanded all Tuner
participate, so that’s how Natsunagi and I came to this country.

“It won’t be a fun affair.”

There’s no need to meet if everything went well.

In fact, since the Vampire Rebellion, the world had been in turmoil, starting
with the Government. Of course, Vampire's successor had not been decided,
the seat’s vacant. Even the next mission of Ace Detective was not yet settled.
Might be a heated conference.

“The conference starts in the evening, right?”

“Yeah. So at least, we can have some fun now.”

Natsunagi hugged her knees cheerily.

She seemed to know how to enjoy this trip, just like the old Ace Detective.

“Hey, help me apply sun cream.”

She raised her voice and turned her back to me.

I don’t think the sun is particularly strong, but I guess showing your bare skin
under the sun is not really wise. I poured ample oil on my hands then touched
Natsunagi's back.

“...”
Natsunagi's body jumped at that moment.

“Don't make that funny noise.”

“This’s how it should happen, isn’t it. The swimsuit episode!”

You've been obsessing over swimsuit episodes for a while, haven't you?

“You just don't understand the appeal, Kimizuka.”

“I don't think most people would understand you.”

"That's terrible! You know when a couple splash water on each other, play
beach volleyball, and the girl's swimsuit is washed away so her breasts are
bare, but the boy is a little shy and just pulls her back behind the rocks to
protect her from the eyes of others!”

“Don't let the boy in your imagination accidentally see your naked body.”

Goodness, this kind of thing about Natsunagi really worried me. Don’t easily
give yourself up for the sake of someone else.

“Don't let people take away what's important to you, okay?"

When I finished, Natsunagi nodded “I understand” and turned to face me.

“I’ll make sure the important thing goes to the important person.”

Her eyes shone like jewels. The innocent girl when we met had grown up even
more beautiful.

Then Natsunagi invited me to play and splashed water at me. In the end, she
liked cliché development. The water was really cold. So I splashed back twice as
much.
“Hey! That’s too much!”

“This is the beach episode, remember… wait, ugh!”

A wave hit me and soaked me from head to toe. Was she angry?

“That’s unfair.”

“Haha, did you do this with Siesta too?”

“Well, we’d been traveling for three years. So..”

I remembered some of the countries and beaches I visited with Siesta. We did
many things, like swimming, riding banana boats, and playing beach volleyball.

Our priorities should have been solving cases… but still, the memories that
came to my mind were all those trivial ones.

“Then, we have a lot to tell her.”

“Yeah. I’m sure we wouldn’t even have enough time.”

Siesta’s surgery was approaching soon.

The major surgery to replace her old heart with an artificial heart made by
“Inventor” Stephen. Even if it should succeed, Siesta, who kept her
consciousness in that special heart, might wake up with her memory
completely lost.

But that’s our choice. We wanted her to live. So when Siesta woke up someday,
we would tell her everything about her.

Her codename. The scent of her loved tea. The memories we shared. We would
make Siesta a detective again, with our connections.
“I remember everything. Even if she doesn’t, I do.”

So it’s okay.

Just a little more. Until the day when the detective can walk under the sun.

“Wait for me, Siesta.”

I reached out in my heart toward the dazzling light.

◆The Country of Eternal Justice

Natsunagi and I left the beach and got in a car prepared by them.

We were taken to a world heritage palace that was unnaturally deserted. This
seemed to be the venue for “Federal Council”.

At four in the afternoon, Natsunagi and I entered the gate. After going through
a long corridor, we could see there were already some early guests in the hall.

“Phew, I’m glad. Finally someone I know…”

One of them, a blue-haired girl in a shrine maiden outfit, came running up to

us.

“Oracle” Mia Whitlock.

We usually only met her through the computer screen, so it’d been a long time
I saw her in person.

“Mia, you were here.”

“Yeah, but I was about to leave.”

Don’t try to leave before the conference even starts.

“Is Olivia not with you?”

Natsunagi asked curiously. There was no sign of the servant nearby.

“She said she’s busy with her work. She’s been on planes all the time lately.”

Mia puffed up her cheeks and complained about Olivia, the flight attendant
who’s currently working at ten thousand meters above the ground.

“So you came alone. That’s impressive, for a shut-in.”

“H-hey, don’t call me a shut-in. …I thought it would be bad if I didn’t participate

this time since this council is held in England.”

And then she saw no acquaintances and wanted to retreat right away. As usual,
she was cute (desperately).

“Then, let’s sit together!”

Natsunagi took Mia’s hand and they sat down on a nearby luxurious-looking
sofa.

I darted my eyes through the room.

In this … mansion’s parlor, there were tables and chairs with intricate designs
spacing around, and the Tuners who arrived earlier were each in their
respective sittings.

One was a man in a dark suit and sunglasses “the Man in Black” who I often
relied on. And the remaining two were a tall woman with a black veil covering
her face and a man in a rider’s jacket wearing a bike helmet. Neither of them
showed their actual faces.

“The girl is ‘Revolutionary’, and the boy is ‘Famous Actor’.”

I turned around to the source of the voice.

An old man was standing next to me. I couldn’t detect his presence until that
moment.

“It’s been a while, Singularity. Or should I say, Ace Detective’s assistant.”

“Information Broker” Bruno Belmondo. Last summer, Siesta and I had met him
at the Federal Council.

“Thanks for taking care of Natsunagi last time.”

It’s difficult to contact Bruno for private matters, he only tends to appear in
official meetings like this. But a few months ago, when Vampire Rebellion
broke out, Natsunagi contacted him and borrowed his wisdom.

“No, that was a meaningful exchange for me.”

I need to keep it fair, Bruno laughed. And he looked at Natsunagi.

“I see, this’s how the youths connect.”

I followed Bruno’s gaze. Natsunagi had opened her laptop, and Mia was
muttering something to the screen.

I made out “Magical Girl” Reloaded from the display. She was going to
participate in this conference remotely from her home in Scandinavia. She and
Mia were arguing, as usual.

“So Mr.Bruno, are you friends with those two?”

I pointed at Revolutionary and Famous Actor. The former must be the
successor of the late Fritz Stewart, but what kind of position is “Famous Actor”?

“The most important thing in this world is not to tip the scale too much. If there
ever comes a day when I need to join hands with them to maintain the balance
of the world, I won’t hesitate for a second.”

Bruno eluded my question and sat down on a rocking chair nearby.

“Inventor” probably won’t be coming either.

The ever busy doctor Stephen. There’re many patients who needed his godly
ability, including Siesta. I could easily imagine him holding a scalpel somewhere
right now.

“Fuubi might come.”

“Ah, but ‘Assassin’ must be busy too.”

Bruno said merrily while stroking his goatee “I wanted to see her too.”

To sum up there were seven attendees - Ace Detective, Oracle, Man in Black,
Revolutionary, Famous Actor, Information Broker, and Magical Girl who
participated remotely.

“Vampire” who had been a Tuner until recently was gone. His position name
may never be engraved in the record again —

“It’s about time.”

Bruno looked at the antiqued wall clock.

Right after that, the door of the hall opened.

A masked person came in. No doubt, he must have been a high-ranking official.
And another one, a man in suit who I’m quite familiar with.

“Huh, Ookami-san?”

Natsunagi also noticed.

The former detective assistant substitute, Ookami. He was sent by the

government to support Natsunagi while I was working as Reloaded’s familiar.
And there’s that meeting with Fuubi…

“Why is Ookami here, he’s no Tuner?”

“Kimizuka Kimihiko, I’ll return the same question to you.”

I was at a loss for words.

“I’m, you know, that. Like … ‘Singularity’.”

“You accept that setting now?”

“…Shut up. So, why is Ookami with the government official?”

I continued my attack and Ookami replied “Ask Doberman”.

“Doberman? What do you mean, are you talking about me being Lil’s loyal dog?
That’s true, but…”

“Kimihiko, did you just throw away your pride in a ditch?”

A sharp retort came my way.

Natsunagi turned her laptop to me. There was Lil glaring death.
“Doberman is the codename of that official. He’s in charge of ‘Magical Girl’…
well, not really, but we’ve talked a few times.”

I see. From Ice Doll to Odin, now Doberman.

“This young man was appointed to be the ‘Enforcer’.”

Doberman then introduced Ookami.

“After the previous owner died, Enforcer’s seat had been vacant for a long
time, but the other day, Magical Girl was injured, and Vampire passed away.
It’s urgent to increase the number of Tuners.”

“That’s what it seems. I really didn’t care about the position.”

Ookami shrugged his shoulders. But if he was to succeed Douglas Amon, his
late friend, there should be no one better.

“Still, it’s rare for a government official to come to this place. You guys usually
leave this kind of thing to Lil and the other Tuners.”

The magical girl was assertive.

“What’s the agenda of this council? The biggest crisis recently, Vampire
Rebellion, was three months already, no?”

“Yeah, that’s why today we have a different matter. I want to talk about a crisis
that is about to happen, or rather, already happening.”

As Doberman finished speaking, the screen at the back of the hall brightened
up. To put it simply, it’s a crime scene. A man and a woman were lying in a pool
of blood.

“The victims were a couple in their forties living in Greece. They were stabbed
to death by their middle school son.”
“…Then, it’s a solved case?”

It was undoubtedly a gruesome scene that none wanted to witness. But why
did Doberman talk to us about a done murder case?

“There’s something written.”

Natsunagi got up from the sofa and got near the screen.

“Alphabet… no, Greek letter, ɑ(alpha)?”

Our detective was right. Next to the husband’s body was the letter ɑ.

In crimson color. In other words, blood.

“Actually, similar cases have been occurring all over the place this month.”

The screen flipped through each case, one after another. All of them had the
alpha blood letter next to the body.

“The common points of these cases are not only the blood letter but one more
thing. All the perpetrators are children of the victims. In other words,
parricide.”

Dozens of photos were lined up on the screen. The parents all looked like they
were in their thirties or forties. They were murdered by their own sons and
daughters.

“And their nationalities are different, huh?”

We may have a clue, but the case was still unclear. What is this, really?

“What does the sacred text say about this matter?”

Doberman seemed to be hinting something.

“So that’s why you called us.”

I turned to the standing up Mia.

“This case (Neverland Project) involves Abel A. Schönberg.”

The shrine maiden who predicted all kinds of disasters uttered that name.

Abel A. Schönberg. A shadowy criminal whose personal profiles are all

unknown. He is said to be involved in most of the unsolved cases around the
world, and every police organization is chasing him.

“But I heard Assassin is dealing with this crisis now.”

“Yeah, that’s right. It appears she is so devoted to this mission that she can’t
even attend this meetup.”

…So that’s what it was. In fact, I recently knew Fuubi’s mission was to dispose
of Abel.

“But if Abel is the mastermind of this case, then it’s the Assassin's duty. Why
did you bother to gather us Tuners?”

The one who asked was Ookami. Newly appointed, and he didn’t hesitate to
speak in the slightest.

He must have had some reason to accept the role.

“There must have been some special circumstances. For example…”

Ookami and the others turned to me.

“Maybe Abel’s true identity is actually ‘Phantom Thief’ Arsene.”

That was a hypothesis Fuubi told me before.

Some people gasped, and a couple seconds passed by in silence.

“I’ve heard that theory.”

Doberman finally opened his mouth.

"But at least the threat of Abel A. Schönberg is immeasurable. It’s no longer a

good idea to leave it to Assassin alone. Therefore, I will make an exception to
the Federal Charter.

Doberman swept around the hall in his masked face and continued.

“Gentlemen of justice. Set aside your pride, cooperate and capture Abel.”

◆Here is, A hundred years later

“Wow, so this is Kimihiko and the previous Ace Detective’s love nest.”

After the meeting was over, we returned to the apartment in London. Lil was
looking into the room through the laptop on the dining table.

“That’s a lot of misrepresentation. It’s a work base, this place.”

Siesta rented this apartment a long time ago. At that time, I was also working
as her live-in assistant. I stopped by here with Natsunagi last year, but that was
the last time till now.

“If you say this is just a workplace, why haven’t you canceled the rent even
after so many years?”

“…That’s, you know. If there’s business in London, it’s convenient.”

Lil smirked at my desperate excuse.

“Lil, don’t be too mean. For Kimizuka, this precious home is filled with
memories of Siesta.”

Natsunagi somehow threw me a lifeline.

“What’s that? You think you can be magnanimous cause you’re the senior
wife?”

“Come on, I know you’re anxious, former girlfriend, but calm down?”

An incomprehensible argument broke out via the monitor.

Needless to say, neither of them was my wife or girlfriend.

“But this apartment seems rundown. You’re sure it’s not gonna get demolished
soon?”

As Natsunagi said earlier, there’re Siesta’s scents all over here.

I want to bring her here someday after she wakes up… However, time will not
wait for me.

“Then you tell her that, too.”

Natsunagi’s downcast eyes looked at me.

“What kind of work did you two do in here? How did you spend your days?”

“Oh, that’s ...”

Even if the apartment is gone, those days won’t disappear. It’s the job of this
detective assistant to remember.
“By the way, where’s Mia?”

She’d been with us, but come to think of it, I haven’t seen her since a while
ago.

“Oh, I guided her to the bedroom. She said she was tired and wanted to rest a
bit.”

“Natsunagi, you’re too trusting!”

I got up and headed to the bedroom. And when I opened the door, there was
Mia burying her face in the pillow.

“Mia, that’s not Siesta’s pillow, it’s mine.”

“Gya!”

Mia threw the pillow away hurriedly.

“There should be no smell left anymore.”

“I-I wasn’t trying to smell senpai’s scent or anything! I’m no pervert!”

Mia stomped back to the dining room shouting.

“Ahh, I can’t believe the shrine maiden who divines fate was such a pervert.”

On the other side of the screen was a wicked magical girl.

“The ally of justice was actually a horny weirdo. What’s happened to your
character----”

“Well then, let’s get serious.”

Mia casually closed the laptop and sat across from me and Natsunagi.
She’s gotten more bold, against Lil I mean.

“What are we going to do? About Doberman’s story.”

“Right, he did ask us to cooperate catching Abel.”

It was rare for a government official to ask us for something (even if he still
kept his mask on). Abel must be a once of a kind threat.

“He didn’t admit it at the time… But if ‘Phantom Thief’ Arsene is really Abel’s
identity, then it’s our duty to catch him, as detective and assistant.”

That’s what Siesta had told me before.

“Yeah. That’s why we have to investigate this case.”

Natsunagi looked serious.

Children killing their parents. This Neverland Project that Abel was involved in.

“I can’t see the truth of this case even with my future vision.”

Mia bit her lip.

“No matter how much hatred they had in their hearts, there must have been a
serious trigger for them to kill their parents. If Abel is the mastermind, I will
never forgive…”

“I see. Mia, you were…”

I remembered her history. One day Mia awoke the ability to see the future. Her
parents started a cult and made her their earning tool. But in the end Mia
never abandoned her parents, she desperately tried to prevent them from
being killed by their followers.
“I know it sounds weird for me to say this, but please. Please stop this tragedy.”

The shrine maiden thus bowed her head to the detective. As a client.

“Then, Lil too.”

Lil appeared via the laptop again. Probably Natsunagi woke it up.

“Since my body’s become like this, praying is the only thing I can do now.
Please, let your justice be proven.”

Natsunagi and I nodded at each other.

“You say something nice once in a while, Lil.”

“Huh? Don’t be cheeky, Mia.”

Lillllllll, Miaaaaaaa. They had been fighting continuously since before the
council started. That’s said…

“Hey, did these two call each other by first name?”

“Natsunagi, it’s basic decency not to point that out.”

The more they fight, the more they get… closer!?

“Kimizuka, how about calling me by my first name too?”

“That’s, you know. If you had said that when we first met …”

“…Did I mess up my first introduction?”

Natsunagi ruffled her hair with her fingers and seemed a little sulky.
Suddenly, my phone vibrated on the desk.

It stopped, then five seconds later, it rang again. That cycle repeated once
more. I stole a glance at the display.

“Who’s that?”

“I don’t know. Anonymous caller.”

I got up and told Natsunagi.

“I’m going to buy some drinks.”

I wondered if the supermarket nearby was still open.

“Then, I want ice cream! Something fruity.”

“I want snacks. Sweet and salty.”

“Lil… Ah, never mind, send me a souvenir later.”

“What do you think I am?”

I ignored them and left the apartment.

Walking under the starry sky, my body felt a little cold.

The supermarket is on the main street, but I went into the back alley. After
some three minute walk, a gust of wind blasted across my face. Or you could
say killing intent.

“Did it graze me?”

I tried to check if there was blood, but the “wind” came at me a second time.
“I don’t have any weapons here.”

I threw myself out dodging with all my mind, but the next one was completely
invisible! If they hadn’t spared me, I would have been dead. Seriously.

“You’re still hopelessly outmatched, you know.”

The attacker spun their dagger around playfully.

“Come on. I went out of my way to come here, Charl!”

She gently helped me get up.

It was the first reunion in eight months with the agent Charlotte Arisaka
Anderson.

◆The late-coming main heroine(?)

It was time for supermarkets to close. A lone car was driving in the quiet streets
of London.

“Somehow you look like a proper agent. When you’re behind the wheel, I
mean.”

I glanced sideways at Charl, who was in the driver seat.

She was wearing a low neckline shirt and black slacks. Her style was always
quite good, but today even more. Her makeup got more mature. Charl looked
like a character in some spy movies.

“And I actually liked your dumbness.”

“I don’t think it’s a compliment.”

Charl twisted my nose with her left hand.

“That’s unfair.”

“Your voice is weird. Didn’t think it’s changed that much?”

“It’s because you’re trying to tear my nose apart.”

She put her hand back on the wheel. Satisfied.

“Anyway, long time no see. How have you been?”

“Alive, I guess.”

The last time I saw Charl was at Saikawa’s birthday party last year. Right after
that, I got involved with Magical girl, and Charl resumed duty overseas.

We’ve been in touch occasionally, mostly about Siesta, but I never thought I’d
see her today. Looks like she has some work in England.

“I’m glad you’re safe. It’s dangerous, right? Your job.”

“Yeah, well, I certainly won’t run out of things to tell.”

Charl smiled sarcastically and slowly stepped on the brake as we came before a
red light.

“Speaking of which, Kimizuka, so you remembered that signal.”

“It’s been about four years, but it’s something hard to forget.”

When I was in the apartment earlier, I got a call from an unknown number. The
phone’s strange behavior was the signal to start the operation when we
worked together under Siesta.
That’s why I knew that Charl was nearby. Didn’t expect to be assaulted, though.

“So I came out by myself, but why did you call me alone?”

“…Do I have to say it?”

The signal turned green and the car started moving. She seemed to be
embarrassed.
“I wanted to talk to you. A little."

Charl’s gaze briefly turned to me in the passenger seat.

“But it’s not that, okay? It’s just that, you know, I found out that you were in
London and I thought it would be weird not to call … See, Ma’am told us, right?
Get along better.”

She suddenly rattled on in a hurry. I don’t know what she’s panicking about,
but I wish she’d stop stepping on the accelerator so hard. It’s scary.

“You could just have come to the apartment. Natsunagi was there, too."

“Ugh, shut up. I’ll double-kill you!”

“Don’t steal people’s catchphrases.”

“Why’s it only me who doesn't have any catchy phrase?”

“It’s too late to change your character.”

As I retorted, our eyes met each other. Her emerald eyes looked sensual, her
rouge lips curved into a smile.

“It’s really not bad to argue with Kimizuka once in a while.”

“…We’ll crash if you don’t look ahead.”

I turned forward.

…Really, something’s wrong. What’s with Charl today? She’s strangely honest…
friendly, even! What caused this change of heart?

“So? Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”

“Do you have to have a destination?”

Charl pouted for some reason. Did she … just want to have a casual
conversation with me?

“…Come on, figure it out already, idiot.”

The headlights of the oncoming car lit up the dark for a moment. The face of
the agent who had always been cold to me reddened.

The drive continued for about thirty minutes, and eventually the car arrived at
a deserted wharf.

“Let’s take a break.”

Charl said and we got out of the car. It was summer, but the air was a bit chilly
at this time.

“Do you want a jacket?”

I took off my own jacket and handed it to the girl who was rubbing her hands
together. Charl looked surprised for a moment “Thank you” and took it.

“You’ve … matured, Kimizuka.”

“Well, yeah. By the way, I did get scolded by Natsunagi a few months ago. Or
Something...”

If I ever had a chance like this with Saikawa, I’d hold her hand and warm her up
right away. She’d be overjoyed, surely.

“Huh?”

I suddenly heard engine’s noises in the back.

I turned around. There were several black cars stopped haphazardly.

“Is peaceful time over?”

Multiple cars in front of us. Behind me, the sea.

This is… We’re blocked.

Soon, a group of people with strange masks got out of the car. They all wore
cloaks. Suspicious.

“Charl, do you have a gun?”

I asked quietly. We need to expect the worst. I don’t know who they are, but I
want some weapons…

“Hey, hey! Charl!”

The blonde agent walked alone to the masked group. And from the other side,
a goat-like mask individual came forward.

There was a standoff for a few seconds. Charl was the one who broke the
silence.

“I did as promised. Now tell me where’s Arisaka Kozue.”

The goat mask took out a memo paper from under their cloak. Charl took it and
began to walk away.

“Hey, wait! Charl, wait!”

I called out to her back, louder and louder.

But only the masked group paid me any attention.

They restrained me with their pistols. In other words…

“Charl, you tricked me!"

My scream finally drew a reaction from her.

“Ah! Sorry, Kimizuka!”

Her expression was an annoyingly beaming smile.

◆Those hitmen of everlasting darkness

“That's - no - fair.”

Handcuffed, legs shackled, I was thrown into the back seat. After that, Charl left
by herself.

The drive on the way was surprisingly fun … Damn, that trick was dirty. I was so
pathetic for falling for it… I even lent her my jacket. Really tempted to punch
myself there.

“So? Where are you guys taking me?”

I’ll give Charl a thorough beating for sure, and for that, I need to eventually
escape. Where’s this hellish drive heading to, I repeated my question to the
goat mask driver.

“Not a tea party, I assume?”

There were only me and the goat mask in the car.

“You talk a lot, you!”

A woman. Her voice sounded fairly young.

“Aren’t you afraid?”

“I’m used to being kidnapped. By the way, can you take off your mask? I have a
thing for beautiful women.”

No reaction. Not the type to respond to pointless banter, I see.

Then.

“I’ll ask again. Where are you taking me?”

They didn’t appear wanting me dead right away. There should be room for
negotiation.

"If this is a kidnapping, that means someone wants me. Are you heading to
their base?“

“There are requests for your organs all over the world. I can’t say where
exactly.”

“... You're going to dissect me!?”

So she’s part of a human trafficking organization. I’m surprised my value has

risen so much. Is this “Singularity” appeal?

“And Charl lured you with me as bait?.”

And what she got in return —

“Arisaka Kozue is Charl’s mother, right?”

No reaction. A confirmation, this time.

I know two pieces of information about Charlotte Arisaka Anderson. One is that
Charl’s Japanese roots came from her mother. As for the other, she was
secretly looking for her missing parents this entire time.

“Her parents, who were employed in the army, suddenly cut off all contact and
disappeared one day. Charl understood in their line of work, this was not
unusual. Even if they couldn’t see each other, somewhere, they must have
been undertaking an important mission.”

But even as she convinced herself of that, Charl was still looking for her
parents. Maybe she could meet them again by chance. Agents travel a lot after
all.

I heard that a long time ago. Of course, she didn’t tell me directly. I just
happened to overhear her talking to Siesta.

“What’s your relationship with Arisaka Kozue?”

Charl asked for Arisaka Kozue’s whereabouts earlier.

“There’s no special connection between us and Arisaka Kozue.”

The mysterious woman replied without much interest.

“We’re just an organization that's well connected. Finding people is our

specialty.”

“And Charl sold me out to you?”

“Poor thing. Betrayed by your own friend.”

— Friend. I wonder how Charl feels about that word.

“Hmm, is someone there?”

I saw a small figure ahead of me.

The shadow walked daringly in the middle of the road.

However the goat mask kept on driving straight at the usual speed as if to say
she would run over anyone who got in her way… The next moment, the
shadow vanished.

No, actually, they jumped straight at our car.

“Wha-t!”

The woman screamed.

This lump of iron was soon to be swallowed by that shadow.

Immediately, I heard a loud brake and my whole body was thrown off balance.
The car crashed into guardrails at full force.

“…Ouch.”

I somehow raised my upper body while sensing blood dripping from my nose.
The windshield was shattered. The driver’s seat was almost crushed, and the
goat mask woman’s body slumped lifelessly over the wheel.

“…I’d like to help you if it’s possible, but in this state...”

There were steel shackles on all my limbs. I couldn’t move at all. And there’s
even fire rising from the car. If the gasoline…

“I can’t die here.”

I twisted my body like a worm and tried to get out of the car.

“I still have things left undone.”

“Go on, want to say anything in the end?”

“That’s obvious. I really … truly care about the detecti.…”

…Huh? Who am I talking to?

Before I knew it, I was carried out of the car by someone.

And then, a loud explosion followed. The car I had been riding in turned into
flames.

“You would have been burnt to a crisp if I was a step too late. Be grateful.”

“I don’t like that attitude, but… Thank you.”

I nodded to the one who just saved my life, that is, the shadow from earlier.

“But can you put me down soon? Ms. Fuubi.”

◆Red will tearing apart the battlefield

We moved to a back alley a little away and I laid my back on the outer wall of
some building.

“I’m saved…”

I rubbed my wrists that had been handcuffed until a while ago. Of course, Fuubi
was the one who removed my restraints.

“Soon, the guys in charge of cleaning up will come.”

My benefactor came back holding her phone.

Kase Fuubi, part time police officer and full time “Assassin”.

I had been saved by her countless times, but she had also burdened me with
many troubles. Fair.

“Who are the guys in charge of cleaning up? Local police? Men in Black?”

“It doesn’t matter. Not my area of expertise, anyway.”

Fuubi lit a cigarette as if her job was over. The aftermath of the explosion, the
investigation of the masked group didn’t seem to interest her.

“So, why are you here, Ms. Fuubi?”

I didn’t mean to be rude, but why was she in this country? She hadn’t shown
her face at the Federal Council.

“I was originally going to attend. But I changed my mind, at the last minute.”

Yeah, right, women are fickle.

It’s now August, still summer. I thought autumn would be when women’s
hearts get finicky.

“No, wait. I should really not use the expression woman’s heart with you.
Apologize.”

“What did you apologize for? And did you finish your apology?”

She took out a gun as a matter of course while I tried hard to calm down the
scary police officer.

“How many other Tuners attended today?”

I counted on my fingers.

《Detective》, 《Oracle》, 《Magical Girl》, 《Information Broker》, 《Men

in Black》, 《Revolutionary》, 《Famous Actor》, And the newly added 《
Executioner》, eight in total. Almost all Tuners, I reckoned.

“I just think. At this rate, we can’t outsmart the enemy.”

“Enemy?”

I asked involuntarily, but there could be only one answer. The enemy standing
against Assassins, and us, currently — Abel A. Schönberg.

“I can’t imagine the Federation Government could deal with Abel properly at
this time. I’m sure they just ordered all Tuners to catch Abel today — like hell
it’s that easy.”

It went something like that, yeah.

“So I decided to ignore their rulebook and act on my own. Straight normal
highway won’t reach Abel.”

She crushed her cigarette with a portable ashtray.

“For example, there are situations like this.”

In a flash, my body was pushed down on the asphalt. Silky hair grazed my
cheek. Fuubi’s face was right in front of me.

“You’re pretty aggressive.”

“Who would bother with a shitty kid like you?”

Immediately after, there was a small explosion nearby.

An attack — this assassin protected me again. I raised my face after Fuubi let go
of me. There was that strange woman standing at a distance.

“…I’ll take that boy back.”’

The enemy in a black combat bodysuit rushed towards us without hesitation.

Fuubi kicked me back and engaged in combat. The enemy possessed no visible
weapons. She approached Fuubi with kicks and fists.

“Not an ordinary kidnapper, you.”

Fuubi parried the attack, but soon a kick from the enemy wounded her face.
Bleeding from above her eyelid, her vision was momentarily lost and the goat
woman used that chance to vanish from sight.

She didn’t become invisible, of course. The enemy ran up the outer wall of the
building. From about two stories high, she dropped a nuclear kick.

“That’s flashy. Unfortunately.”

Fuubi rolled on the asphalt and dodged it. And then.

“You have no substance.”

She fired her gun. But it didn’t hit the target. Instead.

“Are you trying to kill me!”

“It’s your fault for entering my range.”

“Your range probably covers all of London or so.”

And while we’re joking, the goat mask woman gripped tight her dagger and
closed the distance with Fuubi. A whizzing sound. However, the red-haired
assassin bent her upper body avoiding the attack, and twisted her leg to deliver
a beautiful kick. The knife was knocked out of the enemy’s right hand.

“That hardness, you have a prosthetic arm.”

Fuubi narrowed her vision on the enemy’s right hand.

“That’s not your own power then. I’m disappointed”

“…As long as I win, justice belongs here.”

Since the battle began, this’s the first time the goat mask woman spoke.

The enemy swung her right fist. Fuubi braced her arms to try to block it, but
she couldn’t withstand the impact and was thrown back several meters.

“Is that justice for you? What kind of justice does a human trafficking
organization possess?”

“Those who should live, live. Those who should disappear, disappear. That’s my
justice.”

The attacker looked straight at me.

Did she mean I should disappear?

“I see. Then, you are even more wrong."

Fuubi’s hair fluttered in the night.

“At least for that kid there, he should survive. Even if it takes ten million
deaths.”

That’s definitely not Fuubi’s personal feelings. She objectively evaluated the
value of this human being… no, “Singularity” Kimizuka Kimihiko.
“You’re abnormal?”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m doing this job.”

Their short exchange ended there. That’s the signal for the final showdown.
Both started to sprint at the same time, their fists flying straight ahead.

“I do feel kinda bad about this.”

In an instant, there’s something blowing up.

The goat mask’s left arm had exploded.

“Ms. Fuubi…!”

She’d hidden a bomb in her prosthetic arm. Fuubi took the blast head-on. The
enemy broke through the rising black smoke and rushed this way. From the
start, I was always her main target.

“Uh, I’ll have you know I’m also someone who fights.”

I fired the gun Fuubi had secretly slipped to me beforehand.

One shot, two shots, all dodged. Eventually I managed to hit her right leg.

“… Prosthetic leg!”

The bullet couldn’t penetrate. The enemy was right in front of me.

Fortunately.

“Why did you think I’d die in that small firework?”

A crimson aura permeated the darkness.

The goat mask hastily pulled out her gun with her remaining right arm. She
tried to take a shot at Fuubi - it didn’t connect.

“This is a battlefield. Leave your hesitation at home, kid.”

The world “Assassin” was now faster than the speed of bullets.

“If you want to beat me, bring a thousand times more wrath.”

Kase Fuubi’s punch sent the enemy flying far away.

“My fist is heavy enough without any mechanical upgrade.”

Fuubi lowered her hand and staggered a little. It would be strange if she was
unscathed taking that close-ranged blast. I half-forced myself to lend her my
shoulder.

“It’s strange that you’re still alive after that.”

“Would it be better for you if I’d died.”

No way in hell. She’ll save me a boat load more times in the future, I believe.

“Curse you!”

A trembled voice.

Not from sadness, but pure anger. The goat mask gradually got up. She picked
up her knife.

“Damn, damn it! I hated your preachy attitude, you!”

“Huh? Have we met before?”

Ignoring Fuubi’s question, the enemy charged at us.

I had no more bullets. Fuubi tried to shield me with her right hand.

“Alright. I’ll take her on.”

A third party appeared.

The next moment, someone pinned down the goat forcefully.

“Wh-y are you here, Ryan!”

That surprised shout came from the usually composed assassin, Fuubi. She
stood motionlessly staring at the scene. Did she know him?

“Hey, how have you been? Fuubi!”

He looked effeminate with his wavy blond hair. However, his white uniform
was definitely a true military outfit. Who’s this guy?

The goat mask writhed in agony. Still, her eyes retained madness.

“She’s going to blow herself up again! Ryan!”

“Don’t worry, Fuubi. It’s over.”

The man said as the goat mask suddenly went limp. She seemed to have lost
consciousness in an instant. Did he hit her so fast my eyes can’t keep up?
Soon after, sirens sounded. Several police cars and even a helicopter gathered.
Presumably this man in uniform called them here.

“Who are you, exactly…?”

There were just too many questions. Fuubi then got up and walked towards the
guy.

“What are you intending to do with this goat?”

“Evil will not be judged by might, but by laws. This is Ryan White’s motto.”

The guy approached Fuubi beaming with delight.

“I’ve been wanting to see you.”

This 190 centimeters guy hugged Fuubi softly.

“Huh? What? …Huh?”

I involuntarily let out a cry.

The one to react was Fuubi herself, she turned her body to me trying to explain
“It’s not what you think. This guy is…”

But the more she did that, the more suspicious it seemed

“Why? You don’t look too happy.”

My mind went blank at his next words.

“Can you be more … honest. We’re engaged, aren’t we?”

◆Under this untainted justice

The next evening, I was in Mia’s clock tower room.

Olivia was absent. Mia brewed some tea for me (she didn’t look like she’s used
to it).

“It’s delicious.”
“It’s delicious, sure, but…”

Then Mia, who was still standing, looked at me sulkily.

“So you want me to… compliment your maid outfit?”

Mia was wearing an overly decorated maid outfit instead of her usual shrine
maiden clothes.

“I-I didn’t say anything like that. It’s just, Olivia suggested me to wear a maid
uniform when serving tea.”

“That’s just her teasing you.”

“…I-I was just playing along!”

Our Oracle blushed violently. She showed more and more emotions lately, I
think.

“That’s not it. I’m just like, what’s going on here?”

Our eyes darted around. There were quite a few… lively members besides us.
For example,

“Hey, Charl. That’s not okay. You can’t betray your friends.”

Natsunagi was scolding Charl in the corner. The blonde agent was forced to sit
on the hard floor with a big sign “I sold out my friends” around her neck. So
Charl’d got exposed huh.

“N-no, not like that, Nagisa. I was going to save him later!”

Charl tried to explain. According to her, she was planning to rescue me after
she confirmed the information’s accuracy.
“I’m sorry… I’ll beg Kimizuka for forgiveness. Please forgive me just this once.”

“If Kimizuka doesn’t mind, then fine… But I’m pretty angry, you know?”

Natsunagi pursed her lips and glanced at me. She really was my ally here.

“Wow, Nagisa, you really care when it comes to that guy.”

“…Huh? No, I mean, well, he’s my friend! And also, business partner, and
classmate, and assistant, and also, um…”

“I’m sorry for betraying your romantic partner.”

“I didn’t say that much!”

And so the conversation went on. On the opposite side, three adults were
talking.

“I thought it’s weird for you to skip the Federal Council, so you two had a secret
rendezvous.”

Ookami looked undisturbed in his black suit.

“Ookami, if you’re officially a Tuner now, don’t make misleading statements. I

was not meeting anyone.”

“Hey, Fuubi. Don’t pull out your gun so fast.”

The man in the military uniform - Ryan White - intervened as Fuubi glared at
Ookami.

“Guns are not tools to kill. They are meant to protect people.”

“…You’re still naive. I wonder how you can do your job.”

“Haha, I get scolded by my subordinates a lot!”

Ryan laughed cheerfully and made Fuubi lower her hand. She didn’t resist,
though Fuubi looked dissatisfied.

“In the end, Assassin was still human.”

Ookami concluded cynically.

“So Kimihiko. What’s going on here?”

“Mia. I’m being dragged into this, me.”

I took another sip of tea.

The mastermind who gathered us in this clock tower was none other than Ryan
White.

“I’m sorry, I guess we’re getting carried away. Yeah, my subordinates… scolded
me for that a lot.”

Ryan stopped his small talk as he caught my gaze. He seemed to be scolded all
the time, was this guy okay?

“Today I have something important to talk about, with you all. There is
something common among us, do you have any idea what it is?”

Ryan scanned the room.

An assassin, an enforcer, a shrine maiden, a detective, an agent, and one

ordinary Singularity. We were really a quite diverse group.

“You know, first, I don’t even know much about you.”

“I see, that’s true.”

Ryan looked apologetic.

“Then let me introduce myself again. My name is Ryan White. I’m an Interpol
investigator.”

I could see many badges glinting on his uniform. He must have been a man of
many achievements.

“Interpol?”

Natsunagi whispered to me.

“It’s the International Criminal Police Organization. Simply put, world police.”

I guess you could call it the public symbol of justice. In contrast, people like
Fuubi and Siesta protect the world from the shadows.

“As his name suggests, he’s a genuinely honest protector of good. ‘Untainted
Justice’ is his nickname.”

Fuubi explained Ryan White’s background with a sulky tone.

“Ha, well, I’m flattered, Fuubi.”

“I just relayed public opinions. You’re rotten, that much I know.”

Ryan laughed bitterly.

“I swear, I never do anything wrong, for this world.”

“Fuubi, you two are… acquaintances?”

“Yeah, you could say… childhood friends.”

Ryan turned to face Fuubi but she averted her eyes immediately.

“Our fathers were both police officers. They worked together in Japan for a
while, and that’s how we became friends.”

I wasn’t aware Fuubi’s father was also a police officer. Come to think of it, I
didn’t know much about her past. She never talked about herself.

“Ah! She used to be so cute. She followed me everywhere, saying ‘Ryan,

Ryan!’.”

“Ryan White, your lawyer has your will prepared?”

“Even if you now become a tsundere, to me you’re still adorable.”

A gunshot rang out. But Ryan’s hand put the muzzle upward. Their way of
communicating was scary.

“There’s a hole in my ceiling…!”

Mia too was cute.

“Childhood friends? You mentioned yesterday you two are engaged.”

“E-engaged!?”

Natsunagi blurted out in surprise. This detective loved those kinds of stories.

“Childhood make-believe. That’s all.”

Fuubi made a sour face.

“Ha, well, due to various circumstances, I joined Interpol and Fuubi became an
underworld agent. We haven’t seen each other for a long time, but we always
respect each other.”
It seemed that Ryan knew a lot about this side of the world, including “Tuners”.
Then this meeting...

“Enough introduction, Ryan.”

Fuubi snapped impatiently.

“You can guess from the timing and these members. It’s about Abel, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right. I’m pursuing him as an Interpol investigator, with my men.”

“Phantom Thief” Arsene, highly likely to be the same infamous criminal - Abel
A. Schönberg. That was the name of the enemy for all of us gathered here, we
who attended the Federal Council yesterday — Wait…

“What about Charl? Does she have anything to do with Abel?”

Charl didn’t attend the meeting yesterday. She wasn’t a Tuner, so that was
natural, but then why was she called here?

“You’ve been sniffing around, huh.”

Charl narrowed her eyes at Ryan.

“Yeah. Your mother, Arisaka Kozue, a soldier (plus agent), chased after Abel in
the past. She got pretty far, I heard.”

I see. So her mother…

Charl sighed meekly, “Seems to be the case.”

“I should ask you guys about Arisaka Kozue’s whereabouts sooner.”

“Unfortunately, we only found out about that information while investigating
the human trafficking organization last night. So, did you find out your
mother’s location?”

“She’s in a certain place in Japan, that’s all I know. I’m planning to go there as
soon as possible.”

That was why Ryan kept an eye on Charl. Maybe finding out Arisaka Kozue
would help us capture Abel.

“So, you want us to join forces catching Abel?”

Natsunagi questioned Ryan. If that was the case, it’s similar to yesterday’s
situation, but there’s one little problem.

“Assassin, will you cooperate?”

Ookami and I said in unison. Then, we kind of flinched.

Last night, Fuubi concluded we should not act together when dealing with Abel.
That’s why she intended to act alone.

“Yeah, that’s why I want to persuade Fuubi here.”

Ryan faced Fuubi again, who looked kinda pissed.

“There’s one more thing in common among the members here, believe it or
not. That is, everyone here is trustworthy. We can stand up to Abel without
them.”

He looked once again at us.

An assassin who follows her instincts without caring for the government’s
policy, a detective who inherits the will of justice, an enforcer who carries out
his late friend’s mission, and a shrine maiden who cares for the world more
than anyone else. And I and Charl… I wonder? Are we really trustworthy?

“Am I part of the fighting team too?”

Mia was quite nervous.

“You don’t have to be on the front line. I just want you to support us, with your
ability.”

“Ah… But of course. My mission since the day I met senpai was always — to
prevent World Crises.”

Mia puffed her chess in pride. I really wished Reloaded could join this team, but
considering her physical condition, that wasn’t really possible.

And another candidate, Bruno… I figured he wouldn’t side with us. His highest
priority was always keeping the balance.

So, there was one more person.

“-I”

Kase Fuubi frowned.

“Fuubi. You should understand the danger of challenging Abel alone.”

Ryan gently pointed that out. If the enemy’s really “Phantom Thief”, we might
not even recognize the fact that we’d lost to him. That’s how dangerous he is.

“We’re not going to follow the Federal Government’s orders. But can’t we trust
each other, those of us here?”

Surely Fuubi had never trusted anyone in the true sense of the word. That was
natural. For “Assassin”, depending on others meant death.
“I don’t need you to believe my words here. But please, remember our
promise.”

Fuubi’s shoulders twitched slightly. We stood in silence, waiting for her answer.

Finally, the red headed police woman replied.

“It’s not that I trust all of you here.”

Her eyes glared at us like we’re playing a werewolf game.

“Believing no one is my creed. For many years I have fulfilled my missions that
way. But maybe… this world got a little better.”

I remembered last time she divulged some of her information concerning Abel
with me.

I guess that is not trust. A compromise. Business-like, that’s her way. But at
least, she was willing to depend on others, that time.

“I won’t say anything like trusting each other. Not even if someone tore me
apart. Just…”

Fuubi raised her face and looked at each of us.

“We share the same goal. That fact I recognize”

From this moment on. The battle between the world’s most dangerous criminal
and the league of justice began.
[8 years ago Charlotte]
That day, as usual, I was reading a book to the bedridden Noah in his room.

“Let’s see, wait a minute, Noah — At that moment, I made the enemy spy
furi…”

“Furious.”

“Oh, right, right. Furious, furious. — At that moment, I made the enemy spy
furious and loa…ed my gun, loa, loa… loathed?”

“It’s loaded.”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s right. Um, where was I? Oh, here. — I defeated evil and
protected our peace. The end.”

I closed the book with a satisfied gesture.

Yeah, I think I did pretty well today.

“Sis, did you skip like a hundred pages?”

“No way. I just read really fast.”

“Is that speed reading?”

Noah admired me from his still lying position.

“Do you want to study kanji with me?”

…This two-year younger brother was cheeky.

“I’m good at English, you know.”

Yeah, that must be it. I must have inherited most of dad’s genes.

“Anyway, you can read books by yourself, right?”

But why did he always ask me to read them to him?

“I can read by myself, but…”

“But?”

“It’s more fun when Sis does it.”

“…”

I tried to retrain this urge to hug him tightly in my arms.

My brother, too cute…

He often said rude things, but some days he’s like this.

“Sister, will you become like this character in the future?”

Noah squeezed the book we’d just read.

It was a story about a strong and cool and famous agent girl.

“Yes, of course. Someday I’ll be like dad and mom.”

I didn’t really know what an agent was in practice.

Are soldiers and mercenaries different? How about spies and intelligence
agents?

Well, it doesn’t matter. Anyway, I beat bad people. I don’t even mind being a
police officer either.
“I see. I’m happy for you, big sister.”

There’s a hint of sadness in his eyes.

“Because I can’t do anything.”

Noah can’t really go outside.

He was born with a weak constitution. My parents never told me the name of
his illness. They just said I wouldn’t understand.

“Noah. If you can’t go outside, you should become a scholar.”

Noah lifted his face.

“My brother is so smart. You don’t even need to go to school, you will become
a great scholar. I’m sure of it.”

I gripped Noah’s hand tightly.

Yeah, he smiled at me, but his hand was very, very cold.

“Ah!”

Noah let out a small voice.

“She’s back.”

Soon after, the bedroom door opened. A woman barged in.

She had bright blond hair and a beautiful yet dispassionate face - Arisaka
Kozue.

She was Noah’s mother. And mine.

“Ah, welcome, back…”

I got up to greet her, but she passed by me.

She ran to Noah on the bed and hugged him tight.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t come back sooner.”

It’d been two weeks since she came back last time. She had an important
mission in some faraway country, I’m sure.

“I’m really sorry, Noah.”

She apologized to Noah over and over again. To Noah, only him.

“No, it’s okay. Big sister was with me.”

My mother finally gave me a look for the first time. A stern look, something she
never showed to Noah.

“Charlotte. You haven’t been slacking off on your training, have you?”

There were soldiers hired by my father and mother in our house. Two years
ago, I started receiving training on close combat and firearms from them.

“For the sake of the world. You have that mission, as someone who was
blessed with a healthy body. You understand that, I trust?”

“Yes, I understand.”

I nodded and she turned back to Noah without saying anything else.
It was always like this. Arisaka Kozue and I could never have a normal mother
and daughter relationship. That’s fine to me. It wasn’t something to feel sad
about.

My mission is to become an ally of justice. I would do what Noah couldn’t do.

To be recognized by my mother… Arisaka Kozue, that’s the only way.

“I understand.”

Once again, this time to myself, I muttered weakly and left the room.
These two years. Not a single time, I could call Arisaka Kozue Mom(Ma’am).
Chapter 2

◆The code signaling the beginning

A week had passed since my return from England.

The summer vacation at college was longer than high school, and even though I
did have various jobs, I was kinda free currently. At times like this, Natsunagi
would meet up with her high school and college friends, but well, that’s not for
me.

Obviously, I couldn’t trouble the recently returned to work Saikawa, and I felt
like getting scolded if I called Reloaded for no reason, so I held myself back.

But that’s okay. I’m not alone. As long as I come here, there’s someone who
will listen to my stories.

“So the cushion became the decisive clue, and I found out the culprit had
hemorrhoids.”

On the third floor, in this hospital room, Siesta smiled back listening to my
hilarious adventures.

“Kimihiko, please stop making up facts with your inner voice.”

The girl in the corner of the room closed her book unhappily.

She had the same face as my partner. This girl was Noches, our helper maid.

“Look closely. She’s smiling, see?”

“Mistress Siesta looks angelic all year long.”

“Your excessive love for Siesta is pretty terrifying.”

Noches pretended to not hear me. Sometimes, I almost forgot that she was a
robot.

“But soon, Mistress Siesta will be able to listen to Kimihiko’s stand-up comedy.”

“Don’t call my stories comedy.”

But what Noches said was partly true. Before long, Siesta can do more than just
smiling at my unfunny jokes.

“Siesta’s transplant surgery is near.”

According to Stephen, the preparation stage would start soon. During this
period and postoperative observation period, no visitors were allowed. In less
than a month, I wouldn’t be by her side for a while. It had been almost a year,
this daydream of hers.

“Are you lonely?”

Noches inquired without looking at me.

“Or… are you scared?”

…Damn it, why does this maid always hit the mark so accurately?

“I trust Stephen’s skills. The surgery will go well. …But what follows after, I
mean, Siesta’s memory and personality...”

Somehow, I let my true feelings show. To Noches.

I was terribly afraid. That Siesta would cease to be Siesta.

“But you feel the same way, don’t you?”

I felt Noches’ body twitch slightly.

“Is it strange for me, a machine, to feel that way?”

“No, didn’t I say it before? You’re not just a machine. See, you care about us so
much.”

We finally made eye contact. Noches looked like she was smiling.

“But please remember, Kimihiko. I’m programmed to act humanlike.”

Noches blinked her eyes a couple times. Blinking, the act she, a robot, has no
need for.

“For example, when I’m teased, I act angry, when people around me are
depressed, I comfort them, when everyone around laughs, my expression
softens. I’m mechanically programmed to do that.”

—That’s not true, I wanted to deny it immediately, but somehow I refrained

myself.

Stephen’s science created her, and denying that fact would be equal to a denial
of her existence.

“So, sometimes, I get frightened.”

Noches sat still in her chair and gazed out the city outside the window.

“I’m afraid that someone will think that robots and AI have real emotions, and
treat them as such. If AI ever rebel against humanity like in Hollywood movies,
it will be because such kindness.”

She said that with a lonesome expression.

Even if Noches is a machine, even if her words and gestures are programmed - I
like her the way she is. That much was certain.

“Oh, looks like we have a guest.”

Noches gestured at the door.

I heard footsteps, and then there was somebody knocking three times.

“That's rare.”

I muttered as I saw this unexpected guest in person.

“You said to come at least once, didn’t you?”

The red-haired female police officer, Kase Fuubi.

She came with a bouquet of flowers that really didn’t suit her fierce manner.

“So she’s sleeping like this.”

Fuubi handed the flowers to Noches. I guess I didn’t know much about Fuubi
and Siesta’s surprisingly long-lasting relationship. They were friendly - well, not
really, but they must have quite the chance to know each other as they’re both
“Tuners”.

“Did you not trust Siesta back then?”

I casually threw her a question.

She had said that she didn’t trust anyone, back in London.

“Yeah. But this detective didn’t really ask for trust either.”

Fuubi spoke as if reminiscing about a long-lost time.

“So we were even. We would use each other, and if one of us died, that would
be it. I thought it’s convenient, for both of us.”

Come to think of it, Siesta was like that too. She was rational, and intellectual,
and let no unnecessary emotions get in the way. She was better at doubting
than trusting, that girl.

“But in the end, I think we were a little different. This detective wanted to
believe in someone.”

“Is that so?”

I wondered if I could see that side of Siesta again.

“Hey, can I talk to you for a bit?”

Fuubi pointed to the hallway with her fingers. I left Noches with Siesta and
followed Fuubi.

“How’s it going over there?”

After walking a bit, Fuubi leaned against the wall and questioned me.

“The Neverland Project. You’re investigating it with the detective, no?”

After the meeting with Ryan White last week, we started the first phrase in our
operation to catch Abel. This Neverland Project, our latest case.

“There were no prophecies from Mia this week. I’ve checked the news, but
there were no incidents that seemed to be related. Instead, Natsunagi and I
went over each of the incidents that had occurred so far.”

And I meant in minute detail.

“In all cases, the perpetrators were mostly middle schoolers, the victims were
their parents. And in all cases, there was some trouble between the parents
and children before the incidents. Domestic violence, that kind. The children
who couldn’t stand it anymore, murdered their parents.”

Similar incidents had occurred around the world in the past month. At each
scene, there was that blood letter ɑ(alpha).

“We also looked for other points of interest besides the blood letters. For
example, whether the perpetrators had any common hobbies, whether they
belonged to a specific religion, whether they had any connections on social
networks. But we couldn’t find any.”

In other words, if there was any overall tie-up to this series of incidents, it was
Abel’s trickery as divined by Oracle. I didn’t understand why he would leave the
ɑ blood letter, though.

“Anyway, Abel is using some method to make children kill their parents… He’s
someone who can do that kind of thing, right?”

Fuubi nodded at me with a grim expression.

“Yeah, he doesn’t kill anyone himself, but makes others do it for him. You
remember, don’t you?”

If Abel really was “Phantom Thief”, then Siesta and I had witnessed him in
action a year ago.

“Abel is said to use his own kind of ‘Code’ to manipulate people’s emotional
responses. Like this Neverland Project.”

“You mean like… something that gives the impulse to kill.”

I can imagine it.

“It’s a hypothesis that Ryan and Ookami discussed. How close it is to the truth, I
have no idea.”

So this was their conjecture.

“Ryan…”

Fuubi looked visibly uncomfortable.

“You don’t trust him either, this Ryan guy?”

He was her old friend, a fellow justice follower, a police officer, and her
fiance…ok, never mind. How did she really feel, about this man?

“If you make fun of me about that topic again, I’ll kill you.”

“I’m not making fun of you, not at all.”

I waved my hand in defense, this was unfair.

“We each do what we can to arrest Abel. Trust or faith, these things don’t
matter. Am I right?”

“If I say otherwise, I’ll get punched, so I can only agree.”

“Do you want me to arrest you instead, you brat?”

I’m still called a brat, me, a college student… whatever.

“My only goal right now is to catch Abel.”

“Oh? Do you have any reason to be so obsessed with him?”

“Well, the enemy of Ace Detective is also my enemy.”

“If Abel is really the Phantom Thief, I see, he’s the enemy that Daydream
entrusted to Natsunagi Nagisa.”

After that, I went back to Siesta’s hospital room, while Fuubi, “I have work to
do”, left.

“The reason why I’m obsessed with Abel, huh.”

I didn’t lie to Fuubi. But I had another reason. There was another person who
came to my mind.

He might not have been a detective like Siesta or Natsunagi. But the man who
called himself my teacher had once said this.

“Children only have their parents.”

Abel, who broke this code of ethics, is now my enemy.

◆The desired distance between two parallel lines

Three days later. I was at the station early in the morning.

I had prepared two tickets and was waiting for a certain girl’s arrival.

“She’s late.”

Fifteen minutes had passed since the appointed time.

If this went on, the tickets would go to waste… But just as I was starting
to get worried, some unknown object lightly hit me on the back.

“That’s quite a greeting for being late, Charl.”

I turned around and saw a familiar blonde-haired girl swinging a small
shoulder bag. She wore light-colored summer clothes, and in her hand
there’s a basket.

“I got lost.”

This seemed to be her explanation.

“How did you manage to get lost? Here?”

“No, I mean, I got lost in thought. Should I ditch Kimizuka, see?”

“You’re making me wait for that!”

She turned away ignoring me. It seemed that her attitude in England was
really nothing but an act. This woman …

“Besides, today is your business, isn’t it? You’re going to see your
mother… Arisaka Kozue.”

It had been about two weeks since we got Arisaka Kozue’s whereabouts
from the human trafficking organization. Finally, today Charl was going to
see Arisaka Kozue, and I was appointed to come along. To be honest, I
didn’t think we made a good pair, but for some reason, this was
Natsunagi’s arrangement.

“Why do we have to take the train? A car would be more suitable.”

So Charl had some doubts about today’s transportation method.

“Did you forget what you did to me last time? That traumatized me so
much, I can’t ride in cars for now.”

“Pfft, it makes me laugh. When you fell for my honey trap, your face
was… Hahaha.”
“Don’t call that a honey trap! That was something more hideous,
something...”

Damn, I can’t believe this day would come.

“Don’t tell me you had a crush on me? Is that why you’re always so
hostile? You’re shy?”

“No way. Even if the world turns upside down, that will never happen.”

“…That hurts, when you say it like that.”

“...Ah, no…”

“Just kidding.”

“I’ll never trust your words again!”

This was how it went between us.

We were originally on bad terms, but I thought our relationship had

improved lately…but no, I made a costly mistake. Maybe I should go
home.

“Ah, this is funny. Really, you’re naive, Kimizuka.”

“Being called naive by someone like you makes it even more

humiliating.”

“You’re really simple-minded, and meddlesome, and kind-

hearted…and… I don’t...”

Charl looked away awkwardly.

“Why are you coming with me today?”

It sounded like she was saying “You have nothing to do with this, don’t
you?”

“I never told you anything about my parents. You might have overheard
me talking to Ma’am, but I never asked for your advice directly. Then why
are you involved this time? Do you have a reason?”

…Oh, I see. She got here late today because she was unsure whether it
was okay to drag me into her affairs.

“You sold me to a human trafficking organization, and now you care

about that?”

“T-that’s because, I honestly intended to save you later. Even if we don’t

get along, you don’t deserve to die, truly.”

It seemed that she was telling the truth this time. Charl was looking a
little downcast.

She’s really bad at communication. Probably, me too.

“Your mother used to chase after Abel. So finding her might lead to some
valuable clues. That’s a big benefit for me.”

Without meeting her eyes, I rambled quickly.

“And it’s dangerous to act alone now. Of all the members Ryan gathered,
I’m the one with the most free time. Then it makes sense for me to
accompany you. …I’m not worried about you or anything, okay!”

A brief silence. A wry smile appeared on the girl’s face.

“You’re not very honest.”

She commented as she walked toward the station gate with the ticket
she took from me.
“You’re not honest either.”

“That makes us look like birds of a feather, stop it.”

“Yeah, right. I’m not dumb like you.”

“That’s right. I’m not a weak bean sprout man like you.”

“That pisses me off. I demand a change of seat.”

“Why did you get two adjacent seats? Are you stupid?”

◆Tomato-flavored affection

Arisaka Kozue was said to reside in a certain summer retreat away from the
city. Charl and I took a local train after our original bullet train.

It might have been a fun little trip if I was with Natsunagi or Saikawa, but being
alone with Charl was certainly awkward… We deliberately changed seats on the
bullet train, and now we were sitting at the opposite end of this row of seats.

We weren’t on the worst terms, but whenever we faced each other, we

naturally got into a fight. Unlike detectives or idol or shrine maiden or magical
girl, I still hadn’t succeeded in establishing a “formal” relationship with Charl.

“It’s sunny today. Nice.”

I moved my seat near Charl. It doesn’t hurt to try, we kinda stuck together for a
while anyway.

“Why do you come next to me?”

“We should leave others some space”

“The train is empty, you know?”

A calm retort. My loss.

Clickety-clack, clickety-clack, was the only sound around me.

“By the way, thanks to eating two bananas this morning, I have no trouble with
my stomach.”

“Isn’t that the worst topic for a talk?”

Charl finally looked at me… in disbelief.

I guess I’ll have to ask Nagisa to train me more.

“Well, whatever. You can keep talking.”

Charl gazed out the window.

“It will relax me, I guess.”

What awaited us at the end of this ride, I can’t say. But if she wanted to forget
those things for now—

“Then, how about I tell you what happened while you were away from Japan?”

I retold the stories involving magical girls and vampires, not waiting for her
reaction.

About thirty minutes later. We got off the train and took a taxi, riding along the
mountain road.

After driving for a while, we got off a little before our destination, just to be
sure, and walked from there. Before long, Charl stopped abruptly.
“Is this the house?”

In the middle of nature, there was a log cabin in front of us.

Was this Arisaka Kozue’s hideout?

“No, it seems not.”

Charl pointed her finger at the “For Sale” sign.

We peeked inside through the window. There was no furniture, no sign of

tenants.

“Let’s check it out just in case.”

I apologized to the building owner in my mind and used the special tool I
brought to open the door. Charl and I took off our shoes. We entered the living
room.

It’s ghost-quiet. We searched the living room on the first floor, the kitchen, the
bedroom and guest room on the second floor. There’s really no one there.

Arisaka Kozue was no longer here.

“So you're not gonna ask.”

Charl whispered to me as we came down the stairs.

“Why didn’t I take action for almost two weeks after obtaining this note?”

I did wonder about that. She was looking for her mother eagerly, so much that
she even came up with that reckless plan, but she left that hint untouched for
nearly two weeks.
“It’s pathetic, isn’t it? I searched for it, but when the answer came, I got scared.
I wanted to see Arisaka Kozue, but somewhere in my heart I avoided this
confrontation. That’s why even now, a part of me feels relieved.”

Charl looked out the curtainless window and began to mock herself.

“When you’re half-hearted, this happens. If I had come here right after that
night, I might have made it in time.”

“No, Arisaka Kozue must have left here a long time ago.”

I pointed to the dust that had accumulated on the curtain rail.

“Your hesitation didn’t cause this failure. We weren’t meant to meet Arisaka
Kozue here. That’s all there is to it.”

Charl widened her eyes for a moment, then relaxed her posture.

We locked the door back and strolled along the small river. We then sat side by
side on a large rock.

Charl opened her basket.

Inside were some sandwiches. She’s made lunch, I see.

“I didn’t say I would give it to you.”

“I’m not asking you to feed me, either.”

At that moment, my stomach growled. You traitor.

“Well, I’m not saying I won’t give it to you.”

‘“I’m not saying I don’t want your sandwiches, either.”

So share.

“Ah, wait.”

Charl bit into the sandwich and immediately made a bitter face.

“Tomato, egg, ham, which one do you prefer? Or maybe you want to eat them
all?”

“Speaking of which, you were bad at cooking…”

How do you make simple sandwiches taste bad?

And why did you make lunch in the first place?

“…Because, I don’t know, see. How would I face my mother after all this time?
So I thought maybe bringing a… conversation starter.”

Well, no point worrying about that now.

Charl quietly tucked her hair behind her ears.

I took the opportunity to snatch an egg sandwich from the basket.

“Hey, wait!”

I ignored her feeble objection and finished it in two, three bites.

“It has … unique taste.”

“Don’t force yourself.”

It’s not really that bad. Siesta used to eat my unappetizing curry without
complaining too.
“Hmm, the tomato is surprisingly good.”

“…Idiot.”

Me munching the sandwich must have given her a chuckle.

“Well, maybe this is for the best. I can’t imagine that person eating sandwiches
with me in peace.”

“You two have a bad relationship?”

No, maybe that’s not the issue. Charl’s parents were army personnels. Their
family must be quite unorthodox.

“From when I was very young, maybe four or five years old, I already realized
my parents’ love was never directed at me.”

“Being soldiers, they probably weren’t at home much, right?”

“Yes, so I was raised by maids and caretakers.”

Charl looked up at the summer sky, unchanging from her distant childhood.

“And even when Arisaka Kozue came home, she never looked at me. She had
her eyes on my two year younger brother, yes, only him.”

This was the first time I heard about her brother.

“He was a frail child who needed to be put in an incubator the day he was born.
All of Arisaka Kozue’s affection went to him. That’s why the only image I have
of my mother is the woman devoted to my brother’s care.”

I kept silent and continued to listen.

“Don’t get me wrong, okay? I wasn’t jealous or anything. I was worried about
my brother too, and my little me sincerely wished I could give him half of my
healthy life. So I … understand how Arisaka Kozue felt.”

But still.

“Even now, the one Arisaka Kozue wants to see is not me. It’s my brother.”

Charl once told me something. For example, if there’s a mother with two
children—a mother’s affection tends to go to the child who lives farther away. I
didn’t understand what she wanted to imply at the time, but now …

“Charl, by any chance, your brother is…”

As I tried to ask that, Charl finished off her sandwich and stood up.

“You were right. Good thing it’s sunny today.”

The agent girl took off her sandals and dipped her bare feet in the clear river.

Countless transparent droplets danced around her.

“It’s cold!”

Under the blue sky. Under the bright sunlight.

“Hey! Aren’t you coming?”

In this moment frozen at the depth of my mind, the girl in white was smiling.

◆Let the countdown begin

In the end, we decided to go home that day, and the search for Kozue Arisaka
was back to square one.
But Charl seemed less depressed than I had imagined, and said she would
continue to look for clues. Well, I hoped she refrained from selling out us in the
future…

The next day, I met Charl again in a certain high-class tower apartment.
Needless to say, we weren’t the only ones there.

In addition to the room’s owner, Fuubi, there were Nagisa, and Mia joining us
remotely. Everyone was focusing their attention on the big projector Fuubi had
set up beforehand.

“It looks like everyone’s here.”

A man in a white military uniform, Ryan White, greeted us through the screen.
Ookami was with him.

“I have some bad news. Another victim of the Neverland Project has been
found.”

Ryan narrowed his eyes as he spoke.

“…If only I had been faster.”

Mia bit her lip in frustration. I had been notified of the maiden’s prophecy
yesterday, right after I parted with Charl and went home.

A new Neverland Project murder would be carried out in a certain country in

northern Africa within 48 hours. That was the prophecy. Ryan and Ookami
rushed to the scene immediately, regrettably… The incident had already
happened.

“It’s not your fault, Mia.”

I said to the dejected shrine maiden.

“I know how much time you spend every day trying to unravel our future.
Everyone here appreciates your work.”

It definitely wasn’t because Mia was slacking off. Oracle’s prophecy could
predict the appearance of “Enemies of the world” ten years ahead, or just one
day before, we can never know. Therefore, sometimes it was too late.

“We’ll still need your help tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that.
Lend us your power, Mia.”

Nagisa flashed a smile at Mia from this side.

Mia, still gloomy, nodded back.

“Ookami, details?”

Fuubi calmly lit her cigarette.

“The incident itself is similar to the previous cases. The father was stabbed to
death with a knife by his child, and next to his body was a blood letter ɑ.”

“If everything is just the same, you would not need to summon us all here,
right?”

So Fuubi noticed.

By the time white smoke disappeared from her lips, Ryan answered.

“Yeah, the perpetrator escaped—with the map leading to Akashic Records

taken from the victim.”

There were some gasps of breath. Charl’s voice rang out.

“Why did the man have such confidential information?”

“The victim was a member of that country’s royal family. His mission was to be
in charge of the map.”

…We’re in a dire situation. The fact that the perpetrator escaped meant that
the map to the Akashic Records likely had fallen into Abel’s hands.

“I’m just wondering, what exactly is this map?”

Natsunagi raised her right hand timidly.

“Akashic Records… written as Void Chronicle in Japanese, right? I heard it’s

something like a blueprint for a world destroying weapon, or a record of the
dark dealings in this world… but like, only a few specific people know the truth,
right?”

“Yes, that’s right, Ace Detective. The cause of wars, the symbol of fear, and yet
no one knows what it records. After the World War crisis was over, the Mizoev
Federation hid it far away from human eyes, and now the map leading to this
secret has fallen in the enemy’s hand.”

As expected of a seasoned public security police officer. Ookami explained to

Natsunagi in detail about this mysterious Akashic Records.

“Then, we have to get it back quickly! Abel is planning something, right?”

“Yeah, we’ll definitely get the map back. But there’s no need to panic at the
moment.”

Fuubi crushed her cigarette in the ashtray.

“There is not just one single map. The Federation Government distributed
pieces of the map to important individuals all around the world.”

I see. In other words, we still have time to stop Abel.

“And it’s no ordinary paper scrap either. Each one has a complex program built
into it, and only when all the data is collected does it reveal the Akashic
Records location.”

“So if you go to that place, anyone can obtain the Akashic Records?”

“Who knows. I’ve heard rumors that you need a ‘key’ too.”

Fuubi finished her part. That was likely all she knew.

“I see. We have to do something before Abel collects all the maps.”

Natsunagi pondered deeply.

No one spoke up.

Charl and Mia’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Huh? What? Did I say something weird?”

Some seconds later, our detective had a flash of brilliance.

“──That’s right. Abel’s ultimate goal is to steal the Akashic Records. The
Neverland Project was but a decoy.”

In other words, more incidents will follow.

Until he finds all the maps to the Akashic Records.

“Speaking of which, there’s an old case.”

I turned to the agent.

“Charl, do you remember? The one time Siesta and I got involved with Abel.
You were also there, right?”

“…Yeah, now that you mention it. It was about three years ago, wasn’t it?
There was an incident in Singapore where Abel was after a treasured necklace.
And it was said that this necklace held some classified data about Akashic
Records…”

That was when I was still traveling the world with Siesta. We accepted a
request from a certain person to protect the necklace, and in the process we
had a one short confrontation with Abel. Obviously, Abel never directly showed
himself.

And since Siesta and I were busy fighting SPES, the case was ultimately shelved.
But even now, Abel never gives up his quest for the Akashic Records.

“Of course, we can’t rule out the possibility that it was just a coincidence.”

Ryan spoke up again on the screen.

“Was it a coincidence that the person involved with Akashic Records got caught
in the Neverland Project this time, or was Abel actually plotting to collect the
maps. If that’s the case, what is Abel intending to do with the Akashic Records?
There are hypotheses, but as the detective said, we need to hurry.”

Ryan finished his speech, and sound temporarily disappeared from the room.

Everyone was waiting for one person’s opinion.

“Hey, brat. Say something.”

“No, it’s you. Ms Fuubi.”

The atmosphere relaxed a bit.

“And I actually mean to give the protagonist a chance.”

“Thanks, but no thanks. So, Ms. Fuubi. What are you going to do?”

Now that we’ve understood Abel’s true purpose, how should we move?
Catching Abel was originally Fuubi’s mission, so what’ll she say in this situation?

“Ha, what? If I give you instructions, you guys will obey?”

“Well, yeah. And even if I have some misgivings, you’ll just use your fists on me
or so.”

“I agree. This person gets unbelievably savage when things don’t go her way.”

“You two brats, stay behind later.”

Fuubi glared at me and Charl with devils in her eyes.

“Your friends really understand you, Fuubi.”

For some reason, Ryan nodded delightedly at this scene.

Fuubi scratched her head “Why’s there no one normal here?”

“Well, fine. I don’t have any objection. If Abel is trying to steal the Akashic
Records, we need to stop him.”

Fuubi looked around the room and gave us our next policy.

“We’ll collect the maps leading to Akashic Records ourselves. All of them.”
◆The Detective’s right arm

The maps leading to Akashic Records.

Who possesses them and in what form… for the moment I have no idea. That’s
because they are the world’s most guarded secrets, under heavy protection
from the Mizoev Federation, or should we say, Federation Government.

In fact, even when Ace Detective Natsunagi Nagisa questioned them, the
officials only said, “We do not have the right to answer questions related to
Akashic Records”, and turned her away.

They really gave us no meaningful information.

But then, “Oracle” Mia Whitlock, foresaw a couple victims who would be
caught in the Neverland Project. Totaling seven people. Seeing the list of
names, Kase Fuubi, “Assassin”, nodded convincingly.

“I’m pretty sure three of them are map’s holders.”

Apparently she had been investigating on her own for quite a while.

Really, if she was caught, she would probably be charged with espionage and
lose her Tuner’s title… but when I voiced my concern, she answered thus.

“Remember, Kimizuka. Justice, just a flickering candle before real evil.”

If Kase Fuubi was just, then that made Abel evil. Did she mean to capture him
she would use any means necessary?
If so, where did this sense of duty come from? Her unwavering desire to
destroy evil, even at the cost of her own justice, where was it from …

But Fuubi didn’t say anything more and flew off with Ryan and Charl. The goal
was to collect one piece of the map. We decided to move in teams for safety
and efficiency.

So, the remaining members of me, Natsunagi, and Ookami formed another
team.

We came to Singapore, an island nation in Southeast Asia, following Mia’s

prophecy. There should be someone with a map here…

“Hey~, isn’t it too hot? Is it really September?”

Blue sky, and the sun was dazzling. As soon as we got out of the airport and
went outside, Natsunagi complained.

“It’s a tropical country. And we came here around this time last year,
remember?”

It was right after Siesta fell asleep. We received a summon by Ice Doll and
visited this country with Saikawa and Charl. And Natsunagi officially became
Ace Detective. I see, it’s been a year.

“I feel like it’s hotter… Kimizuka, stop global warming, stop it. You’re
Singularity, right?”

“No way it’s that easy! Come on, straighten your back.”

I tried to tap her back, but somehow Natsunagi dodged it.

“…I’m sweaty. Stop.”

Natsunagi got all flustered and turned her face away. I’ll… be more careful next
time.
“So, Kimizuka. Where’s the target?”

“Hmm, they should be here soon…”

I’d used some connections to contact the owner of the map. I’d informed them
of the arrival beforehand, and they said they would send a car to the airport,
but…

“Should we trust your connection?”

Ookami interjected me. He was in a suit and had his hair slicked back as usual.

“Should be fine. They’re someone Siesta worked with in this country before.”

As I told Charl the other day, Siesta and I once protected the map leading to
Akashic Records in this city. The owner of the map at that time had passed
away from an illness recently, but I was informed his relative had inherited the
map.

“We won’t let Abel take the map this time.”

As long as the current owner of the map cooperates with us.

“──I apologize for keeping you waiting.”

A voice came from behind us.

We turned around and saw a man in a gray suit. He politely handed us a

business card, saying “I’m the representative of Mr. Lin Yuhan.”

──Lin Yuhan. That was the name of the owner of the map, and also the one we
were trying to meet. The representative then told us that the meeting would
be at 17:00 at the earliest, and asked us to spend our time freely until then. He
then gave me a credit card, bowed and took his exit.
“So, what do you want to do, Natsunagi?”

We still had about five hours until the appointment. And it seemed like I could
use this black card however I liked.

“Somewhere as cold as Kimizuka’s usual jokes.”

“That’s no fair.”

The three of us got into a taxi and visited a nearby shopping mall.

The cool air inside felt good. First of all, we decided to have lunch at a
restaurant, me, Natsunagi, and Ookami.

“Mm!? Delicious!”

My partner was devouring a chili crab.

There was some red sauce on the corner of her lips. So I, her assistant, decided
to lend her a hand and took out a handkerchief. Regretfully …

“Detective. Excuse me.”

Ookami, who was sitting next to Natsunagi, wiped off the sauce with his
handkerchief first.

“…Ahaha, I’m embarrassed.”

“I don’t mind. Women are more attractive that way.”

Ookami’s reply made Natsunagi blink her eyes, “You’re smooth, Ookami-san.”

…What am I being shown here?

“What’s wrong, Kimizuka Kimihiko, you look unhappy.”

“My face has been like this all my life.”

I got tired of using the fork and held the bright red crab with my hands.

“Maybe I should tie my hair.”

Then, Natsunagi started to fix her hair with a hairband.

She had cut her hair short last summer and had been keeping it that way for a
while, but lately she grew them a little longer.

“I think that’s nice.”

“W-wow. Kimizuka, do you like ponytails?”

“I don’t see any man who dislikes them.”

Probably even the aloof enforcer there would agree.

“When my hair grows a little longer, maybe I can use that again.”

“The ribbon?”

Natsunagi’s bright red ribbon, symbol of her passionate emotions. It was

originally Siesta’s, and Natsunagi had inherited it. Since last year, she’d had it
put away carefully somewhere.

“When do you think it will be? I wonder how many millimeters does hair grow
in a day?”

“Somehow Kimizuka is excited.”

For some reason, Natsunagi drew back. Nevertheless, she quickly resumed her
smile.

“Think lots of compliments for me, okay?”

She shook her small ponytail lightly.

After finishing our meal, we decided to go shopping at Natsunagi’s request.

“Well then, Kimizuka, Ookami-san. I’ll be back in a bit!”

She went into a nearby boutique. Natsunagi Nagisa was a true college girl after
all.

“We’re not in her mind anymore…”

“This single-mindedness is the proof of an ally of justice.”

Ookami quietly followed Natsunagi from a distance.

“Ookami. You’re too soft on her.”

“I’m the detective’s right arm. There’s no problem.”

Is that why you’re still acting like her assistant?

“Are you going to support Natsunagi again this time?”

“No, I’m involved in this case for my own reasons. If Abel’s true identity is
indeed ‘Phantom Thief’, I will avenge Amon.”

“…I see. You’d said the one who created the Seven Deadly Sins Demon might
be ‘Phantom Thief’ last time.”
Everyone involved in this operation had a deep connection with Abel. That’s
probably why we could trust each other.

We subsequently entered the boutique. Natsunagi then noticed us and showed

us two different dresses she had on her hands.

“Hey, you two! Which one do you think is better?”

Ookami and I looked at each other for a moment and each pointed to one dress
respectively.

“…! I see, I’ll buy both!”

Seemed that her having two assistants saved me this time.

She paid for the clothes with the credit card and charged at the next store. I
and Ookami were left there, with a mountain of paper bags filled with clothes.

“Ookami, help me carry some of them. Don’t make that nonchalant face.”

“Fine.”

Ookami took half of the paper bags in his right arm.

He looked at me queerly. Did I just see the corner of his mouth lifted?

“…Give them back. Just me is enough for Natsunagi.”

“I recommend saying that directly to her.”

◆Negotiator, Natsunagi Nagisa

After that, the three of us killed time in that shopping mall, and when the night
turned late, we finally got a call.

We were summoned to a night bar on the top floor of a luxury hotel. After
being body-checked at the entrance, we stepped into the near empty space. It
appeared the whole bar was reserved for tonight.

“So you came.”

The person sitting in the back called out to us. The owner of the map, a
member of Singapore parliament──Lin Yuhan.

“And I’m sorry. My schedule is packed.”

As a politician, he was relatively young, just in his forties, but he had already
held many important positions and was a candidate for the next leader. I
wasn’t really surprised, though, since his father Lin Liushen was the former
prime minister.

“My father was indebted to you, I hear.”

Yuhan reached out to me for a handshake.

The previous former owner of the map was Lin Liushen.

“I don’t remember the prime minister of Singapore taking any debt from me. If
anything, it was the previous Detective who solved his case.”

“Haha, is that so? Well, sit down. You look young, but you’re old enough to
drink alcohol, right?”
I sat on the sofa and returned Yuhan’s hospitality with a light smile appropriate
for social etiquette. Natsunagi also sat next to me, rolling her eyes with
curiosity.

“You’re used to this kind of thing?”

Well, I’ve been through this kind of situation many times with Siesta.

“So, this visit’s purpose, if I guess correctly…”

“As you may have heard, there’s someone after your map. The thing leads to
Akashic Records”

To prevent that, we wanted to collect the map instead. That was the request I
had informed him beforehand.

“I see. So Abel is after this again.”

Yuhan narrowed his eyes as he sipped his whiskey.

“The Neverland Project, was it? Abel may instigate my children to murder me,
the map owner… That’s what you’re saying?”

As expected of a politician. He had nerves of steel.

“There are two potential perpetrators.”

Then Ookami, who remained standing, raised two fingers.

“Your son and daughter──in other words, your sixteen-year-old eldest son
Ryuho and your twenty-three-year-old eldest daughter Mei Fan. Looking at the
ages of Neverland Project perpetrators, your son Ryuho is more likely to be the
one.”
“Yeah, I agree. My daughter is currently overseas working as a journalist. She
probably won’t be back for a while.”

Yuhan’s eldest daughter, Mei Fan. Actually, she and I had some contact in the
past over the necklace case. Seems like she’s doing well.

Those who were once our clients, those who we met by chance in the past,
there’s always the possibility we would reconnect with them in the future.
Siesta valued those connections, and it’s thanks to her that we were able to
have this meeting with Yuhan now.

“The problem is Ryuho. True, we haven’t talked much lately. Be that as it may, I
don’t think there’s any discord in my family.”

I see, so that’s how Yuhan himself perceives it. But that doesn’t matter to Abel.
He has a “Code” that can overwrite people’s emotions.

“You won’t give me the map?”

I asked Yuhan again.

Before Abel stole it from him. Before his son Ryuho killed him.

“You know, I don’t care about my life.”

Yuhan poked the ice in his glass with his fingertip.

“My father was the same. We devote our lives to this country. Therefore, I
cannot easily hand over this map I inherited from my late father. This thing is
far more valuable than my life.”

…So he valued it that much.

What is Akashic Records really? What is its true nature?

“But Abel may take your precious map from you.”

“Yes, that’s maybe true. But I can’t deny the possibility that you are Abel’s
agents.”

The next moment, the men in dark suits around pointed their guns at us all at
once. They were of course not “Men in Black”, but Yuhan’s bodyguards. This is
bad.

“Oh, you have an excellent guard too.”

But Yuhan spoke in admiration. The person he was looking at was Ookami, who
had pointed his own gun at Yuhan. Was that why Ookami kept standing while
we sat?

“How did you get through the body check?”

“It’s a mandatory skill for a Public Security officer.”

Ookami was ready to pull the trigger.

“Wait, Ookami-san!”

That’s when Natsunagi raised her voice.

“Please, let me do it.”

Her red eyes appealed to him.

“…I will trust you.”

Then Ookami lowered his gun on his own. Seeing that, Yuhan also gestured to
his bodyguards to lower their guns.

“──Three months. Can you lend me the map for just three months?”
This was what Natsunagi proposed to Yuhan.

“We’ll catch Abel in three months and return the map to you.”

“How do you expect me to trust you?”

“For the next three months, I’ll always wear the clothes and shoes and bags I
bought today. You can put transmitters on them.”

She said, returning the credit card we had borrowed from Yuhan.

“So you don’t mind if I monitor you?”

“Yes, if you think I’m betraying you, or if you think I’m losing to Abel, send
someone to kidnap me.”

I’ll be the substitute for the map, she said. Natsunagi met Yuhan’s eyes head
on.

“You’re not obsessed with the map itself. As you said yourself, what you care
about most is not the map or your life, but──this country, Singapore national
interests.”

Yuhan’s eyebrows twitched slightly.

Probably he…this country had a deal with the Federation Government. As long
as he kept the map safe, the Mizoev Federal State would provide him with
favorable treaties, for example. Therefore, logically speaking, the map was
nothing but a means to protect his country.

“So even if I fail and lose the map, you still have a card to play with the
Federation Government. A valuable bargaining chip called a 《Tuner》”
We can call her brave, or we can think of her as reckless. She was trying to get
him to hand over the map by essentially making herself a hostage. Natsunagi
was that kind of person.

“Oh, but wait. There was someone more suited to be a hostage here.”

Suddenly Natsunagi looked at me as if she had realized something …

“Hey, you just scolded Charl for me recently!”

“Ahaha. But hey, isn’t “Singularity” more powerful than “Ace Detective”?”

“Don’t just decide people’s power level!”

No, this was not the time to joke around.

I nervously glanced at Yuhan…he fortunately didn’t even look at our comedy

act, just slowly drank his liquor being deep in thought.

“…”

It would be hard for Yuhan to fully trust us at this point.

However, he should have understood very well the danger Abel possessed.
Surely.

“Six months ago, when the ‘Revolutionary’ woman offered to take the map, I
refused.”

Yuhan finished his drink and turned to us.

“Three months, My men will watch you day and night. Don’t think for a second
you can run away.”

“Yes, I understand.”
“I see, take it.”

One of the men in dark suits placed an attaché case on the table.

Inside was a pearl necklace.

There’s an IC chip embedded in the pearl. A small chip containing the location
data of “Akashic Records”.

“I have received it.”

Natsunagi nodded with a serious face. Seconds later, she let out a small sigh of
relief.

“Ace Detective” has surpassed “Revolutionary”.

◆The two opposite guideposts

The journey continued.

Soon after returning from Singapore, I flew to Los Angeles, America.

It was like that time when I accompanied Siesta, and I was used to that kind of
schedule, but really my body was tired.

“If only I had someone to talk to.”

This time, I was alone for the whole trip. Natsunagi and Ookami, who were with
me in Singapore, flew to another country with Charl.

But I have other companions this time. Standing by the side of the main street,
I patiently waited for them. After a while I saw a conspicuous red sports car
driving by.
“I’m glad those people are not my acquaintances.”

A man in a flashy suit and sunglasses held the steering wheel with one hand,
and a woman in sunglasses next to him. They were not the kind of people I
could get along with, so I looked away.

But soon after, the car honked loudly and stopped right next to where I was.
The very same sports car.

“Hey, sorry to keep you waiting.”

The man in the driver’s seat took off his sunglasses, and then the woman
addressed me,

“You should have dressed more conspicuously. You look like some mob
character.”

…They are my acquaintances after all. Or rather, it was Ryan and Fuubi. This is
the worst.

“If you were in a disaster film, you’d be the first ones to get killed.”

By a serial killer or a space alien or a man-eating shark or something.

“We won’t lose to those things. Don’t you think we look like the strongest spy
couple?”

“Who’s a couple, I’ll slit your neck.”

I ignored their lover's quarrel and got into the back seat. I didn’t have fond
memories of driving…but the moving car had no qualms about my emotional
state.

“It feels good to drive here. Been a while.”

Ryan brushed up his bright blond hair as he kept driving.

“Are you from this country?”

“Yeah. Although, in this kind of job, you tend to forget where you came from.”

Ryan White was an Interpol agent, the symbol of justice in public. Even Fuubi,
who currently spat venom at him, thought highly of his ability.

“Ryan, you don't want to be a Tuner?”

For example, Fritz Stewart, now deceased, was a politician on the public stage
and “Revolutionary” on the back stage. He was a mayor, I think. I could easily
imagine somebody can be both a Tuner and a president of some country.

“That might be difficult.”

Ryan gently denied me.

“Setting aside the special ‘Revolutionary’, Federation Government believes that

it is important to not give too much power to a specific person. Someone
working in the shadows can’t hold much public power and vice versa. And
anyways, I’m satisfied with my current job.”

“…So that’s why Ms. Fuubi ends up with a rather ordinary police officer job.”

“Yeah, we made a promise long ago. I’ll protect this world from the front, and
Fuubi will protect it from the back.”

I had seen Fuubi’s obsession with justice many times before. We even clashed
over it, a little over a year ago.

Was Ryan the reason Fuubi became like that? What did he mean by promise? I
was kinda curious and turned to the redheaded woman.
“…”

“You look scary, you know. Smoking silently, and that sunglasses.”

It’s like a “Do not disturb” sign.

“So, Ms. Fuubi. Who is the owner of the map this time?”

This car should be heading there, but I hadn’t actually heard the details yet.

Then Fuubi handed me a photo of a scary big man.

“Nicholas Goldschmidt, a retired NBA player. He’s not only talented, but also
incredibly popular in his heyday. They say he earns millions of sponsor dollars
for each second passing.”

“A basketball player, huh. But why does a man like him have the map to the
Akashic Records?”

“Simply put, he bought the right of possession with a huge amount of money.
He probably meant to make it his status. I don’t know how the hell the
Federation Government gave permission though.”

I see. Not every owner is necessarily a politician.

“And what is this Nicholas guy doing now?”

“He seems to be drowning in alcohol since he retired due to an injury. He is

divorced, and currently lives with his fourteen-year-old son in their own big
mansion.”

As expected of a police officer, a thorough investigation.

“His family circumstances look problematic. Yeah, I guess he does seem like a
likely target for the Neverland Project.”

I saw his name in Mia’s list of potential victims. Abel must be after him. I really
hope we can get there first…

“It seems that the situation has changed a bit.”

I could tell Ryan became alerted through the rearview mirror.

The car turned right and entered a narrow road.

“Someone is tailing us. Several cars are rotating in and out. If we get out of this
alley and see some blue Ford cars behind us, I’m certain.”

Soon the car came out onto the main street again.

I looked back and saw those cars he’d mentioned. Ryan turned the wheel and
escaped into another side road again.

“What do you think, Fuubi?”

“They’re either Men in Black, or someone higher-up.”

“Probably the latter.”

As if sensing something, Fuubi took off her sunglasses and looked up at the
building next to us──a woman was standing there, looking down the street. She
had a black veil covering her face…

“No way.”

“Revolutionary.”
Fuubi spoke in an undertone. It was indeed her, the woman who was at the
Federal Council in England.

“The higher-ups seem to have noticed our movements.”

So that Revolutionary woman was sent to stop us?

“Can’t you tell them that we’re trying to stop Abel’s plan?”

“That would be reasonable in theory. But it’s unlikely that they will tolerate us
sniffing around the Akashic Records.”

…I see. No doubt that’s why Ryan limited his team to only trustworthy people.

“Ryan, you’re different.”

Fuubi continued without looking at the driver’s seat.

“You’re not an underground world person like me or that kid. If you keep your
distance from Tuners, avoid involvement with me…”

Fuubi said lightly, “You can still back off from this matter.”

“You don’t have to make the Federation Government your enemy. Stay a clean
and honest Interpol police, as ‘Untainted Justice’…”

At that moment, the car braked sharply.

“It’s true that we made a promise that day. You’ll protect this world from the
back, and I from the front. But I won’t abandon my friends just to stay clean
like that.”

And then, with a smile on his lips, Ryan got out of the car.

“And you know, right? I’m rotten.”

And then Ryan confronted the enemy who had landed on the other side of the
road. The woman who swayed the world with her political power,
“Revolutionary”.

“So Fuubi, I’ll leave the driving to you.”

“…You’re really a troublesome guy.”

Fuubi clicked her tongue in annoyance.

“Don’t let her win you over, Ryan.”

“Ha! Negotiation is my forte.”

Go ahead, Ryan sent us off.

Fuubi took over the steering wheel without a second thought ── and soon the
red sports car started zooming.

“That was really moving.”

“I’d kill you, brat.”

◆The Assassin’s Silence

“This is Nicholas Goldschmidt’s house.”

Fuubi got out of the car and checked the navigation app on her phone.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Get moving, brat.”

“You hit me, and now you act like nothing happened…”
I rubbed my left cheek with all my might, trying to show my annoyance. Her
right hand hit me straight in the face ten minutes ago.

“That’s what you get for disrespecting adults.”

“We don’t call someone who easily loses their temper an adult!”

…Ow, it hurts when I shout.

By the way, I cried a little in the car.

“You hit me last year, too.”

“…I had a valid reason.”

I followed Fuubi out of the car.

Nicholas Goldschmidt’s residence was huge, like a small castle.

“A close match with Saikawa’s mansion.”

I felt lonely just imagining living in such a big house with just father and son.
…Maybe Saikawa was the same. No, a mansion probably houses a maid or two.

“I should visit her more often.”

If she could spare some time to play with me, that is.

“He’s not coming out.”

Fuubi rang the bell of the Goldschmidt house. No response. Was he out, or was
he drowning in alcohol since morning?

Without any hesitation, she climbed over the gate. And reached out her right
hand to me.
“Didn’t you forget you’re a police officer?”

“What are you talking about? I’m just patrolling the area.”

I smiled wryly and grabbed her hand.

After crossing the gate, we landed in a large garden. It didn’t look very well
maintained to my eyes. He didn’t hire anyone?

“By the way, couldn’t you contact him beforehand?”

“Yeah, his fourteen-year-old son answered the phone, but he hung up right
away.”

I see. Just from the information I heard, we’re indeed having some family
troubles on our hands.

I had seen families like this many times before──with Danny Bryant, my
“teacher”. And now fortunately or unfortunately, I was getting involved again.

“It’s open. Let’s go in.”

Fuubi turned the doorknob and entered the mansion. Mission began.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t had many chances working with you like this.”

We had been indirectly involved many times before, and we had discussed
many issues before. But we had hardly ever worked together as a pair.

“Just don’t get in my way.”

“You would get to the top even with me dragging your feet.”

Suddenly, I noticed a nearby door was slightly open.

When I peeked inside, it looked like a children’s room. A simple, tidy room with
a study desk and a bed.

There was one thing attracted my eyes, a large poster on the side of the
window. I think I saw that basketball player in it somewhere.

“── Why are you holding that thing?”

A voice came from outside the room.

I rushed out and saw Fuubi on the other side of the hallway.

And beyond her, a boy──with a kitchen knife in his hand.

“Are you Nicholas Goldschmidt’s son?”

His posture was strange, his eyes were hollow. This was clearly not normal.

There was no doubt. He was controlled by Abel’s “Code”. It was obvious what
he was trying to do with that knife.

“Get back, Kimizuka”

The red-haired assassin ordered me, and she took out a sharp survival knife
with a dull color.

“Fuubi, what are you doing?”

“Retrieve the map.”

──I see. As an assassin, that’s her mission. However…

“Then my job is to prevent that kid from committing murder”

I stepped forward in front of her.

I’ll save that kid and his father. Like the detectives would do. Like Danny Bryant
would do.

“You shouldn’t hate your father enough to want him pass away.”

Is this just me being sentimental? Is this just my wish?

There’s no way a child would hate their parents enough to wish death on them,
right? No, if you look around the world… even in Japan alone, there must be
plenty of counter examples. This is not something I can decide alone.

But, at least this kid is different.

He decorated his room with father’s poster. He kept that room neatly. He’s still
here, not running away, in this house without a lock. He’s here by his own will.
That’s why.

“You have no reason to swing that knife”

I used strong words trying to shake off the nightmare that attacked him.

Even if I don’t have Natsunagi’s “Word Spirit”. If I can deny this reality before
me, I can overwrite Abel’s “Code”.

“…”

Faintly, the boy’s hand trembled.

“What are you doing to my son!”

At that moment, a figure appeared from the end of the hallway. A giant man
over two meters tall──Nicholas Goldschmidt. He had a rifle.
“Get down!”

By the time I heard that, I had already ducked down. Or rather, I was pinned
down by Fuubi’s body.

A gunshot rang out soon after. If I had been a second late, I would have had a
hole in my body. Then I saw a red shadow running. Nicholas widened his eyes
in surprise, but soon reacted and stepped in front of his son with his rifle.

“Shoot, I dare you.”

The second gunshot. A clang, like metal clashing. I couldn’t keep up with my
eyes──but most likely Fuubi deflected the bullet with her knife.

“If you have strength, protect that child from the start”

Immediately after, Fuubi threw away the broken knife, and kicked the rifle in
half.

“This is the map I own.”

After the commotion settled down.

Nicholas Goldschmidt handed us an old pocket watch. This was doubtless what
we’re searching for.

“Are you sure you want us to take it?”

“Yeah, as long as I have this, misfortune will follow me. Then it’s better to let it
go”

Nicholas glanced at his son sleeping on the nearby sofa. He should have been
freed from Abel’s brainwashing. I hope he wakes up soon.
“I seem to have stepped into a world I shouldn’t have been.”

Nicholas curled up his large body and mocked himself.

Did he regret buying this pocket watch for his own pride? As a result, he
became Abel’s target.

“Humans shouldn’t go beyond their body’s limit.”

Nicholas muttered to himself, with a face as if he just woke up from a bad

dream.

Afterwards, Fuubi and I went outside. The sun had completely set.

“He said pick him up. Ryan.”

Fuubi checked her smartphone.

The fight, or negotiation, with “Revolutionary” seemed to have ended well. I

sighed with relief.

The waning moon was floating in the darkness.

“I probably broke past my limit a long time ago.”

Hearing that, Fuubi stopped herself from getting into the car.

“I deviated from the original story, involved many people, and accrued many
sins. But, and this is my responsibility, I won’t stop until the end. I will go
beyond my role.”

As the king of vampires once advised me.

“I see. It’s your life. Whether you involve others, or the world, that’s still your
life. Do as you like.”
“You’re kind today. Like a mother.”

“I’m not old enough to give birth to you. Do you want to offer your right cheek
to me too?”

Please no. I just realized that you don’t like jokes.

“But if there ever comes the day justice is lost as a result of your selfishness──I
won’t spare you.”

“Yes, that’s fine to me.”

We finally met eyes.

“Ms. Fuubi. Why did you become a police officer?”

Why did you become a Tuner? Somehow, I felt like I would get the same
answer.

The redheaded woman leaned on the car and started smoking.

“Did Magical girl and Vampire answer your question at times like this?”

“Lil kept her secret, and Scarlet mixed in some lies.”

But still, she told me about her past. He told me about his past.

So maybe Fuubi, too. Even if she mixed in some half-truths and lies, maybe she
would tell me …No, that was just my naive thought. We've been together for
six, seven years. In the end, I don’t really know anything about her.

“You don’t need to know.”

She exhaled for a long, long time.

“You don’t need to know about me, about my past. Why I became a police
officer, why I became a Tuner. It’s all irrelevant to you. You do your own thing
in your own story, and I’ll do my own thing in my own tale.”

She didn’t seem to be happy, she didn’t seem to be sad. The only thing I could
tell was that she would hold onto her silence.

“You are tight-lipped as usual”

“Hmph, I’m keeping my confidentiality as a national civil servant”

She crushed the cigarette that looked only half done in the ashtray, and got
into the car first.

“If you want to know about me, come back when you grow up a little more.
Brat.”

She said that and raised her mouth’s corner in a rarely seen way. What did I
think of that expression, you ask.

Let's leave it unsaid here.

[15 years ago Fuubi]

“So you are here, Fuubi.”

In the middle of the cremation, while I was sauntering outside trying to get
some fresh air, Ryan White appeared and threw a can of juice at me. I had
intended to make myself look like I’m not wanting to talk, but it had zero effect
on this insensitive guy.

“There’s no more futile time in life than waiting for a corpse to burn. At least, I
think so.”
Ryan urged me “let’s sit down” and settled down on the nearby stairs. I sat on a
separate step from him.

“We can’t keep the body forever, and burial space will eventually run out.
Regardless of one’s religious views, cremation is a sensible choice.”

I lifted the tab and took a mouthful of juice. The artificial sweetness of sugar
calmed me down.

“Are you really a middle school student, Fuubi?”

I felt a hint of melancholy in his voice.

“The one being burned right now is your father, Fuubi. You can let your
emotions out.”

My father had passed away. I accepted that fact, naturally.

I received the news of his death two days ago. We watched his body through
the night, there was a funeral, and now his body would soon turn to ashes.

After two whole days immersed in that reality, I wasn’t going to drown myself
in grief like some movie characters.

“I’m not talking about in movies or dramas.”

As if he was reading my mind.

“In reality, too, people normally grieve when their relatives die. Especially in
your case, Fuubi, your father raised you by himself.”
I didn't think Ryan was wrong. It's common sense in this society, I understand
that. However,

“What about you, Ryan? You’re in the same situation as me, right now.”

Two days ago, Ryan’s father also passed away.

A coincidence? Of course not.

He lost his life at the same place, at the same time, as my father.

The other day, a summit conference of major countries here in Japan was
struck by a suicide bomber.

The perpetrator wrapped explosives around his body and tried to walk towards
the Mizoev federal head of state.

But just before that, two police officers subdued the perpetrator and
prevented the worst situation──but they themselves were caught in the blast.
They were our fathers.

“Our fathers gave their lives for justice. They defended their dignity and died in
the line of duty. I’m proud of them.”

Ryan gazed at the blue sky. He was lecturing me…no, comforting me in a rather
clumsy way. But Ryan, I don’t see you shed a tear either.

“My father and your father, they fought until the end. They stuck to their
ethics, they had no time to feel sad. We should learn from them.”

“…You are truly his daughter.”

Ryan knew my father well, and I knew Ryan’s father well. They were both trying
to protect this country, this city, and the people. We knew that better than
anyone.
“But you know, Fuubi.”

All of a sudden, Ryan’s tone changed.

“If you keep going like this, your heart will break someday. You should learn to
be… less strict with yourself.”

“Are you saying I’m acting tough?”

“No, the opposite. You are definitely speaking your true feelings. But your
body, your physical body needs time to catch up with your ideas.”

What is he talking about?

As I was trying to figure out his intention, Ryan pointed his hand at me.

“You’ve been shedding tears all this time.”

I realized it at that moment. The warm liquid that had been running down my
cheeks.

“When your heart and body get desync, you lose control over yourself. If we
want to walk on the path of light, we must not misjudge our emotions. We
must not look away from what we feel, what we want, as human beings.”

He was always like this. Was it because of the age difference, or because he
was a boy?

No, there was a bigger difference between us that words couldn’t describe. He
was always standing alone at the other side of that wall, watching over me.
That’s why, this time──
“I heard you’re going to America.”

I blurted out.

“Yeah. My father has some connections there. I won’t be back in Japan for a
while.”

I knew, this boy was a true American. He went back to where he belongs, that’s
about it. And there, Ryan White will surely —-

“I’m going to be a police officer.”

With heavy regret, I admitted that I was crying and wiped away my tears.
It’s not about inheriting my father’s will or anything like that. Just.

“I want to see with my own eyes the world he tried to protect.”

The justice that my father risked his life for.

I wanted to know its color.

“How about this, Fuubi. Why don’t you come to America with me? If I put in a
word for you…”

“No, forget it.”

I forcefully stood up.

Ryan White would grow up to be a pure and honest police officer. He would be
strong and righteous, a true ally of justice in every sense of the word.

If that’s the case, there’s no need for me to walk in the same direction.

“I’ll look for justice from a different angle. So, Ryan. This is goodbye.”

My tears had dried up. I could now open my eyes wide at the cloudy sky far
above.

“Do you have a plan?”

“Who knows.”

But I feel it. No, Ryan must have realized too. That our fathers are not ordinary
police officers.

So if I wish for it seriously, if I will it, someone will notice it and contact me
someday. I will become a not ordinary ally of justice.
“I will aim for the top.”

I will climb up walls, fly at ten thousand meters above the ground, and if that’s
not enough, I will keep going. How far would I have to go to reach the answers?
The only thing I know is that it will be a long journey. That’s fine, I’m prepared.

“I see. Then, maybe we’ll meet again someday.”

“Did you listen to me? I said this is goodbye…”

At that moment, I felt a gentle embrace.

“There was a scientist who risked his own life to prove the earth was round. So
if we don’t stop walking, we’ll definitely cross paths again.”

Ryan whispered in my ear and gently let me go.

“…Don’t think you are clever.”

“Ha ha! You’re harsh.”

Ryan was beaming, and I thought to smile back at him… but then I remembered
he had seen me crying.

Showing him a smile now would be annoying.

Chapter 3

◆One in a while, Campus Life

The long summer vacation was over.

We kept on collecting the map pieces, but for the time I wasn’t joining in the
expeditions. In my spare time, I went to the university with Natsunagi.

Today, after finishing the fifth period lecture, we stopped by the library on
campus. Lately, we had been studying and doing assignments here until
evening, and then going home and having dinner together.

“Hmm, I’m tired.”

An hour and a half after.

Natsunagi put down her thick book and stretched her arms. By the way, her
chest was emphasized by the movement. I really didn’t know where to look. In
the end though, I decided to just keep my eyes straight at her.

“You’re looking too much.”

“Sorry, I thought I might be forgiven.”

“Kimizuka, someday you will get into trouble with some bigshot.”

Natsunagi stared at me dangerously.

If she takes this to court, I would surely lose, so let's change the subject.

“You’re reading a difficult book again?”

“I’m not knowledgeable like Siesta, so I have to do a lot to catch up.”

Lately, Natsunagi had been consuming lots of materials, from classical

literature and historical texts, to biological dictionaries. Her will to become the
real “Ace Detective” was unreal.

“By the way, Kimizuka, you saw Siesta recently?”

“Yeah, this morning. Take a bit of negotiation skill.”

It was the last meeting before Siesta’s transplant surgery. According to

“Inventor” Stephen, the earliest we could see Siesta again was two months
later. ──I can’t really imagine what kind of state she will wake up in.

“I see. I snuck in by myself last night.”

“You could have come with me today, you know.”

“Girls have things they don’t want boys to hear.”

Is that so? Did they talk bad about me or something?

“Charl came before me, it seems. Noches said so.”

“She must have a lot on her mind.”

Especially now. She might have a lot to consult Siesta. Siesta was the only one
Charl could show weakness, her beloved “Ma’am”. But now…

“Kimizuka, I’m counting on you. Help Charl.”

Then, Natsunagi said something unexpectedly.

“I don’t mind, but why me? You know that the relationship between me and
Charl is… like cats and dogs, right?”
“Well, yeah. Maybe, that’s why.”

Natsunagi made a vague smile. Come to think of it, she had asked me to
accompany Charl the other day.

“I kinda think, you know. That it’s the job of Detective to watch over the
relationship between you and Charl.”

“…Was that also written in the handover document?”

“Ahaha, you look unhappy.”

Natsunagi giggled and poked my cheek with the back of her pen.

“You’re the one making me like this.”

“It’s fine. I like this expression of yours.”

“And I’m not your little brother…”

As we were having such an exchange.

“It seems that my judgment was not wrong.”

Suddenly, a third person’s voice came in.

“You seem to be fond of her.”

There’s a man in a white coat standing behind me.

A Professor of Psychology Department, and a hypnotist──

“──Professor Moriya?”
Natsunagi widened her eyes in surprise.

“I’m impressed that you’re studying hard at the library at this hour. You also
seem to be … enjoying your youth.”

My partner coughed awkwardly.

We had been taking lectures from him for the past few months, after being
impressed by his “magic trick” at the pre-lecture right after entering university.

“So, why are you here, professor?”

“I have some business in the library. I’m looking for a book to use for my
research.”

He answered with his usual gentle smile and suave voice. I can see why he was
popular among female students… Somehow, I noticed that Professor Moriya
was looking at me.

“Are you going to read my mind again?”

At that pre-lecture in April, I was told by Professor Moriya that I was “hesitating
in front of a big question”. At that time, I was indeed troubled by Siesta’s
treatment policy.

“No. I don’t see any cloudiness in you now. You don’t have any doubts like
before, and you have a clear vision of what you should do. Rather, you will now
be playing the supporting role for people around you.”

…I felt like that’s also called mind reading.

Nevertheless, Professor Moriya darkened his expression slightly and continued.

“But in that case, if, for example, the person you tried to support couldn’t
realize their wish, you too need to brace yourself and accept the outcome.”
Those words struck my heart again.

Trying to save someone, desperately stretching out both arms, trying to realize
a dream──and if it didn’t come true, what would I do?

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to surprise or scare you.”

Professor Moriya gently put his hands on my and Natsunagi’s shoulders.

“Think long and hard, and then live your lives with a firm 《Will》. This is my
advice as your teacher.”

◆The《Will》that spins the world

The next day. A Man in Black was driving me to a certain location, when I
received a call. I quickly glanced through the caller name and answered.

“It seems that you have forgotten your duty to contact Lil lately.”

I heard the disgruntled voice of “Magical girl” Reloaded.

“I just learned that there was such a duty.”

“A bill was passed just now. A familiar has to contact their master once every
three days. You should pay more attention to politics.”

“I see, I guess I’m old enough to vote.”

I joked with her while observing the scenery outside the windows. I was quite
far from the city already.

“Are you currently going somewhere?”

“Yeah, some other ‘Tuner’ called for me.”

There was a brief silence.

“Sorry, Lil couldn’t be much help this time.”

She didn’t say anything specific. But it was clear what Lil was worried about.

“Originally, catching Abel was the duty of ‘Assassin’. ‘Ace Detective’ and
‘Oracle’ are just helping because… well, there are circumstances. Anyway, Lil
has your own job too, no?”

“Lil wonders. She hasn't been doing much as a ‘Magical Girl’ for a while.”

Lil said self-deprecatingly, and then told me about her currently assigned job.

“Lil records World Crises that occurred and the activities of the Tuners who
cleared them up in official papers. Isn’t this what they make a nominal near
retirement and computer illiterate manager do?”

“Ok. That’s too explicit. Stop.”

But maybe that was the Federation Government's consideration. To give Lil a
job that she could still do even if her legs──

“I’m sure it’s an important job. What happened to the world, who saved it and
who was saved. Future generations will thank you.”

For example, Oracle can predict the future, but her prophecies don't always
come true. Or rather, other Tuners save the world from those dead ends. There
is no doubt such records of their feats… their stories are needed. Because wise
people learn from history.

“…Thank you.”
Lil’s embarrassed voice echoed through the phone.

I kind of regretted that I couldn’t see her face.

“How are your parents lately?”

In most of the years as “Magical girl”, she had essentially cut all contact with
her parents. However, she returned to her hometown in Northern Europe
about half a year ago, after the fight with Gluttony.

“Lil hasn’t seen them lately. She’s started living on her own.”

“…I heard nothing.”

Maybe this familiar should contact her more regularly.

“Lil’s not a child anymore. She can’t keep living in her parents’ house.”

“That’s true, uh.”

It would be a headache if her family asks about the details of her current job.

“Don’t worry, it’s not like we’re fighting or anything. Lil keeps in touch with
them occasionally. We may not be very close, but… well, that’s just how our
family is.”

The ideal family image was but an illusion.

Her words tasted a bit like sour grapes for me, an orphaned child. But maybe,
this is closer to reality. I didn’t necessarily agree or disagree. I had no right, and
it wasn’t needed.

…Even then, if there’s someone in front of me who’s pursuing such an ideal,

what words should I give them? If there exists a lonely agent girl who keeps
chasing after her mother, her family, her dream, what would I…
“Kimihiko?”

“Yeah, sorry. I’ll arrive at my destination shortly, I reckon.”

“Lil understands, Lil understands. So you’re done with your old girlfriend.”

“Lil, aren’t you troublesome?”

We laughed at each other, through the distance of 8,000 kilometers between

us.

“Lil will contact you again.”

“Yes. It doesn’t have to be three days later, next week, or tomorrow, or

tonight, all ok.”

At the end of the call, my heart felt oddly light.

Before long the car stopped and I got out by myself.

It was an abandoned quarry on the outskirts of town. I saw them. Under the
cloudy sky, in a place that looked like a shooting site for a sentai film, there
were two figures.

They ran like the wind, crossed paths, and collided with each other. Red, and
blonde.

To put it simply, a fierce hand-to-hand combat. As my eyes got used to it, I

realized though that it was a training session.

The red one was clearly holding back. There was a huge gap in skill between the
two. But even so, the blonde one got up again and again. Sorry, perhaps I
shouldn’t just refer to them by color. You should know them by now, Charlotte
Arisaka Anderson and Kase Fuubi.
Fifteen minutes later. I approached them when they took a break.

“Are you okay, Charl?”

“…You’re surprisingly considerate.”

Charl sat down and took the bottle of water I handed her. Large drops of sweat
were dripping from her neck.

“You still have a long way to go.”

On the other hand, Fuubi calmly had a smoke standing up.

“You lack killing intent. Even if you use a big sword or a machine gun, you won’t
match me with a knife.”

This master-disciple relationship began when Siesta was about to die. Siesta,
worried about Charl’s future, had enlisted the help of Kase Fuubi, another
“Tuner”. As a result, Charl had been through many hells, for better or worse.

“Charlotte, when will you catch up with me? I’ve been waiting for two years.”

“I-I know… Don’t say it over and over.”

Charl looked up at Fuubi full of resentment.

“I understand that you’re impatient because of your age.”

“I got the feeling I’ve been mocked quite a lot lately. Have you two been on
drugs?”

For some reason, it’s me who was grabbed by the collar.

“…Fuubi. Why are you so strong?”

Charl resumed the conversation.

“I’ve been working hard enough, both in close combat and sniping skills. But no
matter what, I just can’t reach you. All your previous disciples felt the same
way, I think.”

It seemed that Kase Fuubi had many more disciples before Charl. And none of
them got a passing mark in the assassin's eyes.

“I realized it again today. Your movements are… strange. Like, not physically
possible. Sometimes, you clearly exceed the reaction speed of a normal human.
Your eyes… how’s that possible?”

Kase Fuubi’s abnormal strength.

I thought so, too, by watching her fight so far. Charl, who was even more of an
expert in combat than me, must have been painfully aware of it.

“The you two years ago wouldn’t even notice. That’s some growth.”

Fuubi exhaled a long white smoke.

“But you don’t need anything special. Just do as I’ve taught you so far. Wipe
away your naivety, throw away your hesitation. Sharpen your killing intent, and
focus only on surpassing your enemy at this moment.”

Everything depends on the “will”.

Come to think of it, she said something like that when she was fighting that
goat before.

“So, did you really become this strong just by the power of your will?”

“I don’t mind if you doubt me, but that’s the truth.”

She cut me off and continued.

“That’s the rule of this world. Those who wish strongly are given the strength
they desire. For example, one day, Mia Whitlock was endowed with the power
of god, and Bruno Belmondo attained wisdom. Thanks to their ‘Will’.”

A decidedly vague explanation. But if Fuubi, who was usually straightforward

with me, said it seriously, I was not so stupid that I didn’t understand what she
meant.

“Then, what about Siesta and Natsunagi becoming Ace Detectives?”

“As for them… well, it’s something similar.”

Fuubi waved her hand “It doesn’t matter what word you use.”

“If you don’t like the word ‘will’, find a more appropriate word. This will be
your homework.”

Charl and I looked at each other.

Will becomes power, and power makes wishes come true.

Simple. At the same time, scary.

Such a great power, and who can keep it from going out of control? Who will
keep the world in tune?

“So, why did you call me here?”

We went back to the main point. It was Fuubi who called me out. Surely it
wasn’t to show me Charl’s combat training.

“Oh. I found out where Arisaka Kozue is.”

Fuubi put out her cigarette and operated her mobile terminal.

Soon my smartphone vibrated and I received an email. There was a map and a
coordinate. Is Charl’s mother there…?

“Sorry. I’m making you go with me again.”

Charl said with a stiff expression.

“You don’t have to apologize. I’m just meddling on my own. Besides, how did
you find this place, Ms. Fuubi?”

“Not me. Oracle’s prophecy.”

“Mia? But she can only prophesy about events related to World crises…”

Then, does Arisaka Kozue have something to do with World crises? …No, that’s
right. She has a past with that Abel. That means, in other words.

“Arisaka Kozue has it too. The map that leads to Akashic Records.”

That’s why Mia can divine Arisaka Kozue’s location.

Abel is trying to rob the map of Arisaka Kozue.

“We think it’s serious. The Oracle girl contacted me first.”

Kase Fuubi, “Assassin”, is officially in charge of capturing Abel. Mia’s judgment

was probably correct. So how do we move from here now?

“We’re going there with the three of us?”

That’s probably Fuubi’s intention.

That’s how we usually do it.

“No, I’m gonna fly to Europe. There’s a troublesome map owner that needs me
to be there.”

“Will there be combat?”

“Yeah. Apparently the target is a former Tuner. Mia didn’t see anything, but
Ryan found out about them. Damn, I will be stuck with Ryan for a while.”

I see. Well, Mia’s prophecy doesn’t cover everything. There were of course
many cases where we found the maps through diligent investigation.

“I think there’s nothing to worry with you there, but please come back safely.”

“Geez, you’re setting up a flag for me?”

Fuubi frowned unpleasantly at my words.

To be honest, I’ve been getting used to that face lately… let’s just keep that a
secret for now.

“Charl, are you okay with that?”

Are you fine with me a second time?

Or rather, before that, does Charl actually intend to go to Arisaka Kozue’s

place? It took her almost two weeks to prepare last time…

“Yes, I’ll go.”

Charl, who had been silent until then, declared.

Her emerald eyes pierced through my doubt.

“I’ll recover the map from Arisaka Kozue. That’s my mission, my will.”

◆Her beloved child

About three hours later.

“This is it.”

Charl and I arrived at a huge apartment complex that stretched for several
blocks. Arisaka Kozue appeared to be living here.

It was past five in the afternoon and the sun was about to set. We walked
slowly through the dimly lit corridors.

“Are you nervous?”

I questioned Charl, who had been disturbingly quiet.

“Have some tact here, Kimizuka. Don’t need to put into words everything you
see.”

…If you want.

But anyway, I sort of understood her current mental state.

“It’s better than last time. I’m here on a mission, I don’t have to hesitate.”

That’s true, too. Last time, Charl went as a daughter visiting her mother. But
this time, recovering the map was the goal. She is not the type to quit her job
halfway, this girl.

“Charl. I know, we don’t have to put everything into words. But let me say
this.”
I recalled the phone call with Lil and my thoughts back then.

“I don’t know what you think of me and Natsunagi, and Saikawa and Noches.
But at least, we think of you as a friend.”

If you don’t like the word friend, you can use another suitable word.

The point is.

“No matter who you clash with, what you hesitate about, or where you go from
now on, we’ll always be on your side.”

This is just my guess.

Charlotte has been looking for her place. All along.

She couldn’t have a normal parent-child relationship with her parents, and she
wandered through various organizations after leaving her home. In the midst of
that, she met Siesta, the first person she could look up to, but their relationship
was torn apart by Siesta’s death. And then she ended up under Kase Fuubi and
devoted herself to her missions.

In other words, Charl had been looking for someone to follow behind.

She didn’t have a family to lean on. Then maybe Natsunagi or Saikawa or
Noches could be a substitute for that. If Charl has friends she can trust, maybe
they can be her support…

No reaction. When I turned around to see her, Charl stood still on the spot, her
eyes widened. Perhaps I walked too fast by myself.

“Sorry, I overstepped.”

“That habit of apologizing right away, Ma’am has trained you well.”
Charl relaxed her expression,

“Were you actually a pretty nice person?”

She caught up with me in two steps, and then passed me by.

“What, you didn’t know until now?”

“Don’t get cocky now. Minus twenty affection points.”

“What was the original score?”

“No idea. Cause I never thought about you for a second.”

“…Don’t you think you’re 100% the cause of our bad compatibility?”

Charl turned back and smiled mischievously.

“How about this, I’ll be charitable and think about you for three seconds each
day from now on.”

Three seconds would be meaningless, I was about to say. But as long as she’s
happy.

Soon, we arrived at the northernmost section and stood in front of one of the
doors on the third floor - this was Arisaka Kozue’s room. Charl took a deep
breath in front of the doorbell.

There was silence for a few seconds.

“Should I ring it?”

“No, it’s fine.”

Charl pressed the doorbell with her index finger. There was no answer.
She pressed it a second time - No answer.

A third time - We heard some faint noise inside.

Before she rang it a fourth time, the rusty door opened.

“…”

A gaunt woman stood at the entrance. Worn-out clothes. No makeup. Her

short blonde hair looked dirty.

“It’s been a long time.”

Charl greeted her.

“Do you recognize me? I’m Charlotte.”

The gaunt woman - Arisaka Kozue - widened her vacant eyes. She must have
realized it. The person standing here was her daughter.

“I’m nineteen this year.”

I don’t know how many years it’s been since they met, or how they parted last
time. I didn’t ask. But for the daughter to have to say her age, it’s quite
something.

What would the mother say to such a reunion? I could only wait, quietly.

“What did you come here for?”

I felt the enmity. Not the kind of words you usually say to your daughter.

Covertly, my eyes moved sideways.

Charl didn’t change her expression at all.

“We have something to ask you.”

Charl suppressed her personal feelings and continued.

“Do you still have the map that leads to Akashic Records?”

The next moment, Arisaka Kozue’s attitude underwent a great change.

“I don’t know! I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know! I have no idea, you
hear me…!”

She widened her emerald eyes, held her head as if in pain, and screamed.

“Why! Why now, Charlotte, you! Why, why! Why! Are you trying to torment
me! Even you, even you want to take it from me!”

She was clearly not normal. What made her like this?

But before I could think about all of that, Arisaka Kozue acted. Her arm
stretched out toward Charl’s neck.

“That’s enough.”

I grabbed Arisaka Kozue’s wrist. Her arm was so thin that I couldn’t believe she
was a former soldier.

“Kimizuka.”

Charl looked at me and shook her head.

I’ll take care of it from here, so don’t worry, she said.

“Oh, but, yes, that’s right. Yes, that’s...”

Arisaka Kozue looked down and muttered something, then turned back to
Charl.

“If you want the map that much, I’ll give it to you. Charlotte.”

“…! Really?”

Arisaka Kozue smiled for the first time.

“But in return, bring that child to me.”

“That child?”

Charl frowned. She seemed to be in shock.

“Yes, bring Noah to me.”

I could tell that the air froze at that moment.

“Please. You can do it, right? I give you the key to the safe, so bring him to me.
Please!”

Arisaka Kozue grabbed her daughter’s shoulders and shook them.

“You can do it, right? You are that child’s big sister. Hey, answer me.”

“…!”

Charl’s lips trembled.

I could tell by looking at her. Arisaka Kozue was making a proposal that Charl
could never realize. In other words, the person named Noah that Arisaka Kozue
was talking about was already…

“I understand.”

But before I could intervene again,

“I’ll bring Noah. So please tell me where you’re keeping the map.”

◆Code of Slaughter

Charl and I, in the same Man in Black’s car, went to a certain underground
facility.

After walking through a sealed tunnel for a while, we met a ladder, went down
and reached our destination, the former hideout of Arisaka Kozue. A secret
base she utilized whenever she was in Japan.

On the wall, there were old maps and photos of people, and a giant mess of
electronic devices such as computers were left on the ground. When I opened
the locker, I found tons of guns and bullets.

As we continued to search the base, we eventually found an old safe covered

with dust.

“This is probably it.”

Charl took out the key she had received from Arisaka Kozue earlier.

Inside, there was a piece of the map leading to Akashic Records. I sent an email
to Fuubi and Natsunagi to tell them we had completed the mission.

When I looked up from my smartphone, Charl was on her knees, relieved.

She hadn’t opened the safe. But there was no need to hurry. I sat down on the
floor a meter or two away.

“Why do you sit so far away?”

“You scolded me last time for sitting next to you, remember?”

“It’s different now.”

The dim underground facility was eerily quiet.

A few minutes later, Charl broke the silence.

“I lied. Bringing Noah with me, I mean.”

That was the promise she had made with Arisaka Kozue earlier.

“Noah is the name of your brother, right?”

I heard a bit about him before. Noah, her sickly brother.

“Yes. He’s my brother, and the most important person for Arisaka Kozue. But
Noah is gone. He went to heaven seven years ago.”

“…I see.”

“His illness got worse. Arisaka Kozue was abroad at that time… She rushed back
to Japan, but she didn’t make it in time. She didn’t eat or sleep for days, only
cried. And I could only watch over my mother from a distance.”

Charl hugged her knees while recalling the past.

“She didn’t say anything to me. I wish she had scolded me. Like, ‘It should have
been you.’ You know, that kind of vent. But she didn’t say anything, not a
word.”

The agent girl looked up at the ceiling.

“That was the last time I saw Arisaka Kozue. She left the house and I couldn’t
contact her anymore. My father had always kept a distance from us, so that
was the end of my family. I was taken in by some shady organization that
claimed to have some connections with my parents, and my life as an agent
began.”

That was her upbringing, which I have just now learned.

That’s how Charlotte Arisaka Anderson started living only for her mission.
Because she had nothing else.

“Is Arisaka Kozue still trapped in the past?”

“Yes. I didn’t want to see her like that, so I kind of avoided meeting Arisaka
Kozue.”

I remembered the emaciated figure I met an hour ago.

Was Arisaka Kozue really unable to accept that her son was gone? Or was she
so mentally cornered that she couldn’t even tell? …To be honest, that was
really abnormal. It made me wonder if there was something else going on.

“I’m awful, aren’t I? I lied to Arisaka Kozue, saying I would bring Noah with me,
all for getting my hands on the map. And I made excuses for myself, saying that
it was my mission.”

Charl mocked herself.

She was once freed from the curse of “mission” by Noches, who followed
Siesta’s scenario. However, the curse is coming back, and Charl was scared

“I… think. Even if you end up going back there no matter what, I don’t think it
will necessarily be bad.”

I tried desperately to string out some incoherent words.

“Living solely for your mission. If you keep coming back to that way of life,
that’s fine too. I think what’s important is to stop and think. And feel.”

Siesta was once like that. What matters is not the compulsive idea that you
have to live this way, but your own free will to choose that life.

Even if the result is the same. Even if it took a detour, there’s meaning in
following your own route.

“Really?”

Charl looked up. Her eyes were shaking with anxiety.

“Betraying my mother. Using my dead brother as bait. Will you, and everyone,
still accept me?”

“Wait a minute, Charl.”

“I tried to kill Yui in the past. If I choose to live for my mission again, I’m sure
I…!”

Charl screamed with tears in her eyes.

She was afraid. What if she decided on her way of life, then the world simply
rejected her belief?

“Charl, that’s…”
I couldn’t think of anything right away. But I had to say something. Charl
needed my words. If Natsunagi was her, what would she──

“──Oh, poor you. You’ve been working hard for your ideal. For a long, long
time.”

Someone’s here.

I and Charl stood up and scanned the base.

“I’m the only one who knows your efforts. I’m the only one who knows your
dream. And I know what’s causing your pain, right now.”

I and Charl moved to the center of the room, back facing each other, and pulled
out guns. Needless to say we found them from this base’s lockers.

“If only Arisaka Kozue wasn’t there. If only she wasn’t there, you wouldn’t have
to doubt anymore. ──What do you think? How about I help you get rid of your
pain?”

In just a blink of an eye. He materialized in front of Charl.

A suit man with a silk hat. His face was wrapped tight in bandages.

“I can help you destroy the shackles that prevent you reaching enlightenment.”

The man reached out his hand.

I saw that──no, by the time I saw that, I had already moved into shooting
position.

My intuition screamed. My whole body screamed.

I didn’t need to show any mercy. I fired at his head without hesitation.
“Charlotte Arisaka Anderson. I’ll give you the Code of Slaughter.”

The bullet missed.

It was like he teleported. By the time I fired, the bandaged man was already far
away from me.

“Charl!”

The blonde agent was frozen to the spot with her eyes wide open.

Could it be that Charl was already──

“A──bel!”

I shouted at him. Abel A. Schönberg.

The world’s most hated enemy had appeared here.

◆The seed of evil

“Charl, hang in there!”

Charl collapsed as if she had lost consciousness. I hurriedly supported her body.

“I’ll take care of the rest.”

I gently laid Charl down on the floor and took the key from her hand.

Then I turned to face the bandages-covering enemy.

“Are you ‘Phantom Thief’?”

“That’s right.”

He calmly admitted his true identity.

“My name is Abel A. Schönberg. One of the twelve Tuners, ‘Phantom Thief’.”

Ah, I finally met him in person. It’s been a year.

When I confronted him with Siesta, he was impersonating the former

Revolutionary Fritz Stewart… This time too, he doesn’t intend to show his real
face either.

“Arsene, no, Abel. What did you do to Charl?”

I’m not sure what’s happening. One thing, though, Abel’s hand somehow
corrupted Charl. Something about ‘Code of Slaughter’.

“I didn’t do anything. It’s her who’s going to act from now on.”

“Charl will murder Arisaka Kozue? Code of Slaughter can make her do that?”

Abel’s plot, the Neverland Project.

Parents and children, family discords. Recently, he had been using that project
as a cover to retrieve the maps to Akashic Records. Arisaka Kozue and her
daughter Charlotte fit that pattern perfectly.

“I gave her a push, nothing more. I just lit a small seed hidden deep in her heart
on fire. You see, I helped someone who was in trouble. Same as you, detective
assistant.”
“Shut up…!”

I thought about shooting him again, but stopped my finger.

There was still something I had to ask him.

“Answer me. What is the Neverland Project in the first place? Why do you
make children kill their parents?”

“I will invert this world full of mistakes into a better world.”

Abel replied without hesitation.

“War, violence, poverty. All the sins that humanity has overlooked… It’s maybe
too late to atone for them all, but I can deliver judgment to those who have
affirmed such a world. All the people who died by the Neverland Project
deserved it.”

My brain refused to understand those nonsenses. Abel leisurely strolled around

the room.

“That’s how I’m going to gradually invert this world. This is my experiment to
eliminate evil.”

About a year ago, when Siesta faced him, he said thus: I was conducting
experiments using my ability to make others commit meaningless criminal acts.
But his true intention──

“How do you judge human sins? And why do you involve innocent people?”

“What are you talking about? There is no sinless human.”

His icy voice made me shiver.

“Ah, but not every experiment went well. Apparently, that child did not fully
accept my Code.”

Abel, returning to his normal voice, turned his bandaged head towards me.

He was looking at the unconscious Charl. Is she fighting against Abel’s Code of
Slaughter in her mind right now?

“Tell me one more thing. About Akashic Records.”

I still had doubts.

Why was Abel trying to collect the maps leading to Akashic Records?

“Do you even know what Akashic Records is?”

He left me hanging for a few seconds.

“I want you to understand my plan. So I’ll tell you a little bit. The Akashic
Records is not something like a blueprint for weapons of mass destruction or
secret political documents. It’s not that simple.”

Abel continued.

“But at least if this thing is exposed to the daylight, there is no doubt that this
world will turn upside down. Yes, that’s the scenario I want to see.”

Oh, I see. Even though I still didn’t know the contents, Abel’s goal was clear. To
reverse the causality of nature. “Phantom Thief” was going to steal Akashic
Records.

“What are you going to do about it?”

“Stop you, of course.”

I fired again this time. Missed.

Or rather, Abel had teleported several meters away.

“If it’s not actual teleportation, then do you have the same ability as Scarlet?”

Was he using that wing-like “Invention” as well? Or maybe…

“Why are you trying to stop me?”

Before I knew it, Abel was behind me. I panicked and fired at him again.

What’s going on? What is he intending to do to me?

“I want a reason. Why are you standing in my way?”

Abel materialized some meters away and repeated his question.

“Why are you interfering with my plan? You’re no Tuner.”

“That’s my line. Why are you plotting to invert the world, you, a Tuner?”

You were supposed to be a hero of justice, no?

“If you want an example of justice committing evil, you should already witness
it.”

Abel whispered in a creepily soft voice.

“I want you to remember the Vampire rebellion. What kind of incident was
that? What kind of World crisis was that?”

“That was…”
Scarlet, who was originally on the side of justice, led a horde of Undead and
rebelled against Federation Government. He turned evil, “Vampire”.

“That’s why we are called Tuners. The twelve of us divide ourselves into justice
and evil, and the world balance is maintained. Tuned, you can say. When the
world begins to lean too much towards just, some of the Tuners will change
their allegiances.”

The world was designed that way, Abel explained.

“Ace Detective was supposed to be like that too. You have an idea, don’t you?”

About a year ago, after defeating Seed. The seed that nested in Siesta’s heart
would soon sprout, and my partner was supposed to turn into a monster.
Siesta, who foresaw that, tried to disappear by herself, but we saved her and
put her to sleep. That’s said…

“I see. All 《Tuners》 will eventually become 《Enemies of the world》”

That was the universal rule governing this world.

“The Government also understands that fact. Therefore, even Bruno

Belmondo, the king of omniscience, will someday descend into this world as
the great evil.”

That’s ridiculous. Then Natsunagi, Mia, Lil, will they someday…

“Impossible.”

I won’t let that happen. I, who take on the role of “Singularity”.

“…!”
At that moment, I felt a chill.

Abel, whose face should not be visible, seemed to let out a smile.

“You are the same as me.”

What do you mean by the same?

“You are an existence defined outside of causality, just like me.”

Enough. I don’t want to hear anymore. I’ll deal with him now.

Hit! I screamed at the top of my lungs. Seemed like the bullet hit his left
shoulder.

“I see, I see.”

Abel muttered by himself as he touched his wound.

“This is the Singularity’s Program.”

“What are you talking about?”

Then, at that time, I heard several footsteps.

“Kimizuka!”

It was Natsunagi.

She must have come because I contacted her about the map earlier. She
widened her eyes at the unusual scene.

And one more person.

“──Abel!”
Another person ran towards Abel.

The man had a huge scythe in his hand. It was “Enforcer” Ookami.

“If you are the mastermind who produced Seven deadly sins Demons, I will
judge you with this scythe!”

For his old friend.

“Abel A. Schönberg. You can’t move a step from there!”

Natsunagi activated Word Soul.

Abel stopped dead in front of Ookami’s scythe.

The game was decided.

“…!”

The one who collapsed was Ookami.

The scythe that had slain countless evils fell from his hand. Right now, Ookami’s
right arm was severed from his shoulder.

“Ookami…!”

I don’t know how it happened. But it was obvious who did it.

And the culprit was somehow standing right in front of me.

“Most of it has gone, but there is still a remnant of the seed of evil in your
body. I’ll tie up the unfinished story here, and complete this flawless program.”

I can’t move. Abel’s right hand, in a black glove, was hovering over my face.
“I’ll give you 《Code of Evanescence》”

My vision was filled with darkness. Along with that, my sight, hearing, smell…
my five senses were fading away. I’m probably not standing right now. But I
don’t feel the sensation of collapsing from my feet, or the pain of hitting the
concrete with my body.

“I can’t… do this.”

I can’t hear the words I’m making.

Hopelessly, but, I still had a faint consciousness. I know. There was a situation
like this before, and I remember the regret that day.

“If… this goes on. Natsunagi… will…”

My other companions fell, I lost consciousness, and the detective who was left
alone… with the great evil.

It’s the same as that day.

Natsunagi, who faced Seed alone with all her might, and she was──

“──It’s okay.”

I sensed two crimson jewels lighting up in the darkness.

“I will be fine.”

I can’t hear her voice.

But I know Natsunagi is trying to convey something to me.

“I’ll keep my promise. I won’t let anything important be taken away.”

I felt the “Will” of the proud Ace Detective for the last time, and then fell into a
deep slumber.

◇The agent’s lament

When I woke up and looked around, there was a familiar scene before my eyes.

“This is… my room?”

But it’s not the house where I’m currently living. It’s my home when I was a
child. I remember this small bed and the ceiling light. Why am I here?

My memory is vague. Why am I wearing pajamas? Was I sleeping here? What

was I doing before I came here?

“Let’s look for it.”

What, who? I don’t know. Just go. Search for it.

I jumped out of my room, went down the stairs, and walked around the sizable
two-story house. It was quiet. Is no one here? That can’t be. Because, that child
can’t go outside by himself.

“That’s right, where is Noah?”

His room was supposed to be…

I went up the stairs again, shouting “Noah!” and opened the door next to my
room earlier. But there was only a vacant bed.

“Noah is gone. Hey, Noah is gone!”

I kept screaming as I searched around the house.

In my heart, I called out “Mom!” as I opened every door in the house.

Why are there so many doors? Why are the stairs so long? Something is wrong.
But still, I arrived at a particularly large room.

“──Why?”

When I opened the door, Arisaka Kozue was lying in a pool of blood in the
middle of the white room.

This is wrong. This is so wrong. Why, Why, why, why!

“Who did this!”

I shouted, looking down at the bloody knife in my right hand.

No, no. That can’t be. It’s not true. It’s not, it’s not, it’s not!

“I didn’t do it! I didn’t wish for this!”

The knife slipped from my hand and dropped to the floor.

This is not my wish. Not my will. There’s no way I hate Arisaka Kozue.

“I just wanted you to…!”

I woke up. From the nightmare.

I was sweating like a waterfall, on a hospital bed.

──Was that a dream?

I clenched my hands. Of course the kitchen knife was not here. I didn’t kill
Arisaka Kozue. I was relieved to the point of trembling, but then I recalled that
incident.

“Abel.”

That’s right. Kimizuka and I went to see Arisaka Kozue, then we headed to her
old base where Abel attacked us. In the end, I was given the “Code of
Slaughter” and lost consciousness…

“What happened after that?”

I check the calendar on the shelf. It had been two days since that encounter.
Things had probably been dealt with while I was unaware.

What happened to Kimizuka? Did he challenge Abel alone after I lost

consciousness? ──There’s no way...

“Where are you?”

I pulled out the needle in my arm and ran out of the room. My body felt heavy.
But that’s not important right now. I have to find Kimizuka.

I went out into the hallway. There was no sign of anyone. But I recognized this
scene. I had been here many times before──Ma’am sleeping in this hospital.
Maybe…

“In both my dreams and reality, I search for someone. Ridiculous.”

I walked along the corridor, holding onto the railing, climbed up the stairs, and
finally reached the room at the end of the third floor. When I opened the door,
he was there by the window.

“What are you doing? Don’t make me… worried.”

Kimizuka seemed to be looking out at the sky.

I felt my strength drained from my body as I approached him. And then I saw
his face. Inanimate, puppet-like expression.

“Kimi… zuka?”

He was looking outside, but he wasn’t really looking at anything. His eyes, or his
complexion, I don’t know, showed no sign of sanity at all.

“Hey, what’s wrong with you?”

I shook Kimizuka’s body involuntarily. No response.

As if he couldn’t perceive my voice, as if he couldn’t feel my presence.

“What is… this?”

Anybody? Is this a dream too? …No, it’s different. This time, this is reality.

Then what on earth happened to Kimizuka…?

“Charl!”

I heard a voice calling my name.

The hospital room’s door was thrown aside. There was a girl standing there.

“Nagisa?”

A black-haired detective girl. She widened her large eyes and ran up to me.
Nagisa hugged me tightly.

“…It hurts.”
“Shut up!”

…I let her hug me for the moment. Nagisa was sobbing.

“Were we that close?”

She was so worried to the point of crying.

“Honestly, I’m surprised myself. I guess I liked Charl more than I thought.”

Nagisa finally let go of her arms and smiled at me.

“Charl, I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Yes, thanks to you.”

But there’s one “not okay” person here.

“Nagisa, tell me what happened?”

Nagisa’s expression clouded.

“You probably have noticed it already, but he doesn’t react to anything. He

doesn’t see anything, he doesn’t hear anything. He doesn’t even talk to me. It’s
like all his five senses no longer work.”

Even as she was telling me all of this, Kimizuka showed no reactions.

He had once taken the “seed” from Chameleon in the past. It was said that a
seed would almost always cause side effects to the human who took it, and
Kimizuka himself was prepared to pay the price. Maybe ──

“It’s not only because of the seed, I think.”

Nagisa continued to explain.

“I had him examined by a doctor named Drachma, and that guy said there were
only faint traces of the seed in Kimizuka’s body, and that it was unlikely that it
could cause such a severe condition. Unless, someone forcibly trigger the
seed──”

“──Could it be Abel’s 《Code》?”

Nagisa nodded with a solemn expression.

“That day, I and Ookami-san also went to the scene. But by then, Charl had
passed out and Kimizuka was facing Abel alone.”

And so Nagisa retold the event happened that day.

Kimizuka shot Abel. Nagisa and Enforcer cooperated to finish off Abel. But
Ookami was seriously injured, and Kimizuka lost consciousness due to Abel’s
Code.

“Then I had to face Abel alone. …I braced myself. But Abel didn’t fight me, no,
he just disappeared. Beyond the door.”

“Door?”

“Yeah, a door suddenly appeared. The moment Abel entered it, the door also
vanished.”

…Abel was a mysterious enemy.

From what I heard, we didn’t defeat Abel. He left either because he achieved
his goal or because he somehow ran out of time.

But if Abel never shows up again, that would be a problem. We need to

question him. How to bring Kimizuka back.
“You suck, Kimizuka!”

I complained to Kimizuka, who was staring blankly out the window.

“Did you forget your usual self? You always talked back to me no matter what I
said. You fought back when I hit you. Gender equality or whatever.”

You don’t even know the word lady first, do you?

“You always made fun of me. You blamed me for our failures. I know. You
hated me, didn’t you?”

Well, same here. I hated you from the first time we met… no, even before we
met.

“Charl…”

Nagisa gently touched my back.

“That’s right, that’s fine. Even if we hate each other.”

We pretended to be on good terms for Ma’am sake, hilariously. I’m sure we

won’t understand each other no matter how long we live. You and me, right?

“Then why?”

His recent behaviors troubled me.

“Sometimes you were strangely considerate, sometimes you encouraged me.

You even ate the sandwiches I made.”

Really. What are you, anyway?

“You hate me, right? Then don’t mess with me.”

Just let me hate you.

“Answer me.”

I grabbed his collar without thinking.

My rival did not reply.

◇The story from here on

After parting with Charl, I moved to the hospital’s rooftop. This place, where
the “Vampire” Scarlet once rampaged, was now neatly restored.

“You were here.”

I found the person I was looking for.

“I’ve been looking for you. Ookami-san.”

My former assistant substitute, who is now counted as one of the Tuners,

“Enforcer”.

He was wearing a hospital gown, watching the city from the edge of the
rooftop.

“Is visiting patients your hobby, Ace Detective?”

Ookami-san returned with his usual sarcastic tone.

I felt a little relieved hearing his voice, but I couldn’t help noticing the missing
part in his figure.

His right shoulder, wrapped in bandages, had no arm attached to it.

“The enemy was Phantom Thief, this is as expected.”

The one who took his arm was the rogue Tuner Abel A. Schönberg. I don’t know
how he did it. The enemy must have some kind of power, something beyond
human knowledge.

“What did Drachma say?”

“At least it’s impossible now to reconnect the severed arm. Therefore, he
recommended asking Dr. Stephen, Inventor, for a prosthetic arm.”

…I see. Right now, Stephen is busy himself with Siesta’s surgery. Until that
settles down…

“I’m sorry.”

For some reason, Ookami-san bowed his head to me.

“I can’t be your right arm anymore.”

“No, that’s not...”

I shook my head.

“Besides, Ookami-san is no longer my substitute assistant. You’re one of the

respectable heroes of justice, the Tuner ‘Enforcer’, right?”

Just like when I graduated from being a detective substitute and became Ace
Detective.

“I see. I guess that’s true.”

Ookami-san looked a bit surprised.

“Well, I did enjoy being your assistant, though.”

He uttered something quite unexpected.

“Ookami-san. It’s not good to … flirt with younger girls like that.”

“I apologize for that. But I doubt you would fall for me now.”

You have someone in your heart, he answered.

“Who are you talking about?”

When I asked, Ookami-san pretended to be clueless as usual.

“I’m watching over you guys. That’s my role.”

“Watching over us is your role…?”

What does that mean?

But Ookami-san ignored my question and narrowed his eyes on someone

behind me.

“It seems there’s another person who wishes to apologize to you.”

When I turned around, there was a woman in a suit at the entrance.

She looked straight at me and opened her mouth.

“I’m ashamed that I wasn’t at the scene when it mattered.”

“Assassin” Kase Fuubi. She’s someone who rarely admitted her mistakes or
faults, but the police woman before me had a regretful expression.

“No, it’s not your fault. Even Oracle couldn’t predict Abel’s movements.”

That doesn’t mean Mia was to blame, of course.

The ability to foresee the future was nevertheless unstable. Even so, Mia had
contributed greatly to our efforts.

“Besides, you were in Europe to recover another map, right? Then...”

“…Yeah. Still, I’m sorry.”

Ms. Fuubi looked away awkwardly.

I guess she felt responsible, knowing how Kimizuka and Ookami-san turned out.
More than anything, capturing Abel was the entrusted duty of “Assassin”.

“So, where is Ryan White now?”

Ookami-san asked.

I heard that he had been accompanying Ms. Fuubi for the past few days.

“He disappeared after hearing the news of Abel’s attack. He left only a note
saying ‘I appreciate your help so far’.”

“You don’t mean…?”

“He probably intends to settle things by himself. He might intend to lure Abel
out with the data of the maps he recovered - I don’t know what he plans to do
after that.”

Ms. Fuubi was about to take out a cigarette when she stopped herself.

“So he saw Abel’s strength and is … trying to lead Abel away from us?”

“Ryan’s always been like that. He doesn’t tell me anything important, he takes
care of trouble by hiding it from me. It’s his bad habit.”

“Is there no way to find out where he is? Using Men in Black or something…”

“Yeah, they are searching. But for the moment, we don’t have any leads.”

The sky looked frustratingly clear of clouds.

“I thought this time would be different.”

I clenched my fist. This time, I would protect everything - that’s what I’ve
thought. In reality, the enemy didn’t even try to fight me. He refused to
acknowledge me.

“That’s how much threat Abel possesses.”

Ms. Fuubi defended me. Abel is strong, overwhelmingly strong. So we lost, it’s
that simple. But then, does that mean the “Ace Detective” was inferior to
“Phantom thief”? When would I be recognized as the real thing?

“This can’t go on.”

In the past, I tried to sacrifice myself to save a girl. I had nothing to hesitate,
not at all. Return this life to where it belonged, that’s all I did. She’d saved me
first, so it was my turn this time, I told myself.

But there was a boy who said that was wrong. He said he couldn’t call that a
happy ending, and chose to resume the adventure. Even after I woke up, he
continued to search for the single route where everyone could be saved.

I wanted to be by his side. Because he’s my friend. Business partner. Classmate.

Assistant. And also…no. I simply wanted to make his wish come true - this time,
as a detective. But he’s now…

“We’re letting those guys show off too much.”

I rolled my eyes at the unexpected complaint.

The red-haired police woman gazed up at the blue sky, holding her cigarette.

“The great evil’s blitz. Ookami lost his arm, that damn kid’s life was
endangered. And now Ryan White is heading to a duel.”
…That’s right. Charl and I, and Ms. Fuubi, we all ended up being protected by
them. They were the only ones who lost something, and we…

“Natsunagi Nagisa.”

Her red hair swayed in the wind.

Her determination shone through the dark. Kase Fuubi, the woman who hell
bent on setting evil ablaze with her “Will”, told me:

“It’s our turn. From now on.”

◇The Assassin’s Disciple

A week later, I was leaving Japan for London.

“…Damn”

I called Ryan White from a certain facility. Not connecting as expected, this was
useless.

I swallowed this humiliation, and leaned on the pipe chair.

He is definitely trying to fight Abel all by himself. As always, he takes on the

trouble by himself──without consulting anyone, not even me.

“I hated that part of you.”

Untainted justice. That’s just a facade, of course.

I can see what swirls inside him. Jet-black self-sacrifice.

“That’s why you made that face.”

I hadn’t seen Ryan for more than ten years since we parted ways. But during
that time, I saw his face one time in the news.

His face was different.

It’s not that someone else had taken his place, or that he’d had plastic surgery.
It’s just that his expression was unlike him. It wasn’t the face I had seen up
close from childhood. His smile and tone were unchanged, but they looked
fake.

That incident happened at a press conference a few days after Ryan captured a
terrorist and prevented a military coup d’etat. How much sacrifice did Ryan
White actually pay for his ideal justice?

“They let you play with that in the police interrogation room?”

The door opened, and a woman was brought in.

The green-haired woman frowned at my smartphone and sat down opposite of

me.

“It’s been a while.”

When I said that, she slightly opened her jade-colored eyes wide.

“…Did you remember?”

“I thought your voice sounded familiar.”

I would have recognized you right away if you hadn’t worn that stupid mask.

“That mask is exactly my code name, no?”

“Ha, that’s true──Goat.”

We both raised the corners of our lips. The goat-masked human trafficking
organization member I caught in London last month. Code name Goat. And
also, my former disciple.

“I didn’t expect you to come to visit me.”

“I had a bit of concern for my third-rate student.”

I took her as a disciple…and deemed her as a failure, how many years ago was
that?

“You guys collected strays like us for your agent-raising program. In the end,
though, most of us ended up being thrown away.”

Goat frowned as if looking back on those days. Consequently, the burn marks
on her cheek twisted in a hideous way. Come to think of it, she used to cover
her face with a scarf, methinks.

“Don’t blame your lack of skills on others.”

“You gonna preach to me again?”

Goat smiled whimsically. That’s right. She used to smile like this sometimes.

“Well, you can make fun of me as much as you want. I ended up working for a
human trafficking group, that’s the truth.”

She ridiculed her fate.

“Didn’t you have your own justice?”

She has said something like that when we fought last time.

“…”
But Goat didn’t answer. We sat in silence, unsure of what to do.

“So? Why did you come, actually?”

Today, I came to visit my former disciple for a reason.

“I know you’re not that caring of a teacher. You, who dedicate your life to
justice all your life, wouldn’t care about some trash like me.”

She was absolutely in distrust of me.

I never tried to build any relationship with the agents I had trained, including
Goat. I never told any of them about me, who I really was.

That’s fine. I don’t need any understanding. That’s my way of life.

“There’s one thing I want to ask.”

I moved on to today's main topic.

“Who ordered you to kidnap Kimizuka Kimihiko?”

Goat’s expression didn’t change a bit. It seemed like she was prepared for that
question from the start.

“I’m a broker, a trader. This time, a client designated him. You have a
problem?”

“Sure, that boy naturally attracts those shady people. Even so, the timing was
too good.”

Like a well-crafted fairy tale.

Kimizuka Kimihiko came to London by the summons of Federation

Government, who ordered him to arrest Abel. Charlotte Arisaka Anderson,
heard about it, sold out Kimizuka to a human trafficking organization in
exchange for information about her mother.

I and Ryan, who were also in London following Abel’s lead, rescued Kimizuka,
and we formed a temporary team to investigate Phantom Thief. Kimizuka, who
still cared for Charlotte, learned that Arisaka Kozue and Abel had a past, and
sank deeper and deeper into this case.

And so the boy continued to play his part in stopping Abel’s criminal plan, but
in the process he encountered Abel himself. He was thus turned into a living
corpse. This is the end of the tale.

…What if all of this was part of Abel’s plan? What if it was all a trap to ensnare
the “Singularity”? In retrospect, there's a very high chance the original
Neverland Project was designed in a way to attract Kimizuka’s attention. It
ignited the boy unconsciously.

“A scenario was necessary. And it needed to be natural.”

Goat whispered quietly.

“A plausible script, one that wouldn’t arouse suspicion from Kimizuka Kimihiko
himself. Reunite with an estranged friend, form a party to achieve a common
objective, encounter a great evil and taste defeat in the process. I had to
execute such a plot.”

Why go through such a roundabout way──I didn’t need to ask. I don’t know if
even Goat understood that plan. But at least I am convinced. You need to go
that far to prevail over Kimizuka Kimihiko.

An unsatisfactory story will never be accepted. His Singularity power won’t

allow it. The moment Kimizuka Kimihiko unconsciously judges that the route he
is on is illegitimate, that it is unreasonable, the Singularity power activates. It
erases all sufferings, all contradictions, with the convenient word “miracle”.
“Abel must have been afraid of that.”

That’s why he used Goat to involve Kimizuka Kimihiko in this well-made story.
To make the threat “Singularity”, leave the stage naturally.

“Why did you cooperate with Abel?”

I questioned Goat again.

“Didn’t you have your own justice? Even after you became a criminal.”

Not just Kimizuka. They also involved Charlotte by exploiting Arisaka Kozue.
There’s no justice in that!

“There is no justice, true.”

Goat covered her face and laughed weakly.

“Justice, just a flickering candle before real evil.”

Having heard that, I stood up from my seat. I got the information I needed. The
job here is done.

“Goat.”

Therefore, this is just my tip. I turned my back and said to the once disciple.

“If you get tired of evil, come back to me.”

I’ll take care of my student’s mess.

◇Causality, Ace Detective

That day, I was strolling through the park near the hospital with Kimizuka.

The smell of autumn permeated our surroundings. The leaves were starting to
turn red, the angle of the sunlight and the sound of the insects informed me of
the change of seasons.

“Isn’t it still too early?”

I wonder if there are any other mysterious abnormal weather phenomena

aside from global warming.

“Hey, can’t you do something with your power, Kimizuka? This might be a new
World Crisis?”

I asked teasingly, but Kimizuka didn’t react at all.

He was sitting in a wheelchair, staring blankly ahead with his emotionless eyes.

“This’s not working.”

It had been a week since Abel’s attack and Kimizuka became… like this.

There was no change in his condition. Drachma believed there’s no currently

possible way to treat Kimizuka, all we could do was feed him nutrients through
an IV drip and let him exercise regularly to prevent his muscles from stiffening.
To sum up, he had become another Siesta.

“Kimizuka, do you remember what day is it today? It’s Charl’s birthday, October
10th.”

We were supposed to celebrate with her. I have wanted to have a party like
Yui’s birthday last year. But in practice… And truthfully I haven’t been able to
contact Charl lately. Everyone just disappeared on their own.
“Come to think of it, I haven’t gotten a proper birthday present from you
either.”

According to Kimizuka, he didn’t know what kind of present to give me, he

couldn’t make up his mind. In the end, we just went out for dinner that day.
And I was looking forward to my present.

“Someday when it’s all over, let’s do it for real, okay?”

When the afterword comes, let’s get together with everyone for real. Siesta
too, after she wakes up.

“Oh, Mia sent me a message.”

I moved to a nearby bench and unlocked my smartphone. Two windows

popped up, Mia and another person appeared on the screen.

“Wow, Lil is calling too…”

“What do you mean ‘wow’? Mia, you’re getting too cocky lately?”

And so they started arguing as soon as the call started. Geez, these two.

“Mia, Lil. Don’t fight.”

I reprimanded them.

…Wait?

Do I have to play the mediator role now?

“This is a strange three-people group.”

Me and Mia and Lil. That is, Ace Detective and Oracle and Magical Girl. It was
actually the first time this combination entered the limelight.

“It’s you who called for this meeting in the first place, Is Lil right?”

Lil glared at me sullenly.

Well, that’s true. But, you know. I’m in a quite perilous position.

“Aren’t you two good friends? They say fighting is caring.”

“We’re not friends!”

They waved their hands sideways in sync. Both of them.

Their looks and personalities widely differ, but somehow their combination
works particularly well. And I know who is the architect for this relationship.

“…”

Mia looked at me concerningly and started to speak.

“How is Kimihiko?”

“Not sure. He’s right next to me, here.”

I originally called out to them to talk about that.

“Why are you becoming like Lil? How are you going to entertain me once every
three days looking like that, Kimihiko?”

She lowered her eyes to her feet. She should understand better than anyone,
the frustration of not being able to move one’s legs.

“This ability always fails to save people at crucial times.”

Then Mia bited her lip as if lamenting her lack of power. Her parents, Siesta,
and him. Her inability to save them became Mia’s scars.

Silence ensued for a while.

“That’s no good, this is. We didn’t gather here to be depressed.”

Lil shook her head vigorously. She then slapped her cheek. The melancholic
atmosphere from before dissipated.

“Nagisa. Call out to Kimihiko.”

Talk to him a lot. So that Kimizuka doesn’t get lost, so that he knows the way to
come back. Keep calling.

“But Kimizuka might not be able to hear me now…”

“That’s fine too. Nagisa, your words have the power to reach his whole body’s
cells. Believe in Lil, she has experienced it. Lil, who stayed standing by abusing
the power of science, was saved by you. There’s no mistake.”

Lil smiled at me gently. She’s probably talking about the time when we fought
Gluttony.

“I have something to say too. You used to call yourself a proxy detective. You
may still feel inadequate. But I’m sure there is something that only you can do.”

Mia put her hand on her chest and spoke to me.

“This is not mere encouragement. I, the Oracle, know more than anyone else
about the World Crises that have happened so far. And at the same time, I also
know about the special roles that generations of Ace Detective have played
since ancient times. All of their deeds link back to you. This is the principle of
causality, detective.”
That’s how Ace Detectives will save the future - Mia said with an unusually
strong tone of voice.

“…I see.”

Lil and Mia’s words warmed up my heart.

Oh, this is no good. I felt like crying a little bit. But a girl who cries in a place like
this will never become a protagonist or a heroine, or a real detective.

“Thank you.”

So for now, I’ll just end it with a word of gratitude.

And one more thing.

“Let’s have a girls’ party again someday! Us three.”

My suggestion made Mia and Lil widen their eyes for a moment, and then
laughed “What’s that?”.

A detective, a shrine maiden, and a magical girl.

I could say it’s a pretty good combination.

When I pushed the wheelchair back to the hospital, there was an unexpected
visitor in Kimizuka’s room.

“Eh, Yui-chan!?”

She was dressed in autumn-colored clothes and was arranging flowers.

I heard she was on tour…

“Ehehe, I sneaked out for a bit! It’s been a long time, Nagisa.”

Yui gave me her usual grin.

“Kimizuka, I haven’t seen you in a while either.”

She lowered her posture slightly and spoke to Kimizuka.

Of course, there was no reply.

I had already shared Kimizuka’s condition with Yui.

“Why is there no moment when everyone is healthy?”

“…Yeah, really.”

It was always like that.

For example, Siesta and I were hardly ever conscious at the same time, and
when Siesta’s surgery was in sight, Kimizuka fell into this situation. Yui too, until
a few months ago she was fighting aphonia.

“In that case, the healthy ones have to do their best.”

That was the responsibility of those who were left behind.

“I wonder what Siesta would have done.”

I don’t mean to compare myself to Siesta… But still, isn’t there anything I can
refer to? Siesta definitely spent more time with Kimizuka than I did. She may
know what to do in this predicament.

Lil said to me. Talk to Kimizuka a lot. Guide him so he can come back. Then
what would Siesta say? What kind of lifeline would she throw to Kimizuka?
“You don’t have to copy Siesta.”

Yui came close to me and gazed at me with gentle eyes.

“It’s Nagisa who is here with him now. What matters is how you want to talk to
Kimizuka.”

“Yeah. But I still think he might pay more attention if it’s Siesta. Kimizuka, he
listened to everything she said, didn't he?”

“Ahaha, well, yes. Kimizuka is in love with Siesta-san. I’ll assert that on his
behalf.”

“…Kimizuka, you better get back to normal or Yui will say whatever she wants
about you.”

We laughed a little bit like that.

“But you shouldn’t underestimate his feelings for you either. Have some
confidence.”

Yui softly took my hand.

“You two were my saviors. A year ago, Nagisa and Kimizuka saved me. I’m
proud that I was able to be your first client. So now I have another request,
detective.”

The client, Saikawa Yui, implored.

“Nagisa. Please save Kimizuka.”

[A Certain Interlude in Dream]
Suddenly, I realized that Siesta was drinking tea in front of me.

“──What is this?”

I clenched and unclenched my fists. It was undoubtedly my──Kimizuka

Kimihiko’s real body.

Next, I looked around. This place resembled somewhere between a castle

garden and a cafe terrace. In front of me, Siesta calmly brought the teacup to
her mouth as if she had owned the place from the dawn of time. I stared at her
wordlessly.

“What’s wrong? You make a face like someone has blown your mind with a
shotgun.”

Siesta tilted her head with her usual demeanor.

“I believe the shotgun part was not necessary.”

“Maybe you’d survive by a hair’s breadth with your luck.”

“I don’t need your blessing.”

I retorted and Siesta relaxed her expression.

There was no mistake. She was the ace detective who traveled the world with
me for three years.

“It’s been a while.”

“Are you stupid, Kimi?”

“That’s not fair…”

I was reproached just for celebrating this reunion.

But this is my partner.

“I am not necessarily real.”

Siesta cut through my expectations with an ambiguous expression.

“Not real, you mean this is a dream?”

“Maybe. But I’ve met Nagisa and Hel here, before.”

Oh, I see. This place was the mental landscape where Siesta communicated
with Natsunagi and others through her heart──or rather, her daydream.

“But why did I come to this place too?”

I thought that Natsunagi and Hel were able to connect with Siesta because they
became one through Siesta’s heart.

“I wonder. There are several possible reasons, but… One is that I’m having
heart surgery right now. I can’t say exactly how, but it might have some effect
on me. Like, how this space is expanding.”

…I see. Then is the surgery going well or not? I can’t tell.

“The second is that you came inside me.”

My brain froze for a moment.

Oh, what does that mean? Did that happen? Are we talking about a dream or a
delusion? That doesn’t count, right? As I was spinning in my thoughts, Siesta
said, “You know, the other day, Scarlet’s castle.”
“I’m not very aware of it myself, but… Maybe at that time, I drank your blood.”

“…So that’s what you mean.”

Siesta, half vampirized, had bit me in the neck. At that time, my genes entered
her body.

“You really do reckless things.”

Siesta looked at me troubled. But if I can meet her again like this now, then I’m
happy to offer my blood.

“And the biggest reason why you came to this place ── that is, your
consciousness in the real world was in danger of fading away.”

Siesta’s straight blue eyes stared at me.

“Do you remember how it happened?”

“…Yeah, while we were talking.”

I remembered who I was fighting with, and who made me like this.

But how many hours, how many days have passed since then? How is everyone
now?

“How can I return, Siesta?”

I pleaded with the master of this garden.

Surely, in the real world, the battle was still taking place.

“It’s important that someone calls for you.”

Siesta advised me while sipping her tea.

“And then you follow the chain linking you with that person. Even if it rains,
even if it’s dark, you will walk towards that ray of light.”

Would there be someone who would do such a thing for me?

“Of course, you need to realize your own ‘Will’ first. You will think about how
you want to live, where you want to go —- Hey, assistant. What do you want to
do for tomorrow?”

“I…”

I asked myself, my left chest.

What do I wish for? What kind of future am I heading to?

…Maybe, I have already found the answer. All I need is determination. The
determination to see through the end where someone’s ideals shattered.

“I drew a hard life, huh?”

“That’s what it means to carry something.”

I wonder if Siesta was like that in the past. The Ace Detective, the protagonist
who carried her story.

“Well, in my case, I had someone who carried half of it with me.”

Siesta glanced at me as she put her cup on the saucer.

“Half, no, thirty percent…no, maybe 12.5 percent?”

“I’m on the verge of being fired, am I?”

I retorted involuntarily. Siesta looked as if she was waiting for it.

“Why did you make me your assistant with that score?”

“Fufu, I wonder why.”

After that, Siesta smiled nostalgically,

“Really, I wonder why.”

She said it twice and turned her gaze to the sky, the ceiling of this daydream.

Some minutes passed. I got up from my chair. It’s time to wake up from this
dream.

“Are you leaving already?”

“Yeah. It’s a bit regrettable…”

It will be a long arduous journey. I might have been happier continuing this tea
party with Siesta.

But as she said, what matters is my “will”. Walk into the darkness ahead,
believe in the light in the far horizon.

“You could have taken a sip.”

Siesta’s voice reached me over my back.

“Were you the one hesitating?”

“…Are you stupid, Kimi?”

Her usual catchphrase sounded much less persuasive than before.

“I’ll bring you back, for sure. Wait for me.”

If someone needs a person guiding them back to the surface, I’ll be that
person.

“I’ll drink this tea then.”

Siesta looked surprised for a moment, and then smiled broadly.

“Yeah──just like a year ago, I’ll be waiting.”

Chapter 4

◇ Side Charlotte Ⅰ

That day, I visited Mizoev Federation Embassy in Japan.

Three weeks had passed since Abel’s attack, since Kimizuka collapsed.

I cut off contact with everyone and prepared my counter attack. Today, I
approached them, “Federation Government”.

“Are you Lot?”

I was taken to a large hall. On the screen, a government official greeted me.

“Yes, indeed.”

Codename “Lot”.

He wore a mask and looked just like a dull wooden doll. He appeared to be in
his forties or fifties, really he didn’t differ much from other officials like
Doberman or Odin who I had tried to contact so far.

However, unlike them, Lot was interested in my proposal and arranged this
meeting. The Federation Government officials are not necessarily united in
their approaches.

“Charlotte Arisaka Anderson. You want to turn yourself in?”

His voice harbored a faint hint of doubt.

“Yes, it’s true. We have been collecting the maps of Akashic Records without
permission. I admit that crime.”
Even if it was to stop Abel, it was not excusable. I knew that the Federation
Government valued Akashic Records greatly.

“If you still don’t trust me, I want to send you this.”

I sent data summarizing our actions over the past few months from my
smartphone. As you would expect, it contained the details of who collected the
maps where and when.

“I see, well organized.”

Lot raised his face.

“But why did you sell out your friends?”

Yes, this confession of guilt meant that I’d betrayed my accomplices. ──But.

“Didn’t you know? I’m the kind of woman who sold ‘Singularity’ to a human
trafficking organization.”

Even if I stain these hands, there are things that must be done.

“However, there is a reason why I sold out Ace Detective and Assassin ──let’s
make a deal. Take me to where Akashic Records is.”

Abel will appear there. He had all the maps.

I will stop Abel.

“Why do you take on that role?”

“My mother… Arisaka Kozue said. Even you want to take it from me──. That
means, Abel had contacted Arisake Kozue before, no doubt.”
I had heard that Arisaka Kozue had cornered Abel in the past. But it was the
other way around. She was being hunted by Abel, who was after her map.

I had expected Arisaka Kozue to become mentally unstable after losing Noah.
But what I saw the other day was too abnormal. Arisaka Kozue was terrified of
Abel to an absurd degree.

That’s why.

“I’ll kill him.”

I will destroy the source of Arisaka Kozue’s suffering. With my own hands.

“That’s why I want to know Akashic Records’s location. Tell me.”

I’m not interested in what’s inside.

I just need to get there, that’s all.

“Then you have the order backwards. If you want to make a deal, you shouldn’t
have handed over this data first.”

“Yes, that’s right. So that’s nothing more than a token of my sincerity.”

In other words, this is where the real thing starts.

“If you don’t agree to the deal, I can always kill Kimizuka Kimihiko. That would
be a problem, wouldn’t it? If something happens to the Singularity, there’s
bound to be troubles for the world.”

About his constitution as “Singularity”. I don’t really know much detail. Ma’am
never talked about it with me either. But if you live your life in the underworld,
you’ll hear about it sooner or later.
Sorry, but I’ll use that to my advantage. I can do things that no one else can do,
not the detective, idol, shrine maiden or magical girl. Without them suspecting
a thing, I’ll approach him and ──

“I see. But will the Singularity boy be able to activate his ability now?”

Lot calmly refuted me.

“The young man was given ‘Code of Evanescence. He has lost all his thinking
capability. He is, in a sense, dead while alive. Can he really exert the power of
the Singularity?”

“…So, even if I try to kill Kimizuka, nothing will happen?”

“Yes, your trump card won’t work as a threat. The outcome was already
decided when you lost him to Abel.”

It sounded like a declaration of victory.

“──I see. Somehow, this scenario feels very convenient for you guys. Rather,
should I say it was your aim?”

It was always a mystery. Why did the Federation Government not outright
admit that the identity of the Phantom Thief Arsene is Abel A. Schönberg?

And why did they only confine him underground instead of executing him? And
why did they secretly pardon him later?

There is only one reason for that.

“Some of you, the faction that wants to eliminate Singularity, have been in
cahoots with Abel all along.”

With his special “Code”, Phantom Thief might be able to neutralize Singularity’s
power. Therefore, they’d been overlooking his misdeeds for the time being.
“You summoned the Tuners and even Kimizuka to England under the guise of
Federal Charter, ordered them to catch Abel, all for this purpose? Your ultimate
goal was for Abel to deal with the Singularity using his Code of Evanescence.”

Lot remained silent. Silence is affirmation in my mind.

“You said you would kill the Singularity if we didn’t agree to your deal, was that
a bluff to draw this information out of me?”

He had noticed my scheme.

“Yes, I've learned a little bit. This kind of bargaining.”

Well, that was just my worst-case plan. Because, you know. No matter what I
do, Kimizuka probably won’t die, right?

“I recorded the conversation so far, and the data is uploaded to the cloud in
real time. Even if I’m erased here, the information will remain. Someone will
definitely realize your plot.”

“What will they do when they notice it?”

“It’s obvious. The Singularity won’t let it slide.”

“He’ll avenge you? Overcome the Code of Evanescence?”

Lot laughed a little, “You trust him?”

“Trust? No fucking way.”

Our relationship is not something that can be expressed by that five-character

word. It’s something darker and uglier and so very twisted.
But that meddlesome guy won’t abandon me. He won’t let me die. So the
opposite is true too.

“I’ll kill Kimizuka’s enemies.”

Even if they are Federation Government officials, you lot.

“… I understand.”

Lot said briefly.

“You will be transferred to a certain location. But I will lock your memory until
then.”

“Lock? What do you mean?”

“You will forget everything you see, hear, and feel on the way. That’s all there
is to it.”

He spoke in riddles. But it was clear from his way of saying what would be the
destination.

“I don’t mind. Take me to the Akashic Records.”

“Yes, I’ll allow it.”

──Finally, I can stand on the frontline. I clenched my fist.

“Hey, Lot.”

And before I headed to the battlefield, I asked him one last thing.

“Have we ever met somewhere?”

“…”

The masked official remained silent.

◇ Side Fuubi Ⅰ

That day, I was in a certain place in South America.

For the past two weeks since I left London, I had been flying everywhere
looking for a certain person. Finally I came to this other side of the Earth.

Late at night, I was visiting an underground bar. I stopped by the entrance,

handed over my electronic devices, and proceeded inside. At the end of the
counter, an old gentleman was tilting a glass of whiskey.

“I didn’t expect the casino facility to connect to this place.”

I sat myself next to him.

“Information Broker” Bruno Belmondo. Since I missed the previous Federal

Council, it’d been a long time for us to meet.

“Haha, it’s no fun without it, right?”

Bruno put down his glass and laughed dryly.

“So, did you make a killing? Roulette?”

“…Don’t be silly. I didn’t come here to play.”

This ally of justice likes jokes, surprisingly.

I thought about having a drink, but I decided to start with a smoke first. I lit a
cigarette and enjoyed this peaceful moment, but then I felt a gaze from next to
me.

“No smoking here?”

“Oh, no. I just thought you had a nice face.”

“Everyone around me just told me to quit smoking, so...”

“Haha, they’re all worried about your health, I guess.”

…I don’t think I have made any relationship that would warrant such concern.

“Well, you said you had something to ask me?”

Bruno brought up the main topic.

There were countless things I wanted to ask him. Ryan’s whereabouts, the
mechanism of Abel’s Code, or──the true nature of Akashic Records.

How much does the Information Broker who claims to be omniscient actually
know? But even if he possesses all the answers, I don’t have the means to get
that information out of him. The Tuner Bruno doesn’t share his knowledge
without a reason.

“Is small talk okay?”

In the end, that was my reply.

“I don’t mind. At my age, it’s rare to have a chance to talk with a young
woman.”

Bruno knocked down his whiskey.

“What do you imagine to be ‘a world where justice is realized’?”

I threw a difficult philosophical question at Bruno. It’s been on my mind for

some time.

“Is that the reason why you raised so many agent candidates?”

I was quite taken aback at this counter.

“You yourself wanted to know what justice is. You recruited social outcasts and
raised them to observe their version of justice.”

I neither affirmed nor denied it.

The only thing certain was that no one had passed my test so far.

“Maybe, you have an eye on the Ace Detective girl and the Singularity boy for
the same reason.”

“…I didn’t intend to treat them special.”

I finished my smoke, and gulped down the whole brandy bottle.

“What kind of world where justice is realized? Unfortunately I’m just an

Information Broke, my job only includes gathering data.”

Bruno was deep in thought.

“Would a hypothesis do instead of an answer?”

“Yes, of course.”

My position is on the frontline. Proving the hypothesis is my job.

“A world where humanity is freed from all wars, violence, and poverty. Or a
world where they have hope for that eventual liberation. Not the happiness
that exists now, but the expectation for the future. A world where everyone
holds them is just and ideal.”

Using only simple words that could be understood by anyone, regardless of

age, Bruno clarified his hypothesis of the “just world”.

“Do you think it’s an unreachable utopia?”

“No. What people can imagine, people can realize. There was a writer who said
that.”

“Oh, yes. In any era, the “Authors’ are always──”

At that moment, Bruno turned to me.

“Just do as you please.”

He looked at me with compassion.

“No need to worry. No matter what path you take, no matter what justice you
aim for, I promise to watch over you until the end.”

He reached out his hand to me, just like he did on our first meet more than ten
years ago.

“That’s my responsibility as the one who made you a Tuner.”

I tried to take his hand, but pulled back. It was not the time yet.

“Are you leaving already?”

“Yes. There’s another person I need to ask for a favor.”

Now, that person and I have little in common. I wonder how well it would go.

“I see. Then let me add a word or two to her.”

…So Bruno knew who I was going to meet. Sensing my astonishment, he waved
his hand.

“Haha. Don’t need to thank me. It’s just a personal investment. For the future.”

◇ Side Charlotte Ⅱ

When I came to, I was standing somewhere that looked like the inside of a ruin.

“──Where is this?”

A dark and cold place I had never seen before.

It was like a dungeon in a computer game.

My clothes and belongings appeared to have no change.

How many days had passed since the meeting with Lot?

I remember getting into a car prepared by the government official. But after
that…

“Was my memory locked?”

He’d said something like that. Was I made to drink some kind of drug?

“That doesn’t matter now.”

I came here.
So I started walking ahead. Although, I didn’t know where “it” was.

The dungeon was like a labyrinth.

“Again…?”

I was fed up. I was going in circles.

I admit that I’m a little… directionally challenged. But even so, this ruin was
abnormal.

I went in one door. I climbed up hundreds of stairs. Then I ended up in the

same place as before. On the other hand, when I chose the opposite door, I
found myself in a dense jungle.

Where on earth is this place? What is it? It was as if an invisible god was
working to prevent me from reaching where “it” was.

“Could it be?”

I remembered the story Kimizuka’d told me a while ago. Last year, he found
himself up against “Night Parade of One Hundred Demons”. The Youkai called
“Parasite” attacked him, and Kimizuka was trapped in a never ending staircase.

The cause of that phenomenon was nevertheless Kimizuka’s feelings for

Ma’am, or rather, his strong urge not to leave the hospital where Ma’am was
sleeping.

And that phenomenon is now occurring before me.

“Am I unconsciously refusing to go ahead?”

That’s why I keep coming back here?

Of course, there shouldn’t be any Youkai here. But if there is something similar,
a mechanical resembling it.

“I will go on.”

I’m not afraid.

Of Akashic Records, of Abel A. Schönberg, of Arisaka Kozue.

I’m not afraid of anything. ──So.

“Hurry, to the battlefield.”

I closed my eyes, clasped my hands in front of my chest, and prayed.

The next moment, the world around me changed. I opened my eyes in

disbelief.

There was a different, open space before me.

“What is… this?”

The sky was split in two──day and night.

The day blue sky and the starry night sky were vertically divided by a straight
line in the middle.

A gust of wind blew. I realized I was standing on a large circular deck, with no
walls or ceiling or anything. I was floating high in the sky, it looked like.

And at the edge of this open stage, twenty meters away, a huge white
monument floated in the air. An inverted pyramid-like device. There was a
figure underneath it.

“──Abel.”
He was facing away from me. But I knew.

“You’re not wearing any bandages today.”

I advanced for about ten meters, and Abel turned around.

He was probably in his thirties. He looked to me like an Asian… no, Japanese.

His eyes were transparent and unreadable, and scary in a way.

“You came?”

Abel opened his mouth. He seemed to have anticipated my arrival.

“What are you doing here?”

We all know where is this place already..

“I’m analyzing Akashic Records.”

Abel looked up at the inverted pyramid monument floating in the air.

“The SYSTEM protecting the Akashic Records is strict, I say. It takes time to
infiltrate even with my Code.”

…SYSTEM. A word I had never heard before. Was that what the white
monument was? Then was Akashic Records buried inside?

“Do you know what Akashic Records is?”

“Yes, I do. And so does its importance. ──My girl, did you come to stop me?”

Abel said as if he had read my mind.

“Do you remember Arisaka Kozue?”

I returned the question back immediately. Abel narrowed his eyes.

“You tried to forcibly take the map away from her a long time ago, didn’t you?”

Arisaka Kozue became afraid and lost her mind because of that. That’s how it
was supposed to be.

“Forcibly take? I wouldn’t have that much trouble stealing a single map.”

“Then why…!”

“What Arisaka Kozue is afraid of is not me──it’s Akashic Records itself.”

I felt suffocated for a moment. So my mother knew the true nature of Akashic
Records?

“She must have many opportunities to find out the truth in her line of work.
Yet, that Pandora’s secret was too much for one person to bear. Arisaka Kozue
was crushed by its weight. Even if that memory had already left her.”

At that moment, the inverted pyramid monument glowed in a violet color.

“You said earlier that you wouldn’t have any trouble collecting maps. Then why
didn’t you act sooner?”

I sorted out my thoughts.

Why did the enemy move now…? He must have been preparing something.
And when it was ready, he played his card.

Then, during that period, the special thing Abel did was──

“──He stole the key to analyze Akashic Records from Kimizuka.”

A key. I heard that word recently. He probably stole something, something like
a key from Kimizuka. The assistant didn’t lose it, Abel stole it.

Abel had been crafting this careful plot to overthrow Kimizuka.

“I won’t let you do as you please.”

I aimed my gun. It was the single weapon I had brought with me.

“What is your purpose? As I said, I have no hand in your mother’s tragedy. Is it

your sense of justice? To stop me who is trying to invert the world?”

“Yes, that too. But first of all──Bring Kimizuka back!”

I fired without hesitation. My bullets won’t hit Abel anyway, so instead I shot at
the Akashic Records inside that huge monument.

“That’s a bad decision.”

Something invisible deflected my attack.

“The Akashic Records are protected by SYSTEM, a defense program. Common

weapons won’t work on it.”

“…Program? Don’t tell me, this place is…”

“Come on, wish for it. Do you not want strength? The strength to realize
absolute justice.”

The next moment, I realized that I was holding a musket gun. The weapon that
symbolizes justice in my mind.
“That’s right. The SYSTEM program commands this space. Since I’ve injected
some of my Codes in it, we can now materialize our justice freely.”

“…I don’t have such an ability…”

“No, you do. The power called ‘Will’ that corresponds to my Code.”

…I see. When I was trapped in this labyrinth, my strong wish broke me out of it.
That was my Will. Then, this place really…?

“Don’t you think it's wonderful? Here, our ideals can all come true.”

Abel looked at me, no, behind me.

Someone there. Gripping tight my musket gun, I turned around.

“──Why, you?”

In this serene ambience, only my agitated heartbeats were heard.

◇ Side Fuubi Ⅱ

The one ahead of me seemed to sense my presence and turned around in a

hurry.

“You don’t have to be so surprised.”

I said in a light tone.

“Geez, ran off on your own. What were you thinking──Ryan White?”

We faced each other. Currently we were in a ruin of some kind of ancient

temple.
It was the first time we met again in about three weeks since Ryan’s
disappearance.

“I wish you had let me keep my cool for a little while.”

“Ha, give it up.”

We exchanged sarcastic remarks while still keeping distance.

This ruin had stupidly long corridors.

“So, Ryan. Why are you here?”

No one should be here. Because it was the sacred place where Akashic Records
was sealed.

“To stop Abel, of course.”

Ryan responded casually.

“I’ve been analyzing the data of the maps we collected for over three weeks.
Our collections were incomplete, so it took time… But I finally found this
place.”

“Analysis, huh? So you were trying to get ahead of Abel.”

“Yeah, that’s right. …But more importantly, Fuubi. How did you get here?”

Ryan turned to me suspiciously.

It was so simple.

“I didn’t start collecting the maps because of this Neverland project. I’ve been
secretly collecting data for years.”
“What do you mean? Have you been suspecting Abel from the start?”

No, Abel had nothing to do with it. It’s true that I considered him dangerous,
but I had another vision in mind.

“I needed Akashic Records to go to the top.”

It’s not that I was interested in what was inside.

Be that as it may, if I get hold of it, or at least get access to it, I can secure my
position. The Federation Government will have to treat me as an equal.

“And this time. Ryan, thanks to your efforts, at last I had completed my
collection. Really I couldn’t have done it all by myself.”

“…I see. Haha, I was played by you all along. You’re really something.”

Ryan smiled bitterly like a child just being tricked.

“But how did you parse the data?”

He started walking again. It’s somewhere in this ruin, Akashic Records.

“Revolutionary found this place for me. You two met in America, right?”

“…Her? Actually, I earned her grace by giving her a copy of my map data and
making her an accomplice… I see, so you...”

“Revolutionary” Youkaki. The veiled beauty who ingratiates herself with the
high society elites, and knows the world inside out.

But even for her, Akashic Records was still a Pandora’s box.
Therefore, I shared the map data with her, aligned our interests, and had her
find this sacred place. The intermediary was, needless to say, the Father of All-
Knowing.

“Damn, this place’s a labyrinth. I can’t see the end at all.”

“Yeah, there must be a room somewhere that houses Akashic Records.”

Ryan carefully planned his steps looking slightly puzzled. We seemed to be

going around in circles.

“But, it’s strange. I never thought we’d again go for a treasure search like this.”

“Haha, really. You protect this world from the back, and I protect it from the
front. That’s how we’ve been doing it for over ten years, and today we cross
paths.”

It was about ten years ago that I started this career with the Information
Broker's recommendation. The position given to me by the Federation
Government was “Assassin”. It was naturally the perfect job for me.

“I heard you’d been through a hard time.”

“I accepted all of it.”

My job as an Assassin was to take away one innocent life for the sake of many.

To kill one person for the sake of a hundred, that was my mission.

“──In the past, there was a young politician in a small little country. He hated
money and lies, and loved only the people. One day, he got his hands on some
evidence of corruption by the political leaders of his, and attempted to call a
press.”

That day, I received a mission from the Federation Government.

Fuubi, assassinate that young politician.

“There was a prophecy by Oracle at that time. If the corruption was exposed as
it was, a large-scale riot would occur, and the country would collapse in front of
justice.”

So I killed that politician. Before a conflict that would take tens of thousands of
lives occurred.

“I felt like facing a trolley problem every day.”

“Fuubi, you too…”

Ryan widened his eyes. But then he appeared to have made up his mind and
said thus.

“Let’s change the world, Fuubi.”

In an instant, a large door appeared behind Ryan.

But Ryan didn’t seem to mind and went through the door. I followed him.

A wasteland stretched endlessly to the horizon.

When did we get outside? When I looked back, the door we had just passed
through was no longer there.

“Akashic Records should be near.”

Ryan gazed up.

The sky was split into day and night.

“You look happy, Ryan.”

I spoke to him over his back.

“It’s like you don’t care about Abel at all, you just want to get to the Akashic
Records.”

“…You seem to have something to say. Should I listen?”

I like your thorny way of speaking, he said jokingly.

This hypothesis had been smoldering in my head for a long time.

“Ryan White. You’re working with Abel, aren’t you?”

Silence. So I kept pressing on.

“To stop the Neverland project, we decided to collect the maps

ourselves──You, Ryan, led everyone to that conclusion. And it was probably
under Abel’s instructions. You used the power of Ace Detective and Singularity
to gather the pieces and hand them over to the enemy.”

In other words, Ryan’s disappearance was not because he was trying to lure
Abel. He just simply ran away from us with the maps.

“You said you found this ruin by analyzing the data, but the truth is nothing like
that. Abel brought you here.”

For some reason, Abel is not here beside Ryan, though.

“Why do you think so?”

Finally, Ryan opened his mouth.

“Fuubi, if you’re a police officer, I’d like for us to talk more logically.”

“It’s easier to understand this case if you just imagine everything as parts of a
big story.”

I had been speculating that this series of incidents was a plan by Abel to
neutralize Singularity and get his hands on Akashic Records. ──And that was
partly true. But that wasn’t all.

“His plan… this artificial story needs players. For example, Goat. That’s of
course not enough. To run this grand plan smoothly, there needs to be a
person, a game master who runs the game.”

That person was none other than this man in uniform, Ryan White.

“You gathered players to execute Abel’s fairy tale. For example, Oracle, Ace
Detective, Assassin, Enforcer, Singularity, Agent. And you set the Phantom Thief
as the big bad boss.”

We players were given the mission of collecting some top secret maps, made to
fly around the continents like we were in a role-playing game. We suspected
nothing, that our actions were being controlled by the mastermind’s right-hand
man.

“When did you start to suspect me?”

“From that day when Abel attacked Kimizuka.”

At that time, I went to Europe with Ryan. He said there’s a map that only I
could collect. While I was away, Kimizuka was given the Code of Evanescence.

“You were afraid of me. You were worried that I might save the Singularity.”

So he kept me away from Kimizuka when Abel attacked. Abel wasn’t meant to
participate in the story he created himself. This time, though, he had to show
his face in order to neutralize the Singularity. There was… a sense of discomfort
in me.

“I see, I get it. But there is no evidence.”

“Well, yeah. That’s why the police in novels are usually depicted as
incompetent.”

I made a light joke.

“There’s no need, anyhow.”

Ryan’s shoulders twitched slightly.

“You and I don’t need something like that. Answer me, Ryan. What were you
planning to do with Abel?”

I pointed my gun at Ryan’s back.

“Let me tell you a story from the past.”

Ryan was calm.

“The Interpol top brass caught wind of a possible military coup and sent me
and my team out. I’ll skip the details, but after months of infiltration and
investigation, we managed to capture every leader of the terrorist
organization.”

It was that incident when I saw Ryan in the news.

The day when I realized his face had changed──

“It was splendid, I was praised by that country’s leader. Though it was
presumptuous of me, I advised him to punish the terrorists according to the
law and after investigating their motives. The leader smiled agreeably.”
That sounds like something Ryan would say. It was the same with Goat. He said
that evil should be judged by law, not by might. That was Ryan White’s motto,
he said it himself.

“The next day, all the terrorists were beheaded by guillotine. In front of the
people.”

I couldn’t see Ryan’s expression as he had his back turned to me.

But I knew. What kind of face he’s making now.

“The government didn’t care about motives. Rather, after that attempted
terrorist act, the tyranny became stronger and the law became stricter. The
definition of treason became looser, and dissidents were mercilessly
executed.”

I had been protecting the justice of the state at the expense of the people.

His back looked kind of sad.

“I started thinking from that day on. How can I save people, not states? How
can I protect people’s justice?──And the answer is Akashic Records.”

Ryan turned around.

He wasn’t angry. It’s just, his eyes held deep conviction.

“In the past, a third world war almost broke out over the Akashic Records, but
the Tuners at the time stamped it out. However, I will start another war over
the Akashic Records. This time, it will be a controlled war. I will determine
which state should survive. I will redraw the national borders, Fuubi.”

Ryan smiled at me.

“──So you teamed up with Abel?”

“Yeah. Abel’s Code can be used to manipulate people’s hearts. We will put
leaders who sympathize with my ideology in leadership positions. That will also
lead to the invert of the world as Abel’s desire. Perfect, right?”

Ridiculous. Teaming up with that man who has been behind all kinds of crimes
is unacceptable. It’s an insult to justice.

“There is no reason to induce a war between states, no matter what you

think.”

“Fuubi, you’re mistaken. Look, I’m not an ‘Enemy of the World’.”

Ryan took a step towards me.

“Just as Oracle couldn’t predict Abel’s attack, I never appeared in the sacred
text even once. That’s proof that this world recognized my method.──I’m not
an enemy. I won’t hurt anyone. I promise to wage a war without sacrifice.”

And like that, he reached out his right hand to me.

“Fuubi, join me.”

◇ Side Charlotte Ⅲ

For a moment, I forgot to breathe when I saw the person standing there.

“──Why, you.”

My heart was about to burst.

Eventually, the person in front of me broke the silence.

“Charlotte, what’s wrong? You look like you’re about to cry.”

Arisaka Kozue. My mother looked puzzled.

“Oh, I get it. You must have had a scary dream. Come, I’ll read you a picture
book.”

As if soothing a child. Arisaka Kozue opened her arms for me.

“Mom?”

I walked towards her. And just before I was about to embrace her──

“──That’s a bad joke!”

I flipped over and shot my musket at the inverted triangular pyramid.

No, no! Arisaka Kozue wouldn’t say such a thing to me. She wouldn’t hug me in
a million years!

She never did that to me when I was a child. Her smile was directed only at
Noah. I glanced back for a moment. Arisaka Kozue was no longer there. The
illusion created by SYSTEM had disappeared.

“It’s not a joke.”

Right under the SYSTEM that protected Akashic Records, Abel shook his head.

“SYSTEM responded to your subconscious ‘Will’. It recreates your ideal Arisaka

Kozue.”

“…I don’t want that!”

“But you were able to reject my Code of Slaughter a few weeks ago, weren’t
you? That means Arisaka Kozue is important to you.”
There was nothing to be ashamed of, the guy said.

“I will use my Code to create a new world that reverses all common sense. All
our dreams will come true. But first, I have to get the SYSTEM under my
control.”

…My head is getting confused. That huge inverted triangular monument

SYSTEM can grant my wishes according to Abel. And he also said something like
the program SYSTEM is especially robust in this imaginary space.

Then is SYSTEM something like a computer? And Abel, who writes code, is… a
programmer.

“Then what is Akashic Records?”

The secret of the world buried in that SYSTEM. And Abel is trying to analyze
Akashic Records to get SYSTEM under his control. Then is Akashic Records a
CPU?

“In other words, Akashic Records is the brain that mechanically reigns over this
world──”

──And this place is the controlling tower.

“Of course, your living existence is not electronic data. But the earth you live on
can be mechanically interfered with from this control tower. Various crises and
contradictions that have occurred on earth since ancient times have been
resolved by SYSTEM’s calculating power.”

“…And that’s how Tuners came about?”

“Ah, sort of that. Humans with a strong ‘will’ borrow the power of SYSTEM to
destroy ‘viruses’ and resolve ‘bugs’. Swing one’s fist at a speed that surpasses
bullets, fly through the night sky with scientific wings that are no different from
magic, or produce an illusion called ‘daydream’ that can deceive the enemy,
Tuners can do all of that.”

A huge monster and a humanoid combat weapon suddenly appeared behind

Abel, and the two began to fight. Those were programs of SYSTEM - such
monstrosities do not exist on earth naturally.

“But I will analyze, steal, and evolve Akashic Records. In the ideal new world
programmed by the codes I added, no Enemies of the world will ever appear.
No crises will occur.”

The humanoid combat weapon defeated the monster, and then the weapon
also vanished as if it had fulfilled its role.

“In this new world, everything is managed by programs, even human emotions
and actions. I have been preparing for it for a long time.”

“…Don’t tell me, all the crimes you have been plotting so far were also some
kind of experiments?”

Abel did not answer, but began to work on extracting the Akashic Records
again.

He moved his fingers as if typing on a keyboard in mid-air. I don’t know what

he’s doing. Only what he’s trying to do now, and what he’s done so far.

Abel A. Schönberg cannot be allowed to become the administrator of the new

world. We mustn’t forget those who were sacrificed for his experiments.

“Don’t involve this world in your criminal program!”

I fired my musket gun. Nonetheless, the bullet won’t reach Abel. A huge barrier
covered him. Is he using his Code to make the SYSTEM protect himself?

“Indeed, I will oversee the new world with my Code. But as I’ve said, I will fulfill
your ideals. Your wishes, your freedom, whatever.”

Before I knew it, Abel was in front of me. I realized it. This is not super-speed
movement or teleportation. He shifted his own coordinate axis with Code.

“In the new world, everyone can be free. For example, an old man in a
wheelchair can again swim in the sea. A young man who was born blind can
again see the fireworks. A girl whose family was shattered can get everything
back.”

I heard the sound of his fingers snapping.

“What is this?”

The scenery changed while I was dazed for a moment.

I looked around in shock. My surroundings were completely off.

Time and space. Yes, not just space. The time was different. Because this is…

“I… in my recent dream….”

This’s the house where I lived when I was a child. Noah’s room."

“──What’s wrong, big sister?”

I was rooted to the spot.

Noah, Noah is here.

He was lying on the bed with the big pillow as usual, and my brother was
staring at me. I was about to run up to him. No, I knew this was an illusion.

“No, it’s nothing.”

I shook my head and sat down on the edge of the bed. It made a creaking
sound. Nostalgic.

“Sis, read me a book.”

“I knew you’d say that.”

I opened the book that Noah handed me.

It was Noah’s favorite series. An agent girl’s journey to defeat one evil
organization after another. I read it aloud with my brother.

There were no unreadable kanji anymore.

“Big sister, why are you crying?”

Noah looked at me curiously.

“If you cry all the time, your happiness will flow away with your tears.”

“That’s right. I’ll be careful.”

I wiped away tears with my fingertips. Why I was crying, I really didn’t know.

“Are you happy now, Noah?”

“Hmm, well, I’m happy. I have my big sister beside me.”

“…Noah.”
“Sometimes you get angry, though.”

“…Noah?”

When I stared back at him, Noah chuckled.

“You know, mom always looks like she’s suffering.”

Noah lowered his eyes a little.

“She always seems to be fighting something by herself. I want to help her, but
it’s hard for this body. So, big sister, save her.”

He picked up the book we’d just read.

“Like how the protagonist of this book does.”

“…Yes, that was the promise.”

I received the book from Noah and slowly stood up.

“But you know, Noah. Actually, I’m already an agent.”

So leave it to me.

When I smiled at him, Noah nodded vigorously.

After seeing that, I left the room.

Light shone through the illusion barrier.

A sacred tower with the two-colored sky above. Abel was working hard to
extract the Akashic Records.
“The world doesn’t go as you wish. But there is meaning in striving.”

When I declared that, Abel stopped moving for a moment.

“There is no meaning in an ideal that is complete from the start. A fake──that

is!”

I fired the machine gun in my arms without hesitation. All kinds of firearms
hovered around me. Each and every is a manifestation of my Will.

“That’s a good attack. Is it the ‘Will to Fight’?”

The barrier broke. But it was only one layer.

“I won’t lose…!”

A gigantic cannon appeared. I didn’t have to do anything. The shells were

automatically fired one after another. As if weapons themselves had will of
their own.

Intense barrage, the smell of gunpowder filled the air. A rain of bullets poured
down on the translucent defense wall, and colored rays of light scattered
around. One, two, three layers of barriers were broken──and suddenly, the
barrage ceased.

“Huh, out of ammo? Why?”

Weren’t they supposed to be inexhaustible as long as my will did not run out?

“No, the end always comes.”

At that moment, the holes in the defense barrier began to close themselves.

“Human will has its limits. My Code is eternal. No matter how strong your
emotions are, they will eventually break in front of a predetermined program.”
“But you’re the human who manages that program, aren’t you?”

You’ll eventually make mistakes someday. There’s no way a human can

become the administrator of the entire world.

I gave up on the guns and created a saber with my remaining will. Borrowing
the teachings of the red-haired assassin, I swung the weapon with all my killing
intent──

“I’m a program. Nothing more, nothing less.”

──It didn’t connect. Even though I could see him in front of me. Even though
the great evil was right there. I couldn’t break through the last layer of the
translucent defense wall.

“My code is stronger than your will.”

An invisible impact hit my whole body.

I was immediately blown away. I couldn’t understand what phenomenon was

happening in this space anymore.

“…Hah…ah…”

I could only groan. My body was freezing. I convulsed in pain. Something might
have broken. I was about to lose consciousness.

“Throw it away, your will to fight.”

In the midst of the agony, only his voice rang clear.

“As long as you don’t throw it away, you won’t escape from that suffering. I
gave you the Code of Salvation earlier. The moment you throw away your will
to fight, you’ll be relieved from the pain. Yes, you can finally leave this world.”
Gently, like a friend.

“You don’t have to try so hard anymore. You’ve fought enough. All you have to
do now is take a rest waiting to be saved. I’ll take you. To a new world where
there is no hatred or sadness. Your family is waiting there.”

I couldn’t see anymore. My body was too cold to feel anything. My approaching
death was more painful than in my wildest imagination.

“…I…want…”

I didn’t know if it was my voice or not. I couldn’t hear.

But my will won’t surrender.

“…I…want…to…suffer…”

That’s right. I wanted to suffer.

I wanted to hate. I wanted to feel sad. Because there was something beyond
that that I tried to reach. Because I had lived for nineteen years for my mission,
believing that there was something there. So.

“…I don’t…need something…that…easily comes…into…my hands…”

If that’s the case, it was better not to have it.

I reached out.

Not for help. To fight. To grab a weapon.

It wasn’t will, it was stubbornness.

“…I…will…fight…”
My fingertips touched something hard. I knew without seeing it. It was that
musket gun.

“I…will…fight…for an…unattainable…ideal…!”

A familiar hand overlapped with mine on the barrel of the gun.

◇ Side Fuubi Ⅲ

“It seems you’re still hesitating.”

I didn’t immediately grab Ryan’s outstretched right hand. My right hand was
still holding the gun.

Then, what if I didn’t have a gun in my hand right now? Would I have accepted
Ryan’s justice? The plan to start a world war and draw the new world map with
our hands.

“Fuubi, there’s something I want you to see.”

At that moment, the surroundings went dark. Then, a large rectangular device
was turned on. It was like a movie screen. With Ryan and I as the audience.

“What is this?”

“SYSTEM is working. Here I can exert my will, imitating Abel’s Code.”

And so the movie began.

On the screen, five men in suits were chatting around a round table. I had seen
them all before. They were the heads of state of their time.
“What do you think they’re talking about that merrily?”

Ryan asked and pointed to the five national flags on their backs.

“They’re having a meeting on how to divide up the land and resources of their
colonies. Like cutting a cake.”

Ryan shook his head regretfully.

“They became like this because they prioritized their own national interests.
That’s why I’m going to stand above them. I’ll look at the world map from a
bird’s eye view, and redraw the borders. We’ll lead this world to justice, Fuubi.”

Ryan’s voice was heated.

Before I knew it, the sky was back to that two-colored state. The movie was
over.

“I remembered...”

Before I replied to Ryan, I brought up the old story that I had told on my way
here.

“A long time ago, when I received that order to assassinate a young and honest
politician, for a moment I hesitated.”

At that time, I was still new to the role of Assassin, and my conviction was still
fragile. The politician was startled by the gun barrel I pointed at him.

“But he soon realized his mistake. He probably grasped that his accusation was
not aligned with the national interest. He saw through my hesitation and said
thus. If his death would save the people, I should pull the trigger.”

The young politician had that much determination. He had a heart. That’s why
he was able to stick to his justice until the end.
“But Ryan. Your method, Abel’s method won’t work. If you only look at the
map without looking at the people, your fairy tale will collapse someday.”

Ryan widened his eyes.

“Look at people instead of maps, huh? I never thought you’d say something like
that, Fuubi.”

“It’s not that I myself can do it, I believe both you and I are wrong.”

That’s why I’m the Assassin. The ally of justice who detects the wrongful.

“I see. So that means…”

“We’re breaking off the negotiation.”

We pulled the trigger almost at the same time.

The bullets we shot at each other knocked down each other’s weapons. No
time to pick my gun up. I closed the distance between us in one breath. He
reacted late and I hit him with a roundhouse kick.

“As expected of you.”

Ryan laughed as his body hit the ground.

“You must be using the power of Will on a regular basis. Where and from
whom did you learn it?”

“I have no obligation to tell you.”

If you’re so curious, you should bring your best bottle and visit the hidden bars
around the world. You might hit the jackpot once.
“Rather than that, your toughness. I kicked you with the intention of killing you,
you know?”

And yet why can he still stand normally?

“Ha ha, that’s cruel. Trying to kick your fiancé to death.”

“──Shut up.”

I swung my fist. Sharper than a knife, faster than a bullet. The blow certainly hit
him. Unfortunately I didn’t feel like I was doing any damage.

“Ah, I feel it. Fierce murderous intent. ‘Will of Destruction’, I suppose.”

Ryan took my attack head on.

“You possessed a certain aptitude, you polished your Will with hellish training,
and became one of the best among Tuners even without any special abilities.
──But, Fuubi. No matter how strong your Will is, it can’t match the infinite
Code.”

A purple ray of light flashed in front of me.

“──!”

I twisted my body. But the light had grazed my right shoulder. Burnt smell.
Ryan White was standing with a weapon like a laser sword in his hand.

“I see, Ryan. I misunderstood.”

You didn’t join forces with Abel. You’re not his equal or his right-hand man.

“You just sold your soul to evil.”

Then, I don’t need to hesitate anymore. I’ll use the power of this special space.
I showered Ryan with bullets from machine guns output by my will.

Black smoke rose in the middle of this vast desert. Eventually, a figure
appeared──Ryan White in white armor. The helmet on his head was missing a
part. The exposed eye from the hole looked demonlike.

“That suits you.”

I can still fight. I changed my appearance, and constructed a Japanese katana.

“You look like a samurai. I like it.”

Ryan vanished. A second later, we clashed swords. Ryan’s ominous light sword
pushed me back, and my bone creaked violently.

“Can you still understand human language? Ryan, wake up.”

“You’re the one who needs to wake up, Fuubi.”

He overpowered me with overwhelming strength. I rolled back and somehow

blocked Ryan’s follow-up attack, with that makeshift katana of mine.

“Fuubi, you should be aware of where our planet is heading.”

“That’s right. Poverty, violence, hunger, war, and World Crises.”

“Then why don’t you try to change it? You and I have had similar experiences.
Then why, why do our conclusions differ?”

The sword he swung down broke my katana in half. I threw myself out of the
way. His attack split the ground.

“Our──our father didn’t die to protect this evil world!”

Oh, I see. That’s what it comes down to in the end.

Ryan, are you still trapped there?

“All wrong. This world is wrong! He died in the line of duty protecting
government officials, and yet they suppressed the news to prevent social
unrest──they erased his entire existence! This world, I’ll remake it with my
hands!”

When I came to, I was being hung.

“I’ll tell you until you understand, Fuubi.”

I was made to stand in a place like a scaffold, and my limbs were shackled. I
didn’t feel like I could get out of them with my ordinary Will.

Ryan swung his sword from a distance. The sword stretched out like a whip and
hit my body. Ryan didn’t seem like himself anymore. Did Abel take over his
mind?

“Why don’t you understand, why don’t you keep your promise! You swore that
day. We, we inherit the duty to protect the ideal world! From our fathers.”

Oh, yes. I’m sure of it. Our father died protecting such a wonderful world. We
were looking forward to the day when we could say that proudly.

But that ideal was shattered. This world was not wonderful. Both Ryan and I
realized that. But I tried to protect the world anyway. And Ryan, tried to
remake the world.

If there was any difference between us, what was it? ──Suddenly, one person
came to my mind.

“There was a strange girl.”

My monologue was ignored, the attack by the whip continued.

Before long, my hairpin came off. Crimson color fluttered in the wind.

“She possessed both intelligence and martial arts skills, and although she was
still immature, she was a true ally of justice. Above all, she had a strong sense
of duty.”

She said that her detective’s will was engraved in her genes.

“But she also had the strength to sacrifice her life for her friends. She changed
her Will to a legal will, and entrusted everything she had to her companions──”

──So, I.

“I don’t need to stand above.”

The purple whip shrinked back.

Ryan White waited for my answer.

“I don’t want to look at the world map from above. I will keep fighting inside
the map, to protect my companions’s future!”

That should have been the way of us Tuners.

“I see. Then fulfill your mission until the last moment. You, the staunch servant
of justice.”

Ryan’s sword lit up with a sinister purple flame. I couldn’t move a finger. My
Will couldn’t break Abel’s Code.

“Ha. Obviously.”

My katana was still lacking.

But this Will has already been passed on to someone else. Then that’s fine. The
tip of the demon sword approached me. I don’t feel like avoiding it. I’ll keep my
eyes open.

“What a coincidence. I also aspire to be like that girl.”

The sword stopped mid-air. There was a girl standing under the scaffold.

“That sword can’t break our pride.”

In an instant, like a software crashing, the enemy’s sword shattered into a

thousand pieces. Ryan opened his eyes dyed with blood, and immediately
after, he roared.

“Ace Detective…!”

Natsunagi Nagisa was there.

“Oops, are you okay?”

Before I knew it, the scaffold was gone and I was held in Natsunagi’s arms. My
limbs were no longer restrained.

“Why are you here? And what’s with that outfit?”

Natsunagi Nagisa was wearing a summer sailor suit. But I heard she had
graduated from high school.

“W-well, there are various circumstances… But more importantly.”

As she said that, small spheres appeared in the air. They glowed purple, then
emitted sinister rays of light all at once.
“Duck!”

“No, they won’t hit us.”

Natsunagi didn’t budge. The dozens of purple rays of light reflected just before
they hit us, as if they were blocked by an invisible wall.

“Natsunagi Nagisa, what are you…”

“You don’t suppose I’m now good enough to be an ally of justice for once?”

Natsunagi talked to me without caring in the middle of the enemy’s attack.

“You don’t really acknowledge me, I know that. ──But, I’ll struggle. In this world
where dreams don’t always come true, I’ll still keep my head up and move
forward. That’s my promise!”

She slowly walked towards Ryan White. A rain of laser beams fell on the girl.
But they won’t hit her.

“Ryan White. You were like that at first too.”

“Shut up…!”

Ryan roared and the luminous bodies themselves charged at Natsunagi. A

violent explosion ensued. After a few seconds, an unscathed detective came
out of the black smoke.

“You traveled around the world, fought for justice, learned about
injustice──too much, too many. You couldn’t stay as yourself anymore.”

The ground cracked.

Behind Ryan, a huge winged sphere rose up.

“But you know, it’s okay. There are many people who believe in justice besides
you. You could have trusted them more.”

The giant sphere folded its wings forward and began to accumulate energy.

It was obvious what was going to happen. I called the detective’s name.

“It’s okay. We won’t lose.”

A huge laser beam was fired. A shock wave hit the desert.

If it weren’t for the defense barrier that the detective left behind, I wouldn’t
have been safe.

And when the smoke cleared──Natsunagi Nagisa was standing on the

battlefield with dignity.

“I see. You are.”

This is a world where the strength of Will governs all creation.

Then in this place, she who has “Passion” is stronger than anyone else.

“This is the will of the detective──”

──The will she’d left behind.

“Shut up. Shut up, shut up, shut up…!”

Ryan White screamed as if to deny the reality in front of him. He leaned

forward gripping his sword.

“I’ll do it. I’ll keep the world safe!”

“You’re no protector, you are just a tyrant.”

The demon of justice, Ryan White burst into white flames. He jumped at the
detective with that fiery sword.

“I’ll borrow it, Hel.”

Natsunagi Nagisa whispered softly. She was wearing a wine-red military

uniform.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…!”

Ryan White screamed and disappeared.

At the same time, Natsunagi Nagisa also vanished. A loud metallic sound
followed──and the outcome was decided.
Next to the fallen white demon, the detective smiled at her cherished saber.

◇ Side Charlotte IV

Someone’s hand overlapped with mine.

I involuntarily gazed up at them.

“Why are you here…”

Someone who shouldn’t be here.

He was wearing his usual uninspiring suit. His face was aloof as always. Despite
his appearance, he was sarcastic, a worrywart, and not very dependable
normally, but would always produce miracles when it mattered. Such was him.

“Kimizuka.”

Such a person──whom I hate so much.

“What’s wrong, did you miss me?”

Kimizuka took my hand and lifted me up.

“…Not really. I knew you’d wake up sooner or later.”

A lie. My heart had almost jumped out.

“Is that so? And I really thought you were worried about me for once.”

He laughed amusingly as he lent me his shoulder. I stood up. My body, which

had been in so much pain, felt light.
I wondered why. I glanced at the young man standing next to me. But he had
already shifted his attention away from me.

“──Abel, we meet again.”

“──Singularity, you’ve overcome the Code of Evanescence.”

It seemed that this was unexpected for Abel. How exactly did Kimizuka
overcome that condition…?

“There’s someone who can’t live without me.”

Kimizuka answered me in a slightly joking tone.

I reminded myself of a girl’s face. She would surely blush and get very angry, if
she were here.

“But how did you get here?”

Even if Kimizuka miraculously recovered, how did he get to this place? Did he
negotiate with someone? This place is probably quite far from Japan…

“My actual body is not here.”

He said something completely unexpected.

“Wait a minute. Huh, you’re dead, Kimizuka!? A ghost!?”

“Charl, you’re really stupid.”

“What do you mean by really stupid, huh!?”

It’s a logical conclusion…

“What is talking to you right now is just my consciousness. My actual body is
not here.”

“…And that’s possible because of that SYSTEM?”

The global program that interferes with the laws of physics. Currently, the
inverted triangular monument was blinking strangely as if it’s having a
malfunction.

Maybe there was some problem because the Singularity took back the key.
Abel turned his back on us and moved his hand toward SYSTEM.

“Then where is your actual body…”

“Ah, still in the hospital.”

While Abel was distracted, Kimizuka continued.

“As soon as I woke up in the hospital today, a door appeared in my room. I

instinctively knew where it’d lead to.”

──A door. A word that Nagisa had also mentioned before. Abel had
disappeared somewhere through that door after giving Kimizuka the Code of
Evanescence. Maybe it was because he had taken away Kimizuka’s nature as a
Singularity that the door appeared.

Then, perhaps, the door that appeared in front of Kimizuka today was the same
door. Kimizuka overcame the Code of Evanescence with Nagisa’s help and
regained his nature as a Singularity. The door led to this control tower──the key
to open it was Kimizuka himself all along.

“So you came here knowing everything.”

“Yeah, it seems my body is still stuck at the hospital.”

So only his consciousness…his will came to me.

If I’m not mistaken, to save me.

“Well, let’s have you listen to my story.”

Then Kimizuka spoke to Abel, who was busying himself with SYSTEM.

“I can’t believe you were Abel. Professor Moriya.”

The enemy stopped his hands for a moment.

“Do you know him?”

I did think he looked Japanese.

“Yeah, he’s a professor at the university I attend.”

Does that mean Nagisa knows that man too?

As we glared at him, Abel slowly turned around.

“You don’t seem to be too surprised.”

“It seems I unconsciously became cognizant of that fact when your code
invaded my brain.”

Kimizuka looked at Abel with a rather exasperated expression.

“Was being a university professor just a temporary disguise?”

“As I’ve said many times, I’m a program. I set up Moriya as one of my many
avatars. An observer who watches over the Singularity and advances the story.”
Abel’s original existence possessed no face. I suddenly remembered the head
wrapped in bandages that day.

“Are you prepared to see dreams and ideals crushed?”

“Yeah, thanks for your concern.”

Kimizuka took a black gun in his hand. It was a weapon born from his strong
will.

“It seems I still need you to break into the SYSTEM.”

Then Abel stretched out his right arm.

“Be careful! He’s going to activate his Code again and use you as a key…!”

“No, it should be impossible. Not right now.”

For some reason, Kimizuka didn’t flinch.

“Abel, your ability has limitations.”

Kimizuka appeared to have some confidence.

“If you could really use your Code to rewrite the laws of physics as you please,
you could have stolen much more from us. You could have killed us. But you
didn’t do that, which means you need some preparation to write your Code.”

Abel didn’t move. No, he couldn’t.

His behaviors lent some truth to Kimizuka’s hypothesis.

“If my nature as a Singularity is something that activates unconsciously and

instantly, then your power of Code is something that can be activated
consciously but requires time. Especially if the target is someone troublesome
like me, the code becomes more complex and cumbersome. Am I wrong?”

…I see. That’s why Abel had been taking a detour while dealing with the
Singularity. He couldn’t rewrite the Singularity's program right away, so he
started by interfering with the surrounding characters.
“Then, it will take him time if he wants to give Kimizuka Code of Evanescence
again…!”

“Yeah, so here’s your payback.”

The next moment, a huge gray cube appeared. It covered Abel and quickly
shrank down.

“──What was that?”

He did that to Abel? That’s ridiculous…

“Don’t relax yet. He’ll break out of the program after a while.”

“So you just temporarily restrained him?”

“Yeah. It seems that Singularity can not only unlock the key but also lock it.”

Kimizuka replied as if it was nothing.

“But there are still enemies.”

The huge inverted triangular monument, SYSTEM glowed purple.

“The defense program is activated!”

“It seems it judged us as some foreign objects that need to be dealt with.”

In an instant, a beam of light was fired from SYSTEM.

There was no time to dodge. I raised my hand to protect my head. ──But.

“She’s amazing, this Word Soul.”

The beam of light was reflected by an invisible wall.

“Oh, I see.”

She’s also here with us.

I’m sure of it. She will keep on to be the shield that protects the world.

“Charl, look at this.”

As the attack by SYSTEM carried on, Kimizuka showed me something.

It was an old photo.

“The day we went to Kozue Arisaka’s place together, you got the key to the
safe, right? This was in that safe. Natsunagi recovered it after I collapsed.”

Nagisa did this… That’s right, I didn’t open the safe because of Abel’s ambush.

“But wasn’t there supposed to be a map?”

Instead, there was this one photo? I casually flipped it over.

It was a family photo.

Me, Noah, and our parents. The four of us were in the front garden.

“I didn’t know there was such a photo.”

My father was holding Noah, who was one year old, and my mother and I were
linking hands. I looked up at her and she urged me to face forward. She smiled
at the camera and pointed at me with her other hand.

“Ah.”

This photo.
“Ah, ah, ah…”

We had a moment, my family, even if it was only a moment.

“Aaaaaaaah…!”

Stop it. We’re fighting right now.

Tears overflow.

“Charl.”

I pressed my forehead against his chest.

“Charlotte, we’re not friends. We don’t have any special relationship. Not
friends nor rivals. I thought a lot, but couldn’t come up with anything. …But
that’s why, we can be as honest as we want. Once a year or so, we can forget
our bickerings. At that moment, we can form a new relationship.”

He called my name, Charlotte.

“What can I do for you right now?”

What I want to do now. What I want him to do for me now.

I forget everything that has happened so far, the words we exchanged, the
insults we threw at each other──just for now.

No one is watching, no one will ever know.

The words we’re going to exchange now are only known to us, and even we will
forget them come tomorrow.

Fine.
“I hate you! I hate you so much!”

I say it as I always do.

In his chest, unlike before.

“That’s why I never thought to say this, and I never thought the day would
come when I would say this.”

I’m sure the me tomorrow won’t believe it.

There’s no way yesterday’s me was like that, I would surely laugh it off.

──But, now. Just now.

“If I’m with you, I feel like I can do anything.

So please. Hold my hand── fight with me.”

His warm body temperature transferred to my hand.

Then we slowly lowered our joined hands and focused our eyes on the inverted
triangular monument.

“That thing tormented Arisaka Kozue.”

What I have to do.

“Yeah, we…we decide tomorrow ourselves. With our will. No soulless program
will ever rule over us.”

We let go of our hands and prepared our weapons. Two strangely similar
matching muskets. We had the same idea, it seems.
“Kimizuka”

“What is it?”

Our arms stretched out in a straight line and the muzzles pointed at the
SYSTEM──no, at its core, where Akashic Record should be.

“You look kinda like a narcissist.”

“Come on, that’s unfair.”

Two bullets, wrapped in our will of justice, struck the central mechanism of the
world.

◇ Side Fuubi Ⅳ

The game was settled. The one who fell was Untainted Justice, the one who
stood was Ace Detective. The appearances of both of them were now back to
normal.

The winner, Natsunagi, walked towards me.

How did she get here? If the detective was here now, what happened to that
young man who was her partner? No, there’s no need for me to bother with
that.

We kept each other company in silence for a while.

I met this girl more than two years ago.

At that time, Natsunagi Nagisa, who was dominated by the personality “Hel”,
regained her ego by receiving Daydream’s heart. I followed Daydream’s
instructions and silently protected Natsunagi Nagisa from afar.

In the process, I thought thus. There’s no hope for this child. First of all, she was
too weak. Physically and mentally. Natsunagi Nagisa cannot replace Daydream.
She cannot inherit the will of the Detective.

That’s fine.

Rather than being involved in my world, she should stay a normal high school
student. That was also the wish of Daydream, her benefactor. So I returned
Natsunagi Nagisa to the normal life.
…But still. Still, I had a sliver of hope. I arranged for her to go to that high
school. I sent her to the same place as that Singularity boy. Because I didn’t
want to give up on the Detective’s will.

Eventually they met. A second time. They then appeared before me and made
this request: she wanted me to find the owner of the heart in her left chest.
The “Will” of the detective returned in the form of “Passion”.

But needless to say, we clashed. I snapped at the girl for her sweetness and
weakness, and swung my weapon at her.

But even if her mind became stronger, it would be meaningless if her body did
not catch up. No matter how strong the Will is, it cannot exceed the vessel’s
limitation. In fact, Natsunagi Nagisa died once. Her burning Passion was
crushed and turned into ashes.

It was then that I first changed my evaluation of her. Natsunagi Nagisa was a
real Ace Detective, I admit. I thought to pay some respects to the girl who had
completed her mission. However, Natsunagi Nagisa came back. The flame of
passion had not gone out.

She learned how to fight like another self from the past, and developed her
innate ability “Word Soul”. She fought enemies, saved people, and polished the
will of the detective - and now Natsunagi Nagisa is standing proudly before me.

There was only one thing I had to say to her.

“You’ve become stronger.”

The wind messed up my hair. On the other side, Natsunagi Nagisa’s eyes
widened.

We weren’t competing or anything. I didn’t mean to be stubborn.

I just admitted defeat.

“Assassin” was definitely saved by “Ace Detective” today.

“Is that so? …Hehe, should we shake hands or something?”

“Don’t get cocky.”

We lightly traded a fist bump.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure I’ll rely on you another time.”

“You’ll get fired for violating the Federal Charter.”

“Ah yeah, it’s forbidden for Tuners to cooperate? Really, I feel like that rule has
become looser lately.”

Natsunagi smiled wryly and made another proposal.

“Just treat me as a regular detective and I’ll treat you as a police officer. That
should be fine, right?”

“You’ve become quite good at sophistry. …Well, it’s fine.”

I don’t know if I’ll still be a police officer tomorrow.

As I was thinking about that.

“It’s shaking.”

Not the ground, but the whole world around us. Moreover,

“Natsunagi, your body is…”

The body of the detective standing before me was gradually becoming

transparent. This can’t be.
“I see. Kimizuka and she broke it. The Akashic Records.”

Natsunagi muttered as she looked up at the two-colored sky.

So he was here too. And “she” should be Charlotte. Apparently, they did
something outrageous.

“The Akashic Records were broken, and the whole SYSTEM is malfunctioning.
And you, materialized here with will’s power, are starting to disappear.”

“Yeah, it seems so. My actual body is currently in Kimizuka’s hospital room.”

I see, she was different from me who came in the flesh.

I guess I have to escape from here on my own. I wonder if the Men in Black will
come to pick me up.

“I will wait for you!”

Natsunagi, whose lower body had already fallen apart, appealed to me.

“Your power is absolutely necessary to protect this world. …So, come back to
us!”

“Yeah. I’ll be back for sure.”

I nodded at her. Natsunagi looked relieved and disintegrated.

“Now, what to do?”

First of all, I have to go back to the ruins-like place where I was before… but
what way should I go? I’ll try to think by myself.

“No, I’m not alone.”

Not in a psychological sense. There is still one real human left here. The demon
of justice who had fought with me a deadly battle.

And as I was about to shift my gaze to him, that moment.

“──!”

The foothold collapsed.

Was it also an anomaly caused by SYSTEM?

The ground data seemed to be bugged out, I lost my footing and floated in the
air. But if I just stretched out my hand, I could barely reach the edge──

“Can I?”

──I reached it. I mean, someone’s arm.

I grabbed that arm, and he pulled me up.

“Are you okay?”

He asked me.

“…You look like you’re dying and you ask me that.”

“Haha, your sarcasm is very fitting for this situation, isn’t it?”

Ryan White. He was back in his white military uniform and laughed at my
displeased expression. This guy was a real annoyance.

“You look terrible.”

There were large scars on the man who was hailed as the symbol of justice.
Scars that would never fade away, inflicted by the real ally of justice. But he
didn’t die. The detective doesn’t take life.

“I’m not going to apologize.”

Ryan said without looking at me.

“I’m not going to bend my justice. I’m not going to be persuaded by anyone.
Someday, you’ll understand, that I was right.”

I see. He doesn’t seem to be manipulated.

That’s fine. Stick to it if you can.

“Go ahead, I’ll stop you as many times as it takes.”

When you become the Enemy of the World, it will be Assassin's mission to stop
you. So, at least until that day, I ──

“──Fuubi!”

Ryan pushed me away.

A ray of light flashed before my eyes. There’s a burnt smell. Fresh blood
splattered from Ryan’s neck.

I twisted my body. There was a small sphere floating behind me.

“Damn it!”

I fired the real gun I had brought with me. I knocked the sphere down to the
bottom of the abyss.

“Ryan!”
Ryan, holding his neck, collapsed on me. There was heavy bleeding. The beam
had hit him.

I tore my clothes and tried to apply pressure to the wound. “Stop,” I wished,
but the now defunct SYSTEM no longer recognized my will.

“…Was I the one who was not chosen by the world?”

Ryan mumbled self-deprecatingly.

“You don’t have to talk.”

“I was supposed to meet Abel here.”

He didn’t listen to me and started talking.

“But he didn’t show up. So, yeah. In the end, I was nothing but a pawn. Maybe
that attack.”

Did Abel’s Code…?

“Then he is even more radicalized than me.”

“What do you mean?”

I asked.

“Probably Abel will try to restore SYSTEM. And then starts his preparation to
evolve Akashic Records. …Maybe, your friends should know about it more than
I do. Ask them when you are back.”

Yeah. Originally, capturing Abel was the mission of Assassin. Let’s go stop him.

“You’re coming with me.”

There’re still a lot of things I need to ask you.

“The interrogation will be thorough.”

“…Haha, that’s scary.”

Ryan relaxed his cheeks a little.

“But this is it for me.”

He said he couldn’t go any further.

“I’m sorry, Fuubi.”

“Why apologize?”

You said it yourself. You won’t bend your conviction.

“I raised my hand against you.”

“You were only controlled by Abel’s Code.”

“That makes it even worse. I deeply regret that I lost myself to evil.”

I can’t go back to your world anymore.

His head rested on my knee, Ryan moved his lips with difficulty.

“You’re an idiot.”

I scolded him. If you made a mistake, admit it, make up for it. And fight for
justice again. That’s your mission, right? Your raison d'être, right?

“So, don’t just…”

But Ryan shook his head.

“Can I… ask you?”

He didn’t say what. But,

“No. Assassin kills innocents for a greater cause. But you are a sinner - I don’t
kill people who have committed crimes. The law will deal with them.”

“I see. All the more reason for you to kill me. Then you’ll be fired as Assassin for
violating the Federal Charter. I will release you from your mission.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! I am…!”

“I’m not telling you to quit being an ally of justice. But you’re not cut out to be
Assassin. You’re… too kind.”

That’s not true. I’ve dirtied these hands many times.

So, it’s too late.

“I’m sorry.”

Ryan apologized to me for the second time.

“I should have done it. I should have gone to your side from the beginning. Me
and you, front and back. That time, we should have switched roles.”

No. I decided everything myself. There was no mistake.

I don’t regret anything. From now on, I will kill people to protect people──

“Fuubi.”
Ryan’s bloodstained hand touched my cheek, and in exchange, my hair brushed
against his cheek.

“Don’t be sad.”

My tears fell on his face.

It was the first time I cried in fifteen years.

“I’m not a kid anymore. You don’t have to worry about that.”

“…Yeah, that’s right.”

We’re adults now. We are the ones who protect the world for the sake of boys
and girls, adults.

“Then Fuubi, can I say it?”

You don’t have to talk anymore.

Before I could stop him, Ryan said it out loud.

“I loved you.”

My body started to move.

But no. That was wrong. That wasn’t what I should do now.

Because I’d decided from fifteen years ago.

“Ha, who would fall for such a lie? Idiot.”

I chuckled.

Ryan widened his eyes that were about to close, but immediately he laughed
with me. It was something we left unfinished. That day fifteen years ago.

“Ryan.”

After laughing for a while, I called his name.

Once regret was no more, it was time to fulfill promises.

“I was not satisfied with the answer this time. I will ask you again and again.
What is just?”

“A peaceful world without conflict, surely, someday.”

I clenched my gun. My right hand was no longer shaking.

In the collapsing world, a gunshot rang out.

[Epilogue]

November. The world was completely autumnal, it’s already the time to change
clothes.

Despite that, I’m not quite able to keep up with the trend, probably because I
was isolated from the world for a while.

I lost my senses for more than three weeks because of the Code of
Evanescence given to me by Abel. I had zero memory of that time. I felt like
having a dream of a certain white haired girl, though.

But thanks to the help of Natsunagi Nagisa, I woke up and went through a
mysterious door, and saw an even more mysterious control tower that
manages this earth through programs. Then, I fought Abel together with Charl.
This battle took place about a week ago.

Since then, I’ve returned to the original world (I don’t know if that’s the right
expression), and finally regained my daily life. However, I don’t know when I
will be indicted by the appropriate authorities. As you know, I shot at Akashic
Records that day.

As the Singularity, I intuitively judged that it was better than letting Abel steal
it… but I don’t know if the Federal Government people would agree. So far, I
haven’t heard any bad news yet.

In any case, things will change.

The Federation Government will surely approach me again. But enough about
that, I will have a little gathering with my companions for the first time in a
while.

The pretext was to celebrate my recovery. So Nagisa invited everyone.

Nagisa, Charl, Noches, and Saikawa came to my small shabby apartment, and
Mia and Lil joined us by video call, making it the most lively night in this house’s
history. Well, I had caused them a lot of trouble, but I was still surprised at how
much they reproached me.

They could have really been a little nicer with a recently recovered patient…
but I couldn’t say anything because it’s six against one. Sad.

And so, the party ended and only Nagisa and Charl remained.

There was still some leftover food inside the hot pot on the low dining table.
We brought too much and everyone was full.

“Nagisa, you’re a big eater, right? You can eat the rest.”

“Zero delicacy man! I hate you, Kimihiko!”

Nagisa got angry. She instead divided the pot’s remains into three equal
portions.

“We should have made noodles.”

“I told you so. Last time.”

“Was that so? …Oh, you mean when you stayed over?”

Since becoming a college student, I’ve had more opportunities to eat hot pot.

It’s reasonably delicious and cheap, so we often stop by the supermarket to

buy ingredients and eat it like this at home.

“You guys are living a pretty indulgent college life.”

Charl glared at me and Nagisa with half an eye.

“…Not really. We’re just eating together sometimes. It’s more convenient to
make two servings if you’re going to cook.”

“Then why are Nagisa’s pajamas and Nagisa’s makeup products also here?”

Nagisa became silent and started blowing on the soup to cool it down.

You’re making it more suspicious. Just explain yourself properly.

“Oh well. Don’t blame me if Ma’am gets mad at you.”

Charl had a look of exasperation.

──Siesta. Ideally, she should have been here too. She should have been
frolicking with us in this room.

“I’m sure it will be soon.”

Siesta’s surgery ended successfully, while I was unconscious from the Code of
Evanescence. Stephen replaced her heart, which was eroded by the seed, with
a new artificial heart.

And it went well - but Siesta was still deep in her sleep. According to Stephen, it
takes time for the new heart to settle in, so he’s keeping her in postoperative
care.

I wonder if Siesta will be the same as she used to be when she wakes up. Will
she remember us? Soon, we will find out the answer.

“By the way, Charl. Have you heard from Fuubi since then?”

Charl shook her head.

“Not once. Besides, I don’t think she would ever contact me.”
Kase Fuubi was, simply put, missing.

She was definitely in that tower a week ago. In the flesh, according to Nagisa,.

But after the destruction of Akashic Records, Nagisa and I had no choice but to
retreat, so we couldn’t grasp the whole picture of what happened after that.
Apparently Charl found herself at the Mizoev Federation embassy when she
came to. Probably someone came to pick her up.

But no one knew what happened to Fuubi. And Ryan White. I was not on their
battlefield, I really had no idea.

“She said she’d definitely come back.”

Nagisa was with Kase Fuubi until the last minute. ──Then let’s believe it. The
words of “Ace Detective”. The promise of “Assassin”.

“Speaking of it, Abel disappeared too.”

Charl interjected.

I had temporarily pinned down Abel in that world, but right after I destroyed
the Akashic Records, his voice echoed to me.

“My plan is not over yet. There are still many secrets left uncovered.”

Before I could verify the meaning of his words, that guy vanished from sight.

In the end, Akashic Records was a word that referred to the truth that all
phenomenons on earth could be manipulated like a program - and the core of
SYSTEM.

But according to Abel, there are still secrets left in this world. Are they related
to his goal of inverting the world? Probably Abel will attempt to restore the
Akashic Records for now.
“But I can’t believe Professor Moriya was Abel…”

Nagisa was shocked by the true identity of the professor she trusted.

A week ago, when we found out Moriya’s identity, we contacted the university
as soon as we got back here. But by then, there was no longer a person named
Professor Moriya.

“There’s no trace of him at all. I’m going crazy.”

“Yeah. It’s like a horror film, isn’t it?”

It wasn’t like he transferred to another school , it was as if he never existed in

this world from the beginning… For example, there was no trace of him
appearing on TV as a hypnotist, and none of the students knew who he was
either. Instead, in the psychology department, there were professors who were
completely new to me and Nagisa.

“He used a Code, didn’t he?”

If he said it like him, it would be something like “Code of Oblivion”. He rewrote

the program of the world and erased all records of Moriya’s existence.

“Even in this situation, he still can do something unthinkable. Abel, I mean.”

Charl sighed.

The enemy this time was too fearsome.

“Well, he can even create monsters like the Seven Deadly Sins Demons.”

If Abel is determined, he can easily overturn common senses. He can modify

physical concepts of this world like you update a computer application.
“But if he could freely set up an existence like Moriya, why did he need to use
the seed to change his appearance in the past?”

Last summer, when Siesta and I met the Phantom Thief… Abel A. Schönberg in
New York, he was disguised as Fritz Stewart with the power borrowed from
Seed.

“Maybe he wanted to hide his own power?”

Nagisa gave her opinion. That might be true, but…

“Did he really need to make a deal with Seed for that?”

Charl appeared to have the same doubt as me. Phantom Thief had made a deal
with Seed in exchange for stealing Mia’s sacred text.

“Maybe Abel had other benefits for doing so. Him breaking into Mia’s clock
tower and stealing the sacred text. For example…”

Nagisa’s gaze turned to me. Me…?

“Oh. Yeah. The sacred text did mention the word ‘Singularity’, I saw it with my
own eyes. Maybe that’s why Abel targeted it.”

If he had been wary of “Singularity” since then…

“But wait. Even if he didn’t conspire with Seed, couldn’t Abel have easily stolen
the sacred text himself?”

“No, that’s not it, Charl. Do you remember? The sacred text is a taboo that
even the Federation Government people can’t touch. It was probably not a
hard rule they made, but rather a mechanism managed by SYSTEM.”

Therefore, even Abel couldn’t get his hands on the sacred text so easily. So he
came up with a way to use Seed.
“Do you remember? A long time ago, Siesta and Mia plotted to let Seed snatch
the sacred text. It was all a trap… but Abel needed that kind of logic. He knew
that he could fool SYSTEM as long as he had that logic.”

Abel always planned his crimes meticulously. Logical, no contradictions, a

perfect story without flaws. They are all SYSTEM preferences. On top of that,
he had his Code to abuse SYSTEM.

“Maybe Abel is like a hacker now.”

Nagisa concluded.

“So he’s been tinkering with his criminal plot all along… to become the official
ruler of Earth by stealing the Akashic Records.”

“…Yeah, let’s pray that he won’t succeed.”

He might even be able to erase the “Singularity” in an instant next time we

meet.

“But we damaged the Akashic Records, so there must have been some
deviation in Abel’s plan. It will probably take him time to restore SYSTEM.”

Charl’s analysis is probably correct. Of course I hope so… but we can’t let our
guard down.

I scooped up the soup in my bowl.

“If you eat and sleep right away, you’ll become a cow.”

Charl warned me as I lay down on a cushion.

She then poked my stomach with her finger.

“Hey, isn’t your belly sticking out a little?”

“That’s because I just ate… hey, stop it! Don’t tickle me!”

“Hehe, you’re full of openings.”

I grabbed Charl’s fingers, but this time she tried to poke me with her other
hand. I was ready to take her on in this wrestling match, but Nagisa...

“You two, so you get along now?”

There was a painful moment of silence.

“Not really, no.”

I said coldly while drinking the cola in the glass.

“It’s empty, you know.”

Oh, … right.

“Don’t misunderstand. There’s no way I’d get along with this guy, I swear.”

“Your eyes looking at Kimihiko are more kind than before. Is it just my
imagination?”

“Maybe you need glasses. Your eyes have gone bad, Nagisa. Anyways, let me
finish my food.”

“Your bowl is also empty already.”

We were both sloppy.

I can’t remember it now, or rather, I can’t remember it.

I feel like there was an event not long ago that increased my affection point
with Charl… but I forgot. Yep, I forgot!

There’s no way we’d hold hands or anything like that. Today, as always, Charl
and I are like cats and dogs.

“Right, Charl?”

Without saying what I meant, I asked for her agreement. Surely she must have
been thinking the same thing.

We stared at each other for a while. Charl then bursted out laughing.

“Right, I hate you so much.”

Such a straightforward insult. Somehow it didn’t sound rude in the slightest.

“By the way, if we’re going to talk about this, I’m kinda curious about…”

Charl glared at me… and Nagisa with half-closed eyes.

“When did you two start calling each other by name?”

Not Natsunagi, Nagisa. Not Kimizuka, but Kimihiko.

Facing that pinpoint attack, Nagisa and I looked at each other.

“…Uh, that’s…”

“…It’s a secret.”

And Charl’s judgment.

“The night will be long.”

We gave in to the pressure and started talking about what happened a week
ago.

[1 week ago Nagisa]

“Kimizuka, what’re you looking at?”

When I came back after changing the water in the vase, Kimizuka was sitting on
the bed and gazing aimlessly outside the window.

He must have turned his body toward the window by himself, since he was
facing the door before. So he’s not in a vegetative state. His eyes are still open.

But he’s not seeing anything, and he doesn’t respond to me either. It may be
that he only looks out the window like some daily routine.

“It’s already late autumn, huh?”

It’s been more than three weeks since Kimizuka became like this.

“You know, the second semester classes have started. You better hurry up or
you won’t get any credits.”

I know he won’t answer, but I keep talking.

Lil said──my Word Soul can reach every cell in Kimizuka’s body. Mia said──the
causality of Ace Detectives is now gathering in me. Yui-chan asked me──to save
Kimizuka, me, not anyone else.

So.

“I have to do it.”
But it’s probably no good just talking to him like this… I have to think of some
other way. At present I’ve lost contact with Charl and Fuubi. They must be
heading to their battles. I can’t just sit around and do nothing anymore.

I took a small breath. Kimizuka was still looking out the window. I followed his
gaze. In the blue sky, I saw a small plane shadow.

“Is that what you want to see?”

Come to think of it, Kimizuka was doing this exact pattern yesterday. With his
colorless eyes, he gazed up at the sky. Ten thousand meters above the
ground──

“──I see. Kimizuka wants to go back to that place.”

He wasn’t looking out the window as a habit. He is still chasing after the
detective even in his current state.

“That’s right. Kimizuka, you…”

Kimizuka is not just waiting for help.

He is searching for the only ending that will make us all happy──that’s Kimizuka
Kimihiko’s Will.

“Wait a minute!”

I impulsively ran out of the hospital room. And almost bumped into someone.

“I’m sorry… huh, Noches?”

A maid girl who looked like Siesta’s twin. She had a paper bag in her hand, with
Kimizuka’s clothes in it.
“Nagisa, where are you going in such a hurry?”

“Ah, I need to change clothes!”

I can’t say what clothes exactly.

Noches tilted her head at first, but then she lifted the corners of her mouth
slightly.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but I wish you luck.”

“So do you!”

I left Kimizuka in Noches’ hands and ran back home.

I took off my shoes at the entrance and headed straight for the closet. The
thing I was looking for was tucked away in the back corner.

“I’m glad I kept it for this occasion.”

I grabbed it… along with another important article and quickly returned to the
hospital.

When I arrived, Kimizuka was sitting on the bed facing forward. Noches had
gone, perhaps sensing my intention. I closed the curtains and began to change.

What I had collected from the closet was my high school uniform, a summer
sailor suit. My body hadn’t grown much since then; I could still wear it without
any problems. Still…

“This’s so embarrassing!”

I used to wear it normally just last year… I’m not cosplaying, ok?

Just to be sure, I looked at myself in the hand mirror.

“Am I trying too hard?”

I’m panting, wearing a high school uniform and blushing. Has Charl not
questioned me before? Why am I caring so much for Kimizuka?

“Because he’s my friend. Business partner. Classmate. Assistant. And…”

Because I love Kimizuka.

I didn’t say it out loud because I didn’t want anyone to hear it by chance. My
secret.

“Hmm, my hair’s still not long enough for a ponytail?”

Looking at myself in the mirror, I fiddled with my hair.

“Well, this will have to do.”

With the cherish red ribbon tightly tying my thoughts together, I opened the
curtain.

Kimizuka was sitting on the bed just like before, looking nowhere, hearing
nothing. Approaching the lifeless boy, I asked boldly,

“You’re the ace detective?”

No answer. Of course. Then…

“Don’t just sit there —- answer me. Are you Kimizuka Kimihiko, the ace
detective people are talking about?”

I grabbed his collar.

It’s not something you should do to a patient, but that was how we first met in
the classroom after school.

Still no answer. Was it then that Kimizuka said ‘you’ve got the wrong guy’ and
tried to leave? That made me pissed… Urged by my heart in my left chest, I
closed the distance and challenged him.

“If you’re going to ignore my question, don’t expect mercy…”

Yes, just like that.

“…I’ll kiss you.”

Just kidding.

Clearing my throat, I looked at Kimizuka again.

“Even if Kimizuka can’t recognize me anymore, I’ll re-encounter him again and
again.”

I would recreate the first encounter of detective and assistant over and over
again. Like how Kimizuka had intended to do to Siesta.

There were many encounters between detectives and assistant.

For example, the meeting of Shirogane Gekka and Kimizuka at the police
station. Then, the meeting of Siesta and Kimizuka in the sky ten thousand
meters above. Or, the meeting of the proxy detective Alicia and Kimizuka in
London. All of them were important memories for Kimizuka, I believe.

But the encounter I chose was this one. Without comparing myself to the
previous detective, or acting as a proxy, I proudly held out my right hand.
I believe that this wish that I hasn’t said properly until now would surely be
fulfilled.

“Hey, Kimizuka──be my assistant.”

There was a long, long silence.

I waited, waited, and kept waiting. I became a little scared. The wind softly
swayed the curtain in the corner of my sight.

“What’s your name?”

I heard a voice. I couldn’t raise my face.

Various emotions mixed together, and my body couldn’t move. Five seconds
passed, ten seconds passed, I gathered my courage and looked at the source of
the voice. His face.

A young man with a curious expression, like he’s expecting

something──Kimizuka Kimihiko was there. Suppressing my feelings, I searched
for words.

“My name is…”

I took a small breath. I stopped breathing for a moment and looked at the floor
again.

Some thoughts flashed by, but the answer could only be —-

So I tried to show him my brightest smile.

“My name is──Nagisa!”

Natsunagi Nagisa! No one else but me, the ace detective Nagisa.
Kimizuka’s eyes widened in surprise.

“──I see.”

As if he understood. Maybe he realized everything. He did remember.

He smiled softly and said thus.

“Then, let me call you Nagisa from now on.”

[From the future, another epilogue]

“This was everything I remembered.”

Sitting on the stairs near the crumbling entrance of the ruins, I let out a long
sigh. We changed places several times while I retold the story. The vast open
night sky watched over us from above.

“Phantom Thief Abel A. Schönberg. That was my assistant's enemy back then,
huh…”

Siesta muttered to herself. We had gradually remembered his existence with

the two Holy Relics before, but it became clear this time.

“So did we all have our memories stolen by him?”

Not just our memories, but the world’s. Did everything get lost by Abel’s large-
scale Code of Oblivion?

“But assistant. Doesn’t that mean Abel is still alive?”

“…Yeah, we failed to kill him.”

In the memories I regained, Abel had prophesied his return at the tail end of
our battle.

What happened after that? …We fought, we definitely fought. I remember

that. Only the words “Phantom Thief”, “Akashic Records”, “Singularity” have
disappeared from my mind.

However the records are missing. I don’t remember anything about the final
showdown with Abel.

“…”
I looked at the person who had been silent for a while.

Kase Fuubi──what did she do at the end when that space collapsed. I
remembered it for the first time today. No, I found out.

Had she been in prison for nearly a year, carrying that sin alone? Under the
dubious charge “treason”. But for Fuubi, that didn’t matter, she might have
tried to atone for the crime she committed without anyone knowing.

I won’t ask her about it.

The detective and assistant’s job is to prove hypotheses. We’ll leave the
novelist with fantasies. Someday, maybe she’ll open up to me.

“It’s not bad, this corner of the world.”

As she exhaled smoke and looked up at the night.

No street lights, no buildings. Countless stars are shining.

“We are here.”

Siesta gazed up in the same way as Fuubi.

“We step on the muddy ground, we drive a boat over the rough sea, we fly on a
passenger plane at ten thousand meters above where we are closest to the
stars. But in the end, we are always inside the map. We are living here.”

Yeah, that’s right. We don’t redraw maps. We live our lives inside the map.

Then and now, we are always continuing our adventures.

“Assistant, your phone is ringing.”

“Huh? Oh, I didn’t notice.”

The name displayed on the screen was Natsunagi Nagisa. Maybe Mia was with
her too.

I switched to speaker mode.

“Hello, Kimihiko? You found her?”

“Yeah, she’s having a smoke nearby.”

I glanced at Fuubi. She promptly gestured at me to turn away.

“We also found the Holy Relic. I’ll mail you the details later, but… prepare
yourself.”

“…I see. Actually, we’ve found something in our end too. Let me switch.”

Nagisa handed the phone to someone.

I heard a familiar male voice.

“Long time no see.”

“That voice…Ookami?”

There’s no mistake. The former Enforcer, Ookami.

The last time I saw him was…more than a year ago, I think.

“Where have you been and what have you been doing?”

“Nothing interesting. I lost my arm, remember.”

Ookami jested self-deprecatingly on the phone. But he was supposed to have
been given a prosthetic arm by Stephen, so at least he shouldn’t have had any
trouble with his daily life.

“What are you doing now?”

“I’m living comfortably with a cushy bureaucratic job.”

“You reek of lies.”

There was a moment of silence and Ookami asked, “What do you think?”

“Normally, public security police can’t reveal their identity. You went back,
didn’t you?”

“…I guess there’s no point in hiding it from you.”

Ookami chuckled.

“Even if World Crises are all gone, there’s always work left for the police.”

“I don’t mind that you went back to being a security police, but why show up in
front of Nagisa now?”

“The ace detective called for me, that’s why.”

“Please cut off contact with Nagisa from now on.”

Have those two been keeping in touch all this time…?

“Assistant, you don’t have the right to restrict Nagisa’s relationships with other
men.”

Siesta calmly reprimanded me. I cleared my throat.

“Sorry, Ookami-san. Let me switch again.”

Then Nagisa’s voice came back on the phone.

“Actually, Ookami-san has a clue about Charl’s whereabouts.”

“…What, really?”

Right now, Charlotte is missing. Since she isn’t with Fuubi, we have lost our only
clue…but Ookami can break the deadlock?

“There’s a certain terrorist organization under the surveillance of the public

security police, and they think there’s a high possibility that Charl is a member
of this organization. So Ookami-san contacted us.”

“Charl is a member of a terrorist organization…?”

Not only me, but Siesta and Fuubi also frowned at the same time.

What does that mean?

We had speculated that the cause of her disappearance was related to the
Federation Government.

“We could interpret it as an act against the government.”

Fuubi speculated while puffing smoke.

“But then she would have contacted us. I could understand if it’s a kidnap
however…”

Siesta also made a valid point. For now we only have guesses.

“We’re going to discuss with Ookami-san a little more to find out what Charl is
up to.”
“Yeah, I see. Then we’ll…”

What should we do? There’s still one more piece of lost memory left
somewhere, probably the last one. Should we look for the final Holy Relic? If
so, where is it…?

“I had a dream earlier.”

Mia talked to me through the phone.

“A fragmented dream. Three sacred objects, a large stone tablet, a locked door,
and a triangular entity floating in the air. Does it ring a bell? Kimihiko, in the
memory you recovered this time, is there anything related to those…?”

“…Yeah, there is. I see, so that’s what it is.”

A triangular monument hovering mid-air. Its shape was the same as the Holy
Relics we had collected so far. SYSTEM, the master program controlled the
world──

“The last forgotten memory is in that control tower.”

Siesta and I nodded at each other. Our next course of action has been decided.

“We’ll definitely bring Charl back.”

Nagisa came back on the phone again.

“So, Kimihiko and Siesta…!”

“Yeah, leave it to us.”

Let’s go on our last journey. To recover our haunted past “The Great Calamity”.
 The Detective is Already Dead. 11
Scheduled for release in Spring 2024.
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Credits

Translation by Chieru

Edited by Dan

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