The golden blade that takes revenge on the world
“If you can manage insults, you’re fine.” In that case, there was just one person here I should be focusing on. “Fuubi Kase. What are you?”
She had Charlie working for her, and she’d ordered Saikawa’s death from the shadows. Who was she really?
It was a perfectly natural question, and in response, she said:
“I’m the Assassin.”
She made no attempt to hide it.
“…You’re another of the Tuners?”
“Oh, you know that word already, huh?”
“Up until just now, I believed you were a kind policewoman, you know.”
“Ha! There’s no way a regular lady detective could become an assistant police inspector at this age.” Fuubi lit another cigarette, then exhaled a big puff of smoke. “ ‘Police officer’ is just my cover. My role as a Tuner is Assassin: I hide myself, deceive everybody, and kill the enemy. That’s my job.”
“…So this time, your ‘enemy’ is Saikawa?”
“No.” Fuubi narrowed her eyes. “My target is SPES. That’s all.”
…That matched what Charlie had said.
“Then you’re going to kill Saikawa as a way to defeat Seed?”
Saikawa could become the vessel that would revive Seed. They thought that killing her would mean indirectly killing him.
“That’s the one. Seed went out of his way to make contact with Scarlet. Then Scarlet started acting sketchy. Now Bat has too. We need to assume we’re out of time. That’s why I sent that girl in, undercover… I never thought she’d be so useless.”
Fuubi sneered cruelly down at Charlie.
“……”
Charlie looked away, biting her lip and probably ruing her own clumsiness.
“If I hadn’t been tied up with that robot, I would have been able to give the order sooner. She screwed up my schedule, dammit.”
So SIESTA had been at Fuubi’s since yesterday, huh? She’d picked up on the fact that Fuubi was the one we needed to deal with, not Bat. Then she’d fought with her for over a day, keeping her pinned down.
“So, Charlotte. Where are they now? You’d better at least know that much,” Fuubi pressed. There was a threatening undercurrent to her voice.
“…Heading for the airport, it looks like.” Charlie was still shaky, but she got to her feet, using the table as a support.
Had she put a transmitter on Saikawa? They’d been living together; she’d probably had plenty of chances.
“I see. She is wealthy, after all. Is she planning to use a private jet? Well, that’s fine. I’ll have them lock down the airports right away. Let’s go.”
Fuubi turned on her heel, heading out of the house with Charlie.
“You think I’m just going to let you go?”
If they did, I was going to be seriously offended. Without waiting for them to answer, I pointed my gun at their backs.
—But.
“Obstruction of justice.”
Right after I heard that voice, I was on the floor with the wind knocked out of me.
For a second I thought I’d been shot, but I hadn’t heard a gun, and I wasn’t bleeding.
Just one blow. She’d hit me once, on the chin. That was all.
But my body wouldn’t move, and my vision was gradually tunneling.
Ignoring me, the two of them left the house.
“…Should’ve said ‘illegal firearm’ first.”
And with that pointless rejoinder, I blacked out.
I don’t know how long I was unconscious.
Out of nowhere, I thought I’d picked up a familiar scent. As if I was following it, I slowly opened my eyes.
Someone was standing there, holding out a hand to me.
“…Si…esta?”
Without thinking, I said that familiar six-letter word.
The figure gave a deep sigh. Then she glared down at me in a way that seemed impossible for a machine.
“Are you stupid, Kimihiko?”
If you’ll be my assistant
“You look pretty pathetic,” SIESTA said as she helped me up, a little exasperated. “Not only that, but you’ve completely trashed my house. I’ll be sending you a bill for the repairs later.”
“…Geez. Not fair.”
This place had been hit by a whole string of enemy attacks. She should be thanking me for having protected it.
“Actually, you look awful yourself.”
It was probably because she’d fought with Fuubi before she came here. Her clothes were ripped in places, and the skin beneath had taken heavy damage as well.
“I didn’t lose. I just made a temporary strategic retreat.”
“You’re as proud as the original Siesta.”
“And I only tore the maid uniform reluctantly, to suit your preferences.”
“You don’t have to copy the way she set me up as a pervert.”
Get a load of this android. It isn’t just the way she looks; even her personality and the way she treats me are exactly like the original. Even though both Natsunagi and Saikawa have settled the score with their pasts, and I’m just about to move on from a few things myself… Seriously, gimme a break.
“Hey, what should I do?”
…That means if I slip up and ask her for help, well, there was no way around it. It’s not my fault. It’s society’s fault. It’s Siesta’s fault. “You probably know already, but they’ve basically got us in checkmate.”
Charlie’s betrayal had come out of nowhere. If things went on like this, Saikawa was definitely going to get killed, and maybe Natsunagi would get killed trying to stop them. If Charlie got serious, there was no way I could win a fight with her, and we were also dealing with Fuubi. A Tuner.
Besides, if I chose to help Saikawa, I might end up indirectly helping Seed revive—basically selling out the entire world.
“Pathetic.” SIESTA sighed again, as if she couldn’t stand to watch me stress out. “Kimihiko, your nature practically makes the entire world your enemy in the first place.”
“Wow, I’m way too deep. What kind of humongous sin did I commit in my previous life, huh?”
Hey, even I’m not picking a fight with the entire world on purpose, okay?
—Besides.
“Even if that’s true, Siesta was there.”
The entire world might have been my enemy, but she’d stayed with me. She’d been frustrated with me; she’d say, “Are you stupid, Kimi?” but she’d still taken my hand and fought alongside me.
While she was there, I hadn’t been alone.
“As long as Siesta was around, that was all I needed,” I muttered, remembering.
“…Kimihiko, do you know you’re doing that?”
I realized that SIESTA seemed upset.
“Hm? Doing what?”
SIESTA only muttered something at a volume I couldn’t quite catch: “…I wonder what stirred my maternal instincts—the discrepancy or the dejected expression.”
At times like this, she was usually saying something unflattering about me, so it was probably wiser to pretend I hadn’t noticed… Kind of a sucky adage to live by, though.
“Well, what are you going to do, Kimihiko?” SIESTA turned back toward me. “You’re facing a comrade’s betrayal. A friend in crisis. Multiple enemies who are far too big and powerful. And, ultimately, the possibility that you might make the world your enemy. What will you do?”
SIESTA’s blue eyes were gazing straight at me. I really couldn’t believe that gaze was fake. It was exactly like it had been on that day. She was leaving the choice to me.
Should I fail to save my friend, and save the world?
Should I save my friend, and turn the world against me?
The decision was too weighty for me to make. How could it not be?
I’d spent all of my eighteen years getting pulled into stuff.
Now, suddenly, the fate of the world was in my hands? How?
“You don’t get dragged into things. You drag others in.”
…Yeesh. If it was going to be like this, maybe Hel was onto something back then.
In that case, though…there was only one thing I needed to do.
Just one sentence I had to say.
If I was really about to become a key figure dragging the world into peril, then there was one person I needed to pull in first.
It didn’t matter if she wasn’t the real one. It was okay if it was just for now. —Even so.
“Siesta— Be my assistant.”
I had no idea what my face looked like right then.
I just held out my left hand, wearing what I was pretty sure was an awkward smile.
“Very well. Come this way.”
Siesta accepted, but she didn’t take my hand. She just walked off, heading deeper into the house.
“…Hey, SIESTA, I was pretty impressed with that one.” It’s going to be really embarrassing if she just ignores it. I mean, c’mon.
“We’ve used up too much time as it is. We need to hurry, or we won’t catch up with those two.”
“If you’re going to be sensible, I’ve got no comebacks to make.”
“Also, for some reason, your attempts to make this a touching scene are incredibly irritating.”
“I wasn’t trying. That’s, like, the meanest thing you could have said after that.” Even as I complained, I followed SIESTA down a corridor, and then—
“A wall?”
At first glance, it looked like a dead end, but…
“Open sesame.” SIESTA chanted a spell that was way past its expiration date, and the wall rumbled and slid to one side, revealing a set of stairs.
“Let’s go.” SIESTA started down the stairs.
“Weren’t there any better spells?”
“The words of the spell don’t matter. It’s designed to recognize my voice.”
I see. This was SIESTA’s hideout, all right.
“So if I screamed, for example, ‘Kimihiko’s first love was Siesta,’ it would still open.”
“You have no proof. And this isn’t one of those security questions for when you forget your password.”
“We’re here.”
At the bottom of the stairs was a vast open area, like an airplane hangar. A big motorcycle with vaguely familiar coloring sat inside it.
“It’s the Sirius Version Beta.” Siesta promptly climbed onto the white bike. “This is the vehicle mode of the humanoid weapon Sirius.”
“That thing we rode in London?”
Right, Siesta had said she’d negotiated with the British government to borrow that. Now that I thought about it, that had only been possible because she was a Tuner and could formally negotiate with the army.
“But will we be able to catch up to them on this now?”
“We’ll take a shortcut through the tunnels.”
How far did this space go? Don’t tell me it goes all the way to the tunnels in London. I was about to ask when my gaze shifted from the bike to SIESTA. “…When did you change clothes?”
She’d switched from the ragged maid outfit into the military dress the former ace detective had worn. “Quick-changes are a mandatory skill for detectives.”
“I think they’re more important for idol singers, really.”
And also, don’t just change in front of a guy like that’s normal… Geez.
“All right, let’s get going. Hold on tight.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Prompted by SIESTA, I straddled the bike and put my arms around her waist.
Pale silver hair and a gray dress. This was the back I’d seen constantly for three years.
“Please stop indulging in sentiment while hugging my waist.”
“Haaah. Your body sure is nice and warm.”
“That’s the grossest thing you’ve ever said. Actually, Kimihiko, you’re pretty free with sexual harassment, aren’t you?”
“Because I’m constantly on the receiving end, yes. C’mon, once in a while is fine.”
“Of course it isn’t. Seriously.” As SIESTA said that, she smiled suddenly.
“Listen, SIESTA. You wouldn’t happen to be…?”
“All right. In that case, let’s go discipline the apprentice.”
However, it only lasted for a moment. SIESTA’s expression turned serious again, and…
“—Sirius, prepare for launch.”
With that, she revved the engine.
“You didn’t think that was cool, did you?”
“I’ll shake you off.”
The detective is always right there
About fifteen minutes later…
“According to my calculations, we’ll overtake our target in approximately six minutes and twenty seconds,” SIESTA murmured to me over her shoulder. We’d left the underground tunnel and were riding down a coastal road. There were no other people or vehicles in sight.
“Once we catch up to them, we’ll be dealing with the Assassin and an agent, huh?”
Of course we’d known that when we set off. Still, the thought of how tough the enemies up ahead were going to be made me tense. Especially Fuubi. As a Tuner, she’d be as powerful as Siesta and Scarlet.
“There’s no need to get so worked up,” SIESTA said, still gripping the handlebars. “All you’ll have to do is fight alongside Charlotte, Kimihiko.”
“? But Charlotte’s the one we’re fighting, right?”
“Well, that’s true too, but…” SIESTA was being oddly evasive. Like the former ace detective, apparently this robot wouldn’t just come out and tell me the important stuff.
“By the way, where’s that thing you’ve always got?” Since I was holding on to SIESTA’s waist, I’d noticed that something she ordinarily wore on her back wasn’t there.
“Oh, that? I gave it to an acquaintance a little while ago.”
“Just like that? Do you know how important Siesta’s memento is?”
“She really seemed to want it, so I thought it might be all right.”
“This acquaintance who ‘really wanted’ a musket is a pretty dangerous character, too.” I dunno who she was, but that’s not a friend I’d want.
“But do you have any ideas about how to beat those two when we don’t even have a weapon?” I asked SIESTA, speaking over her shoulder.
“Hm? Not really, no.”
“What, you don’t?!”
She’d sounded so confident this whole time that I’d just assumed she had a plan…
“Only…”
“Only what?”
“You’ve got one, don’t you, Kimihiko?” As she spoke, SIESTA didn’t look back.
“Well, sort of.” It was too clumsy to qualify as a strategy; it was more like a last-ditch Hail Mary. And so—
“It doesn’t sound as though you’re going to tell me about it.”
And I didn’t. Besides, although I couldn’t pin down exactly why…
I had the feeling she’d stop me if I did.
A short while later…
“Kimihiko, over there.”
A road on the cliff’s edge, with the ocean visible below. A motorcycle was racing down the road ahead of us. SIESTA sped up, pulling closer, and then we could see familiar red and blond hair.
“Kimizuka…”
Charlie, who was riding in back, noticed us closing in behind them. “…Why did you come after us?” She narrowed her eyes slightly, her blond hair streaming in the night wind.
“The truth is, I wanted to see you again.”
“Ugh, so pretentious. It’s been a year and you still haven’t gotten your driver’s license?”
“SIESTA, feel free to ram her.”
“I was also wondering why you weren’t driving, Kimihiko, since you’re the man.”
“Hey, I’m not sexist.”
Even though it completely wasn’t the time, we joked around with each other the way we always did. Meanwhile, our bike drew up alongside the other.
“What, that robot still isn’t broken?” Fuubi glanced back, mocking us.
“Yes, I’m particularly good at playing dead.” SIESTA responded with a joke she’d picked up directly from the original.
“Ha! I guess I might as well make this into a car chase.”
With a roar, Fuubi gunned her engine. Undaunted, SIESTA sped up as well.
…Except just as our bike passed in front of a white lighthouse that stood on the cliff’s edge…
“Do it.”
On Fuubi’s orders, Charlie turned back, took aim, and fired her gun.
“…!”
SIESTA leaned to tilt the bike; I copied her, and we managed to evade.
“Now you’ve done it,” SIESTA muttered, a little aggressively. And then—
“Launch missile.”
She pressed some sort of button near the bike’s hand grip.
“…! Charlotte, bail!”
“Huh?”
The next instant, our motorcycle fired a small guided missile. The missile struck home, and it went up in flames. The blast rocked our motorcycle, too; we skidded out and went tumbling over the asphalt.
“That was overkill…!” Forcing my aching body to move, I grabbed the guardrail and pulled myself up.
“That’s the Sirius Version Beta for you. Excellent firepower.”
“Look, maybe she got us once, but even for payback that was ugly.”
Flames were blazing out of control on the other side of the street. I could see Fuubi lying on the ground nearby. This hadn’t actually solved the problem, had it? With that thought, I started to go closer, and that’s when it happened.
“Kimihiko!”
A gunshot.
SIESTA had shoved me out of the way, protecting me from the bullet. From beyond the black smoke, the agent was closing in.
“…!”
As if she was cutting through the wind itself, Charlie slashed at us with her saber.
“I’ll do it. Get back, Kimihiko.”
Instead of her musket, SIESTA took a blade that looked like a rapier from some hidden recess of her dress and prepared to fight back.
“Charlotte Arisaka Anderson. I’ve heard you’re extremely skilled with a gun. Are you sure this is how you want to fight?”
“Against you, this way is better.” Charlie brandished her sword as if she knew bullets wouldn’t work on SIESTA.
Under the lighthouse, out in the sea wind, the two struck at each other in a cacophony of metallic clangs, and the fight unfolded at a speed no normal human could process.
“…! First that vampire, now you. There really are a lot of irregulars around here,” Charlie spat out irritably.
“Irregular? I’m not sure that’s the best way to think about it.”
“What, you’re planning to lecture me? Now, when you’re even dressed like Ma’am…!”
“No. I don’t have that right. However, if this were Mistress Siesta…” As SIESTA spoke, she was facing down a blade that was larger and thicker than her own sword. “I don’t believe she would have looked outside herself for reasons something hadn’t gone her way.”
As she delivered that sound argument, she struck back.
“…!” SIESTA’s sword skills forced Charlie to put some distance between them. “…You always were like that.” Charlie bit her lip and spoke in a strangled voice, as if she was remembering someone else through SIESTA. “I first met Ma’am five years ago. At the time, I wasn’t working under Fuubi Kase yet, and a certain organization had ordered me—to assassinate Siesta.”
This was something I hadn’t known about Charlie and Siesta. I had heard that she’d met Siesta before I had, but I’d never asked them for details.
“I obeyed my orders and tried to kill her…but it didn’t work. I’d failed in my mission. Do you know what that means for an agent?” Charlie’s question wasn’t directed at anyone in particular.
If I were going to answer…I would have said that an agent who failed to carry out an operation would be killed by their organization. Especially if they’d botched an assassination.
“I knew what my fate would be. If my target didn’t kill me in retaliation, the organization certainly wouldn’t forgive my mistake. I thought my brief life was over. But…” Charlie hung her head. “As I started to lose hope, she told me, ‘I’ll make it look as though I died here, so you’ll be all right.’ I was her enemy, but Ma’am protected me.”
…Yeah, that sounds like Siesta.
Sometimes she’d just decide to protect people, to save them, independently of her role as a detective. It was as if she thought of everyone besides herself as a client.
“She said, ‘In exchange, I want you to help me out with jobs once in a while.’ To seal our contract, she gave me this blue pendant.” Charlie squeezed the pendant that always hung around her neck.
Siesta had probably asked for Charlie’s help in order to protect her. Siesta was a Tuner, and if Charlie was affiliated with her, nobody but the best of the best would have been able to touch her.
“Ma’am was always like that. She protected me. Even when she died last year, she’d already made arrangements for me to start working under another Tuner immediately. It was as if she’d known it was going to happen.”
“…And that Tuner was Fuubi Kase?”
Charlie didn’t deny it.
Even after death, Siesta was sheltering her.
“That hasn’t changed. Even as an android, you haven’t changed a bit.” Charlie’s voice was trembling slightly.
It wasn’t because she was crying, though.
“You’re still holding back when you fight so you won’t kill me!” When she raised her head, her face was suffused with anger.
“Why?!” Tightening her grip on her saber, Charlie rushed at SIESTA. “Why are you holding back?! Why won’t you get serious?! Why are you still— Why are you trying to protect me again?!”
As SIESTA parried Charlie’s ridiculously fast swordplay, her cool expression didn’t flicker. She didn’t strike back any more than she had to, though. She stayed on the defensive.
“A year ago, I was so helpless. And so I swore…this time, I’d take SPES down in Ma’am’s place. No matter what kind of unfair things happened to me under that other Tuner, I promised I’d be the one to avenge Ma’am… And yet—” She took an aggressive step in. “I can’t even beat you, and you’re just a machine! Why?!”
Charlie swung her sword to the side. However…
“Your movements are hardly efficient. When you get emotional, you can’t exert even half your true strength.” Bending backward, SIESTA evaded the blade. Then, in an economical motion, she swung her rapier and knocked Charlie’s weapon out of her hands, sending it behind her.
“…! In that case!”
In the next instant, Charlie’s eyes were on me.
“I’ll do anything to win.”
She drew her gun from the small of her back, taking aim at me.
“Kimihiko!”
Staying low, SIESTA got between me and Charlie and sent the gun flying with her rapier. But—
“I knew it. You really can’t kill me.” Somewhere in there, a second gun had appeared in Charlie’s left hand. “It’s over.”
“……”
SIESTA was on her knees. The muzzle of Charlie’s gun was pointed at her forehead.
The situation was dire. Even SIESTA couldn’t turn this one around.
And if that was how things stood…
“Charlie, can you really shoot?”
I hadn’t been any use at all so far, so it was probably about time I did something.
“What do you mean? Do you think I’d hesitate after every—”
“Even if that’s the real Siesta’s body?”
That’s why her will won’t ever die
“The real…Ma’am…?”
When Charlie heard that, she stopped moving.
Her mind seemed to be racing. As she stared at SIESTA, her eyes were both steady and uncertain.
“You’d figured it out?” The first one to move in that deadlocked situation was SIESTA. “Kimihiko, when did you notice?”
She was still on her knees, and she didn’t turn to look at me as she spoke. From the way she phrased the question, though, she’d already admitted that my guess was correct.
“I’m not sure when it was. The things that tipped me off were really vague, though.”
If they pressed me for a clear reason, I didn’t have one to give.
It might have been the familiar scent I’d had near me for three years, or the warmth of her skin when we happened to touch. It could have been the thought that no mechanical doll could give a sudden, hundred-million-watt smile like that. In other words, I’d had the contradictory hunch that, some way, somehow, this was absolutely Siesta.
“You’re correct,” SIESTA told me quietly.
I knew it. She really was the ace detective I’d spent those three years with, through good times and bad. However, her mind had stayed in her heart, and that had gone to Natsunagi. Only this body, her physical shell, was Siesta’s.
“After that final battle with Hel, Mistress Siesta’s body was frozen,” SIESTA told us quietly. “It was what she had wanted. In accordance with a promise they’d made in advance, a certain individual put it in cryo-storage. Then, using Mistress Siesta’s vast knowledge and memories as a database, they loaded an artificial intelligence into her brain and spinal cord, then equipped the body with an artificial heart. That is how I was born.”
“…So that’s what happened…” All I could do was nod.
Even after death, Siesta found a way to be revived as an android and watched for an opportunity to contact us. She’d done it in order to pass the memories of last year’s tragedy onto us and to help us wipe out SPES.
“Somehow I thought that might be what it was,” Charlie said. “I didn’t spend as much time with Ma’am as Kimizuka did, but even I remember her scent.”
Come to think of it, Charlie had sniffed a lot of pillows when we were living in the hideout. Had she picked up on the faint, lingering traces of Siesta?
“—Still,” she went on. “So what? Even if your body is Ma’am’s, that doesn’t change my mission. I’ll defeat SPES in her place.”
Charlie’s gun was still pointed at SIESTA’s forehead. However, a single tear trickled from her blazing eyes. “I mean, look. Nagisa could never kill Yui. That means I have to do it. By defeating Seed, I’ll carry out Ma’am’s last wish—”
The muzzle of her gun was trembling slightly, as if to match the quiver in her voice.
I see. Yeah, Charlie, you really were that type of girl.
She’d said she didn’t need friends, and yet she’d continued to make Siesta her top priority… Then, somewhere along the way, Siesta’s influence had pulled her to protect other people.
She was trying to carry out Siesta’s last wish, trying to keep Natsunagi from getting her hands dirty, and really worrying about Saikawa, her target. The disconnect between her mission and what she felt was messing her up to the point where she was even looking to me, her sworn enemy, for support.
Geez. She was as clumsy as ever. She hadn’t changed a bit since our first meeting. She was just like she had been for those two and a half years, when we’d fought so much we got sick of it.
Our stubborn bond had rotted to the point of snapping, but somehow it was still here. Sighing, I turned to Charlie just one more time. “Are you sure you’re okay with that?”
“…! What do you know, anyway? You spent all that time just spacing out.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I’m sorry about that.”
The fact that I’d been missing memories was no excuse. After Siesta’s death, I’d spent a full year soaking in lukewarm water, savoring a counterfeit peace, and I really couldn’t talk.
But… I said them anyway.
Her last words.
“The legacy Siesta left was me, Natsunagi, Saikawa, and you, Charlie. All four of us. If you want to carry out Siesta’s last wish—Saikawa can’t die.”
It wasn’t just Saikawa, of course.
We couldn’t lose me or Natsunagi or Charlie either. Not a single one of us.
“…! But Ma’am is a Tuner. Her mission is to defeat SPES!”
Yeah, that’s right. As the ace detective, Siesta had fought threats to the world. There was no doubt about that.
But.
“Charlie. Would the teacher you loved have prioritized protecting her mission, or her friends?”
“…!” Charlie’s face crumpled.
“Do you really think defeating SPES by sacrificing Saikawa is how Siesta wants this to end?”
“Shut up…!”
Charlie yanked the pendant from her neck, snapping the chain. It was almost like a symbolic gesture to help her look away from the past, and from Siesta. She flung the pendant to the ground—but the charm popped open, exposing the photograph inside.
“…Why is she smiling like that?”
The photo showed Charlie and Siesta, and they were both smiling. It was as if they had no missions, nothing tying them down. It was a peaceful photo, something they might have taken to post online on their way home from school.
“This is, this is just—!”
Charlie shook her head. Acknowledging Siesta’s smile would put her current mission on shaky ground. It would mean denying Siesta’s last wish, the one she’d believed in all this time.
And so, as if she was saying goodbye to the past and to Siesta, Charlie brought her foot down on the pendant.
“…!”
Or tried to.
Before she could do it, SIESTA slid her right hand in between Charlie’s foot and the ground.
“…Ow.”
“Oh— I’m sor…ry…”
SIESTA’s objection was so calm that Charlie apologized on reflex. SIESTA picked up the pendant, put her hands around Charlie’s neck, and tied the broken chain back together.
“Why…?” Charlie stared at her, dumbfounded.
Turning to face her again, Siesta sighed. “I swear…” Then she said it.
“Are you stupid?”
It was a phrase only the former ace detective had been allowed to say.
Of course she wasn’t here, in SIESTA.
Her mind was with her heart, in Natsunagi.
Even so.
Her body, or her brain, or her mouth, must have remembered those words. For three years, she’d said them practically every day, and now SIESTA had just—
“That’s the first time.” Charlie lowered her head, as if she was struggling to contain some emotion. For a few seconds, she seemed to be thinking about it, and then— “That’s the first time you ever said those words to me.”
When Charlie raised her head again, her tearful face was radiant. She looked like an apprentice who’d always longed for her teacher to get angry at her.
As she watched Charlie, SIESTA’s expression softened into a wry smile. She spread her arms, and just as Charlie was about to dive into them—
“Charlotte. This is why I keep telling you you’re simple.”
What connected with SIESTA’s chest was not Charlie, but a bullet.
“…!”
“Ma’am!”
SIESTA crumpled where she stood, and Charlie caught her in her arms.
Beyond them stood the Assassin—Fuubi Kase.
The golden blade that takes revenge on the world
Gun in hand, Fuubi looked down on us from a short distance away. Her eyes were as cold as ice.
“I thought you had a little more sense than that, Charlotte. I guess you’re no different from that brat over there.”
“…!” Charlie gave Fuubi a sharp glare, then promptly returned her gaze to SIESTA. “Ma’am…”
Dark blood was flowing steadily from the wound in the left side of SIESTA’s chest. Charlie ripped some fabric from her own clothes and tried to use it to stanch the flow.
“…Really, Charlotte, are you stupid?” Weakly, SIESTA took Charlie’s hand. “I’m not your ‘Ma’am.’ ” She smiled faintly. Somewhere along the way, her tone had reverted to the one SIESTA used.
“Never mind this. The person you two should be dealing with is over there.” With a trembling hand, SIESTA pointed at the one standing beyond us.
“But if it keeps…”
“It’s fine. Emergency shutdown measures will be enough to deal with this.” SIESTA smiled again. I didn’t know whether she was lying or not, but for now we’d just have to believe her.
“—We’ll be right back.”
Exchanging small nods, Charlie and I gently carried SIESTA over to the guardrail. Then we turned to face our greatest enemy.
“Ha! Look at you two. You were just pretending you didn’t get along, and now you’re trying to team up?” Fuubi sneered. She stuck a cigarette between her lips and lit it, shielding it from the wind with one hand.
“You’re really sure about this, Charlie?” I checked in with Charlie, without taking my eyes off Fuubi. “You’ve got a lot to lose if you go against her.”
Due to her job, Charlie had made enemies of all sorts of people and organizations. Fuubi was the Tuner who’d picked her up after Siesta; without her support, Charlie’s current position would be majorly threatened. There might even be more attempts on her life.
Most of all, she was voluntarily taking a stand against the mission she’d always believed in. Even if I was the one who’d talked her into it, I had to make sure this wouldn’t be too much.
“It’s pretty late for that.” Charlie spoke firmly; she didn’t look at me either. “Forget me, what about you? Are you prepared for this?”
“Of course. If running for it would work, I’d love to.”
“…You call that ‘prepared’? Are you sure you’re speaking proper Japanese? Intelligence was the only thing you had going for you, right?” Charlie put a hand to her chin.
Don’t worry about it. The fear’s just scrambled my brain a little, that’s all. “Hey, Charlie, I just had a great idea about the fight we’re headed into.”
“That’s our resident brain, all right. What strategy did you come up with?”
“If we survive this, let’s get married.”
“Huh? Ew, no.”
“No, no, that was a reverse death flag.”
“I’m not so sure about that concept.”
“Before you head into a life-or-death crisis, you make a wish you’d never want to come true. Then you end up living and get what you asked for. It’s an exploit.”
“Our resident brain is an idiot.” Next to me, Charlie clutched at her head.
Sorry. At this point, no brain could be much use.
“But…” Charlie raised her head and looked at me. “Apparently we’ve matured enough to attempt to compromise and work together, at least.” She smiled, and I was sure she was remembering our first disastrous attempt at teamwork.
“Are you done with your strategy meeting?” Fuubi exhaled a big puff of smoke.
She’d waited for us… Nah, probably not. She’d just wanted to have that cigarette. And now our time was up.
“We’ll catch her between us! Charlie, you go in from the right!”
“Okay!”
Charlie and I split up, aiming our guns at our target from two angles. Fuubi was grinding her cigarette butt under her toe. Sorry, but we can’t afford to wait for you to be ready.
I leveled my gun, turning it on Charlie, who was right in front of me—
“…Why am I seeing Charlie?”
Charlie was looking back at me, eyes round.
Fuubi had been between us. Where had she gone?
“So you didn’t have a plan, huh?”
Right after we heard that voice—
“…!”
First, I couldn’t breathe.
Then I heard the sound of something sinking into bone.
The pain came a few seconds later, after I’d rolled several meters over the ground.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah…!”
The shock and pain made me scream pathetically.
I didn’t even know what she’d done to me. Had she punched me? Kneed me? Something might already be broken. The pain was so bad I almost passed out.
“One down.”
Promptly losing interest, Fuubi turned her back on me.
“…!”
Charlie pointed her gun at the other woman, warily putting a little more distance between them. While she was doing that, I managed to drag myself out of the way to the road’s shoulder.
“What next? You’re on your own now.” Charlie’s gun didn’t seem to concern Fuubi. “Are you going to keep up this pointless resistance and delay the resolution of the problem?”
“……” Charlie listened to her, face stern, gun still leveled.
“Listen, Charlotte. I’m going to ask you one more time: What is your job? Weren’t you going to take up the ace detective’s last wish? Don’t you care what happens to the world?”
“…I do care. I just can’t believe doing things this way would make Ma’am happy.”
“Ha! Are you crazy? It doesn’t matter whether it makes her happy,” Fuubi scoffed. “Can you save the world with ideals? No. All we have to do is kill Yui Saikawa, and there you go. World saved.”
“I’m sure Ma’am wouldn’t want to save the world by sacrificing somebody.”
“Oh really? If sacrificing herself would do the trick, I’m pretty sure she’d do it in a heartbeat.”
“What do you mean…?” Charlie’s eyebrows drew together, as if she didn’t know where Fuubi was going with this.
“Don’t you get it? Here, let’s review. Originally, Seed considered people who had a seed and could make full use of its power candidate vessels.”
“Ma’am and Hel…”
“Right. But the ace detective’s clever scheme shut that plan down. She lost her ability to be a vessel by throwing her own life away.”
Fuubi’s theory went like this: A year ago, Siesta had chosen to die. She’d said she’d done it to protect Natsunagi and make her wish come true…but there was another reason she’d kept hidden. In her final job as ace detective, Siesta had put together a plan to defeat Seed.
“Then you mean Ma’am had picked up on Seed’s true objective, and so she…”
Siesta probably hadn’t told Charlie everything either. When she heard the deeper truth behind Siesta’s self-sacrifice, her gaze wavered uncertainly.
“That’s right. In order to protect the world, the ace detective sacrificed herself without a second thought. And remember what she said? You four are her final legacy. Know what that means? —She’s telling you, You take up my last wish and die for the world’s sake, too.”
“…!” That interpretation of Siesta’s final words made Charlie’s eyes go wide.
“Charlotte, you’re brilliant. Don’t let that lousy excuse for an assistant fool you. You need to understand the real meaning of the ace detective’s last words and carry out her will.”
“I…”
“Frankly, Nagisa Natsunagi isn’t gonna cut it. She’s too weak. That means there’s nobody but you, Charlotte. You take up her legacy and become the ace detective, a Tuner.” Fuubi’s expression suddenly softened. “It’s fine. If you’re nervous, I’ll train you again. You just carry out your mission. Kill Saikawa, defeat Seed. If you do that, you’ll be the ace detective in both name and deed. Lucky you.” Fuubi stroked Charlie’s hair. “That was always your dream, right? Now it’ll come true.”
“The ace detective? Me…?”
“That’s right. So let’s go do that last job.” With that, Fuubi turned her back and went over to the motorcycle SIESTA and I had ridden here. She was planning to use it to go after Saikawa and the others.
—But.
“What are you trying to pull, Charlotte?” Fuubi spoke without turning around.
She could probably tell without looking, just from the aura of hostility: Charlotte had her sword leveled at her back.
“Don’t you want to be the ace detective?”
“…No. That was never my ambition.” Charlie closed her eyes. Maybe she was reminding herself—or maybe she was finally facing her true feelings.
Thinking of the girl who’d been her teacher for five years, she squeezed the blue pendant that hung around her neck and shouted.
“Siesta was a beautiful, strong woman! She was what I wanted to be!”
Tightening her grip on her saber, Charlie slashed at Fuubi’s back.
“Boring.” Fuubi still hadn’t turned around, but she dodged the attack lightly, without glancing at it.
“…!”
“You’re selling me short. Did you really think you could beat me one-on-one?” Before she’d even finished the sentence, Fuubi drew her gun from her back and pointed it at Charlie’s forehead. “Playtime’s over.”
