The ground in the dense jungle was muddy from the previous day’s rain, and the going was rough.
“It looks like we’re really not welcome here.” Sighing, I ducked to avoid some vines that were hanging from a tree.
I’d traveled through terrain like this quite a lot several years back, but I was out of practice and it was tough on my body. We left our campsite early in the morning and had been walking for six hours without a break. Understandably, I was out of breath.
“If this is enough to tire you out, you’ll never survive on a desert island, Assistant.”
The girl who was walking several steps ahead of me turned around, her expression composed.
Siesta, the white-haired detective.
She was wearing her usual dress, the one that was modeled on a military uniform, and it was pretty close to spotless.
“I guess it’s because my training is on a completely different level from yours,” she said.
“I’ve got a handicap here,” I retorted. “I’m the only one who’s carrying a ton of luggage.”
But just as I was about to let her know I wasn’t going to stand for this gender discrimination, something wriggled on the ground by our feet.
“Siesta!”
Flashing sharp fangs, the thing lunged at the defenseless detective.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can give you my blood.”
Almost like magic, a small flame rose from Siesta’s hand. Startled by the sudden fire and smoke, the ropelike creature recoiled and fled.
“You didn’t need to yell; it was just a snake,” Siesta said with an exasperated look. She was holding the charred remains of a hemp fire starter. “If you could take only one thing to a desert island, what would it be?”
“Don’t keep talking like me living on a desert island is a foregone conclusion.” Forcing a smile, I came up to walk beside her. Truthfully, though, there was no guarantee that I wouldn’t get pulled into something like that. If it did happen, would I want a knife, a rope, maybe a fishing pole?
…Though I felt if I responded with a list like that, she’d scoff and tell me I was boring.
“Oh, right. I’d take you, Siesta.”
She had more than enough knowledge and experience to survive and would be more useful than any tool, so we’d probably be able to overcome any hardship together.
“Are you stupid, Kimi?”
“Unfair.”
That’s weird. I thought that was a model answer.
“There isn’t a girl in the world who’d be happy about a pat answer like that.”
“Not even Nagisa?”
“Oh, I’d forgotten about her… If it’s Nagisa, then just maybe,” Siesta murmured, a pensive look on her face.
“What about you, Siesta? What one thing would you take to a desert island?”
“Huh? I don’t particularly need anything.”
Yeah, probably not. Even without any special tools, Siesta could start a fire and catch fish. In three days, I imagined she’d have a bed set up that was as good as anything a resort could offer.
“That’s why I’d take you, too, Kimi.” Siesta had nimbly run up a treacherous slope, and she held her hand out to me. “After all, boredom kills.”
“I’d be there to help you kill time?”
Siesta smiled. I grabbed her hand and climbed up the slope. If I was the right man for that job, then I’d just have to roll with it. For now, I’d take her up on that.
“You two are so slow.”
The figure who’d continued on ahead of us was waiting there irritably.
The redheaded former police officer Fuubi Kase. She was spinning a knife in one hand, having been cutting through vines that made the path harder to traverse.
“It looks like they’ve invaded pretty far into this region as well.”
“Yeah. It used to be a desert.”
There was just one reason for an area like this to be so thickly overgrown with trees: Yggdrasil.
The special seeds from that great tree rode the wind, regenerating dead, dried-out soil and seeding life across barren lands. However, they had been sown all over the world, and plants were growing at a speed and on a scale that would ordinarily have been impossible. Gradually, inexorably, they were constricting the territories where the human race could live and work.
“Even that didn’t strike us as odd,” Siesta murmured. “The Phantom Thief, who stole the Akashic records, may have been controlling our very thoughts.”
The other day, we’d finally connected with that secret of the world—or rather, remembered that we had previously connected with it.
The Akashic records were the brain of the System, a program that managed our world from the outside. It had been a little over a year ago that we’d fought the Phantom Thief Abel Arsene Schoenberg, who’d set his sights on them.
Abel had used special codes to hijack the Akashic records in a plot to become the new administrator of the world. Ms. Fuubi, Nagisa, Charlie, and I had fought him to try and put a stop to his plans.
And it had ended with… Well, that was still unclear, actually. But since we’d lost our memories and abnormalities like this were happening to the world, it seemed pretty likely that Abel had won.
We’d found three Sacred Relics in which records of the lost past were preserved, but we were still missing that final piece. We had to retake our memories of that final showdown with Abel.
“Just to confirm, Ms. Fuubi, you haven’t remembered everything, either, have you?”
Even after the world had started to behave abnormally, Bruno Belmondo had struggled against it all alone as the former Information Broker and left lots of hints for his comrades. With his guidance, Ms. Fuubi had picked up on the changes to the world before we had.
“No. I recovered memories and information earlier than you all, but no more than what you have now. That’s why I’m here… And there it is,” Ms. Fuubi said, narrowing her eyes. She was looking at an enormous plant-covered ruin. It was the control tower where the Akashic records, the secret of the world, still slept. It had taken us over a year, but we were back.
We were on a small island out in the ocean. It didn’t have a name, and in general, no one could get to it. I’d been told that the island only physically manifested and that you could only detect it if you took a certain path, following the correct route.
For example, you might need to take a direct flight to Country A, then a train to Country B, get on another plane for Country C, and transfer there for Country D. Finally, you’d take a specific sea route to Country E, and the island would come into view partway through the voyage.
It was like a hidden command or a cheat code in a video game. However, if the premise was that this world was administered by the System’s program, the logic wasn’t impossible to understand.
“This is all thanks to Bruno.” Siesta’s eyebrows drooped slightly, making her look lonely.
We’d gotten here by analyzing the map to the Akashic records that Bruno had left us when he died. He’d sent it to Ms. Fuubi via the Men in Black.
“Where are his other comrades now? Stephen was one of them.”
The others had been the Hero and the Revolutionary. They had to have inherited Bruno’s will as well.
“No idea. They may be searching for this place, too…but like I said, we aren’t a monolith.”
Ms. Fuubi stopped in her tracks. The ruin was right in front of us now.
“Okay, we’re going in.”
We walked into the ruin’s chilly interior. Using flashlights to illuminate our path in the gloom, we explored the mazelike structure until we reached a certain area. Even our quiet footsteps echoed in that vast room, the center of which was occupied by a large stone slab.
“Looks like we picked the right one.” Ms. Fuubi exhaled a puff of white smoke from a cigarette I hadn’t even seen her light.
The stone slab had what looked like hieroglyphs written on it and three large hollows. It was clear what I had to do next.
“Assistant. Take them out.”
“Yeah. I was wondering what I’d do if we ended up not needing them.” I took three boxes out of the big pack I’d lugged in with me.
The boxes held three Sacred Relics: one bronze, one reddish brown, and one ocher. It was, quite literally, a weight off my shoulders.
“Siesta, give me a shoulder rub later.”
“Would you rather a massage that’s okay to do in public or one that’s not?”
“Good question. Let me hold off on answering until Ms. Fuubi’s not around.”
“Crack one more joke and I’ll hit you until you cry.”
…As someone who she had actually made cry once, that wasn’t funny.
There was just one thing for me to do: I fit the Sacred Relics into the hollows in the slab. Almost immediately, the earth rumbled, the room rocked—and the stone wall at the back moved.
When the vibrations subsided, a door appeared. We exchanged looks, then went closer. Beside the doorknob was a small keyhole.
“You’re up, you damn brat.”
“Don’t you think you’re being a bit harsh with me?”
I stuck a wire into the hole and tried twisting it around a bit, but nothing happened. Apparently, this wasn’t one of those times when the Singularity himself was the final key.
“So much for that. Want me to kick it in?”
“I’d feel bad for the door after it made such an impressive entrance.”
Just as Ms. Fuubi was about to do her usual and solve this with violence…
“This might do the trick,” Siesta said, taking a key out of an inner pocket.
It was one of the Ace Detective’s seven tools. I’d seen it a few times before. According to Siesta, it was a key that could open any lock. That said…
“I’d always just assumed you were fudging it with your lock-picking skills.”
“Well, I’m showing my hand, but I was a bit.” Siesta gave a faint smile. “However,” she went on, inserting the key into the lock, “if a door was connected to a story you were involved with, this key always opened it.”
With a click, the lock released.
The door opened. Prompted by the two women, I went through first. The door led outside to a long narrow bridge that ended at an unnaturally floating landmass.
“We found it.”
A big pyramid-shaped monument lay right in front of us. It was cracked in places and glowed with a weak purple light. This was the System, which used programs to manage this world from the outside.
“We did it. We reached the Akashic records.”
Here we were again, at this place we’d forgotten. Had been made to forget.
“Assistant,” Siesta said, quietly coming closer.
We didn’t need words. I knew what I had to do. There was no time to hesitate.
“You’re going to give us all our stories back.”
I reached out to the Akashic records. When I touched the System, it momentarily emitted a bright light.
Then I remembered.
The rest of that fight with Abel—the conclusion to every story.