“They say we’ll arrive in another hour.”
Ookami had knocked on my door and come in to tell me that our ship was almost at its destination. We’d been living on the ocean for more than a day, but it was finally almost over. I’d been lying around on the bed reading a paperback, and I let it fall closed. “Thanks. I guess I should start getting ready in a bit, then.”
In our journey to find Charlie, Ookami and I had visited several places we thought she might be, with no luck. We were currently on our way to the next possible location.
“It’s going to be cold, so make sure to dress appropriately.”
“Right. I hope we find her this time.”
It had been about a month since we’d lost contact with Charlie. I knew she was an agent and that she’d gotten out of all sorts of trouble before, but if the world was still in the grip of the Great Cataclysm as Kimihiko and Siesta said, we wanted to make sure she was safe as soon as possible.
“Thank you for your help, Ookami.” I bowed my head to my former proxy assistant gratefully. Without him, we wouldn’t even have known where to start looking for Charlie.
“I’m only doing my job as a Security Police officer.” Ookami started to take out a cigarette, then seemed to change his mind. Was he worried it would bother me?
“You really don’t know how to take a compliment, huh?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, clearly playing dumb. Ookami poured some soup from a thermos into a mug and handed it to me. “Be careful, it’s hot.”
“Now, there’s a move a certain somebody could never pull off,” I said, picturing the face of a drab young man. I blew on the soup to cool it, then took a sip. “By the way, why are you still with the Security Police?”
About a year ago, when we’d been made to think that the world was at peace, Ookami had retired as the Enforcer. But even then, he’d stepped back into a job that made him an ally of justice.
“For the same reason you’re still a detective,” he said succinctly, and I laughed.
“Fair enough. Then I guess you won’t tell me your real name until you leave the Security Police, huh?”
When the government had first sent him to me, the only word on the plain-looking business card he’d handed me had been “Ookami.” When I’d asked him what his first name was, he’d said he couldn’t tell me. It was due to his unique position as a member of the Security Police, so even his last name might only be a code name.
“I don’t have one,” Ookami said, leaning back against the wall. Unusually, he was wearing a faint smile. “I’m an orphan. All I’ve got is a fake name.”
“…I see.” I knew what he meant. He wasn’t talking about not being in a family registry somewhere or that he genuinely had no name, but that the only name he had was one he’d been given as a part of a system so people could tell individuals apart.
In other words, he was the same as I’d been once. The name someone had made for me at city hall, the nicknames the adults at the facility had given me—none of them had ever really felt like me. They’d all sounded just like a symbol.
“I’ll help you come up with one someday, then,” I offered. The soup in my mug was still warm. “We can think up a name together, if you ever need to!”
Just like how I’d gotten this name from a good friend on that day long ago.
“…All right. I’ll take you up on that.”
Ookami gave me a sudden smile, then left the cabin.
An hour later, our ship reached the harbor. Only Ookami and I disembarked, and we crossed a long bridge, entering the Mizoev Federation.
“There’s no checkpoint, huh?”
I didn’t remember having given anyone my passport, but the moment we stepped off the bridge we entered Mizoev Federation territory.
“There’s really nobody here.”
It wasn’t just a figure of speech; there literally wasn’t a single person in sight. The place could have been a giant movie set. Ookami had told me in advance it would be like this, though.
“I wasn’t joking. The Mizoev Federation is a fictional nation,” Ookami said, his breath misting white in the air.
Historically, the Mizoev Federation was a great country that had not only helped to keep the damage from multiple world wars to a minimum, but also become an economic world leader through trade and its abundant resources. That was common knowledge for average people like us. However…
“The fiction of a country whose strength is absolute was necessary to unify the world,” Ookami said, before urging me forward with “Let’s go” and setting off. “Without being able to rely on the concepts of absolute justice and unchanging national standards, we lose our way easily. And if we start to get lost, it’s over. Humans are always swept away by their innate malice—and what lies beyond that is a global crisis.”
“…So you’re saying that’s why they came up with the idea of the Mizoev Federation as a fictional nation of justice? To pull the wool over the eyes of the world’s citizens and maintain a temporary peace?”
Still, the scale of this was huge. Was it really possible to trick several billion people? This wasn’t like NASA covering up the existence of UFOs.
“I even learned about it in my history and civics classes. And there are reports about the country in the news pretty frequently…”
“Yes, I used to believe it myself. However, I know the truth now: All of that was a fictional history created by the System.”
Oh, I get it now. The Akashic—“empty”—records.
We’d lived our entire lives up until now surrounded by this fake history.
“The country’s real name is Antarctica,” Ookami continued. “It used to be just an ice-covered continent.”
“No wonder it’s so bitterly cold…”
“This town is basically just a film set. I hear everything beyond it is still ice.”
Wearing thick coats to ward off the cold, we made for a tall tower nearby. According to Ookami, that was where we were scheduled to meet with the people connected to the government.
“Still, I’m impressed you managed to contact them.”
That promise was undoubtedly the reason we’d managed to get here by ship at all. Kimihiko and Siesta had said they were having trouble making contact with the government dignitaries.
“Pulling off troublesome things like that is the role of an outstanding assistant.”
“Yikes. If Kimihiko heard that one, I bet he’d turn bright red and yell at you.”
We walked into the tower. Inside, it looked like an empty office building. There was no one here, just like everywhere else, but it had electricity, so at least the infrastructure seemed to be in place.
“Do you really think Charlie’s here?”
“It’s only a possibility, but if the agent really is plotting an act of terrorism against the government, it’s entirely possible that she would have come to the Mizoev Federation. Be ready, just in case,” Ookami said, handing me a gun.
“You don’t think Charlie would target our meeting with the government officials, do you?”
“It never hurts to be cautious.”
Shouldering his great sickle, Ookami led the way to the elevators, then pressed the UP button. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Do you need a gun safety lecture?”
“Sometimes, when my mind stops racing, I remember I’m actually a college student, aren’t I?”
Although we stayed relatively tense, we chatted as we got on the elevator and rode it to the top floor. This was where we’d arranged to meet with the government dignitaries.
“That’s a great view.” The quiet words escaped my lips before I realized. The space the elevator had opened out onto was like an observation deck, with sweeping landscapes as far as the eye could see visible through its large windows. This town without people still had parks, theaters, and blocks of apartment buildings. As fictional countries went, it was picture-perfect.
“—Huh?”
Just then, something struck me as wrong.
I couldn’t have said specifically what it was. The town was surrounded by the sea, which had enormous ice floes drifting in it. Still, when you considered the fact that this land had originally been covered by ice, what else did you expect? In which case, what was it? What was making me feel as if something wasn’t—?
“Ace detective!” Ookami shouted.
I turned. Men wearing white masks and armed with guns were closing in on us.
“The ‘terrorists’ are the Federation Government!”