It had been immediate. That wasn’t the sort of fighting style someone picked up in a year or two. He’d had a partner long before Nagisa, who he’d fought alongside for years.
“Ookami, just who exactly—”
“Never mind that, ace detective. I want to ask about you.” Ookami closed in on me again, swinging his sickle. “Are you really who you used to be?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, evading his attack at the last second.
“Are you yourself Siesta the Ace Detective? —No, of course you are. You’re still the same person. But somehow it feels like you’re past your prime. You’ve become ordinary.” After a pause he said, “I’m not trying to criticize you. You spent a long time blank, when you were asleep. Being deceived by the temporary peace this past year did you no good, either. However, the strength you once had, like a vision in broad daylight, has clearly begun to fade.”
With multiple pillars between us, we exchanged bullets and slashes across the great hall.
I was getting in more hits than Ookami, but I still wasn’t able to bring him down. Was that because I’d “become ordinary,” as he said? Honestly, that was just rude.
“Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that I don’t look like the Ace Detective anymore. What are you implying?”
“Oh, nothing. I just thought if there was one main cause for that, it might be that man: Kimihiko Kimizuka. He once made a choice to save the girl instead of the world, and now to affirm his choice, you’re trying to save the world. Isn’t that the opposite of how things used to be? At this point, he’s the basis for every move you make, even though you used to be the one dragging him into things.”
He was right about that. Ten thousand meters up in the air, I’d appointed Kimihiko Kimizuka as my assistant, then proceeded to yank him around quite a lot.
I’d never had that sort of a partner before, so I hadn’t really known how it was done. Looking back, I guess I’d forced him to be a little—just a little—reckless. He’d always sighed, and said it wasn’t fair, and gotten mad, and teared up sometimes, but he’d never quit as my assistant. He’d let me keep getting him involved in things.
“But now, Kimihiko Kimizuka has become the axis around which everything moves. Am I wrong?”
Ookami raised his sickle high above his head. An impossibly huge crack had opened up in the pillar I’d been using as a shield.
“That is what has made you ‘ordinary’ as the Ace Detective. In other words, you’ve been replaced as the protagonist of the story.”
He thrust the tip of the sickle’s blade at my face.
“Now that you’ve stepped down as the main character, can you really save the world?”
It wasn’t just the Enforcer staring at me; all the masked officials were watching on from above, waiting for my answer.
“You seem to have the wrong idea.”
Ookami scowled slightly.
“True, I pulled Kimihiko Kimizuka into my story on that day seven years ago. The detective was the protagonist, and he was the assistant. That’s what gave me a strong will as the Ace Detective—a will I used as a weapon to fight global crises.”
However, they were two sides of the same coin.
“Just as I kept dragging Kimihiko Kimizuka into things, I didn’t let go of his hand. I kept so many secrets from him and knew that, one day, it would reach a breaking point. But I couldn’t let him go until that final day. I kept wishing for just one more day.”
Why was that? Because he’d turned into a more brilliant assistant than I’d anticipated? Because I’d developed certain feelings for him during our journey? —No.
“Kimihiko Kimizuka was at the center of my being all along.”
It hadn’t started up there in the sky, but before that—on the day I’d come to Japan to investigate a certain spy on a request from the Federation Government. Ever since the moment I met Boy K, who’d seemed vaguely lonely and worn an expression I just couldn’t ignore, my fate had been sealed.
The fact that he was the Singularity had nothing to do with it. That was just a convenient excuse. From the moment I saw him, I’d been hopelessly drawn to him.
What did people call that? …No way. It couldn’t be. Impossible. Me of all people? For him?
“What’s so funny?” the Enforcer asked, perplexed. Then his eyes widened in astonishment as I closed my hand around the tip of that giant sickle and pulled myself to my feet.
It didn’t hurt. I wasn’t even bleeding. That was the proof. I hadn’t been wrong; I’d just proved that “will” was the weapon that would shatter this disaster.
“……!”
Ookami seemed to unintentionally take a step back. I couldn’t let this fight end unfinished, though. The masked dignitaries were watching to see which way it would go, and they would hand down the final verdict.
“Ace detective, you intend to keep Kimihiko Kimizuka as the center of the story—the axis of this world?”
“That’s destiny. Unfortunately, it’s mine, yours, and that of the kings who do nothing but sit on their thrones. We’ll all entrust the world to a single, dull young man.”
You want to tell me that’s unfair?
Too bad. Someone’s already trademarked that line.
“As the one who’s closest to that man, you have my sympathy.” With one last wry smile, the Enforcer dropped into a crouch, lowering his center of gravity. The battle would be over soon.
“Thanks. It’s not really a problem for me, though.”
Leveling my beloved musket, I took aim.
“Being yanked around by a guy you’re crazy about is actually a lot of fun.”