“Hmm.” Kurumi recalled the incident as she circled the stain. “Mister…Sada, was it? What is the detective’s condition?” “Huh? Oh.” Sada shook his head. “We’re still waiting on a call from the hospital with the details, but it looks like he’s hanging on.” “Wonderful news. It is strange, though, don’t you think?” she continued. “Rather than a member of the household, the victim was the detective who just so happened to be newly hired. Could this mean the perpetrator chose their target at random?” “We’re currently looking into that.” “Hmm. Still, this could be a blessing in disguise, no?” she said. “To me, it looked as though he was shot precisely through the heart.” “Ah, yeah, that.” Sada frowned, like something about this bothered him as well. “I take it you have some concerns?” “Concerns?” Matsurika chimed in. “The gun used in the crime,” Sada reluctantly continued. “It’s a strange one.” “How so?” Kurumi asked immediately. “I doubt you ladies would have heard of it.” He spoke slowly. “You don’t see too many of ’em these days. Uses what they call lead shot. It’s basically an antique.” “In other words, the gun used in the crime was an old-fashioned muzzleloader?” Kurumi asked, and Sada’s eyes widened in surprise. “You sure know your stuff.” “All part of a young lady’s education.” Kurumi shrugged before raising her eyebrows suddenly. “Wait just a moment. If the firearm and the ammunition used in the crime were such antiques, there must have been another element present at the time of the shooting.” “Another element…?” Matsurika tilted her head curiously. “Yes.” Kurumi nodded and continued. “The gunshot.” “Oh…” Matsurika slowly bobbed her head up and down. “Now that you mention it, I didn’t hear any such sound when he was shot.” “Wait, what?” Sada scowled. “There was no gunshot? You sure you just didn’t hear it because of some other noise?” “Quite sure,” Kurumi told him. “If you find this difficult to believe, please do ask the other people who were present at the time. I had assumed the shooter used a silencer or something similar. I’ve never heard of a silencer for a muzzleloader, though.” “All of which means…what exactly?” Matsurika asked slowly. “It means there was no gun to begin with, or it was fired from such a distance that the sound could not be heard.” “I see! How brilliant of you, Kurumi!” Matsurika squealed, clapping her hands together. Then, noticing Kurumi and Sada’s troubled expressions, she slowly lowered her hands and tilted her head. “Erm. Is there something odd about that?” “…Yes,” Sada replied. As he continued, a deep crease formed between his eyebrows. “Naturally, shooting a bullet without a gun is a tricky matter. Say you launch it using a slingshot or something like that. It still won’t have the force of a bullet fired from a gun.” “Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.” Matsurika nodded vigorously. “And we investigated the trajectory of the bullet—there was no place outside the house where the shooter could’ve gotten the shot off. Not to mention, there are no broken windows or bullet holes. Security on the premises is strict, and there are no signs of anyone breaking in, nor persons of interest inside the house. And no mechanism to remotely fire a gun anywhere, of course.” “All of which then means…” Matsurika stroked her chin thoughtfully, then scowled. “What does all of that mean?” “It means the sniper theory is unlikely,” Kurumi told her. “It’s also vanishingly unlikely that anyone in the hall fired a gun, and it appears that no intruder slipped inside to do the deed.” “I see! Absolutely brilliant, Kurumi!” Matsurika clapped her hands together just as she had a moment earlier. But then she came to a fuller understanding of Kurumi’s words, and sweat immediately began to drip down her face. “…Does this mean that it was impossible for anyone to have committed this crime?” she finally said. “Essentially, yes,” Kurumi said, lowering her gaze. Matsurika crossed her arms and tilted her head so far to one side that the rest of her body had to lean as well, too. Presuming the laws of physics applied, this incident was utterly inexplicable. It was a so-called impossible crime. But the shooting had in fact occurred, which meant someone had to have pulled the trigger somehow. “The Magic Marksman,” Kurumi murmured the name inscribed on the letter. “Quite audacious to call yourself that in front of me.” A magic bullet. A projectile imbued with a spell so that once fired, it would avoid every obstacle, hitting its mark without fail, no matter how the target attempted to flee. A homing missile with one-hundred-percent accuracy. The hunter in Weber’s opera, The Magic Marksman, is taught how to make such a bullet by the demon Samiel. Of course, from the perspective of a normal individual, such a weapon existed strictly in the world of fantasy. But what if it did exist? What if someone did have such a weapon? Weber’s work gave shape to the dreams and fantasies of people who asked themselves these questions. Of course… “…” Kurumi sat down in a room neighboring the one they’d been made to wait in earlier inside the Sukarabe annex building as she mulled over the case. Matsurika sat down beside her while Sada and one of the servants sat across from them. “Where were you in the hall, and what were you doing when the incident occurred?” Sada asked the servant. “Y-yes, sir,” the servant replied nervously. “I was around this area…” Indeed. Having finished their rather simple inspection of the crime scene, Kurumi and Matsurika were now sitting in on the police interrogations of the witnesses in the hall at the time of the shooting. Normally, a pair of university students would never have been allowed to be present during such questioning, but Matsurika’s pleas had secured them yet another exception. Well, that, and the fact that no one would lodge a complaint since everyone being questioned was part of the Sukarabe household. “Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.” Matsurika nodded meaningfully as she scribbled down notes. “It would be seemingly impossible to carry out the crime from that position. Wouldn’t you agree, Kurumi?” Called on so abruptly, Kurumi jumped a little. “Kurumi?” Matsurika frowned. “Is something the matter?” “Oh, no. Just lost in thought,” she said. Her head had begun to tilt downward at some point, so she brought it back up to sit attentively upright. It wasn’t that she hadn’t been listening; she just honestly doubted they would gain any meaningful information by questioning the witnesses. Sada appeared to be thinking similarly, as though he were talking to them because they didn’t have any other leads. Matsurika alone was tightly wound, nodding at every word and taking notes on all of it. “Did you hear anything that sounded like a gunshot?” Sada asked procedurally. “A gunshot? No, I don’t think there was anything like that…” The servant raised her eyebrows into an inverted V. This testimony matched that of the other nine witnesses. But then the servant lowered their eyebrows, frowning as if she’d remembered something. “Umm. By gunshot, you mean the kind of bang you’d hear in a movie, yes?” “Yes.” Sada nodded and leaned forward. “The explosive sound of gunpowder igniting. Did you hear something, after all?” “Well…,” the servant said slowly. “I guess it would have been the day before yesterday. I was doing the cleaning, and I heard a sound like a snap or something.” Sada sighed and leaned back. “The day before yesterday? That does seem to be unrelated.” “Y-you’re right. I’m sorry.” The servant shrank into herself. “It’s fine,” Sada said and moved on to his next question. After going through the same questions and answers as he had with the other witnesses, this last interrogation came to an end. “Er. Umm,” the servant finally said. “I think that’s about it.” “Thank you for your cooperation,” Sada said. “Would you please remain in the room next door until you’re told otherwise?” “Y-yes, sir…” The servant stood up and bowed neatly before leaving the room. Kurumi and Matsurika had been questioned earlier, and they had now heard the testimonies of everyone in the hall at the time of the shooting. Sada looked at his notebook filled with scrawled words and scratched his head. “Well, I pretty much expected this, but it looks like no one was up to anything in there.” “Indeed,” Kurumi agreed. “I would have noticed if anyone present did anything suspicious. I don’t believe my senses are dull enough to overlook signs of a gun.” “Ha! You just get back from a war or something?” Sada’s shoulders shook with mirth, and he gave Kurumi a wry grin, clearly taking her words as a joke. She smiled politely. “Something like that.” Then the door opened abruptly, and a police officer barged inside. “Detective!” he said excitedly. “We may have found the murder weapon!” “…!” Kurumi, Sada, and Matsurika shared a look. “Where?” Sada demanded, standing up. “Show me.” “Yes, sir! Right this way!” The officer started to walk away with Sada on brisk feet. Kurumi and Matsurika nodded at each other and went after them. The officer seemed surprised by the girls’ company, but seeing as Sada showed no signs of protest, he gave no reaction apart from a perplexed look. They entered the main building, went up to the second floor, and walked down a long hallway until they arrived at a room at the far end. It appeared to be some kind of storage space. While it was full of expensive furnishings, they were simply lined up from one end of the room to the other rather than being arranged for actual use. Two finely engraved muskets adorned the far wall, barrels crossed. “This?” Sada asked, raising an eyebrow. “Yes, sir.” The officer nodded. “We found traces of recent use on the gun on the right. But no fingerprints.” “Uh-huh…” Sada glanced toward the door they’d just come through as he stroked his chin. “So the shooter took this gun—or hid it somewhere in advance—and shot the detective. And then they took advantage of the confusion afterward to return it to this room. Is that it?” “That would be remarkably inefficient.” Kurumi crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. “There’s no guarantee the shooter would act in the most competent manner,” Sada shot back, furrowing his brow. “Or do you mean to say there was some other, better way of doing it?” “Let’s see…” Kurumi stuck out the index finger and thumb of her right hand to mimic the shape of a gun and aimed down the hallway. “Let’s say, for instance, they shot the detective in the hallway immediately upon exiting this room. Is that not a possibility?” “What?” Sada scowled. “Don’t be ridiculous. Do you know how far this room is from the hall? And at the risk of stating the obvious, bullets only fly in straight lines. That hallway twists and turns, and there are walls everywhere. There’s not a bullet in the world that could get to someone on the other side of all that.” “…” Kurumi was silent for a moment before sighing. “Well, that much is true.” “I mean, come on…” Sada gave her an exasperated shrug while Matsurika placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “It’s all right,” she said. “There is a time in the life of every young maiden when she tends toward dreams!” “…I appreciate the sentiment,” Kurumi replied. Matsurika beamed at her, prompting a wan smile from Kurumi. “At any rate, if this is the gun used in the shooting,” Sada continued, “then the shooter would have had to come here after the fact. Miss Matsurika, the house has security cameras, yes?” “What?” Matsurika turned to him in surprise. “Oh yes. There’s the matter of privacy inside the rooms, but the hallways are equipped with such devices.” “That’s more than enough. You! Go check the tapes. Everything from the shooting until now!” Sada barked at the police officer. “Yes, sir!” He gave an exaggerated bow and left the room. “So there was absolutely nothing in the footage,” Matsurika said, her voice rueful. “Not a thing.” Kurumi sighed in agreement. Indeed. They’d gone to check the security camera footage straight away, but they’d found no sign of the shooter. Nor had they seen anyone suspicious lingering in front of the room with the guns or anywhere else at the time of the incident. They were back to square one. Sada scowled and scratched his head as he instructed the officers to go over the whole place again with a fine-tooth comb. Kurumi and Matsurika were walking around the main building. They had set out to have a look at the exterior of the room in question. Seeing it anew from the outside, Kurumi realized the house was quite large, and the lot it stood on, even more so. She felt like she was in a park or a bit of forest. “But…I don’t understand,” Matsurika said, looking puzzled as she walked alongside Kurumi. “We think the gun in that room is the one used in the crime, right? Which means the perpetrator would have had to go there after the shooting, just as Uncle Sada said, yes? And yet there was no such person on the security video. What on earth could that mean?” “There are several possibilities.” Kurumi didn’t slacken her pace as she glanced around. “One is that there is a route out of sight of the security cameras or perhaps some hidden passage.” “A hidden passage? I’ve lived here for many years, but I’ve never heard of such a thing.” “It’s merely a possibility. Another possibility is that gun was not used in the shooting.” “…!” Matsurika gasped. “Do you mean to say the perpetrator deliberately left traces on the gun to throw us off their trail?” “Yes.” Kurumi nodded. “The shooter leaves some rather ostentatious false evidence, and while the police are busy investigating that, they dispose of the real murder weapon. Considering this was a premeditated crime, it’s not out of the question. Then there’s the third possibility.” “Th-the third possibility?” Matsurika asked, gulping. Kurumi shrugged. “They used the gun in some manner which has not occurred to us.” “I—I see!” Matsurika’s eyes widened as she spoke, but she then quickly realized what Kurumi’s words implied. A bead of sweat rolled down her cheek. “…Doesn’t that mean we know nothing?” “That very well may be the case,” Kurumi replied nonchalantly and kept walking. After a while, they reached their objective: the lawn outside the room with the guns. “Hmm.” She put a hand to her chin thoughtfully. “Position-wise, we are below the room with the guns, yes?” “Yes,” Matsurika replied as she mimicked Kurumi and looked up at the second floor. “However, there doesn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary here.” She was exactly right. Well, it wasn’t as though Kurumi had expected they would find any significant clues here; she’d simply had no other leads. That was, until she spotted something. She narrowed her eyes. “…Hmm?” “What is it, Kurumi?” Matsurika asked nervously. “Take a look there. Do you see something on the windowsill?” Kurumi pointed toward the window. Matsurika squinted and stared long and hard before slowly saying, “It’s…a leaf. Yes, a leaf.” A single leaf was wedged between the bottom of the window and the windowsill. “…” Kurumi furrowed her brow the tiniest bit. In and of itself, it was a perfectly ordinary leaf. Nothing particularly strange, especially considering the many trees in the area. But the vibrant green of the leaf seemed to indicate that not much time had passed since it had been caught there. “Matsurika,” she said. “Do people often go in and out of that room or open the window to air it out? Anything of that nature?” “No.” The other girl shook her head. “It’s mostly a storage room at this point. We don’t often go insi—Ah! Is this perhaps an important clue?” “…I still can’t say,” Kurumi replied, tilting her head slightly. “We’ll take a photo at least.” She pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of the window. Matsurika did the same, but when she did, she crouched down and posed like a professional photographer. After that, they continued to walk around the house until they were back at the front door. There was Sada again, hard at work. “Huh?” He looked up when he heard their footsteps. “Oh, Miss Matsurika. Where were you?” “Kurumi and I went to examine the exterior of the house for clues!” Matsurika replied, practically vibrating with excitement. “I-is that right?” Sada reeled as if overwhelmed. “Miss, I do appreciate your enthusiasm, but as I told you before, we don’t know whether the shooter is still on the premises. Please don’t go wandering around on your own.” “Oh, please forgive me!” Matsurika apologized, lacking sincerity. Sada continued after a sigh. “…A lap around a house this big must have been quite the trip.” “Is it…big?” Matsurika asked with a blank look. “I would say it’s rather average.” Her intention wasn’t to boast or challenge Sada. This was simply what she considered an average-sized home. Sada also seemed to understand this, given how he merely smiled awkwardly in response… Well, given that she’d lived here since she was a child, it probably was average to her. “It is actually quite a grand house,” Kurumi remarked. “Take a look at the time. While we did stop briefly on our way round, doing a single lap of the building took nearly five minutes—” Kurumi stopped abruptly as an idea flitted through her mind. “A single lap?” she murmured to herself and lifted her head. It was an absurdly preposterous thought. If someone had suggested such a theory to her, she herself might have dismissed it as utterly ridiculous. But the moment it popped into her head, numbers began racing through her mind. “It can’t be…” Her mental calculations produced a result, and in an instant, Kurumi took off at a sprint. She slipped between Matsurika and Sada and into the main building. “Huh?! Kurumi, what is the matter?! Kurumiii?!” With Matsurika’s confused cries at her back, Kurumi ran as fast as she could. Monitors lined one wall of the security office on the first floor of the Sukarabe mansion, showing feeds from various locations within the building. “…” After barging into the room, Kurumi stared hard at the video on the monitors, then exhaled slowly. “Goodness me. What have we here…?” she muttered. The security guard looked at her, mystified. As she had requested, he was playing back a particular recording. “Erm,” he said slowly. “Did you find what you were looking for?” “I did.” Kurumi nodded firmly. “I appreciate your assistance.” “Glad to help,” he replied. “Why look over this footage, though? It’s got nothing to do with the investigation, does it?” “Indeed,” she agreed. “Under normal circumstances, it would not.” “…?” The security guard tilted his head curiously, but Kurumi merely thanked him again and left the office. “Ah, let me think. I believe this is what a detective might say at a time like this…” The words spilled from her lips as she walked alone down the hallway. “I have solved this mystery.” A few minutes later, an out-of-breath Matsurika stumbled into the room. “Hah! Hah! Finally, I’ve caught up with you, Kurumi! You dashed off so suddenly…” Matsurika had apparently been running around herself in search of Kurumi. Sweat was beading on her forehead. Kurumi was waiting in the room at the far end of the second floor of the house. The room where the gun in question hung. Having finished her errand at the security office, she had climbed the stairs to return to this room. “And…what is the matter, Kurumi?” Matsurika asked, breathing back under control. “You seemed quite ruffled.” “I have identified the shooter,” Kurumi replied calmly. “…! H-have you really?!” Matsurika was shocked. “Who is it?! Who shot the—?” Kurumi held up a hand to halt the stream of questions. “‘There is a time in the life of every young maiden when she tends toward dreams.’ Those were your words, right, Matsurika?” “Huh? Oh…yes,” Matsurika replied curiously. “What of it?” Kurumi spread out her hands in a somewhat theatrical manner and continued. “Would you be so kind as to entertain my preposterous fantasy for a brief moment?” “Your…fantasy?” Matsurika frowned. “Yes, yes. A little daydream hardly worth mentioning: What if there really was such a thing as a magic bullet?” “…! The Magic Marksman!” Matsurika’s expression changed abruptly. “The signature on the threatening letter?” “Precisely. A magic bullet. A projectile imbued with a spell so that it would avoid every obstacle once fired, hitting its mark without fail, no matter how the target attempted to flee. A homing missile with one-hundred-percent accuracy.” Thinking rationally, such a thing couldn’t possibly exist. Kurumi knew, however, that there were mysteries in this world that defied human logic. After all, until a year or so ago, she herself had not been a human being but rather a Spirit—a supernatural being heralded as a world-ending catastrophe. She had been one of those unknowable mysteries. And in her possession had been two Angels that could have destroyed the world itself: Zafkiel, which allowed the user to tamper with immutable time; and Raziel, the book which gave the user knowledge of every event that occurred in the world. During the time she’d spent with Raziel before she lost it, she had investigated as many of those events as she could and studied the magic that led to the generation of the Spirits and the secrets underpinning this world since before the development of Realizers. While it was secondary to her objective, through this process, Kurumi had gained knowledge of a variety of mysteries and the numerous Artifacts magicians once produced. If her memory was not mistaken, there was even one known as a “magic bullet.” “Say, Matsurika?” she said. “Hypothetically speaking, if something like that did in fact exist, how would you make use of it?” “I-I’ve never considered such a thing before…” Matsurika creased her brow, bewildered. Kurumi nodded as if that were the natural response and continued. “My apologies. Perhaps that was too sudden a question. Allow me to pose a different question. Detective Sada’s key concerns in this case can be roughly summarized into three points: who fired the gun, from where, and how.” “Y-yes,” Matsurika replied slowly. “I suppose that’s correct.” “However, if there actually were such a thing as a magic bullet, then there is one other issue with which we must concern ourselves. Do you know what that might be?” “Hmm.” Matsurika crossed her arms and pondered heavily before eventually sighing in defeat. “I haven’t the foggiest idea. What would this new issue be?” “Time,” Kurumi told her. “When was the gun fired?” “When…?” Matsurika looked baffled. “Was it not at the time when the detective was shot?” “That would be the case under normal circumstances, of course,” Kurumi agreed smoothly. “After all, when the trigger is pulled, the bullet is fired. That bullet then reaches its target in the blink of an eye. It’s all quite logical. That is precisely why neither Detective Sada nor we paused to consider the issue of timing.” “I don’t understand,” Matsurika said impatiently. “What exactly are you trying to say?” Kurumi held up the index finger and thumb of her right hand like a gun and turned the tip of her finger toward Matsurika. “Let’s suppose I have a gun loaded with a magic bullet. If I set my sights on you like this, Matsurika, and pulled the trigger, the magic bullet would chase after you wherever you tried to flee.” “Th-that’s correct, yes.” Matsurika squirmed, somewhat uncomfortable. Her reaction was perfectly sensible. While it wasn’t an actual firearm trained on her, it still couldn’t have been pleasant to be staring down the barrel of an imaginary one. “In that case…” Kurumi kept her face turned toward Matsurika as she twisted her torso slightly and aimed her gun-hand in the opposite direction, toward the window. “If I pulled the trigger now, what do you suppose would happen?” “What?!” Matsurika’s eyes widened in surprise. “Why, the barrel of the weapon is pointed in the exact opposite direction! It couldn’t—” “Yes. Were it a normal gun, the bullet could not possibly hit you. However, allow me to remind you—I am firing a magic bullet with one-hundred-percent accuracy. This masterwork is fated to continue flying until it finds its target, no matter the distance separating them.” “In other words…” Matsurika stared, confused. “All of that is to say?” Kurumi broke out into a grin as she gave voice to her utterly preposterous theory. “The magic bullet did a lap around the globe to hit the detective.” “Wuh…?!” Shock covered Matsurika’s face. “The murder weapon appears to be a normal musket,” Kurumi continued. “The bullet’s initial speed would be three hundred thirty meters per second. The time required to circle the earth—a trip of approximately forty thousand kilometers—and hit the target while maintaining that speed would be around thirty-three hours and forty minutes. “Furthermore, the bullet can evade any obstacle on its path. That explains why it passed through the vents to reach the hall. And that reminds me. Do you recall the testimony of the last servant we spoke with? They said they heard a snap the day before yesterday. If we consider the time between then and the shooting, that was most likely the actual moment the crime was committed, wouldn’t you say?” “…” Matsurika gaped, stunned. Her expression was so entertaining it caused Kurumi to chuckle to herself. “That face! Did I not tell you from the start this was a fantasy?” As she spoke, she slowly lowered her gun-hand and turned back toward Matsurika. “Now, then. Onto the heart of the matter.” Kurumi tapped at her phone with one hand. “Say, Matsurika, beloved daughter of the wealthy Sukarabe family, what was your purpose in visiting this room the day before yesterday?” As Kurumi spoke, a video began to play on her phone screen. The security camera footage showed none other than Matsurika herself stepping into the room. The time stamp read the day before yesterday, a little before the servant heard the mysterious noise. Indeed. When Kurumi scrubbed through the security camera footage, she found that outside of their earlier visit to investigate, the only person who had been in here over the last two days was Matsurika. “Wha—?! I—I was—” Sweat beaded on Matsurika’s forehead as she watched the video. “Please refrain from panicking,” Kurumi said calmly. “As I explained to you before, this is a dream, a fantasy. An impossible crime that could never be substantiated with modern science. Even supposing you were found to have pulled the trigger, not a soul in this world would believe the bullet hit the victim more than thirty-three hours later. The only crime you could be charged with would be illegal possession of a weapon. Howeeever…” Kurumi grinned as she took a step forward and leaned in, her forehead nearly touching Matsurika’s, eyes peering into hers. “It just so happens that I don’t dislike outsmarting people who are convinced they are safely above reproach.” “…!” Matsurika gasped. “If there exist Artifacts surpassing human knowledge, should there not, too, be people who know of their existence? I shall ask an acquaintance to examine you for any remaining magical signature. I do hope you are prepared to accept your just reward if the signature found on the bullet matches your own, hmm? Ah, of course, however, this is all mere conjecture, a daydream of mine,” Kurumi murmured with a sigh, within arm’s reach of Matsurika. “…” For a moment, Matsurika was frozen, trembling all over, but eventually, she parted her lips just a touch. “Wuh…?” Kurumi stared at her. “‘Wuh’?” “Wooonderful!” she cried, eyes glistening. “…Huh?” Kurumi opened her eyes wide, and her jaw dropped. She certainly wasn’t expecting that reaction. But Matsurika paid no mind to Kurumi’s shock as she continued excitedly, “Knowledge of Artifacts! The mental gymnastics performed based on the premise that they exist at all! The grandeur of your thinking! And above all else, the sheer lasciviousness with which you confront the suspect! All of it absolutely perrrfect! Although I should expect nothing less from someone so highly recommended by Lady Mathers!” “…What did you say?” Kurumi frowned at the name. She had heard it before. “What is the meaning of this? Would you explain yourself?” “Why, yes, of course!” Matsurika nodded theatrically, then plucked up the hem of her skirt and curtsied. “First, I would like to offer my apologies. I was in fact testing you. I had no other choice, you see. You were spot-on, Kurumi. It was I who fired that gun. But—!” Her eyebrows jumped up as though she had just remembered something. “Oh wait! Forget everything I just said. Let me take it from the top.” “…?” Kurumi stared blankly. “Er, knock yourself out.” Matsurika cleared her throat before striking a pose abruptly. “Heh! It seems you’ve seen through my little act. Yes. ’Twas I! The Magic Marksman now stands before you!” “Did you really need a second take for that?” Kurumi asked slowly. “Atmosphere is very important for this sort of thing!” Matsurika said, satisfied. …Well, Kurumi could understand where she was coming from. She decided to move on. “You are quite forthright in your confession,” she said. “What is this test of yours, then?” Matsurika pulled out her phone and tapped at it before turning the screen toward Kurumi. She was on a video call. And the person on the other end…? “Ah, hello, Kurumi Tokisaki!” a man in a hospital bed said brightly. “I do apologize for kicking up such a fuss! I am in tip-top condition as you can see, so no need to worry! I was wearing a bulletproof vest, and the spray of blood was a transfusion pack! Please do look after our young mistress!” He gave her a thumbs-up. No doubt about it. It was the detective who had been shot in the great hall: Sadayoshi Itami himself. Kurumi looked up at Matsurika. “…You mean to say that he was a coconspirator right from the start?” “’Tis correct!” Matsurika said even more excitedly. “…” Kurumi was peeved. She grabbed Matsurika’s face between her fists and squeezed hard. “That hurts!” the other girl squealed. “That really does hurt!” “…I’d ask that you continue to explain,” Kurumi spat as she released the theatrical girl, and Matsurika scowled as rubbed the sides of her head. “Er,” she began. “I should first say that we Sukarabes are descended from magicians.” “Magicians?” Kurumi squinted. Most likely, the magicians that Matsurika was referring to were not Wizards—Realizer-equipped soldiers with machinery embedded in their brains—but pure magicians. Magi. Kurumi never dreamed their descendants would be so close by. “Oh, please do not misunderstand.” Matsurika waved her hands back and forth hurriedly. “My ancestors were magicians. We lost those powers over time. All that remains are bombastic records—which may or may not be fantasy or pure fabrications—and the Artifacts our ancestors collected.” “…!” The look on Kurumi’s face changed. “Are you telling me there are other extant Artifacts besides the magic bullet?” “While I would like to answer in the affirmative, unfortunately…” Matsurika lowered her gaze. “The truth is, the storehouse where our family kept and preserved the Artifacts burned to the ground.” “You mean to say the Artifacts are all ash?” Kurumi asked. Matsurika slowly shook her head from side to side. “We found no remains at the scene of the fire. Not even ashes.” “…It’s possible that someone made off with the Artifacts, then? Is that what you’re telling me?” “Yes.” Matsurika nodded. “And if a person with evil intent were to use those Artifacts, they would easily be able to commit perfect crimes. Just as I shot the detective with the magic bullet.” “…” She was exactly right. Kurumi knew the magic bullet existed, which led her to her conclusion, but a case like this would normally go unsolved. “Which is why,” Matsurika continued, “I brought the matter to Lady Karen Mathers of Asgard Electronics. We’ve been on friendly terms for some time since she, too, is a descendant of magicians.” “…And she gave you my name,” Kurumi said with a pained expression. Karen Mathers. She was the assistant of Ratatoskr chairperson Elliot Woodman and the younger sister of the world’s most powerful Wizard, Ellen Mathers. Not to mention, she was perhaps the world’s top Realizer engineer. Ratatoskr’s information network was not to be underestimated. Kurumi wouldn’t have been at all surprised to learn that they were fully aware she had taken advantage of Raziel and completely devoted herself to her “side job” until she’d lost her Spirit powers. “That is precisely it, yes. However, I did not know you personally. Thus, while it was extremely rude of me, I decided to use the sole remaining magic bullet to test you. To see whether you would be able to solve an Artifact crime,” Matsurika said and snapped a finger out at her. “Kurumi, I have yet another favor to ask of you. Impossible crimes will most likely be carried out with the assistance of Artifacts before long. Completely unaware of the existence of magic, the police will be utterly powerless. Please, I beg of you, use your powers to solve these cases!” “…Oh dear, oh my.” Kurumi crossed her arms and sighed with displeasure. “First, you put me through this little test of yours, and now, you come to me with this utterly selfish request. To be quite honest with you, I would like to refuse, but—” “But if the Artifacts are indeed out there, you cannot leave them be, yes?” Matsurika said with a grin, as if reading Kurumi’s mind. She was right, and the look on her face irked Kurumi quite a bit. She arched an annoyed eyebrow. “Well, you’re just getting under my skin now, so I believe I’ll be turning your request down,” she said and marched past Matsurika. “What? No! You were just about to accept, weren’t you?!” Matsurika pleaded. “Kurumi?! Kurumiii!” Kurumi sighed heavily and muttered, “It all depends on the circumstances and conditions. Please contact me when there’s a real case.” “…And? What exactly is this?” A few days after the shooting at the Sukarabe house, Kurumi stood on the second floor of a mixed-use building at the end of Tengu’s main street, her face contorted in doubt. Her skepticism was to be expected. After all, Kurumi was scrutinizing a door with TOKISAKI DETECTIVE AGENCY inscribed on it. “Exactly what it looks like. Behold, your detective agency!” And of course, it was Matsurika who made this declaration while striking a dramatic pose. She was, as usual, dressed to the nines, her hair perfectly coiffed. Kurumi rolled her eyes. “I meant why is this here?” “Whatever do you mean, Kurumi?” Matsurika grew even more enthused. “Did you not make a promise to me that day? That you would risk your life to solve Artifact crimes that are beyond the ken of human law?!” “I would never make such an impassioned vow,” Kurumi muttered. “And what would be required to solve such crimes?!” Matsurika continued heedlessly. “Yes! A detective agency! Ding-ding! Bingo!” “I didn’t say anything.” “We shall investigate Artifact crimes from our base, here! I was quite insistent that it be on the second floor, you know!” “…” Realizing any protest would be futile, Kurumi sighed. And then she remembered a certain something. “That reminds me, Matsurika,” she said. “Given that the detective was your coconspirator, does this mean your parents and everyone else also knew the truth?” “Why yes, of course.” Matsurika bobbed her head. “It was a grand event. We mobilized the whole of the Sukarabe household!” “…And Detective Sada and the other officers?” “Uncle Sada and the others knew nothing! Realism was key, after all! Oh! Don’t worry! We explained the whole thing away as just a show put on by the detective to surprise everyone!” “…” Kurumi felt uneasy about working with this girl and heaved a heavy sigh. Matsurika was not the least bit bothered. “This is the grand opening of the Tokisaki Detective Agency! Now, say it with me!” she chirped. “Intelligence, love, and just a teensy bit of violence to drive off the darkness!” Kurumi opted to stay silent.
Chapter 3
31 min read