“But why did you go that way?”
As we had escaped from the beat-up air car, which was now engulfed in flames, Yuri had been bawling me out the entire time. But now we were sitting in a circle in a corner of the park, and I had gotten Yuri to clam up and the cross-examination of Thunder and Lucha had begun.
“Us guys were…” Thunder began, trying not to open up too much; despite my enthusiastic persuasions, he kept a stiff attitude. “Well, us guys came over to Lamier to get revenge…”
“Revenge? For who?”
His unexpected answer took me off-guard.
“Dr. Russell.”
We had never seen Thunder say something as seriously as he did just now.
““Dr. Russell?”” Yuri and I said at the same time. It was a name I had never heard before. It looked like Yuri hadn’t either. That I hadn’t was one thing, but his childhood friend Yuri didn’t even know what the heck he was talking about. All the way from Maleenay this brother and sister team came to get revenge. Maybe it was someone they knew a long time ago, or otherwise some really important somebody…
“Dr. Russell is…” Thunder looked at his feet, and lowered his voice. “…someone us guys owe a great debt of gratitude to.”
“I—” Yuri’s mouth fell open. “I don’t have any memory of a person named Dr. Russell.”
“It was the same year you went home to Yocha…” Thunder looked up at Yuri with sadness in his eyes.
“Our ma and pa had died in a sprinkler accident.”
“Uncle and Auntie—!” Yuri shouted, her face turning red. Her eyes got big and wide and her entire body started shaking.
“Yup…” Thunder stuck his chin out slightly. “Jus’ like that, we was orphans.”
“That’s awful…” Yuri’s fists rested on each side of her mouth.
Tears shone in her eyes. “All this time, I never knew…” Thunder slowly shook his head to the left and right.
“You don’ got nothin’ to apologize fer, Yuri. We didn’ wan’ anyone to worry, so we said nothin’ to nobody. So o’course, you couldn’ a known.”
“…Mm…” As she wiped tears off her face, Yuri nodded listlessly. “You saying that makes me feel a little better…”
The two looked at each other at the same time, and heat rose from their glance into each others’ eyes. Little hearts floated like bubbles in the air—what, what the hell is going on here? At a time like this? Do you think I can allow this baloney to occur? What, did some god die or something? A stud like this… into Yuri—?!
“Hate to interrupt…!” I said, all business-like. “But we really are short on time. Can you please begin where you left off?”
“Eh… ah, aha… yeah, okay…” Thunder looked as if he just awoke from a dream.
“Yeah… How, how far had I gotten… ?”
“The part where your parents passed away,” I said flatly.
“Yeah, you’re right. Sorry ’bout that.”
Thunder replied, in a truly simple and rustic way. It was a refreshingly honest apology. Hey, Yuri, don’t look into those eyes!
“—So us guys were these two confused orphans, and who come and took us and raised us up? It was our doctor neighbor, Russell.” Unaware of the daggers I was throwing at Yuri in my head, Thunder continued his story.
“Dr. Russell was really quite a fellow. I don’ know when he blew on to Maleenay, but he wasn’ a native. He lived his whole life a single man, all on his own. On account’a that, people treated him like he’s some sorta weirdo. But in his heart he was a kind man, a man of real character.”
“I see…” I said attentively. By doing so it made it feel like just Thunder and I were having the conversation…. Tee hee, I am bad, aren’t I?
“By standard time, it woulda been ’bout four months ago or so. One day the Doc said he was goin’ to take a trip to Lamier. Course, we was real surprised. We knew Lamier is a gambling star. Us guys had no idea what the Doc could be wantin’ to do here. First I thought he was pullin’ our leg… but no, he was really goin’.
“Then he called me in and talked to me. He told me ‘Thunder, I have to go to Lamier. I have a responsibility there. And it’s very possible that I won’ make it back. Thunder, if I die on Lamier, you know that it wasn’ an accident. I will have been murdered…’”
“And then? He died, right?” Yuri asked Thunder. Can it, missy! And keep that trap shut!
“Mm—!” Thunder had a mournful look on his face, and nodded in confirmation. “He washed up on Emerald Beach ninety-four days ago. The police considered it a criminal matter, but then were given orders to give up the investigation, so me and Lucha flew here…”
“You said ninety-four days ago? On Emerald Beach?” I screeched out, thinking what are the odds of… “The same thing happened to a man named Bayer who…”
“Bayer is…” Thunder broke in my sentence. “…the fake name Dr. Russell used to enter Lamier.”
“Wha-what?!”
A slight breeze could have knocked Yuri and me over. How, how can this be?! The case we were working on somehow is all mixed up in this!
“Somethin’ wrong?”
Seeing our shock, this time it was Thunder asking the questions. We told him what we were doing on Lamier, and why we had snuck into the Lamier Game Promotions Tower.
“That’s it!” Thunder’s eyes had rekindled their fire. “I knew there was something fishy goin’ on…”
“Why were you snoopin’ all over?” Yuri asked, her Maleenay drawl rearing itself.
“We started at the casino, then tailed one o’ them gangster guards,” said Thunder, as if he was describing tying his shoelaces. “And then we got into that tower. We been in Lamier three months, with hardly a bite. We waited outside until it was dark, and then we sneaked ourselves in.”
“Wow…” I nodded. “So indeed Standalf is somehow involved.”
“Standalf?” Thunder had a dubious look on his face. “I heard that name before. But, he died over a year ago…”
“Huh?!”
We jumped again. C’mon, what’s with this case? I can’t make any sense of any of it.
“Say, Thunder,” Yuri said in a nauseatingly sweet tone. “Why did Dr. Russell use an alias to get into Lamier?”
“Now that’s one thing I couldn’ never get…” Thunder’s head drooped. “He didn’ tell us nothin’ more before he took off to Maleenay…”
“Yuri—!” I said. “I am getting kinda warm.”
“So it appears…” Yuri agreed and stood up. “Tingling in my spine. Feels like I’m getting a fever.”
“It should happen any second…”
I stood up, too.
Thunder and Lucha looked at us baffled.
“Together the two of us become an esper team,” Yuri told them.
“Esp-esper?”
Thunder’s eyes opened wide.
“It’s clairvoyance. Together we can see a vision in our minds of something related to the case. That’s why the WWWA chose us to be Crime Trouble Consultants.”
“…”
Thunder was speechless. It was no wonder. A lot of people didn’t know of the actual existence of espers. Depending on who you talk to, some might not even consider espers human. No matter how close Yuri and Thunder were as kids, this should close the book on their kindling love affair. Naturally, my chances were squashed, too. After all, this was the fate handed to us. All we can do is give in to it. It’s sad, but that’s life.
“C’mon, Yuri…”
I took Yuri’s hand. We moved to the center of the grass. A wave of heat passed through our entire bodies.
Yuri and I stood facing each other. We stretched our palms out so they just met. Our arms slowly rose as if they were being held up by the strings of a puppeteer. Eventually our arms were almost straight up on the air, in a “banzai” pose. Our palms were still touching. Our eyes drifted closed.