It was the sixth night since we infiltrated the church headquarters. It might have been past midnight. If that was the case, it would be the day of the trial.
Shiro and I slipped out of the headquarters and returned to the Chiyodaku Kingdom Courthouse.
Tsukasa wasn’t there.
Shiro, suspecting the possibility of kidnapping, brought out some kind of magical tool that looked like what people in forensics used to search for fingerprints. With it, she searched for traces of magic usage, but nothing came up.
I recalled what happened six days ago. Tsukasa had left the complex through a different building and had been staying overnight somewhere else ever since. I told this to Shiro, who started tracking Tsukasa’s scent from her escape route.
We went outside and headed toward Akihabara. But…
“I’m sorry. I’ve lost her scent.”
“Of course it would start raining at a time like this.”
We were unlucky. Now all the scent left behind would be washed away with the rain.
I was wearing my usual clothes, and Shiro was back in her maid outfit. We looked up at the sky, standing in the shadows of the abandoned buildings.
If I were Tsukasa, where would I be?
She’d told me she was “always somewhere conspicuous” and had been making progress on her investigation of the building collapse. In that case…
“Let’s try the scene of the incident.”
Pelted by the rain, we ran past the deserted city buildings until we reached the site of the building collapse.
After the collapse, since the section above the second floor had been demolished to prevent any secondary incidents, the building’s original structure was gone. But the wreckage from the demolishing had been left around as small hills of rubble. The entrance side of the church branch building that had taken the brunt of the collapse was half exposed, and half turned to rubble.
And there in the rubble…
…was Tsukasa, crouched down.
“We’ve been looking all over for you, Tsuka—”
But when I called out and ran up to her, she let out an “Eek!”
She stood up. Her disheveled clothes and messy black hair made her look like a ghost.
And from within that silhouette, her two red-brown eyes stared back in our direction with a ghastly look.
“Oh…I thought someone had come to attack me.” She slumped back down to the ground. “It’s just you, Akky…”
“What’s going on?” I demanded.
There was something strange about her surroundings. There were huge fragments of eggshells scattered all over. And the top of the concrete rubble was covered in rotten raw egg.
“The evidence is under here.”
“Huh?”
“So…I was…searching the rubble, and…”
She got that far before collapsing, as if she had fallen unconscious.
“Tsukasa!” I ran to catch her.
Her fifteen-year-old body, now smaller than me, was running a fever and trembling. Her hair and clothes were sticky. This wasn’t just rain; it was egg and sweat…
✦ ✦ ✦
Next to where she had been standing was a folding shovel and a large hammer.
Then I understood what those small hills of concrete rubble had been doing around her.
“You were digging into the rubble all by yourself.”
I was speechless.
She had been trying to dig up some kind of evidence as to the cause of the building’s collapse. But since she had invited the hostility of the head maid by continuing the princess’s trial, she had no one to help her. So she went ahead alone…
“Master, there is a tent over here.”
Next to the mountains of rubble a small camping tent was set up.
I carried Tsukasa on my back and moved her into the tent.
“I never thought by ‘a conspicuous place’ she meant she’d been camping out at the scene of the incident…”
Inside the tent, there were empty cans and food wrappers of what looked like had been her sustenance for these past few days.
I dried her long hair with a towel that was next to her sleeping bag.
“Heh…I thought I could kill two birds with one stone by staying out here and also working on the investigation. But I might need to concede defeat when people start throwing cockatrice eggs at me.”
“You’ve got dark circles under your eyes. Have you been sleeping at all?”
There were broken, rotten eggs even inside the tent. I started feeling indignant at their sticky, smelly presence. Of course she wouldn’t have been able to get any rest with this stuff around her.
Tsukasa’s abilities are special, but physically, she’s just a helpless young girl.
I’d overlooked something so simple. If I had been here, I would’ve been able to protect her.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left you alone. Did you notice anything about the people who threw this stuff at you? How many were there? Shiro and I will find them and—”
“Stop. I just got a little dirty, that’s all. Can you imagine how ridiculous it would be for a judge to sue someone for getting them dirty? It’ll wash away with the rain, anyway.”
Tsukasa smiled at me.
“Hey, more importantly, the fact that someone is subtly trying to impede my investigation suggests that there’s a real culprit. Heh…heh-heh-heh. I’m getting kind of excited…”
I gulped and looked at her face. The judge’s brown eyes inside of that small girl’s body glowed with a penetrating gaze.
“I’ll never let them take this evidence from me.”
I knew she was serious.
If she said there was evidence under this rubble, then I was positive there was.
And the second we took our eyes off it, there was a chance someone could steal it or tamper with it.
While she hadn’t found it yet, she had spent the last six days protecting that evidence.
And I loved her for having that tenacious determination toward her trials.
“Thank you, Tsukasa. You were trying not to worry us, weren’t you?”
“If we’re going to work separately, this is the least I can do.”
With Tsukasa on the case, I knew she would be able to find the culprit.
“Akky…you’re not looking so hot yourself.” She lovingly stroked my face. “But that look in your eye. You found something, didn’t you?”
I wanted to be as competent as she believed I was.
“Yeah. We were able to meet up with Lyra. And we found some evidence that may be painful to see.”
“Show me. I want to see it all.”
The fire in her eyes was beautiful.
“I need to see it, even if it’s painful. More than anyone else.”
I felt lucky to be here with her, with that fire.
“We want to make the right judgment, for the sake of the people of this world.”
She didn’t need to brainwash me for those words to stick.
““I’ll expose the evil lurking in this kingdom…and make them pay.””
In the tent, the sound of the rain echoing around us…
I told Tsukasa everything.
Shiro kept watch for suspicious persons outside.
Meanwhile, Tsukasa buried her face in my body and breathed. She told me this helped her stay calm. I let her do whatever she wanted.
We discussed our hypotheses about the case, and eventually, we figured out what was left for us to clarify.
As the rain let up, and as the night sky began to brighten…
…we started preparing for what was to come.