What that eye sees
"Wow, geez! Where did that come from, Mr. Assistant?"
Saikawa's face was blank for only a moment before her usual idol smile returned.
She was a real pro; even I was a little scared.
"Are you saying I was trying to kill you two? Ah-ha-ha! I think 'mystery writer' would be a more suitable profession for you, Mr. Assistant." Saikawa smiled. "Oooh, I've always wanted to say that."
"Um, Kimizuka? Saikawa already confessed her secret to us, remember? You didn't tell me any more than that." Of the three of us, Natsunagi was the one who seemed the most bewildered. "You said the criminal was after Saikawa's left eye, not the sapphire. That's why we went to the dome instead of guarding the vault. That's all I heard…"
Right: I hadn't told Natsunagi the whole truth yet, either.
I'd been hoping Saikawa would tell us about it herself, but apparently that was not to be.
"As Natsunagi says, you did tell us about your secret, Saikawa… But you haven't confessed your lie."
"My lie? What do you mean?" Saikawa was listening to me carefully, still wearing that smile.
"Yui Saikawa—you were working with the criminals from the beginning to kill Natsunagi and me. Isn't that right?"
"Huh?!" Natsunagi froze up.
"Well, Natsunagi was an incidental target. The enemy was probably after me."
"But…! Do you have any proof?" Detective Natsunagi was talking like the suspect, while Saikawa was as outwardly calm as ever.
Trrrrrrrrrrrrrr—
Just then, the phone in my pocket rang.
"Hello? Kimizuka speaking… Yeah, mm-hmm… Is that right? No, my apologies for the trouble… Thank you. All right, good-bye."
Good. Things had gone well on that end, too. "Kimizuka, who was that?"
"Oh, Ms. Fuubi. She said they'd just finished removing all the explosives rigged up in the vault at the Saikawa residence."
Ms. Fuubi's bomb disposal squad really knew their stuff. They'd gotten through the job without any trouble.
"…! B-but the criminals were after Saikawa's left eye, weren't they? Why would they do that to her house?"
"Like I said, they were after two things. One was Saikawa's sapphire left eye, as I told you. The other…was the lives of the pair who were expected to guard the Saikawa residence. That would be us."
"What does that mean? The criminals weren't planning to go after the sapphire in the vault, but after us, while we were in there?"
"That's it."
They'd probably planned to kill us with a time bomb when we waltzed in there all wide-eyed and clueless. As with that crossbow earlier, the enemy wasn't planning to show themselves directly.
"Basically, that was the lie Saikawa told us. She knew about the criminals' plan all along… Specifically, they gave her the details, and she was supposed
to lure us into that vault."
"But, no… What about the proof?" Natsunagi pressed me, as if she didn't want to believe it.
"Ms. Fuubi said she didn't know." "Huh?"
"She said no one had reported any calling cards sent to the Saikawa residence."
"No… Didn't she say she'd gone to the police, but they wouldn't help? And that was why she'd gone to detectives like us…" Natsunagi looked at Saikawa.
That blue eye didn't waver at all.
That was one of the things that had nagged at me the day I'd first met Saikawa.
She had all that money. For better or worse, any police force that didn't act when she flashed that at them was no police force at all.
After that, when I'd checked with Ms. Fuubi just to make sure, my hunch had been right on target. The police had no idea that a notice had been sent to the Saikawa residence.
Meaning that right from the start, Saikawa had gone specifically to Natsunagi and me, instead of to the police. Which, in turn, meant she'd wanted something to do with us, specifically.
True, at that point in time, I still couldn't have said for sure that what she wanted was our lives. On the other hand, Natsunagi notwithstanding, there was a reason for people to go after my life. I also had an idea as to who the criminals—our enemies—might be.
"But that can't be right. Saikawa is an idol singer; why would she…?
Don't tell me—"
Well, I wouldn't tell her Saikawa was a member of SPES, if that's what she was thinking.
"They probably threatened her."
For the first time, Saikawa's petite shoulders trembled slightly.
"They said, 'If you don't want to lose that left eye, get rid of Kimihiko Kimizuka.' "
That was the condition they'd set. Saikawa's left eye was more important to her than her own life, and she had sold us to the enemy for it.
"Listen, Saikawa. They aren't that soft. They tried to take both."
Specifically, they might have been trying to destroy it, rather than steal it. That's why they had shot at it with a crossbow. And their goal in doing so was—
"But why?" Natsunagi broke in. "The criminals—the organization you were talking about, Kimizuka—why would they go after Saikawa's artificial eye? It's pretty, but why would they go that far?"
"Because it's way more than an artificial eye." "Huh?"
There had to be a reason it was big enough to be a target.
"Isn't that right, Saikawa?" I said. "Tell me, right now, what can you see?" For just a moment, Saikawa glanced at the clutch bag by my feet.
"Is that for self-defense?" When she finally spoke, her voice was as gentle and sweet as ever.
So I was right, huh?
That's an idol for you. She'd known what I had in my bag, and even then, she was managing to keep that smile on her face.
"Self-defense?" I replied. "Yeah. See, I've been running into life- threatening situations for ages."
Swiftly shoving a hand into the bag, I used my other hand to push Natsunagi behind me.
I withdrew the handgun and aimed it straight ahead of me— "I won't give you people my left eye."
—at Yui Saikawa, who was pointing a gun of her own at us.
More than any idol
Saikawa's gun was aimed right between my eyes. "I see. So that's how they threatened you, huh?"
As far as Saikawa was concerned, Natsunagi and I were the enemies—the very people who were trying to steal her sapphire left eye, or so they'd led her to believe. Then they'd offered to help her dispose of us, and she'd accepted.
"Geez, they even gave you a gun?"
"No, I bought it myself."
"Idols shouldn't have their own handguns." "What, isn't it a normal girlish hobby?"
"I can tell you categorically that it's not."
…No, this was no time for a bantering contest.
"Saikawa, we're not the enemy. I know you know this. Did you forget we protected you a minute ago?"
"That was… I mean, I'm sure you were only trying to make me lower my guard…"
"There was no need for that. If I hadn't run in right then, that crossbow bolt would have nailed your left eye. If I was really your enemy, would I go out of my way to make extra work for myself?"
"That's… That's…"
"Listen, Saikawa. Even if you kill us, it won't do you any good. After we're dead, the real enemy is going to take your left eye."
"That's not true!" Saikawa screamed, releasing her gun's safety with her thumb. "It isn't true. Otherwise— Otherwise, I…"
Her expression was resolute, but there was just a slight tremble in her voice.
"Saikawa, you know that left eye isn't just a prosthetic, don't you?" Saikawa bit her lip. She didn't answer my question.
"What do you mean?" Behind me, I heard Natsunagi's quivering voice. "It means SPES has a good reason to go after it."
"You said something like that earlier, but… You mean…" "Right. In simple terms, Saikawa's eye is like that guy's ear."
"Him? …! So that's what this is…" Natsunagi seemed to have reached the same conclusion I had, and words deserted her.
"That left eye… That pseudoeye can see through physical objects. Isn't that right, Saikawa?"
That was why they were obsessed with it.
I had no idea how Saikawa's parents had gotten ahold of it…but however it happened, SPES couldn't exactly ignore it.
"…How did you know?"
"Over the past week, I watched all your TV appearances, back to back to back. And in every one of them, you moved way too easily for a girl who wears an eye patch."
Ordinarily, a person's vision declines by more than 20 percent when they go from seeing out of two eyes to seeing out of one. It's also harder to judge perspective. However, as I watched Saikawa sing and dance, I hadn't seen the slightest suggestion of difficulty.
That wasn't all. On the day we'd gone to her house, she'd held her cup with her left hand as she drank her tea—even though her vision on that side should have been drastically reduced by her eye patch.
When we'd run into each other at the CD store "coincidentally" (she'd probably been watching me), Saikawa had stood on my right. But she wasn't supposed to be able to see out of her left eye, so that had been a really unnatural choice.
In terms of the time line, those hints had started building up early on, and so I'd spent a week thoroughly investigating her.
"Sorry. My old partner taught me to be extra-sensitive to what I saw and heard."
I remembered how, two years ago, Siesta had resolved the Medusa incident at that European mansion in the forest with a gaze as her only hint.
…Yeah. It's just like you said, Siesta. Only people with sharp eyes and ears survive in this business.
"…I see. So you never trusted me in the first place, then? Ah-ha-ha. I did wonder what had happened when you told me you desperately wanted to go to the rehearsal."
"Did you think I'd turned into a Yui-nya fan?" "Yes, I just assumed you'd fallen under my spell." Yeah, Natsunagi was real suspicious about that, too.
For a moment, Saikawa and I forgot we had each other at gunpoint and snickered a little.
"That man in black yesterday…," Saikawa said. "You engineered that as well, didn't you, Mr. Assistant?"
"You've got good intuition… And, uh, sorry."
I'd wanted actual proof that Saikawa could see out of her left eye, so I'd set a trap at that rehearsal. When a crisis hits out of nowhere, people react on instinct.
As the suspicious man had approached her from the left wing of the stage, even though her left eye was covered, Saikawa had seen him clearly.
If she were calm, she might have thought, I'm not supposed to be able to
see out of my left eye, and this man is approaching from my left. I shouldn't notice him. …Naturally, that wasn't possible. As a result, Saikawa had screamed before the man managed to reach her, and she had escaped unharmed.
By the way, that man in black had been an acquaintance of mine. Four years ago, he was one of the guys who used to give me attaché cases.
"Really, though, would you normally go to such lengths just to confirm that my left eye had this ability?"
"No, I had one other objective. I wanted a tour of the dome, and the suspicious man provided the perfect excuse. I was hoping to get an idea of the places they were likely to hide today."
"…I think you may have been a little too well prepared." "It's something my old partner taught me."
What had it been? "First-rate detectives resolve incidents before they even occur"?
Although, as the assistant, there was almost no chance I'd ever reach that level.
"Is that about it? Have we both shown all our cards?"
"Let's see… Yes, you've seen all of mine." For the first time in a while, Saikawa gave a charming smile.
Yeah, that's Yui Saikawa, the idol I know.
"All right, now that we're square on that, I'm gonna ask… Would you lower that gun?"
"That's…"
For a moment, Saikawa's face twisted, and she looked down.
"The truth is, I know now… I do. I know you two aren't my enemy. I know you're on my side; I know you're trying to protect me. But."
Again, Saikawa raised her head.
She gave a sad smile, and a single tear traced a line from her right eye. "But then what am I supposed to do? How can I protect my left eye?" I see. So Saikawa knew, too.
She was aware that killing us wouldn't solve her problem. That the threat wouldn't go away.
After all, SPES wasn't only after me. They'd been keeping Saikawa alive so that she could help get rid of me; now she was in danger as well. That crossbow bolt was incontrovertible proof.
"…I just can't. Mama and Papa are gone. My future is so dark. This eye can see even when there's no light ahead…but without it, I won't make it."
That's not true—that would be so easy to say.
Spending several years in this line of work had given me a way with words. I already had a smooth reply: Maybe you can't see what's ahead of you in the darkness, but your fans will hold their glow sticks high and light the way
for you. It would be the easiest thing in the world.
But I knew a bit of wordplay wouldn't save Saikawa.
It had been three years since her parents had died. For three years, she'd done everything she could to keep working as an idol and stay in front of her fans—and still, here she was, holding a gun.
Words weren't what she needed. Then what did she need?
What could save Saikawa?
What did she want most, right now? It was… It was—
"Hey—once we got all this cleared up, the two of us were planning to go to the beach."
The voice started behind me, but it gradually came up beside me. "Would you like to come with us?"
The suggestion seemed like the last thing we'd need right now in the midst of this tension.
Saikawa and I had guns pointed at each other's foreheads. Who the hell would talk about going to the beach?
What a detective needs is absolute logic, and occasionally force.
That was how Siesta and I had lived for those three years. We'd fought our way through.
But Natsunagi wasn't like that. Her essence was—passion.
That was her only weapon—but it was also her strength.
Saikawa stood there with her mouth open, having forgotten both that she was an idol and that she had a gun trained on someone, while Natsunagi went on.
"What I mean is…would you be our friend? That's what I'm trying to say."
The brilliant smile Natsunagi gave to Saikawa would put any idol in the world to shame.
"…How can you say that?" The muzzle of Saikawa's pistol was trembling. "You do understand that I tried to kill both of you, don't you?"
"It's all right," said Natsunagi. "We don't die that easily." "And I was deceiving you the whole time…," said Saikawa. "Well, you're an idol singer. Isn't that your job?"
"—! That's not a real argument."
"You're right. I tried to deceive you, too, just now. That means we're even."
"…You're shameless."
"I sure am. So would you accept my shamelessly selfish request?" Insisting that this was merely something she personally wanted, Natsunagi gently held out a hand to Saikawa.
Neither I nor Siesta could ever have done it that way. "That's weird, Miss Natsunagi… It's—it's just…"
"Really? I'm sure being friends with weird people is fun. I discovered that myself recently."
Why did you look at me when you said that, Natsunagi? If anyone's weird here, it's you, all right?
"Even… Even if we were friends…it wouldn't fix anything. And I'd end up causing you all sorts of extra trouble."
"I don't think that's true." "Huh? Oh—"
Saikawa's trembling had given me a momentary opening, so I took the opportunity to snatch the gun out of her hand.
"Saikawa. You said they were after you, but they're after me, too. Don't think of it as 'trouble.' We're both targets. It would be more convenient to team up."
It was true. Natsunagi's suggestion had sounded ridiculous at first, but I wouldn't have reached that conclusion without her.
If the three of us fought one another, we'd be playing right into the enemy's hands. Instead, we should unite against our common enemy.
I had those three years' worth of experience, which had stuck with me whether I wanted it to or not; Natsunagi had her heart, with its ultimate courage and DNA; and Saikawa had a left eye that saw through everything. We could supplement one another in a lot of ways.
"Then…you'll help me?"
"Yes, we will. So you help us, too, Saikawa."
Sorry—I didn't see it coming, but my life's in danger, too.
Just ten days ago, my life had been so tepid, and yet once I met Natsunagi…and reunited with my former partner…just look at the mess I was in. My trouble magnetism wasn't improving; it was getting worse by the year.
It looked as if I was going to have to fight SPES yet again.
To do that, I needed more people and power than I had now. And so— "Saikawa, I want you to join us."
And in answer to our simple, plain, naive, intuitive, instinctive attempt to talk her around, Saikawa said—
"—Yes. I'd love to."
I'm positive that innocent smile didn't belong to Yui Saikawa the idol. Right then, she was just a fourteen-year-old girl.
Because you said "Let's go to the beach"
A little over a week after Saikawa's big concert, school let out for summer vacation.
The long (and timely) break was the perfect opportunity for making good on the promise I'd exchanged with Natsunagi and Saikawa. I assumed we'd be going to a beach somewhere nearby, but…
"We're off to the Aegean!" "That's way too ambitious!"
As the girls cheered and punched the air, psyching themselves up, I was compelled to point out how absurd this was.
"Saikawa, look. Yes, Natsunagi and I suggested that the three of us go to the beach, but how did that turn into an eight-day trip on a boat? What exactly are you imagining when you talk about going to the beach?"
In Japan, you'd usually think of Izu or Shounan or somewhere like that.
Why had she jumped to Europe and the Mediterranean…?
Meanwhile, Yui Saikawa—who was wearing a white dress and a big straw hat—just seemed puzzled.
"Huh? But you said we should go, Kimizuka. Besides, the ship's already sailed, so no need to keep harping on it, all right?"
…It was exactly as she said.
We were already out on the ocean, rocked by the waves. The three of us were standing on the deck of a cruise ship, gazing at the receding Japanese archipelago.
"Hear, hear. Nobody likes wishy-washy guys." Natsunagi slipped off her sunglasses and shot me a belligerent look. She was wearing shorts and a baggy T-shirt. Were the spaghetti straps I could see on her shoulders underwear or a swimsuit? Either way, that look was perfect for her. "Anyway. I've never been on a cruise ship, either, so I'm really looking forward to this. Thanks, Yui."
The smile Natsunagi gave Saikawa was the sort she only rarely gave me.
After that incident, these two had gotten really close.
"No, no, it's the least I can do to, um, make amends. I can't do much more than this."
She wanted to make amends for putting our lives in danger. Of course, an all-expenses-paid invitation to an ocean voyage on a glamorous cruise ship wasn't enough to make up for that. Saikawa knew it, too. And so—
"You're going to fight SPES with us. As long as you do that, I'll have no complaints."
That had been the promise we'd made—the alliance we'd formed as people whose lives were under threat from the same group.
"Yes, of course. I'll do anything I can."
It felt like both of Saikawa's eyes were gazing right at me—her large, round black one and the sapphire one under her eye patch.
"What's the matter, Kimizuka? Why are you staring at my eyes? …Ohhh, I know. I've figured it out. Yui-nya's got you for real this time, huh? Well, well, Kimizuka… Heh-heh!" Saikawa folded her arms, nodding away.
Watching this so very genuine, so very simple girl— "You sure are cute."
—I went and said it.
"Heh-heh! …Heh-heh, heh…heh?"
At that, Saikawa's proud chuckling ground to a halt. Before long, the upturned corners of her mouth began to twitch uncertainly, and for some reason, her cheeks turned red.
"…U-um. I—I wish you'd be a little more subtle about these things, thank you…"
"Hey, idol, your tolerance should be way higher than that."
So she could dish it out, but she couldn't take it. I'd gotten a glimpse of another side of her—one I didn't really need to know about.
"Time out!"
The next instant, a hand chopped down between Saikawa and me. "Watch it! Geez, Natsunagi, what was that for?"
"…That was getting a little too rom-and-com for me." " 'Rom-and-com'?"
"Never mind! I have something serious to discuss!" Giving a cute little snort of disdain, Natsunagi folded her arms over her chest. "Why did that SPES group make contact with Yui now? Seems a little late for that, don't you think?"
"Oh, yes, true," said Saikawa. "That's a good question."
Natsunagi looked at Saikawa, and Saikawa looked at me, tilting her head.
"Why now? Well, I mean…" I was about to say That's completely obvious, then thought better of it.
…Yes, come to think of it, it was odd.
Saikawa had said she'd gotten that left eye six years ago. If SPES's goal had really been to destroy it, it wouldn't have been strange for them to act sooner… So why had they chosen to do it now?
And Saikawa wasn't the only problem.
Why had SPES waited to start coming after me again?
Over the past year, after Siesta's death, they hadn't shown the slightest bit of interest in me. They'd made the call that they had no time to bother with a lowly, nameless assistant (ouch), so why was I being targeted again now, a year later?
That train of thought naturally led me to a certain deduction. "…Oh!" Natsunagi gave a small cry, as if she'd realized something.
She might have come to the same conclusion through the process of elimination.
In which case…
"I dunno. There's no telling what goes on in the minds of those lunatics." Giving a faint smile, I punted Natsunagi's unease off the field.
"…You think?" "Yeah."
After all, this was just a deduction—no more than a theory. I was sure it wasn't the truth.
What if SPES's true target wasn't Saikawa or me, but Natsunagi, who had Siesta's heart? Or what if they started getting worried after learning she'd made contact with Siesta's former assistant?
No, that couldn't be it. It shouldn't be.
It was wrong for Natsunagi's life to be destroyed over this.
"Well, we'll just have to accept that we have a big evil organization after us and figure out how to deal." That's why I said something meaningless to end the conversation.
But in point of fact, whatever the reason was, after the Saikawa incident, we were definitely even higher on the "wanted" list than before. The enemy hadn't shown themselves directly; they'd probably still been watching and waiting—but the upshot was that we'd issued a full declaration of war.
The day when I'd have to haul myself out of my tepid life was here.
"Um, so they're hunting for us right now, and we're taking a laid-back cruise…" Natsunagi struck a playful pose. Guess my diplomacy was enough for her.
"Don't go there, Natsunagi."
Still, I got the feeling this was actually the right move. After all, it had worked four years ago.
Back then, Siesta and I had hightailed it out of Japan, leaving on an unforgettable journey with no clear destination. This was probably a reenactment of that day: preordained fate.
"Well, ideally, nothing happens," I murmured, and the words drifted away on the sea wind.
No, I know. Really. I know. After all these different coincidences piling up, something was going to happen. We couldn't possibly get off this easy.
Almost immediately, it became obvious that my premonition was correct. "—Kimizuka?"
Suddenly, someone called to me, and I turned.
Standing there was… "Charlie…?"
Her natural blond hair streamed in the salt wind, and her neat, clearly European features made even her surprise look beautiful.
"…It's been a year, hasn't it?" I said. "Yes. It has."
We gazed at each other, our expressions hard.
"Kimizuka, is this a friend of yours?" Natsunagi looked perplexed. "Yeah, Charlie is my…our old comrade."
Charlotte Arisaka Anderson had worshipped the deceased Siesta—and had been her apprentice.