Buenas noches
"Wh-why…?" I murmured.
However, I'd actually anticipated that Nagisa would come here.
I'd borrowed her body once, awakening in order to help my assistant. In the same way, if it was for his sake, Nagisa would come running no matter where he was. People might call it "improbably convenient" and laugh, but that was how we were wired.
"It's been a long time, Siesta."
Her arms gently released their hold on me.
Nagisa's soft smile was right in front of me. She'd chopped off her long hair.
She got me good. Who'd have thought she'd appear disguised as Hel? "You haven't changed, Nagisa," I commented, a bit spitefully. I was
somewhat chagrined that she'd outfoxed me.
"Really? I think I changed my look pretty drastically."
"I meant on the inside. And what is this anyway? Did you get your heart broken or something?"
"…I really wish you wouldn't just decide I'm the losing heroine." Nagisa gave me a long look with narrowed eyes, and then we smiled at each other—
But…
"…Hm? Huh?"
For some reason, I felt weak all of a sudden, and my knees buckled. "Whoops!" Nagisa hugged me again, this time to keep me from falling. I
didn't recall getting hit with a tranquilizer bullet, but…for some reason, I was suddenly sleepy.
"I'm sorry," Nagisa apologized in a small voice, right in my ear. I really couldn't stay on my feet, and I dropped to my knees, still leaning against her.
"What on earth…?"
Come to think of it, I could feel a tiny prickle of pain on my left upper arm. I forced my heavy eyelids open and examined that spot. There was no blood. When Nagisa had first hugged me, something had—
"—It's a tranquilizer."
That was my assistant's voice.
He came toward us, still in his ragged jacket, leaning on Noches for support. "It's a special drug a certain underground doctor compounded for us. I hear it's based on the pollen that put me to sleep."
"…So that's what it was."
The weapons my assistant and the others used must have been covered in it. The Inventor had left us a week ago, but apparently he'd returned. He'd probably heard that Nagisa had awakened and wanted to keep an eye on her progress. Then my assistant had proposed this plan, and he'd helped out.
"But what then? What are you planning to do to me once I'm asleep and unable to resist?" Frustrated that I'd fallen for his scheme, I teased my assistant, resting my head on Nagisa's lap.
"Don't be an idiot. All this time, and still no trust?" Yes, that's the face I wanted to see.
When I smiled, my assistant sighed and did the same. But then, as he explained their reasons for putting me to sleep, his face grew serious again. "This way, we should be able to temporarily stop the seed in your heart from growing."
Oh, I knew it. Closing my eyes, I listened to my assistant. He had a tone that was brusque yet somehow gentle.
"After Natsunagi woke up yesterday, when she and I were brainstorming ways to save you, we picked up on something weird. While you were asleep in Natsunagi's heart, when Chameleon almost killed me, you came to save me just once."
It had happened more than a month ago. On a large cruise ship, I'd borrowed Nagisa's body and fought Chameleon alongside my assistant. Nagisa had talked me into using her body.
"The problem was that 'just once' bit." Sounding rather sad, my assistant explained, "Why did you only wake up that one time? Why didn't you even try…? It was all to avoid activating the seed that had taken root in your heart. Meaning as long as you're asleep, as long as you stay unconscious, that seed won't grow."
He was right.
Had Nagisa been the one who'd realized it? No, it might have been my assistant, since he'd spent the past few days with me. On our trip to New York, I'd slept even longer than I used to. It had been a defensive reaction, an unconscious attempt to protect myself.
"But Assistant…you've also realized there's no point to this, haven't you?" Opening my heavy eyelids, I saw that Noches, Charlie, and Yui had joined Nagisa and my assistant. They were all watching me, and it was a little embarrassing. …Still, I understood. These were my assistant's current
companions.
It's all right. He's all right now.
Relieved, I told him he didn't have to do this. "Putting me to sleep is only a stopgap measure. Besides, there's no guarantee that this will arrest the seed's growth entirely. A few years down the road, the seed that will destroy the world may sprout and turn me into a monster. I may kill all of you someday. And so, really—"
"We knew that when we chose this." My assistant knelt next to me and continued. "Anyway, Stephen's the one who gave me this tranquilizer. You know what that means, right?"
"…I see. You really don't cut corners anymore, do you?"
The Inventor, Stephen Bluefield, refused to work on hopeless cases. That let him focus his efforts on lives that could still be saved. Since he'd
prescribed this drug to me, I must still have a chance. He wouldn't forgive me for giving up on life. After all, I'd been the one to quote his philosophy at him earlier.
"—It looks like I've been utterly defeated."
Detectives must protect their clients' interests and grant their wishes.
Nagisa had made both our wishes—for the other to live—come true at the same time.
That was something the old me hadn't been able to do. I'd only been able to make it happen with my own death. However, Nagisa had once made the same mistake as I had—and then she'd found this answer. She'd definitely beaten me.
"Ma'am! Ma'am…!"
My right hand was warm with tears and another's body heat—Charlie had taken my hand in both of hers, and she couldn't keep from crying any longer. No matter how much time passed, my first apprentice was always adorable.
"…Heh-heh. I see. In the end, you two surpassed me as well."
The drug was really taking hold on me now, and my eyelids grew heavier. Still, pretending to gaze up at the sky, I peeked at my assistant's and Charlie's faces. Have you two started getting along a little better? I didn't know, but there was one thing I was sure of.
"You've gotten stronger, haven't you?" Strong enough to surpass me.
The remark seemed to startle my assistant; his eyes went wide. Then his expression softened. "Yeah, actually, Charlie and I were faking like we didn't get along. All part of the plan. We're actually a great team and best buds. Right?"
"Um, huh? …Yes, that's right! I—I love Kimizuka!" In response to my assistant's forced setup line, Charlie gave an extremely stiff smile.
"…Heh, heh-heh. I see. That's good."
I'd never dreamed I'd get to see these two with their arms around each other's shoulders, even if it was just an act. I laughed in spite of myself.
"You've got it rough too, Nagisa. All these rivals." "Aaaaah! Aaaaah! I can't heaaar yooou!"
When I teased her, Nagisa clapped her hands over her ears in an exaggerated gesture… Then, like my assistant, she grinned. "Hey, Siesta?"
"Hm?"
The wind ruffled Nagisa's short hair.
"Thank you for giving me a place to belong, Ace Detective," she said, smiling through her tears. Now that sounded familiar.
"You took the words right out of my mouth." Reaching out with some difficulty, I wiped her tears away with my fingertips. "Thank you for teaching me about emotions, Ace Detective."
Because Nagisa was there… I'm sure I'm able to smile now, surrounded by this irreplaceable happiness, because of your passion.
"Siesta." At Yui and Noches's gentle encouragement, my assistant took my left hand.
"Assistant." Squeezing his hand back, I said the words that suddenly came to mind. "If you ever lose your energy, the first thing you need to do is get a lot of sleep."
That seemed to puzzle him; still, as I blinked slowly, he watched me.
There were a few last things I wanted to make sure I told him. I wasn't able to handle complicated thoughts at this point, so I just drew on my recent memories. "And then bathe, all right? Cleanse your body, cleanse your mind. Then eat lots of food."
"…Right, like earlier."
"Don't just eat pizza, though. Try to strike a healthy balance and get moderate exercise. And then… That's right. You have lots of companions, so if you're ever worried about something, talk it over with them right away. You tend to hold everything in."
"Hey, you have no right to tell me that." My assistant geared up to flick my forehead with his middle finger, the way he had earlier—but then he gently brushed my bangs aside with his fingertip. "You're talking about nothing but me again."
"Am I? I'm sleepy. I can't really tell."
However, in terms of regrets, that was about all I had left. As long as my assistant ate plenty of food, and laughed with his friends, and lived through mediocre, peaceful, extraordinary days, that was enough for me.
"Haaah. Good grief." From the look in his eyes, he seemed to be testing me. "You really like me far too much, don't you?" he asked, trying to hit me with an extra-large helping of payback.
"Yes, you're right. I like you."
"…Don't just give it to me straight like that."
Mm-hmm. As the Ace Detective, I can't let my assistant have the upper hand. With Nagisa's help, I sat up next to him. He heaved a big sigh, then smiled wryly.
"Are you stupid or what, Siesta?" My response was obvious. "Geez. That's not fair."
We both cracked up, and then Nagisa, Charlie, Yui, and Noches were all laughing. Even as tears stained their cheeks.
"Someday, I'll…no, we'll wake you up. I swear we will. And so, until then
—"
My assistant squeezed my left hand. "Good night, Ace Detective."
* * *
That was the last thing my assistant whispered to me, the girl who loved her naps.
A ray of sunlight shone through the thick clouds, illuminating us warmly. "Yes, I'll be waiting."
Once again, someday.
In the sky, at ten thousand meters.