A week had passed.
By school standards, summer vacation was long over, and class—which I'd skipped as a matter of course—had begun as usual. As far as the calendar was concerned, it was autumn.
That said, the light that shone through the window was still hot, and the afternoon sun was bright, so I closed the hospital room's thin curtains.
"Hey, are you listening?" said a woman's husky voice from the telephone.
Of course it was the red-haired policewoman, Fuubi Kase. It felt like she'd been calling an awful lot lately. Maybe she'd fallen for me.
"Yeah, I'm listening. You were talking about how the police had a commendation for me, the super high school kid who saved the world."
"That's not even a thing." No, huh?
"It's about Seed." Sighing in mild disgust, Ms. Fuubi brought up the enemy of the world we'd defeated a few weeks back. "That huge tree where he's sleeping really is a bit special."
She was talking about the huge tree that had swallowed the shopping mall in the heart of the city. Earlier, she'd mentioned that the tree where Seed was sealed held atoms that humanity had never encountered before. Apparently that investigation had made some progress.
The subject was way out of my league, though, but the Ace Detective had spent years fighting the primordial seed, so it wasn't unrelated to her. I had a hunch we weren't going to be able to ignore it forever.
"Yggdrasil." Ms. Fuubi pulled a foreign-sounding word out of nowhere. "What brought that on?"
"It's what they named the tree. Since it's under observation and all." I heard her exhale cigarette smoke on the other end of the line.
Yggdrasil. Also known as the world tree in Scandinavian mythology, the enormous tree was said to encompass nine worlds, one of which was ours. Would humanity end up coexisting with that thing forever? And how would
it affect us…?
"Sorry, Ms. Fuubi. My friends will be arriving soon."
That question didn't have a quick or easy answer. Glancing at the clock, I got ready to hang up.
"Ha! Now, there's a word I never thought I'd hear you say."
"Well, people change," I told her, and heard an unusually cheerful sigh in response. "Okay, so, see you around."
"Yeah. Give my regards to the ace detective." Without specifying which one, Ms. Fuubi hung up.
And with perfect timing, the door to the hospital room rattled open. "Siestaaaa! We came to visit you… Oh, you're here too, Kimizuka. I thought you would be."
The girl who came in was Yui Saikawa, the world's cutest idol. With a small smile, she looked from the girl who slept on the bed to me, who was standing beside it.
This was the hospital run by Stephen the Inventor. I'd been here since this morning, visiting Siesta.
"He always is. No matter when I visit, that guy is here, too." The blond girl who'd entered after Saikawa folded her arms and sighed, looking at me. That's weird; after a certain recent situation, I'd assumed we were best buds.
"—Whoops! Whoa. Sorry, you two, lemme through! I'm just going to set this on the side table!"
Nagisa Natsunagi was the last one in; she was carrying a basket piled high with fruit. She'd been officially discharged from the hospital, and now she was the one visiting a friend there.
"Thanks, you three," I told them. Natsunagi was going to school, Saikawa was working as an idol, and Charlie had various jobs to do. Whenever they had time, though, they came to visit Siesta.
"Um…?" However, Saikawa tilted her head curiously. For some reason, all three of them seemed either bewildered or put off.
"Why are you thanking us just for coming to visit Ma'am, Kimizuka?
Exactly what are you to her, huh?" Charlie gave me a clammy look.
"You haven't been to school at all, Kimizuka. You're aaalways here with Siesta," Natsunagi said.
Saikawa and the others pointed at me, complaining.
Yeesh. What were they mad about? "Taking care of my partner is part of
my job, isn't it?" As I said it, I was looking at Siesta.
She'd been asleep for the past week. So far, there hadn't been any drastic changes, and the seed's growth seemed to be suppressed. Someday we'd destroy that seed without harming the rest of her, or find some other way to wake her up safely. That was my wish and the goal of our current story.
"Your partner, hm?" The next thing I knew, Natsunagi was looking at my face.
"What?"
"Ohhh, nothing." Geez. Not fair.
"...Heh-heh." I hadn't said it aloud, but she'd probably guessed what I was thinking. Smiling, she gazed at me for a long time. Then, finally, she tucked her short hair behind her ears and looked away.
This had been our daily routine ever since Siesta fell asleep. That day, something had decisively changed. However, there were other things that hadn't. I probably had one foot in this new routine, which wasn't like tepid water at all.
"Still, we're pretty short on time. We'll need to leave soon." Charlie checked her watch.
After this, we were headed out on a journey to a certain destination.
"All four of us, traveling together! I can't wait!" Saikawa twirled in place, giddy with the idea of our impending three-day trip.
"We're not going for fun, you know…"
We were responding to a summons from the Federation Government. They were holding an advisory council regarding Natsunagi's decision to inherit the position of Ace Detective, and the rest of us were going with her, timing our trip for the long September holiday. The venue for this one was in Singapore.
"I wonder if I'll get the chance to wear my new swimsuit…"
"You're the central figure here, but you're having the most fun with it." Natsunagi was giving me serious déjà vu.
"You want to see my swimsuit too, right, Kimizuka?" I hadn't gotten to see it on the cruise ship, after all.
…In that case, yeah.
"Well, I guess we could get away with blowing one day on fun stuff." When I said that, a smile like summer sunshine lit up her face.
"All right, shall we go?" Saikawa stretched her arms toward the ceiling. "We'll be back, Siesta!" Waving energetically, she left the hospital room.
And then…
"Ma'am, I'll come again as soon as we get home, I promise! What kind of souvenir would you like? Meat? Okay, I'll buy you lots of meat!"
Charlie spoke to Siesta in the same tone she always used…but then, with a smile that was just a little sad, she kissed Siesta's right hand, then left the room.
"In the end, I'm the only one who barely got to see her," Natsunagi murmured, gazing at Siesta's face. "There was so much I wanted to tell her and fight with her over…" The only time Natsunagi had gotten to meet Siesta was on that final battlefield. Having two ace detectives in the world at the same time was apparently even tougher than I'd imagined.
"Still, we'll meet again someday." Natsunagi pressed her lips together with determination.
Siesta and Natsunagi had met six years ago, and then again last year. I hoped from the bottom of my heart that I'd get to see the two of them reunite one day.
"I'll… No, we'll find a way to wake you up, I swear. Wait for us. Until then, you can leave the Ace Detective's will to me," she promised Siesta. Then, with a glance at me, she left the room.
"Singapore, huh? We went there together, way back when."
I recalled those distant memories. We'd played on the beach and played in the casinos…but as usual, we'd gotten pulled into crazy incidents, too. It was the same old trouble-ridden adventure tale. It was sort of nostalgic and, at the same time, something I never wanted to do again.
"…Still. One of these days, one more time…" We'd go somewhere, just the two of us. I remembered making that promise in New York while we watched the musical.
"Okay, I'll be back." I was the last one in the room. Gazing at Siesta's peaceful face, I told her, "I guess it'll be four days before we see each other again." I was a little reluctant to leave her.
There was no answer. Of course there wasn't. The detective was already—
—No, she wasn't.
That's right. There's really no need to feel sad or uneasy. After all, the detective's not dead anymore.
She's just settled down for a long, long nap.