What had I gotten wrong?
I didn't even really have to ask. I already knew. However, I was reluctant to say it aloud, so I walked down the dark street in silence, all by myself.
"A street at night?"
Where was I? Where was I trying to go?
I had to get back. I had to go to Siesta. What was I doing here—? "You already know that, too, don't you?" someone whispered.
I looked down the street and saw a black shadow stretching from beneath a streetlight.
The person casting that shadow was the one who'd spoken. His name was… "—Scarlet."
His yellow eyes glowed ominously in the dark. A pale devil who drank human blood—a vampire. I hadn't thought I'd ever see him again.
"What's this—another dream?"
It wasn't just any dream, either. It was a nightmare that would leave me feeling like shit when I woke up.
"You're that unhappy to see me, human?" Scarlet said, addressing me by the same careless label he'd always used.
"If I told you I was glad to see you, what would you do?"
"I would determine that some scoundrel had assumed your identity and would immediately rip out his throat."
"I'm glad you didn't get any weird ideas, then. Let's keep this peaceful."
For several seconds, Scarlet and I stayed silent, letting our eyes do the talking.
We didn't need words to discuss this reunion of ours. "And? Do you know where we are, Scarlet?"
We were in a dark world, with one street reaching into the distance. Scarlet was leaning against a streetlamp, the only source of light. "I couldn't say. However, even if I don't know, you should."
"Is that a Zen koan?"
"That would do as well. Now, answer my question, human," Scarlet said. "Where did you go wrong? What mistake has left you stagnating here?"
Oh, so that was what this was. He was going to keep me company while I asked myself dumb questions. Had that been why Scarlet was waiting here? In that case…
"I guess the world we live in won't stand for anything that's been done by half measures." I was talking as much to myself as to Scarlet. "It wouldn't allow fleeting peace or counterfeit justice. It forced me to confront reality again. It won't free the Tuners from their mission so easily. It won't let them run from a fight."
That was why I'd failed. I'd tried to get the Ace Detectives out of that brutal world, and some invisible demon's hand had grabbed us by the ankles. We were left powerless. We'd never had a choice.
"Having an enemy you must fight is a truly pleasant thing, isn't it?" Scarlet looked up into the pitch-black sky. "The more formidable that foe, the better. An evil so great that you can claim your wishes will never come true so long as it exists. If, as you say, the world itself is your enemy, nothing could be better."
"…It's the other way around. It's not better if the wall between us and our wishes is larger."
It sounded like he was saying that if I was going to climb a wall anyway, higher was better—but that couldn't have been right.
"No, I'm talking about humanity's bad habit." Scarlet's tone grew harsher. "When humans cause a problem, you always dream up some outside enemy and try to find the cause in them. Then you say, 'They're to blame. That enemy is the reason we're suffering.' Fighting a great foe really is the easiest option," Scarlet said. "People are intoxicated by the concept of themselves locked in combat with a mighty evil. Even if they yield to that evil, they comfort each other with loud declarations that they fought well. If your wish doesn't come true because the world itself is your enemy, then you can be satisfied that another outcome wasn't possible."
"Are you trying to say I'm actually satisfied with this? That I've accepted it?
A reality where Mia and Siesta get gunned down?"
"No. You are not, and that is why you are here. Isn't it?" Scarlet began to walk
in a circle around me, his shoes clicking on the pavement. "While most humans are satisfied with their powerful enemies and meet with defeat, you are trying to deny that reality. You've come here to redo a certain choice."
…He was right. I wanted to try again. I wanted to go back to before that tragedy occurred and choose a different future, but that would mean…
"Does that mean I have to reject a world where the Tuners live in peace?"
If the events of that ceremony had happened because I'd wished for a world where they could be free of their missions, then changing that fate meant placing their heavy mission as Tuners on their shoulders again. Either way, Siesta and the rest would…
"Kimihiko Kimizuka, you must have realized how fragile a fleeting peace is." Yeah, I had. Wishing for it was what had gotten us that terrible ending.
"I just wanted Siesta and Nagisa to live in peace. That was the only wish I had.
And so—"
"I do not believe that you are lying. However," Scarlet whispered in my ear, "remove your armor. No doubt there's another emotion hidden inside it."
I was taken aback.
Scarlet laughed a little. "Do you think it's odd for me to express my opinions on human emotions?"
No, I didn't.
After all, I knew who had made him able to say those things.
"Come, it's time you woke from your nightmare." Scarlet thumped me lightly on the shoulder. "You know what you must do, correct?"
"…Yeah. I do now."
I was holding a certain book in my hand. Just as I had that other time, I'd use the power hidden in this volume. This time and place had been here to make me remember that.
"Scarlet." He'd already turned his back on me, but I called to him one last time. "I'll believe in the world I managed to protect from you just a little longer."
Scarlet laughed. "You have quite a mouth these days… Still, if you ever get truly disgusted with this world, come to hell anytime. And bring my bride with you."
With that, the vampire melted into the darkness.
"Sorry, but that day's never gonna come," I murmured. My hands tightened on the origin text, and I set off again.
…Toward the future? No, not that way.
The road I was walking led to the past. "I'm going to do it over, one more time."
I'd start on the night I'd made that choice.
And I'd make sure we ended up on the correct route this time.