Three days later, after we'd returned to Japan, we received word that Bruno had died. When I got the phone call from Noel, I'd been prepared for it on some level, but it still took a while before I could speak.
One of the seats of justice was gone.
Noel said he'd breathed his last quietly, while she was there with him. After the conversation I'd had with Bruno, part of me wasn't sure whether that peaceful death had been the best outcome for him.
Still, Noel told me she thought he was happy. She'd spent far more time with Bruno than I had, so if she said as much, I'd try to believe it. After all, the dead couldn't tell us themselves.
That's what I was thinking about as I walked through town in the dusk.
The town was basically deserted. The district was blocked off with yellow "Caution" tape which people weren't technically supposed to cross, which made it a perfect place for thinking.
"It's still cold."
It was still a little too early to count as spring. I pulled up the collar of my coat to shut out the wind.
It had been a week since Noel called us with the news.
I'd spent my days waking at noon and putting in an appearance at university, starting with my third-period lecture. Since I wasn't in any clubs, I'd part ways with Nagisa and go back home to our apartment in the evenings.
I'd been given some time off from my job as the detectives' assistant.
Since our representative had gone off somewhere, the agency wasn't open. I'd texted and called, but she hadn't responded once.
Just as I was thinking about going to look for her at random, even though I had no leads, I'd finally gotten a response today. Apparently, she'd gone overseas on a whim. I still wished she'd reported it or checked in or talked it over with us first, but her position on this stuff hadn't changed in the past seven years.
"Huh? Are you working on your day off?" Finally, I heard a familiar voice behind me.
"If the president takes time off, the employees have to pick up the slack, you know. Where have you been bumming around?"
"I only stepped out for a bit. No one likes controlling people, you know.
You're not my boyfriend or anything."
When I turned, there was the detective, messing with me as usual.
"Still, why are we meeting here?" Siesta looked around, wondering about our designated meeting spot.
The city was covered in greenery as far as the eye could see. Although it had once flourished as a popular place for teenagers, you'd never think it now. The buildings full of fashion stores and cafés had all been engulfed by plants.
The symbol of the whole place was Yggdrasil, the great tree that towered behind us like a stronghold.
To the two of us, this tree was the memory of a battle. It was the place where we'd sealed Seed, one of the world's enemies. It was also where Siesta had fallen into her long slumber.
"I just had the feeling we should come here," I said, realizing I'd hesitated a little too long.
I was struggling to find the right words. But this was a place we couldn't avoid, and it had seemed like a good spot to be as we faced the past and the future.
"I see. Still, you do have that book." Siesta had noticed the origin text I was carrying under my arm.
"Yeah. In the end, it's safer to just keep it with me."
About ten days ago, the origin text had changed our destinies in a major way. It had a special power, and there was no telling when the enemy would try to take it next. If they tried, I would use the text's power to see the future and head the enemy off. However, the origin text hadn't alerted me to any future crises since that time.
"I never dreamed you'd seen the future back then." Remembering what had happened in France, Siesta gave me a slightly exasperated smile.
"Yeah, if you want to fool the enemy, first fool your friends. That's what you said, remember?" I retorted.
Unusually for her, Siesta shrugged, admitting defeat. "And? What have you been doing for the past week, Kimi?"
She wanted to know what I'd been up to while she was away from the agency. We'd technically been on vacation, but she seemed certain that I'd been working on something independently.
"I visited the prison with Nagisa on the weekend. It turns out Ms. Fuubi escaped."
She'd escaped quite a while ago, actually.
"About ten days ago?" Siesta asked; she seemed to have picked up on something.
"Right. It happened while we were in France."
That couldn't have been a coincidence. It had begun two weeks before that, when the man with the snake-sword had attacked the prison. Apparently, he'd inflicted heavy damage on the security system.
As a result, they'd decided to transfer Ms. Fuubi to another prison…but while she was in transit, the transport van had been attacked by men wearing gas masks. Then Fuubi Kase had vanished.
"So the Information Broker helped Fuubi Kase break out of prison?" That was Siesta's theory, and I agreed. It had all started with that attack on the prison. That hadn't happened just to convince Siesta to be the Ace Detective again. It had also been part of the plan to break the Assassin out of jail. In that case, why had Bruno helped Ms. Fuubi escape?
"She was his comrade," Siesta murmured, looking up at the orange sky. "It was the same with the Men in Black. Bruno built his group from people who shared his mindset, who sensed the same danger. They were working together to accomplish something."
Right—the chain of incidents that had happened at that ceremony. Bruno and his collaborators had passed themselves off as messengers from Another Eden and menaced the world.
Come to think of it… We'd heard Bruno's group had accessed the Federation Government in a way that was impossible to analyze; could Stephen the Inventor have been the one who'd done that? He'd probably provided other techniques and inventions for Bruno's plan, too. That odd weapon that had been used during the attack on the prison, for example, and the optical camouflage robe that the figure in the crow mask must have been wearing. Thinking back, I seemed to see the Inventor's shadow everywhere.
"And? What about you, Siesta?"
Where had she been during her week away from the agency, and what results had she gotten?
"I was traveling the world," she said, as if it was nothing. "There was something I was curious about. I visited various places around the globe."
"Why didn't you take me with you?" "You had school."
You promised to take me everywhere. What happened to that? I swallowed the
words down for now.
"This past year went by so fast." Instead of telling me what she'd learned during her trip, Siesta began reminiscing. "On the day I woke up, you and Charlie cried and clung to me."
"Hey, I didn't cry."
"When I set up the detective agency, you started working there as if it was a given, even though I hadn't said a word about it."
"Well, way back when, you told me to work on being independent."
"Then Nagisa joined us and the three of us worked, and played, and played, and played."
"Lot of playing, there," I retorted, and Siesta broke into a grin.
"I'm sure these are memories you and I have in common. However, if there's one thing we've learned, it's this."
I had the feeling I knew what she was about to say. "Human memories can't be trusted."
She was right. I'd lost important memories to pollen from a monster called Betelgeuse once. Long before that, SPES had taken some of Siesta's and Nagisa's memories. Those experiences had taught us just how fragile human memory was. Besides…
"Bruno said something similar. He said to doubt ourselves, to know that we know nothing."
So…
"Are we forgetting something right now?" Or—
"Is the world forgetting something?"
If so, when had history and memory diverged? What was fiction, and what was reality?
It felt as if the things I believed in had been completely overturned without warning, and I staggered slightly.
"It's not a dream, is it?"
The fact that you're here.
"It's not a daydream or anything, right?" The fact that Siesta had woken up that day.
I remembered the dream where I'd seen Hel.
What she'd said to me, up there on the roof at night.
"You're having a very convenient dream."
Hadn't she been talking about the one I was having right then? If not, what dream had she meant—
"I'm here."
A gentle touch came from behind me. "I'm right here."
Siesta's arms were around my waist. Their warmth traveled all through me.
This wasn't a lie. It wasn't a dream. This was my beloved partner. We'd met seven years ago, then parted multiple times, but we'd really managed to meet again this time. She was really here.
"Do you think I'm a fake?" "No."
"Do you think this is a dream?" "I'm sorry I doubted it."
"Then do you think my embracing you like we're lovers is some kind of fantasy?"
"Now I'm positive: You're the only one who can mess with me like that, Siesta."
We both smiled, and she finally released me.
That had cleared up my biggest fear. Even so, there were a ton of things I had to think about and mentally organize. I drew a deep breath, and then…
"Hey, Siesta? A year ago, how did you actually wake up—?"
Just as I was about to start a discussion that focused on the future…
A gust of wind blew. I heard the sound of the air and of rustling leaves.
Siesta and I looked up. An enormous tree filled our vision, soaring up and up into the sunset sky.
"It's all right," Siesta murmured. "We have Yggdrasil."
Seed had once been our greatest enemy. However, even though Yggdrasil was technically the form he'd taken after our battle, it had brought great benefits to our world.
The wind carried Yggdrasil's seeds all over the globe. At first, we'd worried they might be dangerous, but research had shown they could regenerate and restore soil and air that had been rendered barren due to atmospheric pollution or radiation. Dry, dead land grew green and sustained life again.
"The old battlefields I visited look like this now." Siesta showed me photos of her solo trip. These places had been devastated by war, and it had been said that vegetation wouldn't grow there for a century. However, new plants were already beginning to sprout, and vines had twined around the crumbling buildings as if they were trying to support them.
"Yeah, there aren't many places that haven't felt Yggdrasil's life-giving touch."
That was true in Japan as well. The blue communications tower, the nation's tallest, had nearly been absorbed into the tree. Vegetation was beginning to reclaim the Japan National Stadium where Saikawa had held her concert, and it probably wouldn't be usable for much longer.
The cruising tour we'd taken on the Seine in Paris was also scheduled to end once the historic structures that were a part of it had become one with Yggdrasil. There was no way around that, though.
"After all, this is the will of the world," Siesta said, looking up at the tree that towered into the red sky.
She was right. This was to protect the world. The human race would need to give up civilization so that the land, our father, could survive. That was what "peace" was. It was the happy ending we'd reached.
"..."
The wind blew again. Somehow, the cold wind of winter seemed oddly lukewarm to me.
"Siesta?" I said. Siesta tilted her head slightly, telling me to go on. "What do you suppose will happen if plants end up covering the whole world?"
Even if the world was cleansed of pollution, if it was taken over by Yggdrasil and its seeds, like this city…what would happen to humans? Wouldn't we run out of places to live?
"What are you saying, Assistant?" Siesta dismissed my doubts with a laugh.
That's right: When I'm worried over nothing, she always blows those worries away like the wind. That's what lets me rest easy and keep talking about dumb stuff.
"You know that's what ' ' is for." Siesta had said something.
I was sure she had; her lips had moved.
I hadn't managed to catch it, though. The wind had gusted through again; had that been why?
I was about to ask her to say it again when Siesta cocked her head.
It was almost as if she didn't know what she'd said either. "—Assistant."
"Yeah."
After a short silence, we exchanged nods.
We didn't need any special words. We were sure we were on the same page now.
The detective is already dead. But her last wish will never die.
That's why it's still too soon for an epilogue. And…
Now the detective has been revived. That means our adventure isn't over.
This is Act Two, the sequel, and it's going to overturn everything about the story so far.