Kirigiri Novel Book 6

Chapter 1- Part 7 Shoot Down the Angel

I picked up the 100 dollar bills on the table. I'll have to exchange it for yens later, but with this I can relax and eat parfaits as much as I want.

"Don't you have to go with that guy, Lico?"

"Well, I still want to talk to you two."

"I don't think you do."

"Because this might be the last time we meet." Lico said with his usual gentle smile.

"What does that mean?"

"It means I am similar to other certain 12-year-olds."

"Hmm..." I only heard half of what he said. "The thing I'm more interested about is... you asked him to call you 'Rei'."

"I just didn't like the other names."

Lico said a little pissed off, or maybe he was embarrassed.

"Hey, Lico." Kirigiri asked in a rare initiative. "What are your plans after this game is over?"

"...I dunno."

"Aren't you going to continue playing some nonsense vigilante game with Johnny Arp?"

I asked, and Lico laughed bitterly.

"If you don't have a place to go, then come back to us. I won't be mad at you."

"I didn't expect someone to say stuff like this to me. I'm very happy. But... for me, this kind of future is unimaginable."

"Why?"

"Do you two think that you can maintain your talents as detectives for a long time to come? Or in other words, can you continue to grow as detectives?"

"Hmm... Who knows. Then again, I don't have much talent in the first place... But I think Kirigiri-chan will always be a detective in the future."

"Maybe Kyōko-san, but I probably won't." "Is it different?"

"For me, this is the pinnacle of my talent, and I won't be able to surpass that— That's the hunch I have. No, not so much a hunch, but some kind of clearer... prediction, I think. And I always predict accurately."

"That's......"

I think it's the first time I've heard Lico say something pessimistic. Or is it just him saying whatever comes to mind as always?

"The magic that was available to us as children becomes unavailable to us as we grow older. If you don't like it, then you have to die. An example would be... Galois, who left his name in the history of mathematics in his teens and then died at the age of 20."

"Are you planning to commit suicide?"

"No, Galois didn't commit suicide. He fought a duel for a woman and died from the injuries he suffered during the duel."

"...You want to die in a duel too?"

"It's okay if Yui-san is willing to be that woman." He said, with his usual gentle smile.

It's very typical of him to say something like this, but I can't even guess how much he's hiding of his true feelings.

I never thought about them losing their talents. I even felt that their talents would always exist in them and grow little by little. But, when I think about it more, no matter how good an athlete is, one day they will retire. And since talents decline, it will disappear one day. Of course, the talents of detectives are no exceptions.

Lico, who is above others in all aspects, may also have his own worries and entanglements. However, he doesn't seem to be particularly sad, is it because he has no obsession with his detective identity.