The cigarette burned down little by little. When the ash was about to lose its hold and fall, Touko flicked it into the portable ashtray and took another drag.
The ember flared briefly, then settled back into its steady glow.
"You said you 'killed' the first Aoko. Why do you say that?"
Touko leaned against the terrace's floor-to-ceiling window, her tone unhurried as she questioned Shiomi.
Even when she had once entertained the idea of bringing Shiomi back to Misaki to fight, she had never imagined she would one day hear him say, "I killed your sister."
Strangely enough, the words didn't make her sad. What she felt instead was a kind of disbelief.
"The method," Shiomi said after a moment's thought. "I didn't examine the body in detail, but based on the condition of the 'first Aoko' when she died and the way it was done, it was clearly my handiwork."
"Only you? So the rest of us were just suspects?"
"That was just something I said for effect."
Shiomi laughed softly.
"I never truly believed any of you would do something like that. Even you, Touko, had no reason to act in this Singularity. And besides, you're not exactly clinging to your sister anymore, are you?"
"That much is true," Touko replied, pleased by the trust in his words.
"It might sound like hindsight now," Shiomi continued calmly, "but your sister has already proven that she isn't someone who could be killed in a Singularity and then left for the Human Order Foundation Value to sort out afterward."
"Assuming your judgment is right," Touko asked, "then when did you do it? You barely had any time alone yesterday, and during that window, the 'first Aoko' was still alive. Other than that, Morgan was watching over you last night, when you were the first to fall asleep…"
Touko almost suggested that Shiomi might have slipped out before Morgan woke up, killed Aoko in secret, and then returned to the room.
But Morgan had slept on the floor with Shiomi last night. And really, no matter who it had been, held like that, Shiomi couldn't possibly have gotten up and done something like that without alerting the other person.
Suddenly, things became interesting.
Touko still didn't believe Shiomi had killed Aoko. But since he had raised the possibility himself, she was more than happy to indulge him in a little brainstorming session.
Touko stubbed out the cigarette, snapped the lid of the ashtray shut, and walked back into the room. She sat down beside Shiomi and continued speaking as she looked at his profile.
"Let's set feasibility aside for now. Why would you kill Aoko? Was it like what you said yesterday on the mountain road, that seeing a living Magician made you want to kill one just to see if you could?"
"Not necessarily," Shiomi replied. "What if it was 'me' acting on lust, harboring improper intentions, and when your sister resisted, I accidentally killed her?"
He tossed out an even more outrageous explanation.
Touko froze, as if she were digesting the cold joke. After a long moment, she burst out laughing, her body leaning into Shiomi as she collapsed against his shoulder, trembling uncontrollably.
"That's way too absurd. Fine, let's say that's also a possibility…" She lifted her head and looked at him. "Do you really think Aoko would be to your taste?"
"Not at all." Shiomi shook his head and answered honestly. "To be frank, she's exactly the type I'm least interested in."
"Oh?"
"Actually, after meeting your sister, I realized that Touko is far more attractive," Shiomi said as he helped her sit upright and calmly shared his thoughts. "Just in terms of appearance and bearing, even without makeup, you have a kind of natural allure that your sister could never imitate, not in several lifetimes. That's why I'm so captivated by you. Even after thousands of years, I still can't forget you."
Touko wore a thoughtful expression.
"I hope you'll repeat those exact words in front of Aoko later."
"Hey, is that really the takeaway here…?" Shiomi pulled a wry face.
"So lust at first sight is off the table, then. If the target were me, there might be some argument for it," Touko said, snapping her fingers. "I don't doubt that you're capable of killing the Aoko who appears in this Singularity, but—"
"Even I don't know why I'd want to kill her, right?" Shiomi nodded along.
"You have neither motive nor timing. Even if someone wanted to pin it on you, it would be harder than the incident at the Twin Towers," Touko continued. "So even if, method-wise, it looks exactly like you killed the 'first Aoko,' and even you believe that yourself, we can still rule out that hypothesis… hm?"
Just as she was about to draw a conclusion, Touko suddenly noticed something and narrowed her eyes.
When Shiomi had spoken of killing Aoko earlier, he had deliberately stressed the first-person 'I,' as if he were referring to… someone else.
And as it happened, within this Singularity, there really was a second Tenkei Shiomi.
'Tenkei Shiomi of 2001.'
His whereabouts were still unknown.
"You finally noticed? Up until just now, I was actually talking about 'the me from 2001,'" Shiomi said, giving Touko a sly look.
"So you were using a bit of psychological misdirection," Touko said, rethinking the situation. "Then let's start over. If the missing 'Tenkei from 2001' was the one who killed Aoko, he certainly had enough time and space. But what about the motive?"
"That's exactly what I want to know." Shiomi shook his head.
"Hm. Looks like there's no answer." Touko sighed helplessly. "And there's another flaw in that theory. Could 'you from 2001' really kill Aoko, who came from the future?"
Using Shiomi's battle at the Twin Towers in 2003 as a reference point, he was indeed a far more powerful Magus than Touko had been at the time. But compared to Aoko the Magician, there was still an undeniable gap.
"If I used the Noble Phantasm my master bestowed on me when I completed my training, killing your sister wouldn't be difficult," Shiomi said after a moment's thought. "But if I relied only on the Primordial Runes, especially the Rune of Death… even with a surprise attack, I wouldn't be able to kill her cleanly."
"So we're stuck in a paradox," Touko said.
The present Shiomi possessed enough power to kill Aoko swiftly and decisively.
The Shiomi of 2001 did not.
Between the two versions of Tenkei Shiomi lay a difference of six thousand years of accumulated foundation.
"So this still needs verification. I'll discuss it with Morgan and the others later," Shiomi said as he wrapped an arm around Touko's waist. "You should just focus on enjoying the hot spring trip. I'll handle this side of things."
"Hard to say we'll be able to relax completely," Touko said with a wry smile, but she still agreed.
She could feel Shiomi's hand sliding upward along her waist as he gently pushed her down onto the sofa.
"If I'm not mistaken, you did it right before coming to the baths, didn't you?" Touko asked.
"So what if I did? Isn't that what hot spring trips are for?" Shiomi answered frankly, expressing his desire without hesitation. Touko laughed softly, her smile tinged with allure, and wrapped her arms around him.
The brainstorming session was over. What followed was a storm of the body.