Not a detective

Page 140

If we leave him alone, he'll eventually eradicate the outdated beliefs on the island, given the endless opportunities to try and fail. Is that alright?

Even so, did the red stingray still choose to reverse time?

"……etc."

A terrifying thought suddenly flashed through his mind.

Asakawa Riku suddenly raised his head, his pupils trembling, revealing an expression of disbelief.

"Could it be that--"

"It seems you've already figured out the truth."

Suezuki said with a smile, stretching out on the canvas bed as if she were yawning: "Hmm—as expected of my assistant, even though it was hundreds of times slower, she still managed to figure it out."

“You don’t need to tell me.” Asakawa Riku stood up, shaking his hands, even though he hadn’t applied sunscreen to them from the start. “Yes, the truth is right in front of us.”

It was right in front of me, yet I kept ignoring it.

Did he not see it, or did he deliberately ignore it?

"In any case, this is the last time."

Asakawa Riku never looked back. He walked step by step away from the beach and into the depths of the island, leaving behind only the words, "Thank you."

You should thank yourself.

Higashion Suezuki behind her seemed to smile, and her figure gradually faded away, disappearing onto the beach along with the parasol and the bed.

...

Instead of heading to the village, Asakawa Riku went to the jungle on the island.

The main quest in the village has already been completed, so talking to those brainwashed villagers any longer probably won't make much of a difference.

More importantly, Asakawa Riku has now found the crux of the problem—

He looked around at the dense jungle, with lush trees and shrubs, all tropical plants, and many small animals roaming about.

The first time, he saw Hoshino's phantom here; the second time, he saw Chizuko's phantom; and the third time, he saw Yukie's phantom.

This time, however, there was no one here, because this time it was a phantom of the Last Moon, which had already appeared on the beach outside.

The reason he imagines these girls in his mind might be because the "state" of the island makes people mentally unstable, or it might be because it is a place that Asakawa Riku longs for.

But this time, he finally realized that something was wrong.

"Star Feather".

Asakawa Riku shouted at the empty bushes.

There was no one there; he could sense it. With his vision and hearing, anything that wasn't a ghost or a monster couldn't escape his perception.

But Asakawa Riku called out again: "Hoshino".

There was no response, and no one was around.

Until the third time:

"Xingyu, come out, I know you're here."

As Asakawa Riku repeatedly shouted, it seemed as if he had truly moved the heavens, and the outline of a girl, along with beautiful golden hair, slowly appeared in the air.

The slightly shy girl in her school swimsuit appeared before Asakawa Riku once again:

"Why are you imagining me again? Do you really miss me that much?"

Xingyu crossed her hands behind her back, leaned forward slightly, and said with a smile.

It was only this time that I noticed she was barefoot, walking on the grass and mud, as if she had lost her shoes during the shipwreck.

But Asakawa Riku knew that wasn't the case. He looked into the other person's eyes and spoke in a steady voice:

"I already know—[you are the only one who isn't a figment of my imagination, you really exist], right?"

Xingyu paused for a moment, but her eyebrows remained curved in a smile:

"Asakawa-kun, you're really out of your mind. Don't mistake fantasy for reality, or you'll end up miserable. Think about it, if I were really here, why was it that when you went to Tokyo for help, no one else could see me, only you? Or let me show you something more concrete: why I can disappear here..."

She suddenly disappeared.

"...and then you appeared here again?"

Turning around, Xingyu gently tapped Asakawa Riku's shoulder from behind, reaching out to put her arm around him, but couldn't grab his arm.

She vanished without a trace and reappeared without a trace. Asakawa Riku was certain that no one could outrun his eyes. This was not a movement technique, but rather a disappearance and reappearance.

But Asakawa Riku's gaze remained firm and unwavering:

"At the time, that's exactly what I thought. I believed that you, like Chizuko and the others, were just figments of my imagination. It wasn't until just now that I realized something was off about the details."

He kept his eyes fixed on Xingyu's direction, never looking away from her.

"The essence of fantasy is different ways of thinking in my mind. I am thinking using the patterns of Chizuko, Yukie, and Suetsuki that I think of, rather than the real them. So there is a core rule, which is that [information that I should not know, fantasy cannot know]. Even the knowledge that my senior mentioned is just what I have seen before."

"But when you were adrift at sea with me, you told me about your childhood experiences, your past with the detective, and how she made you go to class."

"This is all information I never knew before, and it's something I couldn't possibly have imagined or guessed..."

"So, among all these fantasies, you are the only one who is 'real,' right?"

Summer of the Crimson Stingray: Chapter Forty-Eight: The Crimson Stingray

After hearing Asakawa Riku's words, Hoshino lost her smile and remained silent for a long time.

She seemed unwilling to accept it, arguing:

"In that case... how do you explain my disappearance? Others can't see me, and you couldn't find me before, could you?"

"Yeah, I couldn't figure it out at first either. If you were on this island, I couldn't have missed you during my first island-wide search in the first cycle. And if you really exist, why can't others find you? Can you just disappear and reappear so easily? Are you a monster, or a superhuman?"

Asakawa Riku seemed to be asking himself the questions, but judging from his tone, he had already figured out the answers.

His gaze once again caught sight of Xingyu appearing beside him:

"Whether you are on the island or not, I have been torn between these two choices. If you are on the island, why are you so elusive? If you are not, how do I explain the information you should not know? But I finally thought of a third possibility, which is—[you are on the island, but I cannot find you]."

Xingyu frowned: "What do you mean..."

Asakawa Riku hit the nail on the head: "It means, 'You are the island itself.'"

For the first time, a look of panic and fear appeared on Xingyu's face.

She wanted to retreat and hide in the bushes behind her, but Asakawa Riku calmly said:

"Don't run away... Even if you do, I'll keep talking. You can hear me as long as we're on this island, right?"

These words left the bewildered Xingyu frozen in place:

"How...how did you know?"

"Because of reasoning, and because you gave me countless opportunities."

Asakawa Riku continued, "If you are the island itself, it explains many of the previous doubts. For example, why I couldn't find you was because the island-wide search was for the people on the island, but you weren't among them. You couldn't see the whole picture from the outside, so naturally you wouldn't think of this possibility. Your current appearance is probably just a form like the 'soul of the island' or the 'consciousness of the island,' so others can't find your existence, and you can even become invisible. Also, this explains why the island suddenly appeared and disappeared. In the cycle where I brought you to Tokyo, you were no longer here, so the island would also disappear. And normally, this island doesn't exist in this sea area because you created it."

Xingyu fell silent again, her head down, her bangs obscuring her eyes.

Asakawa Riku continued:

"Then, this leads to the next conjecture—[You are not only this island itself, but also the god named Red Ray]."

"Actually, I don't even understand what a stingray is..."

She suddenly spoke, though she didn't look up, her tone carrying a hint of sarcasm.

“It’s alright, because I don’t understand either, but I do know that only gods can transform into a huge island, complete with villages, beaches and jungles.”

Asakawa Riku spread his hands, and everything around him felt so real—just an ordinary tropical island environment, with lush green vegetation, birds, and wild animals, without a trace of artificiality.

This is not a dream created by the "Baku," but a "creation" that is stronger and more powerful than that monster.

"I only knew that the village was called 'Crimson Stingray Village.' If I had known that the island was called 'Crimson Stingray Island,' perhaps I could have discovered the truth sooner. Unfortunately, I didn't understand what a crimson stingray really was, which is why I made such a serious mistake... I always thought that crimson stingrays were evil gods that brainwashed people, turning them into fanatical believers and monsters..."

He shook his head: "But I was wrong, Xingyu. You didn't do anything wrong. You wanted to save everyone, right?"

Hoshino looked up and stared at Asakawa Riku in surprise.

Tears seemed to well up in the girl's deep blue eyes.

Asakawa Riku's calm and gentle narration:

"On the night of June 13, our cruise ship sank due to an explosion. Even I was knocked unconscious by the shockwave. Even if the students and teachers were in the lifeboats, they would be overturned by the waves caused by the explosion, and some people would definitely drown or be injured. Just then, you used your power to turn into this island and rescued everyone, so everyone survived."

He paused for a moment: "That's why these islands suddenly appeared even though there were no such islands near this sea area."

According to the village legend, the god of the "Red Stingray" got lost on the shore and, at the call of his believers, stepped into the sea and transformed into the ocean.

Xingyu did the same; in order to save everyone, she created this island that did not exist in the first place. Only in this way could she save everyone.

Reality and legend merge here.

"I...I don't know how I did it. It felt like I suddenly woke up and became this island, something that had never happened before..."

Xingyu lowered her head, seemingly giving up on making excuses and speaking frankly.

Judging from her appearance, she probably had never had such an experience before; this was probably the moment of "awakening".

Asakawa Riku simply said, "If you can't understand it, just think of it as a superpower."

"Superpowers?"

Hoshino's expression darkened as she looked towards the distant village. "But Asakawa-kun, you're right. I am indeed an evil being. I brainwashed all those classmates and teachers, and even made them attack you, turning them into fanatical monsters... From this perspective, how could I dare to tell you about my situation... I'm afraid you'll hate me..."

Asakawa Riku quickly shook his head: "That must be something beyond your control, or something you had no choice but to do."

"Asakawa-kun, isn't that a bit too biased of you to say that..."

Xingyu couldn't help but laugh, and she wiped away her tears.

“Of course I have evidence.” Asakawa Riku looked at her calmly: “If you were really that evil, you wouldn’t have resurrected me again and again, restarting the cycle of reincarnation.”

"You actually found out about the [time reversal] too."

Xingyu was stunned for a moment, then exclaimed sincerely, "That's really impressive!"

"Because time reversal is something that only the power of gods can do. The trigger point is not my death, but that you always activate time reversal just before I die. This shows that you are paying attention to my situation every moment, including the time we went to Tokyo, and also when we were on the island. This also proves that you are the island itself."

Asakawa Riku looked into her eyes: "If it weren't for you, I might have died on that night of the Crimson Ray Festival. You who saved me shouldn't be the [mastermind]."

Summer of the Crimson Stingray: Chapter 49 Transformation into the Sea (Part 2)

"As for why you brainwashed the students, I think it must be because it's a necessary condition for maintaining this island."

Asakawa Riku continued, "In this world, the greater the power, the greater the limitations and side effects. God is a state; although it transcends the mortal realm and is inconceivable, it is also an ethereal illusion. It has no physical form and must rely on a foundation to exist. The so-called foundation is people's faith. Only when there are enough believers can the power of the god be exerted. And that's not all; it must be sufficiently closed off. Otherwise, it is easy for the divinity to be diluted by modern society with its technology, materialism, and rational cognition."

So, just as previously speculated, this island, with its two hundred devout believers, is the perfect stage for the "Red Ray" to unleash her power; here, she can even reverse time.

“But I made a mistake. I thought that since I had found the god’s weakness, I should find a way to defeat it. At the time, I still regarded the stingray as an enemy because the fanatical villagers would attack me in a frenzy, and I naturally wanted to fight back. But that should be an extreme side effect of faith. You can’t really control their behavior, right?”

He shook his head: "So, in the last cycle, I tried every means to shake the villagers' faith, to let them understand the outside world and their hope of escaping..."

But now that I think it was the closest I ever came to a perfect playthrough, it was actually the furthest I ever strayed from it.

"I didn't expect that once the Red Ray's faith is shaken, the existence of this island will be in jeopardy. Without enough power, this island, which was built out of thin air, will also cease to exist."

Asakawa Riku gazed at the sky, his eyes piercing through the treetops, as if searching for the helicopter that had yet to appear: "The last straw that broke the camel's back must have been that [helicopter]. The villagers here saw incredible technological artifacts from the outside world, saw Mr. Takahashi in his police uniform, and the scales in their hearts finally tipped. They realized that what I said was true, and that their memories of this island and their faith in the stingrays were all false. Thus, their beliefs collapsed, and their state vanished..."

That's why the island broke apart and sank into the sea.

If Xingyu hadn't activated time reversal at the last moment, they would all have drowned here, and the rescue ship wouldn't have arrived in time.

"Yes, so it wasn't until last time that I realized we had no hope of being saved."

Hoshino sighed and looked up at the sky. "We finally got to see Miss, but the plane that came to rescue us turned out to be our death warrant. The island will collapse the moment it lands. Asakawa-kun, I'm not a god at all. How can a god be so fragile... to be crushed by a helicopter? In the end, I can't save anyone."

The idea that rescue means external forces and modern technology would disrupt the island's isolated environment and completely destroy the villagers' faith.

The irony and contradiction that rescue has become the very weapon that killed them has created their current predicament.

"We can still escape."

Asakawa Riku said, "Just like the third cycle, didn't you successfully return to Tokyo with me that time?"

Xingyu avoided him, taking two steps back, clutching her arm, shaking her head and saying: