Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 5 - Chapter 14

The unfortunate prince. 

SEED showed its will to fight again to protect its survival instinct to leave offspring, and might be done collecting energy from the?biological weapon?. Also, from both shoulders, huge?feelers?spread like a dragon's wings. 

"Siesta!" 

Seeing the enemy ready itself for battle, I grab my gun. At the very least, it's not a situation where I could afford to slow them down. 

"Yeah, let's go." 

I attacked the enemy from the right side with Siesta, while Hel attacked from the left side with the saber at her hip. Our first priority was to deal with the two?feelers?that extend from both shoulders. We split into two groups to deal with each one?feeler?. 

"—First, the right ear, there is no need for this anymore." 

A moment later, SEED's right ear pops off. 

We stopped the moment we saw that but at that moment, 

"...! I won't let you." 

Sensing that something is about to happen, Siesta fired at SEED. 

"These ears have already done their job. It is time to put that energy to better use." 

But before SEED finished his words, the?feeler?atop the right shoulder transformed into a huge silver sword, repelling Siesta's shot. 

"Now then, with this," 

With a violent metallic sound, Hel's red saber parried away the silver?feeler?. However, she only managed to parry it and did not cut it. 

"…" 

Hel was forced on the defensive against the?feeler?that was sturdier than Betelgeuse's scales. 

"Next, the left eye, that too is also unnecessary." 

SEED said this, and the light suddenly fades from its purple left eye. 

"It already lost its true power seven years ago." 

And now, the?feeler?on its left shoulder splits into dozens of pieces, and they attacked Siesta, seemingly with a will of their own. 

"There's too many of them...!" 

Siesta tries to fight back with her musket, but the countless thin?feelers?began to regenerate a few seconds after she shoots through them, and like Hel, she was forced on the defensive. 

"…Just me, huh?" 

With Hel and Siesta stranded, I was the only one left on this battlefield. I use Chameleon's shape-invisibility to blend my appearance into the surrounding scenery. The ability that SEED originally had in its?right ear?was the same as Bat's…and since it lost that ability, it probably wouldn’t be able to find me that easily. I vanished and ran on the ground towards the enemy. 

"And now, I shall abandon my right eye." 

SEED uttered as it continued to attack with its?feeler?. 

The purple light in its right eye vanished too. 

"…?" 

The next moment, the ground beneath me rumbled, shaking violently. Perhaps the seeds that were sown on the earth—the fissures had sprouted again and I was caught in the cracked ground, and then, 

"…! Ouch…" 

A thin thorn grew from the ground, skewering my right foot. 

"Assistant!" 

Siesta tried to rush towards me, but she was obstructed by countless?feelers?attacking her in waves. And Hel, like me, was trapped on the broken ground, parrying the silver?feelers?in that state. 

"…You don't need hearing or sight?" 

I cut the thorns with my knife and somehow managed to get up on the spot. Then, 

"Come on, Siesta." 

Siesta and I didn’t need to say a word as we made eye contact. I kicked off the asphalt and leap towards one of the?feelers?. 

"…!" 

I felt a sharp pain in my right foot, where a thorn had pierced it. Still, it didn't matter. I was sure Nagisa Natsunagi felt the same intense pain and took on the great evil all by herself. 

I ignored the pain and used the countless?feelers?while I tried to navigate through. While Siesta opened a path for me by distracting the enemy, I—. 

"I recognize the smell of human blood anywhere." 

Right before I reached SEED, a?feeler?gouged me in the flank. SEED lost its sight, but it could still pinpoint my location with its Cerberus-like sense of smell. And then, 

"You are not the one I entrusted this. I shall have it back." 

"…, kaa, haaa…" 

SEED's thin?feeler?dug through my body and pulled something out. 

Reddish-black blood spurted from my mouth. My organs were gone. 

"Chameleon's, seed…" 

SEED pulls out the black mineral that was buried in my body and absorbed it into his own body through the?feelers?. I then fell to the ground, unable to reach SEED. 

"…! Assistant!" 

It was Siesta's voice. She rushed towards me while darting through many?feelers?. 

"…No, good.." 

Siesta awakened and shot down all the?feelers?while I was in a pinch…such a deus ex machina really was impossible though. If the enemy’s attacks were spread out at this moment. 

"……Ah." 

As SEED had absorbed the reptilian?seed?from my body—before I knew it, its?feeler?transformed into a giant snake and snared Siesta’s neck from behind. 

"Sie, sta…." 

Siesta collapsed next to me, bleeding from neck to shoulder. 

"…I guess, I messed up after all." 

"That's why…you're too anxious whenever I’m in a pinch…" 

When I got abducted by Hel, Siesta came to my rescue in a very distraught state. The usually calm and collected famous detective acted like this whenever this happened. Goodness— 

"…Do you like me or something?" 

"…Are you a fool?" 

We bantered off as our faces winced in pain on the asphalt. 

"—I knew it." 

Then, beyond my blurred vision, the enemy looked down at us with those eyes that had lost their light. 

"You humans have emotions, which is why you put your lives in danger like that, even if it means threatening your survival instincts." 

Fool, so SEED growled ruthlessly as if telling the objective truth, without anger or pity. 

"You have feelings too…" 

I tried to stand up again, clenching my teeth so hard that I crush them. 

"It's just that you shared those feelings with your offspring, and forgot about them. You used to be …." 

"Yes, I did. That's why the?Primordial Seed?evolved." 

"…?" 

SEED said to me, who was unable to comprehend while my consciousness was fading in and out due to the pain in my stomach. 

"Emotions are not necessary for protecting the survival instinct. No, they should not be. That is why our bodies discard them in the process of evolution." 

…Yeah, that’s SEED’s understanding. To it, Instinct and emotion were different, and that emotions were merely a threat to SEED…no, to any organism’s survival instinct, which was the most important thing. Therefore, it assumed the loss of emotions was a correct evolutionary choice for organisms. 

And I didn't have the words to refute that. If I hadn't been bleeding, if my body was still able to move as it should or if I could come up with some counterargument…no, maybe it’s wrong to think with my head. I wondered what she would have done in such a situation. I wonder what Nagisa Natsunagi, who has fought with passion, would have done— 

"—You have not lost your feelings yet." 

I heard a voice rip through the air, and my kneeling body turned around. There stood a girl who looked exactly like the person I had imagined, holding a reddish-brown sword to the ground with both hands. 

"There is still one emotion you still have left." 

With cuts all over her body, the girl in the military uniform still stood tall in front of the enemies of the world. Next to her, the shattered silver?feeler?fell to the ground next to her. 

"What are you talking about?" 

SEED stared at Hel with those eyes that had already lost their light. In response, Hel bit her lip and recounted an incident from that day that even I didn't know about yet. 

"You said so that day, when Nagisa Natsunagi dealt a blow against you. ‘You too, Hel?’" 

Hel clutched the hilt of the saber that Natsunagi had probably wielded that day, and told SEED the following reasoning, 

"You were surprised and saddened by my rebellion." 

At the moment Hel said this, all the plants growing from the ground began to wither at once. 

The eyes, which should have lost the light of SEED, still seemed round and open. 

"The relationship between you and me is just that of one who gives orders and one who accepts them. Nothing more, nothing less." 

Hel said quietly, describing the relationship that she and SEED had built over the years. In contrast, Siesta and I were neither lovers nor friends, but rather weird business partners. 

"I was just a convenient pawn for you. I did not know what the?Bible?really was, and I did not know that I was about to be made into your vessel." 

…Right. When we first met a year ago, Hel just blindly believed in SEED. Because of that bond, she wouldn’t use this opportunity as Natsunagi’s alter ego to figure out the meaning of her existence. 

But then, when Natsunagi took in Siesta's heart, the unconscious Hel shared Siesta's memories and realized that she had been used by SEED all along. 

"I was angry, I felt betrayed. That's why I did not put up much of a fight after I was sealed inside Nagisa Natsunagi by the famous detective. That is probably why I am pointing my blade at you now that I am released." 

But, Hel said, lowering her saber. 

"I realized that you were just like me. Just as I tried to earn your trust, to continue to exist with my bond to you, you really wanted someone to be next to you." 

It must have been a miscalculation on the?Primordial Seed?’s part when it got too close to humans in order to survive on this planet. It unintentionally acquired emotions that should have been repulsive to its survival instincts. However, SEED lost its power and emotions as it created the?androids?. 

The loss of one’s possession would be far greater than when one never had it in the first place. For example, I lost the memory of the truth behind Siesta's death, just as Siesta forgot the past when she met Alicia and Natsunagi, and just as Natsunagi had long lost sight of who she was. 

So surely SEED was just like us. It was SEED itself who, more than anyone else, was bewildered by the hole that had opened up in its heart, losing its emotions with each child it bore. 

"Father." 

Hel called SEED once again. 

She dropped her weapon and approached it with tears in her eyes, shouting, 

"I am the one you trusted, and I shall speak for you—Father, you are not a monster! You wanted to be human, but you cannot be a monster! You lost your eyes, your strength, your life, and the name of that feeling when you were trying to protect your child is—" 

At that moment, a chipped silver?feeler?extended from SEED's right shoulder and pierced Hel's left shoulder. 

"—!" 

Hel's expression was one of bitter anguish, but she picked up the dropped saber and swatted it away. 

"Father…" 

"No. That's not SEED anymore." 

Siesta then eked her voice out while holding her injured neck. 

"SEED's consciousness has already been hijacked." 

By that?Uroboros?. 

Siesta then looks up at the?Snake?extending from SEED's left shoulder. 

"Right, left, front, back, this is your own consciousness." 

With a deep noise, the serpent growing from SEED's left shoulder spoke. It eliminated what little consciousness and emotion SEED had left as if the serpent was now in charge and free to use the body. Perhaps?Uroboros?was the name of the survival instinct that had taken root in SEED. 

"—Blood. There's not enough blood." 

And instead of SEED's head slumping downwards,?Uroboros?golden eyes stared towards us. 

"Assistant…" 

"Siesta…" 

Still unable to stand up, Siesta and I reached for each other. 

"…Goodness." 

The huge poisonous fangs of the?Uroboros?came at Hel, who stood there as though she was protecting us—my blurred eyes saw a spray of blood, and then I lost consciousness.