Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 5 - Chapter 25

The white devil, and where the soul resides. 

A white suit appeared in the dark, and the red tie was reminiscent of the color of blood. 

This man's name is Scarlet—and he's a real vampire. 

I met him for the first time a few weeks ago, in the underground parking lot of a TV station, and since then, we've been keeping a distance, neither friend nor foe. 

"Nice to finally meet you." 

Siesta's eyes narrowed as she stared at the vampire, who stood with his back against the wall. 

Apparently, Siesta had timed it so that she could meet Scarlet here. Vampires wouldn’t really appear whenever the sun shone, and Siesta wasn’t really in the mood to enjoy the musical either. 

"Hah, I see. You came back to this world because you wanted to see me so badly?" 

Scarlet nodded his head in satisfaction. 

"No, that's not it. I only came to see you because I have business." 

"No need to be shy, dear former potential bride." 

"Scarlet, what did you just say? Bride? Siesta? Who?" 

"Assistant, don't complicate things. Don't pull a gun now." 

…That being said, there’s no doubt they had some history between them, given what Scarlet had said. Maybe there’s a good chance that Siesta was being blackmailed. If that's the case, there's something I should do as an assistant, right? 

"You're here again sooner than I thought. Human." 

So I thought, and Scarlet's gaze turned to me as well. 

"…Yea. There's something I need your wisdom on." 

But at this point, I got something more important to talk about than Siesta's history with this guy. I exchanged a glance with Siesta and got right to the point. 

"Scarlet." 

Siesta said, taking a half step towards the vampire. 

"Do you know how to regain consciousness in a person who won't wake up?" 

That's why, right after the?Inventor?, she wanted to consult the?Vampire?. 

As a vampire, Scarlet could revive the dead. The resurrected subject would then be left with only the strongest instincts before it died. In other words, the vampire could draw out the human instinct…the consciousness. Siesta wanted to ask Scarlet how she could wake up her friend who remained in slumber. 

"Where do you think a person's soul resides?" 

And Scarlet asked us a question in return. 

"In the brain, or there?" 

Scarlet's golden eyes look down at Siesta's left chest. 

Where in the body does the human heart or soul reside? 

Even if we were to replace ‘mind’ and ‘soul’ with ‘consciousness in a more concrete way, the definitions still differed between different disciplines, like philosophy, psychology, and medicine. Philosophy focuses on thought, psychology on sensation, medicine on mechanical reactions based on stimuli. There were also many different ways of understanding this aspect called the human ‘consciousness’. 

And so for Siesta, who probably was influenced by the?seed?, the consciousness was within the heart in her left chest. On the other hand, Hel, her sworn enemy, was sleeping in Natsunagi's brain as another consciousness. If so, would Natsunagi, her Master, also have a consciousness lingering in her brain? That might be the case scientifically. 

"……" 

The next thing I knew, Scarlet stared at me, a sneer plastered to the sides of his cheeks. 

"Is there a place for human consciousness? Well, I don't have the right answer for that, either." 

Then, Scarlet made a snide face. 

You don't know either? 

"This is the biggest waste of time…" 

"This guy does things like this with a big smile on his face." 

Siesta stared at Scarlet in disgust. 

"I don’t have a choice in this. The?Immortals?I create can only revive with its own instincts. My will has nothing to do with it." 

"You don't think this is what you want?" 

"It's the same as me not wanting to live like this." 

Scarlet gave such an unintelligible response. I was about to ask what he meant, but the vampire's beautiful yet terrifying profile made me hesitate. 

"The only thing I can say is," 

The vampire spoke up again. 

"Whether it's a single hair or a piece of a tooth, as long as there is a piece of flesh, the dead can come back to life. In that sense, the human instinct within all that DNA probably awakens the  consciousness." 

And once he said so, Scarlet reverted to his usual aloof expression. 

Human consciousness runs through our body like blood from our toes to the top of our head. The eyes look to tomorrow, the hand that grasps the sword to protect someone, the heart never stops beating even after death, and each organ contained an indelible will. 

"Bat died." 

While we were talking, I remembered that I had an enemy, and informed Scarlet. 

When I first met Scarlet that night, he was working with Bat, who was an interested party at the time. Then, through a series of twists and turns, Bat became an ally not of Scarlet, but of Saikawa and me, and eventually, as if fulfilling his true purpose, he fought SEED and scattered. 

"I see." 

Scarlet muttered without any particular emotion in his voice, 

"If you bring me a part of him, I can bring him back to life." 

He offered such a suggestion, probably without malice, just as a vampire should. 

"No, it’s fine." 

I didn’t need to speak for the dead, but he would never want to do that. Because, 

"Bat's wish has already come true." 

He didn’t have to fight anymore. 

I just wanted him to sleep peacefully. 

"Well. I don't know what happened, but I'm sure that's a good thing." 

Scarlet stared off into the distance, the night wind ruffling his silvery hair. 

"There's one more thing I wanted to ask you." 

Siesta asked Scarlet on my behalf. 

"Do you know what kind of deal?Phantom Thief (Arsene)?made with?Primordial Seed?in the past?" 

What did Arsene receive from SEED in exchange for providing the?Bible?? That might be a clue to unravel the mystery behind this series of events. 

"Well, I hadn’t been to that boring meeting in a while, so I don't know anything about that." 

But Scarlet shrugged and again didn't give us the answer we were looking for. 

"Besides, I'm only interested in my enemies." 

Was he referring to the?world's enemies?as a?Tuner?? Or— 

"Scarlet, what are you fighting against?" 

The vampire didn’t answer my question. 

His golden eyes just stared at the distant night moon with a dazzling glare. 

"Oh, there's one thing I should have told you." 

But Scarlet, as if suddenly remembering, turned his face towards us again. 

"I have no way of knowing about the?Phantom Thief?, but I can disclose information about the ?Primordial Seed?that no longer exists." 

Consider it your reward for defeating it, Scarlet gave a boastful smile as he said. 

"When I negotiated with the?Primordial Seed?, it asked me ‘shall we destroy the sun together’." 

That's probably what Scarlet was referring to earlier when he said SEED asked him to fight alongside it. I had asked Scarlet what kind of negotiations had taken place at that time, but he hadn't been able to tell me back then. 

"So that's it.” 

To tell the truth, I had been somewhat aware of that possibility when I learned of the?Primordial Seed?’s weakness to the sun. SEED approached Scarlet, who was also weak against the sun, to negotiate. 

"But why did you say no, it wasn't a bad deal for vampires, was it?" 

"Oh. I thought it would be fun to take it up on that offer." 

Then Scarlet looked from me to Siesta, 

"I was just taking pity on a former potential bride who wouldn’t be able to take a nap while basking in the sun." 

His mouth slackened softly. 

"…Well, if it's the number of times I've seen Siesta sleep, I too…" 

"Assistant, I don't see why you're competing with him in this aspect." 

Not arguing, just stating a fact. 

But now I had asked Scarlet everything I needed to know, and there was no further progress on Natsunagi's consciousness or the story of the?Phantom Thief?. With that in mind, I signalled to Siesta that it was time for us to leave. 

"You never know what the?Phantom Thief?might do now. Be careful." 

Siesta told Scarlet. 

"As expected of someone who cares for her husband", and the latter muttered with satisfaction. 

"But you're right, there's definitely been some shady business going on lately." 

Scarlet's golden eyes narrowed like a thread. 

"About a month ago, a man's body arrived at my door. I was asked if I would buy it for a million dollars." 

It sounded like an organ trade. But the act of buying and selling a corpse probably meant a lot to a vampire who could bring the dead back to life. 

"So the corpse wasn't a normal human?" 

I asked Scarlet, sensing the flow of the conversation. 

"Yeah. I didn't take the deal after all, but he was certainly worth the price." 

Scarlet then mentions a certain dead person he saw a month ago. 

"It was the corpse of Flip Stuart, the ?Revolutionary?."