Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 5 - Chapter 26

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The curtains open for the next story.

And so the next day, Siesta and I were in a room of a building.

It was right after 4 PM.

Sitting side by side on the guest sofa, we’re waiting for the person we promised to meet.

"By the way, your deductions have improved."

Siesta said while enjoying a cup of tea from the tea set she brought with her.

After I left Scarlet last night, I came up with a hypothesis about the series of events surrounding the?Phantom Thief?and spent the night discussing it with Siesta back at the hotel. Now that we’ve come to a conclusion, we were waiting for a certain person to answer our questions.

"I could sense your growth when we were walking down the street last night, but I didn't think you were the type to evolve further in a fight."

Siesta then praised me like I'm a hero in a battle manga.

"You’re all grown up before I knew it. I miss the days of changing your diapers."

"Was there such a period? You're the baby. How long did you sleep in today?"

As per the previous day, Siesta didn't wake up in the morning or in the afternoon, and in the evening, she finally crawled out of bed after I shook her body repeatedly.

"It's okay once in a while."

But Siesta shrugged off my sarcasm with a clear face. This wasn’t a once-in-a-while issue.

"Besides, the other party was busy, and this was the only time we could get together."

"Well, it’s true that we’re the ones who asked for this, but…"

While we were having this conversation, the door suddenly opened, and a person walked in. Nobody knocked on the door, but that’s expected as we’re in the office of that man.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

The man's name was Flip Stuart.

Dressed in a fine suit, with an ostensible business smile on his face, he took his seat in the back of the room and didn’t face us. We hadn't seen each other since the Federation Conference just two days ago.

"Sorry I had a lot of work to do. I hope you'll allow me to talk to you."

So Flip, the mayor of New York and also a?Tuner?, opened his computer and busily taps away at the keyboard.

"Are you dealing with all the incidents?"

"…Ah yes. I heard from Fuubi Kase. You guys took care of an incident the other day."

Flip turned his head toward us for a moment, "Thanks for the help," and beamed.

He was referring to the terrorist attack that had occurred here in New York to free Arsene, the?Phantom Thief?. Flip, the mayor of this city, was still busy dealing with it.

"She's still as meddlesome as ever, isn't she?"

Flip chuckled and teased Fuubi-san.

As mentioned at the Federation Conference, Fuubi-san had gone beyond the scope of her work to help the?Famous Detective?, and this time she seemed to be pursuing the case of the?Phantom Thief?.

"And then?"

Flip asked us as he ran his pen over the papers in his hand.

"I've heard that there are some new facts about the series of incidents involving the?Phantom Thief?."

Yes, we had come to this man to talk about it.

"Yeah, actually, we figured out where the?Phantom Thief?is."

As soon as I said that, Flip's hand stopped moving.

Then he raised his eyes and frowned suspiciously.

"You're telling me you've already located the escaped?Phantom Thief??"

"I’d be troubled if you pester this famous detective and her assistant."

But that was also the answer I derived from the words and actions of the other?Tuners?.

"So, let me ask you something."

Flip's emerald green eyes turned to us.

"Where is the?Phantom Thief?Arsene now?"

"Right over there."

I answered bluntly.

And in turn, a small round hand mirror was in Siesta's hand. On the mirror's surface was a man with eyes as cold as ice, who probably didn't even realize he was there.

"—I'm the?Phantom Thief?? That's a funny thing to say."

But Flip turned his eyes away from the mirror and began tapping away at his keyboard again.

"I thought we introduced ourselves a while ago. My name is Flip, and I'm the?Revolutionary?."

Then, without making eye contact, he rejected our hypothesis.

"No, you're not Flip Stuart."

Siesta said as she put away her hand mirror next to me.

"This Flip Stuart guy is already dead. And you, the?Phantom Thief?, have taken the place of the dead?Revolutionary?."

That's what Scarlet said last night—the?Revolutionary? Flip Stuart was already dead. If that's the case, then who was that?Revolutionary?we met at the meeting two days ago? It seemed that Scarlet, a stranger who usually abstained away from the mundane world and didn’t show up at the Federation Conference, didn't know that there was such a fake.

What was certain, however, was that someone was standing there in the place of the?Revolutionary?Flip Stuart.

"So, let's assume this Flip Stuart guy is a fake.

So said Flip…no, the man who called himself Flip stopped typing on the keyboard altogether.

"How can you be so sure that it is the?Phantom Thief??"

Yeah, that's a fair question. No one will be convinced by the mere reasoning that the?Tuners?could simply switch places. However, with the existence of this?Phantom Thief?, there was a certain reason why it was easy.

"The?Phantom Thief?can use the?seed?to transform into Flip."

That's what I assumed the?Phantom Thief? Arsene once received from SEED in exchange for stealing the?Bible?. That's how he transformed into Flip, who was also a?Tuner? and stole the position of?Revolutionary?.

"What's more, the fact that none of the?Tuners?noticed your switch until now is proof in itself."

And Siesta also tells us why we can assume that this fake Flip was Arsene.

"You pretended to be Flip Stuart for a month, and even attended the Federation Conference of?Tuners?in that state, acting boldly as a moderator. Even so, the fact that none of the other?Tuners?, including myself, noticed the Revolutionary's replacement can only be attributed to your supernatural nature as a?Phantom Thief?."

Siesta wasn’t being overconfident in her own observation of the other?Tuners?. They certainly were capable of such, given that they had handled countless?world crises?. Even so, there’s no doubt that the position of?Revolutionary?had been stolen because the enemy was the?Phantom Thief?Arsene.

"Those who had something stolen from them by Arsene will never be aware of the fact."

That was exactly what Siesta had said the previous.

"I see. I suppose it's a bit short-sighted to think that you're only aware of this because you're Singularity."

The man, still sitting at his desk, smiled and continued.

"So, why do you think I (boku) needed to replace Flip?"

His voice was soft. It was round, warm, and soothing. I was so wrapped up in that soothing voice that I didn't even notice for a moment that the first person pronoun had changed. It was different from the cold voice I had heard so often at the meeting.

"—Assistant."

Like a water-filled balloon bursting, my consciousness awoke with a bang.

Next to me was a familiar figure, my partner, and I suddenly remembered what I had to do now. Yeah, this man had already confessed that he’s Arsene, the?Phantom Thief?. But he's still trying to calmly get us to talk about the motive behind the switch.

"?Phantom Thief? Arsene."

Siesta called out to the man who still assumed Flip's form.

"The reason you are disguised as Flip Stuart is to brainwash people all over the world through the media."

Maybe that was just a hypothesis, but it’s true that Arsene had a special skill that allowed him to manipulate others. If that was the case, he could have taken the form of Flip Stuart and spread his voice around the world in order to maximize his power.

"—I see."

Arsene muttered with a sigh, and a moment of silence fell over the room.

"Well, let me make one point, so as not to cause any misunderstandings."

But then it was Arsene who spoke up again. He propped his elbows on the desk and crossed his fingers in front of his chin,

"I have nothing to do with the death of the?Revolutionary?Flip Stuart. I was merely filling in for him right after he passed."

In a soft, rippling voice, he insisted that he had nothing to do with the death of the man.

"Then what is your purpose?"

Siesta got up and stood in front of Arsene.

She’s not asking why the?Phantom Thief?replaced the?Revolutionary?. We had already covered that.

"Flip Stuart was already dead a month ago, and yet he seemed to keep appearing in the media. That means you broke out of prison at least a month ago and lived to replace the?Revolutionary?Flip Stuart."

Then why, Siesta asked.

"Even though you've been outside the walls for so long, why on earth would you be manipulating and inciting complete strangers to free you?"

It was a question that we had once dismissed as impossible on the streets last night. There was no point in choosing someone outside the walls as a collaborator if he could have escaped immediately.

But the fact was that Arsene was not only able to escape from prison at any time, he was already free a month ago. So why was he manipulating people in London and New York to get him out of prison for no reason?

To such a natural question, Arsene said—

"The fact that it doesn't make sense is the most meaningful thing to me.”

Arsene gives a zen-like, incomprehensible answer. Looking at Siesta and me, "Don't you understand?" He continued.

"It's an experiment to see how many meaningless things people can do at the behest of others."

It's a thought experiment that seems to be beyond logic. The Phantom Thief and the Detective were both destined to fight each other since ancient times, as opposites like a spear and a shield.

"Do you think I'll let you continue with this experiment?"

But because of that fate, the detective took up the spear.

Siesta stood next to me, pointing her familiar musket at the enemy.

"Do be at ease."

Arsene however paid no heed to the muzzle pointed at him, and spoked airily.

"All the experiments are done, and I do have enough statistics. They will lead to the next one."

"There won’t be a next one…"

"And,"

Arsene stood up, interrupting me.

"The?seed?I obtained from the?Primordial Seed?is just a fragment. It doesn't have many side effects, and its functions are limited. That's why I can't keep this form for long. We should go now."

"…A?seed?fragment? That's why you broke the Federal Charter and stole the?Bible?on the?Primordial Seed??"

For some reason, Arsene's eyes narrowed in disappointment for a moment when I asked so.

"I would never let others know what I have stolen. Nevertheless, since you all know that I stole the?Bible?from the?Primordial Seed?. Doesn't that make you wonder?"

I'm sure that's what you were telling me, Arsene admonished us.

Sure, we knew that Arsene stole the?Bible?. But that's because Siesta and Mia had arranged it beforehand, and there's nothing particularly strange about it—

"No way. Are you saying that the?Bible?wasn’t the only thing you stole for the?Primordial Seed?that day?"

Siesta asked, keeping her muzzle pointed at Arsene to stop him from moving.

"…I see, so Arsene has another goal in mind huh?"

Siesta and Mia were aware that Arsene was trying to steal the?Bible?. Therefore, they were truly on their guard, yet Arsene managed to sneak through the defences and stole something else in addition to the?Bible?related to the Primordial Seed—and neither Siesta nor Mia knew about it.

"So you've been trying to—"

Siesta's blue eyes narrowed. She finally realized that instead of her using Arsene, the latter had been using her back.

"I don't like the idea of simply getting paid. I will steal what I truly want with my own hands."

And Arsene walked past us.

"You think you can get away with this?"

I followed Siesta's lead and pointed my gun at the enemy.

"Escape? I've never wanted to run, not from anyone, not ever."

Just then, I heard an eerie clicking sound in my ear.

"It's just that no one can keep up with me."

Then a black gun flickered into view. Both Siesta and I were forced to raise our hands in the air by the sudden appearance of men with muzzle flashes to the back of our heads.

"…Are these guys being manipulated too?"

They were apparently city employees, judging by their appearance.

Perhaps they were being manipulated by Arsene's powers.

"No, they're not."

Arsene paused there for a moment.

"They're all working for me of their own volition."

But he left us to our own devices and went for the door.

"I'm sure you heard that the other day."

But the girl stopped him again.

Despite being held at gunpoint by men in suits, she…Siesta said to the enemy behind her that was leaving.

"A new?famous detective?will take my place. Nagisa Natsunagi will never be defeated by an enemy who manipulates the hearts of men."