Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 8 - Chapter 2.1

 An eye for an eye, cheating for cheating

After that, I headed out to meet Reloaded. Meeting up with her right after hearing that from Noches made me feel guilty in a way I couldn’t even describe, but I couldn’t break a promise.

In addition, we weren’t meeting for one of her usual patrols. In a way, to me, this was something more important. I headed for the roof of the commercial building she’d called me to and finally spotted her at a table in a terrace café.

“You’re late.”

Rill sat at a table for four, chin in her hands, glaring at me. As usual, she was dressed in her Magical Girl outfit.

“I’m ten minutes early.”

“It can’t possibly be okay for a pet to keep his owner waiting.”

“Not fair.”

I started to take the seat across from Rill, but she pointed to the one next to her. I sat down in that one instead, then looked around. There didn’t seem to be any other customers. Had she actually reserved the place?

I’d asked her why we were meeting here, but all she said was “The view’s nice, isn’t it?” which wasn’t much of an answer. Although, she was right about the cityscape.

“Do you like high places?”

“Rill likes the sky.”

She’d been gazing up, not out.

Today was a pleasantly clear, sunny day.

“And? Remember what you said?” Sipping the hot coffee the waiter had brought me, I got the ball rolling. “You said you’d tell me the vampires’ secret, remember?”

That was the reason we were meeting today. Since I’d been her loyal dog for the past two weeks, I was supposed to get that information today.

“Wait until everyone’s here,” Rill told me, tapping her index finger on the table.

There were two empty chairs across from us.

Before long, I heard a familiar voice say, “Oh, there they are.” It was Natsunagi.

Today’s topic was directly related to the Ace Detective, so it was only natural that she’d be here…but she hadn’t come alone.

“Who’s that guy?”

The tall man was wearing a suit, and he looked like he was in his late twenties. He had large, sharp eyes that sort of seemed to be glaring at me; that and his thick hair made me think of a wild wolf. Who was he, though? He didn’t seem to be a Man in Black.

“Oh, of course. This is Ookami,” Natsunagi said by way of introduction.

Wow, even his name was wolf in Japanese.

“He’s my new assistant.”

The world faded to black.

“Um, Kimihiko? Rill thinks she just heard a crack open in the earth.” Rill poked me with her finger; my forehead had connected sharply with the table.

“Rill, do me a favor and pinch my cheek.”

“Let her state in advance that you’re not dreaming.”

Pain ran across my cheek—she sure wasn’t holding back.

I felt like putting this in the dictionary as an example of When it rains, it pours.

“What’s this ‘new assistant’ business…?” I sat up glumly.

Natsunagi had taken the seat across from me. “Mm, I suppose he’s not a new assistant so much as…a proxy assistant?”

A proxy assistant. So a stand-in for me? I looked over at Ookami, who sat next to Natsunagi. He was scratching the back of his head, looking bored.

“I had the Federation Government introduce us a little while ago. He’s going to help with the Ace Detective’s job. You know, like Olivia does for the Oracle, Mia.”

I see. So he was like an exclusive Tuner attendant. But in that case…

“But the Ace Detective has… You’ve got me, Natsunagi.”

“Then why are you with her right now?” Natsunagi glanced at Rill.

So while I was helping the Magical Girl, the Ace Detective had also hired a proxy?

“Huh? You look really frustrated. Is there something you want to say to me?” Natsunagi was wearing a triumphant smile.

It was a glorious revenge on the part of the Ace Detective.

“Ookami, this is Kimizuka.”

With that, she gave us the opportunity to talk.

However…

“Uh, I’m Ookami. That’s it.”

The man’s voice was low and almost wild. Without even making eye contact with me, the newly appointed assistant started on his coffee. I’d suspected as much from my first impression of him, but now I was sure he wasn’t planning to make friends.

Well, that was fine. I’d just give my name, too, and we’d get down to business. In other words, Rill would start talking about vampires. Or so I thought, but…

“Hey. You know you need to greet him properly.” Natsunagi tugged lightly on Ookami’s necktie, scolding him.

Ookami hadn’t been expecting that. He coughed a little, almost spitting out his coffee. “…Could you not?”

“You’re an adult, Ookami. Act like one.” Natsunagi glared at him.

Ookami awkwardly fixed his tie. Apparently, the only one the insolent assistant proxy couldn’t defy was his employer.

“Ookami, why are you so antisocial?”

“My regular job doesn’t require me to be social.”

“Now you’re splitting hairs. If you can’t be a little cooperative, you can’t function as part of your organization.”

“I always work alone with no issues. This is the first time I’ve been put on a team.”

“Huh? So I’m your first partner…”

Natsunagi acted disgusted with Ookami, but she was also wearing a smile that seemed to say she couldn’t just abandon him. It was like a portrait of a girl domesticating a lone wolf.

“Say, Rill, what do you think of that pair’s relationship?”

“Rill’s interpretation is probably the same as yours. You don’t mind if she delivers the final blow?”

“Actually, yeah, don’t say the rest.”

I couldn’t stand to watch the two of them being all buddy-buddy right in front of me, so I raised my empty cup to my lips. There was nothing in it, but something still tasted really bitter.

“Ookami, what are you?” I finally asked, realizing I couldn’t just let that slide. Sure, he was a proxy assistant, but what was his actual occupation and job title? She’d mentioned an organization…

“Security Police,” Ookami said, lighting a cigarette.

“That cigarette…”

“Hm?” Ookami raised one eyebrow.

“No, never mind,” I said, then asked him for details.

“I’m normally with the Security Police, but I also help out with private jobs like this one. I know quite a bit about this side of the world.” Ookami was speaking to me pretty frankly, maybe because Natsunagi had yelled at him earlier.

Still, how many people could say their public identity was “member of the Security Police”?

“So you’re on the force like Ms. Fuubi, hm? You’re not a Tuner, though, right?”

“Titles don’t interest me. I just carry out the jobs I’m assigned and see them through. Unlike some people.” Exhaling smoke, Ookami gave a nihilistic smile. Was he implying that I, Kimihiko Kimizuka, had given up my job as Nagisa Natsunagi’s assistant? Those were fighting words.

“Hey, Ookami,” I said, “if you keep hiding behind the ‘lone wolf’ label, you’ll never make any friends.”

“Hm? Speaking from experience?”

Invisible sparks scattered between us.

“Okay, enough, stop bickering because you’ve got too much in common.” Natsunagi clapped her hands sharply, saying something that made no sense. “Let’s move on. All right?” Her gaze went to Rill.

Rill seemed to have gotten tired of waiting; determined not to waste time, she’d started on a meal by herself.

“Vampires aren’t fairy-tale beings—nothing like it.” Twirling pasta around her fork, Rill got to the point. “Kimihiko, you’ve seen Scarlet, haven’t you? What did you think when you found out about him?”

“Frankly, I was only able to accept him because I already knew about pseudohumans. If I hadn’t, I probably would have thought I was having a nightmare.”

When I looked at Natsunagi, she nodded; apparently, it had been the same for her.

He used shadows as doors. He grew wings. He could resurrect the dead like it was nothing. Ordinarily, it wouldn’t have been easy to believe a being like him even existed.

“Right. Then you’ve been brilliantly fooled.” Rill laughed at me. “Scarlet and the other vampires really do defy common sense. However, their peculiarities are based in science. In that sense, they’re more grounded in reality than Pandemonium.”

Natsunagi raised a hand. “You’re saying when he melts into the darkness and grows wings and things, that’s science?”

“Yes. Those wings are mechanical; they’re attached to Scarlet’s spinal cord. With those, it’s easy for him to refract light and make himself seem to disappear.”

Those wings were man-made…? So all that vanishing into the shadows was an illusion?

“In fact, Scarlet is the only vampire who has those wings. The Inventor gave them to him as proof that he’s a Tuner.”

The Inventor, meaning Stephen? He’d provided Scarlet with special weapons and technology, just like Siesta and Reloaded…

“Then what the heck was that? Even if his abilities are not perfect, Scarlet can resurrect the dead. What was that ability?” Long ago, Scarlet had resurrected Chameleon, a pseudohuman who’d died. I’d been right there and watched him do it.

“That power alone is the real thing. It’s actually what makes him a vampire. Although the strength of their abilities varies, other vampires can resurrect the dead, too. They use a process based in genetic replication.”

“And you’re saying science made that possible, too? So what are they, exactly?” Even as I asked, a theory occurred to me. Remembering Chameleon had connected several dots all at once.

“Vampires began as an artificial, lab-created race.”

I knew it. Like pseudohumans, vampires had been someone’s creation. At this point, I also had a pretty good idea who that somebody was. “Were past Inventors the ones who created them?”

Rill nodded. Anyone who could create a race that was beyond human understanding would have to transcend common sense themselves. Previous Inventors had reshaped the world’s common sense, producing the monsters known as vampires.

“Wait. Why did they do it?” Natsunagi asked.

“Who knows? Rill certainly doesn’t.” She shook her head.

Ookami, who’d been silently listening to the conversation, stubbed out his cigarette. “Asking a researcher why they did that sort of research would be a dumb question,” he said. “What are we, politicians who want to trim budgets wherever we can?”

“You’re pretty sarcastic, aren’t you, Ookami?” Natsunagi said.

Ookami shrugged, playing innocent.

“How did you know what you just told us, Rill?” I said.

“Rill’s been to Stephen’s lab, or something like it. She just happened to sneak a peek at those research materials while she was there. He caught on fast and put them away, though.”

“So you know where Stephen is? Where…?”

“No idea. When Rill’s weapons or body need maintenance, sometimes, he contacts her through the Men in Black, but someone else has been handling that sort of thing lately.”

Oh… Here I’d thought we’d lucked into intel about Stephen, but apparently, things weren’t going to be that easy.

“I really do want to talk with Scarlet directly,” Natsunagi said when Rill had finished her story. “There’s still a lot I don’t understand about vampires, and I need to know if they’re really plotting a rebellion that’ll threaten the whole world.”

“Yeah, I second that. Not that I know where he is.”

Using the Men in Black to locate Scarlet would be ideal, but we hadn’t had any luck trying to find Stephen that way.

When I’d talked it over with Mia a little while ago, she’d told me there were Men in Black who did know where Stephen and Scarlet were. However, while the Men in Black functioned as the world’s gears, they were constantly striking an overall balance by weighing which Tuner to align themselves with and to what extent, so there was no guarantee that they’d actually work with us.

If we couldn’t count on the Men in Black, who else might help us out…?

“Where do you think the Information Broker is now?”

Bruno Belmondo, one of the twelve Tuners, was also known as the world’s wisdom. Would he give us the information that would give us the leg up we needed? I’d heard Siesta had borrowed his help several times long ago…

“I hear he only cooperates with other Tuners when he wants to,” Ookami said, shooting down my suggestion. It seemed to be true, though; even Rill, Bruno’s colleague, nodded.

“Our best move is to search for Scarlet directly, so let’s do that,” Ookami said, getting to his feet. Natsunagi followed suit.

“You’re going?” I asked.

“Do you have any right to hold me back when you’re here with another girl?” she said.

“…See you at school.”

“Like I said, the exams are over, and we only have to attend if we want to.”

Come to think of it, she had said something like that. For no particular reason, I ran my fingertip around the rim of a nearby cup. Natsunagi giggled. “You know, I think I wanted to see that glum look.”

Then she left with Ookami.

It was my first total loss in quite a while.

“Okay, Kimihiko. We’re headed out on patrol.”

Yeesh. So we were going again today after all? Granted, I’d sort of picked up on that from her clothes, but…

“Come on, get over it already. Can you walk on your own?”

“…Just for today, could you put me on a leash?”