Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 9 - Chapter 5.01

I’ll go meet you again

I’d gone and said a cool-guy line like I’m not gonna be able to hold back, but when I thought about it calmly, there was just no way I could beat Siesta. A few minutes ago, I’d had a faint hope that I might be able to manage it somehow, but now I felt like punching myself for thinking it.

“Actually, has borrowing that vampiric power made her even stronger…?”

I’d slipped out of the sanctuary, planning to take the fight elsewhere, and Siesta had chased after me hell-for-leather. She’d run along the wall of the castle corridor, leaped up all the way to the ceiling, and when she’d landed again, cracks had raced through the floor. Forget fighting defensively—all I could do was run.

I dodged and weaved, managing to fire shots every so often to hold her back. Ordinarily, this game of tag wouldn’t even have lasted thirty seconds, but I managed to tough it out for a few minutes because Siesta’s stamina hadn’t significantly recovered yet.

Her explosive power was ferocious, but after running for fifteen seconds or so, she’d stop as if she was out of breath. Thanks to that, I was able to put some distance between us every now and then. I wasn’t sure whether this was a great way to fight somebody who was sick, but at this point, wearing Siesta down was the most effective way to survive this battle.

“Not that my strength is infinite, either, though.”

Panting hard, I ran around the vampire’s fortress.

The sanctuary we’d just left was on the second-highest floor of the Nightless Castle. I sprinted down a spiral staircase and kept descending deeper and deeper. Dashing out of the stairwell into a random corridor, I fled into a room at the very end. It turned out to be a bedroom with a large bed.

“I’d really love to just crash here, but…”

In order to reach this castle, I’d taken several flights, come all the way to a distant country, and cut through a war zone, barely resting at all. I’d had help from the Men in Black along the way, but frankly, I’d felt half dead by the time I got here. I still did.

In all honesty, I wished Ms. Fuubi or Ookami had come with me. This involved me personally, though, so for once, I had to settle things on my own.

Besides, in all likelihood, I’d only gotten Scarlet to talk to me because I’d come alone. And I wasn’t done yet: There was still something else I had to confirm with him directly.

“I’ve gotta deal with this first, though.”

The door was blown off its hinges. Siesta stood there, having just executed a magnificent roundhouse kick.

“Geez, you’ve got no manners— Whoa!”

I didn’t even have time to moan about it. Siesta closed the distance between us in a heartbeat, brandishing the knife in her right hand. Her movements were as polished and efficient as always.

But that was exactly why I could predict her next attack.

“A right kick, huh?”

I twisted away, evading her high kick.

I knew a bit about how Siesta moved in close combat. For years, I’d made it through battlefields by her side, and I’d had a closer view than anyone of how she fought. The fact that we’d aimed guns at each other for real last year also helped.

“Fighting like this really takes me back.”

But it wasn’t just the physical fighting—it was the bickering, too.

You being asleep all the time made life pretty boring.

“Stephen told me how to wake you up,” I said, continuing to fight. “Transplanting a compatible heart into you should save you. If we do that, though, he said you might lose your memories and your personality.”

Siesta’s knife grazed my left shoulder, and I caught her arm, restraining her. “I’ve been thinking about what to do. I kept mulling over which was truly important to me—your life, or the memories we share… I really didn’t want you to forget. I wanted you to remember me, and Natsunagi, and the rest of us.”

I would have preferred a future where we all got to drink black tea and eat sweet pie together.

Siesta leaped backward. She was breathing heavily; I’d worn her down quite a bit.

“But one day, when I was talking with Natsunagi, it hit me. When it comes down to it, I want you to live. That’s my greatest wish. More than anything else. I don’t know whether that’s what you want, too. But even if it’s just our egos talking, we want you to live. That’s all I want!”

Siesta leveled her knife again, preparing to charge. I fired my gun, sure she’d dodge it.

She evaded the bullet, but it knocked her off-balance just a little. I kicked her right arm hard, knocking the knife far out of her reach. This really wasn’t the Ace Detective in her prime.

“If you live, if you keep on living, I’ll meet you for the first time again!”

Siesta’s intense golden eyes glared at me as if I was the enemy.

“Even if you’ve lost your memories and it feels like you’ve never met me before, I’ll ask you to make me your assistant again. You’ll get suspicious and ask who I am, and I’ll say, ‘Don’t you remember?’ I’ll tell you about all our memories together, and you’ll say you don’t know what I’m talking about. Still, I’ll keep stubbornly talking to you, and I’ll annoy you…but even then, I won’t give up!”

What? You say that’s basically just being a stalker?

Well, you were that stubborn about recruiting me as your assistant.

That means at least three tries should be fine.

“…Should I make it five?”

I was clumsy, so I’d give myself some extra leeway.

“And then, Siesta, I’ll become your partner again. I’ll make you choose me again!”

I kept talking to her, believing that my voice would eventually reach her. According to Stephen, Siesta’s auditory cells had continued to work the whole time she was asleep. That meant they had to be working now, too.

“It’ll be fine. You’ll be able to be a detective again someday.”

She’d said so herself, way back when.

She’d said that being a detective was in her DNA.

In that case, even if she lost her memories and her personality, she wouldn’t have to worry.

The future where you become a detective again is already set in stone.

“After that, I’ll work hard. So—!”

A sharp pain ran through my neck: Siesta had bitten me. Her teeth felt slightly pointed. Was that due to the temporary vampirization?

I don’t care. Drink your heart out. I’ll give you as much of my blood as you want.

“Siesta, don’t give up on living!”

I hugged her tightly.

She bit down harder.

About the only thing I could offer her right now was my pain.

“Come home. Come back to us.”

Suddenly, the pressure on my neck eased.

Siesta began to collapse backward, and I hastily caught her in an embrace.

“I knew it. You really can hear me.”

My own word-soul had reached the detective’s instincts.