Chapter 6.1

The final showdown

After we'd said our goodbyes to Bat, we got back into the car, and Charlie drove off in pursuit of Seed. We focused our search on places he was likely to flee to, such as buildings where the sun wouldn't reach him, then used Saikawa's left eye to efficiently eliminate possibilities.

Finally we reached a big, ruined shopping mall in the suburbs. They hadn't started demolishing it yet; the whole building was covered with vines, and it was dark enough inside that we had to use flashlights, even in the daytime. We walked through the structure, and finally, on the third floor of the parking garage

—we found our target. "…Kimizuka, be careful."

"I know. Natsunagi, you take care of Saikawa."

Since Saikawa was being targeted as Seed's vessel, I had her and Natsunagi fall back.

"Kimizuka… Let's watch zombie movies together after this, all right?"

"Yeah, sign me up for a Prime membership while we're here," I said, bantering with Saikawa.

…Then Charlie and I exchanged glances, and we turned to face Seed. "So you're here."

The garage was littered with abandoned cars, and the enemy stood at the very back of it, a dozen meters ahead of us.

His long hair was a color that was hard to define, somewhere between gray and silver. His characterless, expressionless face seemed to transcend nationality and even gender; there was something that provoked awe about it, something almost holy.

The primordial seed could mimic the structure of the human body, and he seemed to be capable of replicating other organic matter to some extent: He'd cloaked himself in a substance that resembled thin armor. I could see cracks in his neck, though. They might be the aftereffects of his brief exposure to sunlight. His right ear was missing as well. Was there other damage hidden beneath that

armor?

"Why do you expend this much energy in order to fight?"

I'd begun to reach toward my hip, but Seed's dark purple eyes pierced me. "What reason is there for conflict? Think about it. Is it because I am what you

refer to as your sworn enemy? Past enmity? The death of a member of your species? Because this is a suitable place to vent your grudge? Do you intend to take up weapons for such sentimental reasons? It's beyond comprehension," Seed said, in a voice that held no emotion at all.

"Then you're saying you don't want to fight?" Charlie narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out what the enemy was after. She kept her guard up, and her hand stayed on her sword's sheath.

"I never have. There's nothing more pointless than expending energy in futile conflict."

Siesta had written about that in her letter. Seed wasn't actively fond of fighting; he'd only used his subordinates to cause trouble in order to carry out his plan.

"Seed, what exactly are you?" I asked. It was an abstract question, but that had to be something we'd need to know. "All I know about you is that you're the seed of a plant that came from outer space, that sunlight is your mortal enemy, and that you're raising human vessels in order to eliminate its threat to you. That's all. What are you really, and why are you so fixated on your survival instinct that you'd invade us?"

I'm sure he was wondering why I was asking now, after all this. Even so, Seed said, "I made a forced landing on Earth a little more than fifty years ago."

Without showing any hostility, he began to relate his own history.

It was as if he was the one who was trying to settle things peacefully.

"As the primordial seed, I'd drifted through space in an outer shell capable of withstanding temperatures from absolute zero to ten thousand degrees Fahrenheit. At one point, a supernova occurred in a galaxy several tens of thousands of light-years away. The shock wave badly disrupted my control, and I crashed onto this planet."

"So you were like a meteorite…?" I remembered the model of the primordial seed at the SPES lab. It had only been the size of a pebble. That was how this global crisis from outer space had descended to Earth, with nobody the wiser.

"I'd landed in a dark, cold, barren land that resembled a desert. It wasn't long before a cold sensation told me that my outer shell had been damaged. It

probably happened in the landing," Seed went on. "Even so, I kept moving, drifting on the wind. Gradually, the temperature rose, my surroundings grew brighter—and that was when the trouble began."

"The sun," Charlie murmured quietly.

"I could feel my seeds rapidly withering. However, I was sure that if I could escape that barren land, I would be able to get away from the heat source, which was now high overhead. Shielding myself with what little remained of my outer shell, I rode the wind around the world."

"…And then you realized there was nowhere on the planet to run?"

I was sure that was when his survival instinct had truly established itself.

"! Kimizuka, look," Charlie said sharply. When I hastily focused on the enemy, I saw that the right ear Bat had risked his life to slice off was swelling back up, like bubbles rising to the surface of the water. Were his cells dividing and beginning to regenerate?

"Before long, I learned that the name of my enemy was 'the sun.' Little by little, I learned the mechanisms of this planet. The fact that it had 'day' and 'night.' That it was home to many diverse life-forms, such as wolves, bats, and chameleons. And that 'humans' stood at the apex of the ecosystem, as the rulers of this planet."

…The rest probably matched what I'd read in Siesta's letter, and what I'd seen and heard at the lab.

Seed had infiltrated the bodies of humans and animals, studying their structures. Then, as he collected samples, he'd learned to disguise himself as those creatures. That technique had led to the discovery of seeds that could enhance organs. He'd created clones from cuttings of himself. Humans had gathered, seeking the power of those seeds, and he'd consolidated both groups to form SPES.

Although Seed had hoped to conquer the sun by using a human body as a vessel, the primordial seed consumed the humans' nutrients, and his vessels promptly withered. In order to cultivate a vessel that was compatible with the seed, he created a test facility, disguising it as an orphanage, and had attempted to locate children like Natsunagi (Hel), Siesta, and Alicia.

"It has taken fifty years, but I thought I was about to fulfill my survival instinct at last," Seed murmured quietly, turning his eyes to some point in the distance. "However, for some reason, the future I thought I knew did not arrive. Two vessels were lost simultaneously, before my very eyes."

That was the plot Siesta had laid. She and Mia had set a trap and tricked him.

"So now let me ask you this." The enemy's eyes returned to us.

"Why? Why would you go so far to obstruct me? What justifiable reason do you have to prevent me from following my instinct to survive? It isn't as if I intend to destroy the human race. Those who are unable to serve as my vessels may simply live on in areas where they don't get in my way. We should be able to segregate sufficiently… And yet you attempt to fight me. Why?"

Seed didn't necessarily want a war and was trying to find a compromise. That actually worked in our favor. Even if our opponent was damaged, and even if we had the advantage of numbers, this was someone that many Tuners had been unable to handle. If we fought him, there was no guarantee that we'd win.

"I understand what you're saying," I told Seed. I hadn't drawn my weapon. "We won't kill you. We won't even attack you. We don't plan to condemn your survival instinct, and if there's something you need to live, we'll help you as much as we can. However—"

For just a moment, I turned back, glancing at the girls who stood there. "We're not giving you Yui Saikawa. We won't let you sacrifice a single one of our friends."

Siesta, Natsunagi, Charlie, or anybody else—I won't let you use any of them as your vessel. Whatever happened, I couldn't allow anyone to be sacrificed for the life of another. I wanted to tell the deceased Ace Detective the exact same thing.

"Oh, is that what this is about?" Seed murmured.

"I finally understand why such a fatal disconnect has occurred between myself and you humans."

"…What do you mean? What are you trying to say?"

I had a bad feeling about this. Some sixth sense told me that the next thing he said would cause a decisive break between us. It was too late to head it off, though, as Seed plunged on.

"You humans fell from the apex of the ecosystem long ago, and yet you refuse to serve as the foundation of a higher species. That runs counter to the laws of the natural world."

Seed was saying that just as mankind had survived by eating other animals, he'd satisfy his survival instinct by using humans as his vessels. His claim was that this was a new natural law.

"Do humans feel guilt when you eat a cow or pig or bird? Do you develop special feelings for each individual life-form? This is no different. I feel nothing about using your bodies as vessels."

"...!" Charlie sent him a sharp glare, and her hand tensed on her sword's sheath.

"You're saying you don't even feel grateful to those who will make you what you are? You don't care who they are or what they're like?"

"Can you humans tell the face of one cow or pig from another?"

With his eyes wide open, Seed tilted his head in an exaggerated way. His neck cracked audibly.

"…Oh, I see." Finally, I understood.

Seed wasn't talking to individuals, to Kimihiko Kimizuka and Charlotte Arisaka Anderson. Just as humans couldn't tell the ants who swarmed at their feet apart, Seed was aware of us only as "humans" in general.

For example, when Hel had run away last year in London, the clone Chameleon had a hard time finding her. Although they'd worked together closely for years as members of SPES, when he'd met Natsunagi again on that cruise ship, he hadn't realized who she was.

Unsurprisingly, his parent Seed didn't normally see humans as individuals,

either. The only thing he paid attention to was whether the subject in front of him was a defective variant in terms of becoming his vessel.

"Now do you understand, humans?" Without even blinking, Seed gazed at the four of us as a unit. "This isn't a matter of good or evil. It's a logical conclusion about the shape nature should take."

In the truest sense of the word, Seed wasn't looking at anyone.

I asked him one final question. "What if we say we'll resist anyway?" "Humans show their livestock no mercy, either."

He's right. I can't deny that.

I drew my Magnum, pointing it at the enemy. "I see. Here's the thing, though: Humans are really bad at knowing when to give up."