Bathed in sunlight, Kikiou entered the room. Seeing him, Mephisto straightened the test tube. It was filled with a medicine of a curious color. Beneath it, the garish liquid collected in a beaker. This was his laboratory in the Demon Pavilion.
“That agrees with you,” Mephisto said.
The old man rubbed the wrist of the hand holding the cane with his free hand. It seemed an affectionate gesture, contemplative even.
“You made that yourself?”
“More or less. I apologize for imposing on the doctor’s good offices.”
“Feel no need to refrain.”
Kikiou turned a pair of curious eyes on Takako, lying on the bed to Mephisto’s left. “That girl, Princess was to bare her throat and take her blood. Is that why she sleeps here?”
“This is the result of Princess’s mistake.”
“What?”
“Kanan-san gave birth to a separate self that Princess and Setsura are now pursuing. She apparently possesses power that could destroy this world if left unhindered.”
“I cannot believe such a thing could occur. Then I must leave at once.”
“Even if you do, you will not find them anytime soon. If this world is truly Princess’s own, then she will surely have her way with it. I would let them be.”
“But—how could that girl’s body have given rise to such a thing?”
“That would be due to me.”
“To you?”
“The result of the experiments both you and Princess have been well aware of. Though it was Princess who drank Kanan-san’s blood, one of them is now attempting to bask in the power unobstructed. Physically reunite them, and not even I could predict which would reign supreme.”
“What have you done, Doctor? Bad enough that you should be searching for ways to release this girl from her servitude to Princess. But to release such a monster on this world?”
“Weren’t you planning on making Shinjuku your own domain?”
“That is exactly what I am saying.” Kikiou glared at Mephisto with now evident loathing. “Back to the matter at hand. If she dies, won’t the other as well?”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
“Then—”
“Then what do you plan on doing with my patient?”
Caught in his cool gaze, Kikiou flinched, half from the sheer weight of his beauty. “I have no intention to act counter to your desires. However, there is something I wish to ask of you.”
“Oh?” the white doctor asked with evident eagerness. “What would that be?”
Kikiou licked his lips and formed his resolution into words. “Doctor, to what ends did you become one of us?”
“You know the answer already: to learn the true nature of a world that only the vampire can comprehend.”
“That is the only reason?”
“The evidence before you isn’t enough? No matter what the suspect says, I gather you would not believe me. In short, no one else can understand another’s mind. The human animal is forever a bundle of doubts.”
“Would you mind if I take that to mean you may have other ends in mind?”
“Take it any way you please.”
“Well, then. How goes your treatments of the girl?”
“Not so well,” Mephisto answered without hesitation.
Kikiou blinked at the alacrity of the response. These were words he never expected to hear coming out of this doctor’s mouth.
“Not so well?”
“Restoring those whose blood has been taken by a vampire to human status again without destroying the master is more improbable than resurrecting the dead. That I already understood.”
“And doesn’t that second young woman argue against that conclusion?”
“I suppose it could.”
“Doctor—do you really care one way or another what happens to this world and all the rest?”
“Well—”
Two pairs of eyes momentarily met in midair and threw off sparks. Kikiou lowered his gaze. “I will be leaving, then,” he said with a bow.
“I recommend that you not interfere with Princess and Setsura,” Mephisto said. “You have more important things to concern yourself with, I’m sure. Yes, of course. Would you happen to know where those moon lily flowers might be found?”
“Quite a number are blooming in the back garden of the manor house.”
“How about that,” said Mephisto, turning his back to him as Kikiou left the room.