Outbreak Company: Volume 5

by Ichiro Sakaki

  It was understandable, then, that she might feel ill at ease in a military household.

  “Is that why you became a spy, Elvia?” Minori-sama asked.

  “Yeah, pretty much.”

  Spying would allow her to draw as part of her work. And it would keep her from being compared to her siblings or her parents. And so...

  “Oh! There it is,” Elvia-san said, coming to a stop and pointing at a particular house. Even with her pointing, I couldn’t tell it apart from all the other houses.

  “Looks like she just got back,” Elvia-san said.

  True, if I squinted, I could make out some lights through the window, and what appeared to be a person moving around inside.

  “I’ll go have a chat with her.”

  “Hold on, Elvia,” Minori-sama said. She produced some kind of small stick from her bag. “Take this. Attach it to yourself like this.” As she spoke, she stuck the stick to Elvia-san’s chest.

  “Whazzis?”

  “Just a little magic item for you. There, all set.” She gave Elvia-san a pat on the chest. “Good luck!”

  “Sure. You two just wait here where no one can see you.”

  Then, leaving her baggage with us, she set off toward her older sister’s house. I wondered if she would be able to find out from her where Shinichi-sama was. For that matter, I wondered if her older sister even knew.

  I heaved an anxious sigh.

  “Myusel,” Minori-sama said. She had something in her hand—her sumart fone. She was running her finger across its surface. “Perfect. Got it.” She nodded to herself.

  “What’s this...?”

  “That fown-ten-pen-shaped thing I stuck on Elvia’s chest is sending us video over the ayr wayves, so... Er, I guess this isn’t making any sense to you. The point is, it’s magic that lets us see what’s happening inside.” Then she showed me the fone.

  It was showing “video,” a sort of moving image much like what we could see on the tell-evision and compyuuter at school. Elvia-san was just meeting her sister. We saw a girl with white hair.

  “Wow,” Minori-sama whistled. She must have been surprised. I know I was.

  On the sumart fone was someone who looked exactly like Elvia-san. The only difference was, her hair was as white as an elderly person’s. That simple contrast made her look like a completely different person—but her face was identical to Elvia-san’s.

  It felt very strange.

  “Sorry, Myusel,” Minori-sama said. “My magic ring won’t work like this. Think you could interpret?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  The rings could only communicate meaning when two people were speaking face-to-face. Because everything was being sent over the fone, Minori-sama could no longer understand what Elvia-san was saying.

  “I ask you, Elvia. What is the meaning and reason for your coming here?”

  “Umm...”

  In my mind, I struggled to make sense of what I was hearing. Bahairam’s language was basically the same as that of Eldant, or at least, it sprang from the same source. But their accent was extremely heavy, and the conjugation rules were different. Combined with some unusual ways of speaking, I found I couldn’t translate it into neat Eldant. It was all I could do just keep track of what everything meant, and it all came out sounding oddly stiff.

  “Your end of mission time is not yet, I understand. Why, why?”

  “Agree, agree. But, but, I...”

  Elvia-san sounded a little overwhelmed. Her “mission” must have been her spying. She floundered a little longer before saying:

  “I hesitate. Big Sister Ama...” She seemed to collect her resolve, then said, “I ask you. Kanou Shinichi. You know this name, yes, no?”

  Even I understood this much. She was asking very directly.

  But her sister didn’t respond. Her face, which seemed largely expressionless, twisted into a look of anger. By which I mean she furrowed an eyebrow.

  “Why? I shall ask, why do you know the name of Kanou Shinichi?”

  The image shook. It must have been Elvia-san wincing with shock.

  “Big Sister Ama—I shall ask, do you have some connection to Shinichi-sama?”

  Elvia-san’s sister appeared to get bigger until all we could see was her chest. Elvia-san must have gone closer to her. We couldn’t see “Ama’s” face, but we could still hear her.

  “I shall ask,” Elvia-san said. “Big Sister Ama, you know where Shinichi-sama is, yes, no?”

  “‘Shinichi-sama’?” Her sister’s tone changed to one of suspicion. “I shall ask, of what kind is the connection between you and Kanou Shinichi?”

  “I o-owe my... my life to him, probably.”

  “Your life?”

  “My status, that I am a spy, was exposed. But Shinichi-sama, he, he protected me!”

  “You...” Her sister’s eyes narrowed. “It can’t be.”

  “I shall ask. Big Sister Ama, are you connected to Shinichi-sama’s kidnapping?”

  “If I am, you will do what? I ask.”

  “I will seek, Shinichi-sama’s return! Back to us!”

  “‘Return.’ ‘Shinichi-sama.’ ‘Us.’” Her sister spoke softly, one eyebrow raised.

  “Big Sister Ama, I seek. Shinichi-sama, he—”

  “Unfathomable!” her sister shouted. “You underachieving good-for-nothing! You shame the Harneiman household, also the entire family of Bahairam! You fail to complete your mission, and become instead the kept dog of an enemy nation! Such failure is difficult to forgive!”

  She sounded immensely angry. I found myself shrinking back, even though there was a sumart fone between me and her.

  “I refuse this is betrayal. I, I, seek only Shinichi-sama’s rescue—”

  “I would call that betrayal! Do you turn against the father-ruler?!”

  “I...”

  Elvia-san’s voice grew pinched.

  “A fool and a fool is what you are! Examine your own words! What you absorbed in Eldant I do not know, but—”

  Suddenly, Big Sister had a sword out.

  She had drawn it so fast I hadn’t even seen her move. I doubted Minori-sama had, either. It was as if we heard it after it happened.

  “I cannot endure to have this living stain upon us any longer! Judgment upon you I shall execute myself!”

  I assumed the tip of the sword was at Elvia-san’s neck. A careless movement could cut her throat.

  But Elvia-san shook as if she were trying to hold something back, then shouted, “Shinichi-sama! To him I owe my life! He has accepted me! Is it wrong to repay this debt?”

  At the other end of the outstretched sword, her sister appeared surprised. The two siblings glared at each other, a painful silence descending between them.

  Finally, to my surprise, it was Elvia-san’s sister who looked away, sighing wearily. She returned her sword to its scabbard.

  Then she said, “You are already too late.”

  “What...?”

  “It has already been decided of Kanou Shinichi, he shall be subjected to the puppet spike.”

  “Puppet spike...?”

  I immediately thought of the dragon that had attacked our movie set. Shinichi-sama and Minori-sama had called it a “puppet drake.” They had said it might be some new magical weapon Bahairam had developed.

  Were they going to put a spike in Shinichi-sama’s head just like they had with that dragon? The very thought made me queasy with fear.

  “It is a magical nail that when inserted into the head of a living being makes them a puppet.”

  “Big Sister Ama! You would do such a thing to Shinichi-sama? Why, why?”

  “For he does not listen to or accept our demands,” Elvia-san’s sister said flatly. “Abilities such as his are not to be found in our nation. Our spies in Eldant report that his talents are quite valuable. They shall be useful in increasing the loyalty of the children to the father-ruler.”

  Elvia-san didn’t speak.

  “But that vile creature has refused us.
It demanded time and money to bring him here, and we shall not be left empty-handed. We seek only practical benefit. Thus, he shall serve as a test subject for a human-sized spike...”

  “Refuse! Stop! Absolutely—absolutely! Shinichi-sama saved my life! Big Sister Ama, will you take revenge on the one who saved your younger sister?”

  “Silence, betrayer.” Her sister’s eyes narrowed again. “Or have you had relations with Kanou Shinichi?”

  “I—”

  Even I could tell Elvia-san was thrown off by this.

  “I hear that in Eldant, the partner for relations is highly valued. You time as a spy too long, have you been poisoned by Eldant customs? Fool! Idiot! To be so attached to the partner of your relations that you would turn against the father-ruler—against the family of Bahairam! Fool of fools!”

  “Family? What family?”

  Elvia-san’s voice had taken on a dark cast. Bitter, almost hateful. Aggressive. It was the first time I had ever heard the normally cheerful girl sound that way, and it shook me.

  “Are you and I family, Big Sister Ama, yes, no?! We are sisters by blood, born of the same parents! But a good-for-nothing is not part of the family?”

  “It was you who first sought to betray—who first sought to be out from this family of Bahairam...”

  “It was you who first abandoned me!”

  For the first time, her sister seemed lost for words.

  “Shinichi-sama accepted me, this I shall never forget! Without blood connection, without community or family, though I was of another race! He accepted and recognized me for who I was, and I shall not forget! My heart, my body, my very self, he—”

  Elvia-san’s sister still didn’t respond.

  “Ask me now who my family is, and I shall answer: it is not Bahairam, nor you, Big Sister Ama. It is Shinichi-sama and his household, Myusel, Minori-sama, Brooke, Cerise! All those who have accepted me!”

  Her sister’s face twisted in what seemed like pain, perhaps even regret.

  “I—”

  “Begone,” her sister spat.

  “I—”

  “Begone, I order you!” There was a slam! as she punched the wall. “Gone! You good-for-nothing! You traitor! Very now I deny your words. You are not my sister nor my family! You are my enemy!”

  There was a very long, tense pause from Elvia-san. “Well understood, but, Shinichi-sama’s location—”

  “Out! Even at this moment! And twisted once-sister, once-family, I shall show you a final act of mercy. That I do not cut you down here with my blade, consider to be my final act of mercy!”

  “Big Sister Ama...!”

  “You worthless stain on the name of Harneiman! I do not stoop even to kill you so that you leave here a corpse! Run to your Eldant Empire, run to the edge of the world! Run like the shame you are!”

  Elvia-san’s sister appeared to get smaller—Elvia-san must have backed away. It was just a step, and yet to me it looked like an unbridgeable gulf between them.

  “Now begone!”

  The sister’s form disappeared from the top of Minori-sama’s sumart fone. Elvia-san must have turned around. We could see the image on the fone shaking violently...

  “Well, that could have gone better,” Minori-sama muttered.

  The next thing we saw was Elvia-san emerging from her sister’s house at a dead run.

  Day two of my imprisonment.

  They were keeping me in a stereotypical jail: stone floor, walls, and ceiling, and a door of iron bars. The cell was a surprisingly roomy ten mats, but maybe that only made sense. This was a facility for developing their puppet magic. It didn’t actually have “solitary” cells. What it had was cages for observing the animals they were testing on—it wasn’t designed with humans in mind. The space had to be big enough to house a large test subject.

  Close inspection revealed several round openings close to the floor, each roughly the size of a fist, through which dirt could exit. When the floor of the cage started to get covered in excrement, they could just flush the whole thing out with water.

  The only illumination came from a single lamp on the far side of the door; the place was dim. The only furniture in my room was a wooden chest apparently intended to serve as an impromptu bed. Well, there was one other thing—a bucket-sized cylinder against the back wall.

  “Now what do I do?” I sighed, sitting on the bed.

  I had initially worried that imprisonment might mean being put in manacles or restraints, but it seemed I was free to move about my cell.

  “A jailbreak... is easier said than done, I guess.”

  I had learned two spells from Myusel, so I wasn’t completely defenseless even though I was unarmed. But the wind spell Tifu Murottsu, the only offensive magic I knew, couldn’t be used several times in quick succession—or at least, a beginner like me wasn’t capable of it. Plus, there was no telling what might happen if I used it in a confined space like this. It certainly wouldn’t have any effect on the bars of the door, and if it bounced off the hard stone walls I could end up hit by my own magic. And how stupid would that be?

  There was something else, though. If I squinted and ran my fingers along the wall beside my bed, I could make out tiny depressions and bumps in the surface. It obviously wasn’t just decoration, and it felt vaguely like the characters inscribed in my magic ring. Chances were good that the wall itself was enchanted.

  I recalled Petralka saying she had magic-resisting spells on her own body, so maybe Bahairam could do the same sort of thing. Something to neutralize magic seemed especially important when you were working with creatures like dragons, which could absorb magical power and control fire sprites.

  Long story short, any plan to break out of this jail using Tifu Murottsu was over before it began.

  In movies, people have all kinds of ways out of prison: faking illness, hiding behind walls, ambushing the guard who brings their food. As for me, I didn’t know the layout of the building, so even if I managed to get out of my cell, I would have no idea how to actually escape.

  No, stop. Negative thinking makes even the possible look impossible. And when the alternative is just sitting around until you get a spike stuck in your head, turning you into a living corpse, even a doomed plan is worth a shot.

  “What the heck is this, anyway?”

  I would have to use every single thing at my disposal. With that in mind, I went over to the only other object in the room besides my bed: the cylindrical bucket. It appeared to be ceramic. And yes, it was about the size of a bucket, with two handles. It had a lid on top.

  Wondering what it was, I pulled the lid open... and my nose was immediately assaulted by a disgusting stench.

  I squeezed one eye shut as I looked inside, but it was empty. That must mean the smell had soaked into the material of the container...

  “Wait... Is this a chamber pot?!”

  This was supposed to be my toilet?!

  I quickly slammed the lid back down, sighing at how pathetic the whole thing was. At that moment...

  “Shinichi.”

  I heard someone call my name through the bars. I didn’t have to look to know who it was. There were only two people in this country who knew my name: Clara and Amatena. If they didn’t use -sama, then it had to be Amatena............ But wait. Didn’t she usually call me by my full name?

  “I want to talk to— No. Let me start over.”

  Amatena was on the other side of the bars. She looked away, unable to meet my eyes.

  “Huh?” What was the story with that?

  In my failure to understand, I briefly dropped my gaze to the ground, where I saw the chamber pot.

  “Wh-Whoa, wait! It’s not like that! I wasn’t trying to... to do my business or anything!”

  I jumped as far away from the chamber pot as I could. Amatena still wasn’t looking at me. Why was it that she could talk about “relations” with a completely straight face, but was embarrassed to walk in on someone answering nature’s call? Not that I
was eager to be seen like that or anything.

  “I was just like, I’ve never seen one of these before, I wonder what it is? So I...”

  “I see.” She turned toward me again, the misunderstanding resolved. Standing there on the other side of the bars, Amatena looked... tired, somehow.

  Her expression was as flat as ever, though, so maybe I was just imagining things.

  “There’s something I want to ask you, filth.” She leaned back against the wall and crossed her arms.

  “Ask? Me?”

  Insofar as she was granting me a stay of execution (by which I mean she hadn’t come to tell me they had set a date for my surgery), I was little relieved. Of course, she could always lead me away to have the procedure done the moment we were finished talking...

  “Do you know Elvia?”

  “......Huh?” Of all the possible topics I thought she might conceivably raise, this was not the one I expected. “Why bring her up now?”

  “You don’t want to talk about her?”

  “I don’t mind, it’s just...”

  What was it she was really trying to ask? Maybe they really were sisters, and she was trying to find out how Elvia was doing at her spying job. (Sadly the answer was, pretty poorly.)

  “She is the youngest of us sisters,” Amatena said. “Is it true that you saved her life?”

  “Huh?” (Again.) “Er, ah, y-yeah... Yeah, I guess you could say that.” I gave a noncommittal nod.

  Truth be told, I had just been so moe for my first beast girl at that moment, not to mention loath to lose Elvia’s artistic abilities, that I didn’t really think of myself as saving her life. More like I just happened to do what was best for me, which also just happened to be what was best for her not being executed.

  I explained all this to Amatena.

  “What is this moe?”

  “Oh, uh... In my country’s language, it means... like, ‘cute’ or ‘highly attractive.’ Elvia is so cheerful and outgoing, and super adorable. Okay, so she gets ahead of herself sometimes, but even that’s kind of charming.”

  Amatena didn’t say anything.

  “Plus, she’s really good at drawing. It worked out great for me, because it was really convenient for my work, having a capable artist around. I just thought it would suck to let them go and execute her...”