The Knight of the Sinful God

by Gakuto Mikumo

  Combat…?

  No, thought Yukina, shaking her head at the idea.

  That was not something that deserved to be called combat.

  Now that she thought about it, what Natsuki had conducted was better called sparring. This was Natsuki’s parting gift—so that her pupils leaving Itogami Island might return safe and sound…

  “Black Thunder—!”

  Yukina leaped, countless afterimages in tow, all moving with agility well beyond human limits.

  Her silver spear glimmered as it took aim at the rod in Mikage Okiyama’s hands.

  “Physical enchantment?! However—!!”

  Mikage Okiyama responded to Yukina’s raylike attack. As if to say I see what you’re aiming at, her bayonet thrust out to counter. If Yukina had aimed at her sorcerous device with moronic forthrightness, the match would most likely have been decided then and there.

  However, Yukina did not thrust out her spear. Without fanfare, she thrust only her weaponless left hand forward. With Mikage Okiyama off-balance, Yukina took aim, unleashing all her stored ritual energy at once.

  “Fiery Lightning!”

  “Gah……!”

  Mikage Okiyama was defenseless when a mass of ritual energy, much like a transparent hammer, struck her as soon as she finished her attack. Instantly, Okiyama became unable to breathe as her entire body went rigid.

  “…Seeing a Sword Shaman from the Lion King Agency so easily defeated makes me…sick to my stomach.”

  Kiriha Kisaki’s barbed words echoed in the back of Yukina’s mind.

  It was Kiriha’s technique to whip out a ritual spell and use it to launch a surprise attack. Normally, it was a tactic of the Priestesses of the Six Blades of the Bureau of Astrology, but it was easy enough to learn for Sword Shamans of the Lion King Agency, practitioners of common ancestry.

  And then—

  “Distort!”

  Finally, Yukina unleashed a blunt attack at point-blank range. This basic Sword Shaman attack was Yukina’s foremost specialty. By rights, it was a fiendish anti-demon technique that destroyed one’s internal organs, but being a barehanded attack unleashed at point-blank range, it had the advantage of being easy to restrain.

  Mikage Okiyama gaped at Yukina’s face with an expression of disbelief as she slowly crumpled.

  Separated from her hand, Yukina easily destroyed the sorcerous device with Snowdrift Wolf.

  In terms of pure combat experience, Mikage Okiyama far outstripped Yukina—but that was all.

  From the beginning, Yukina had not been fighting alone. There was the Lion King Agency that raised her, the many people she’d met on Itogami Island—she was supported by the strength that they had granted unto her. This was strength Mikage Okiyama had lost when she betrayed her comrades and organization and became a terrorist.

  She could see it from the sorcerous devices the Cleansers employed. They stole and discarded others, nothing more.

  From the moment they cut themselves off, becoming the enemies of all beings beyond themselves, Mikage Okiyama’s combat experience became a perishable commodity. She’d abandoned the opportunity to grow as a person. That was the cause of Mikage Okiyama’s defeat.

  And there was one more person at Yukina’s side—a boy bolstered by the feelings of many.

  “Fourth Primogenitoooooor!”

  The giant tortoise roared with Azama’s voice.

  Like a storm, a volley of cannonballs spewed out of the mouth of the monster that was once a gunship. They targeted not only Kojou, but the nearby Yukina and Mikage Okiyama, threatening even to involve Glenda in the attack.

  But an amber-colored wall erupted up from the ground to impede that indiscriminate attack.

  “What?!”

  A voice of shock sounding much like an earthquake trickled out from the genbu’s mouth.

  A wall of seething, incandescent magma interceded between Azama and Kojou. The high temperature it gave off warped the air, and the genbu’s giant frame retreated from the oppressive feeling generated by its vast mass.

  “I think you’re pretty pathetic, you know,” Kojou quietly said from within the shimmering mirage. His eyes flared red with anger. “You don’t flinch at sacrificing anything for the cause. You’ll use up and throw away the lives of your own people like it’s nothing—I guess your own life counts as part of those sacrifices, huh?! That’s way too twisted, even for you!”

  “Shut up—”

  The genbu unleashed its fusillade once more. Then, with the magma scorching his entire body, Kojou charged forward.

  “You’re not dying here on my watch. I’ll make you reflect long and hard on where you went wrong—! C’mon over, Beast Vassal Number Two, Cor-Tauri Succinum!”

  The demonic energy erupting from his entire body made a new Beast Vassal take physical form.

  This was an enormous minotaur with a molten body. Lava spewing from the earth seemingly without limit constituted the Beast Vassal body proper. Giving off an amber glow from its entire frame, it towered over ten meters tall and gripped a thick battle-ax that was taller still.

  The tortoise deployed its aura of emptiness to defend against that incandescent weapon. The encroachment of Nod blotted out space itself.

  No matter how great the mass or how high the heat of the minotaur’s body, the fact that it was wrought from demonic energy meant it could not breach the Nod bulwark.

  However, Kojou and the others knew that already. They knew that the encroachment of Nod could nullify the laws of sorcery reliant upon Cain the Sinful God. And so, too, did they know it was powerless against simple physical attacks.

  An incandescent glow spread across the ground at the genbu’s feet.

  Vampires were demons closely associated with the earth—to the point of superstitions passing around that they slept in coffins sprinkled with cursed earth of the grave from which they had crawled out. And there was one more symbol associated with vampires—

  Countless stakes of lava erupted from the ground below, breaching the encroachment of Nod and piercing the genbu’s giant body—

  “Stakes made of…lava…?!”

  A human-shaped figure enveloped by blue particles of light rose to the surface of the tortoise’s wrecked head.

  It was the knightly plate, its breast impaled by the lance—the sorcerous device of Cain was discarding the destroyed information, attempting to escape with the true body alone. Of course, Azama’s flesh-and-blood body had to still be inside.

  “—I, Maiden of the Lion, Sword Shaman of the High God, beseech thee!”

  Using the shattered genbu carapace as a stepping stone, Yukina leaped over the searing lava. With ritual energy coursing into it, the silver spear let off the dazzling glow of the Divine Oscillation Effect. Now that the sorcerous device was exposed, the blade of Snowdrift Wolf could reach it.

  “O purifying light, O divine wolf of the snowdrift, by your steel divine will, strike down the devils before me!”

  The sorcerous device deployed the encroachment of Nod to protect itself. However, Yukina’s silver spear rent the barrier as if it were mist, penetrating the gunmetal device.

  “The armor of Cain… You’ve…!”

  Robbed of its magical energy, the relic of The Cleansing simply broke apart, exposing Azama’s bloody figure.

  Seemingly switching places with Yukina, Kojou stood before him.

  “—It’s over, old man!”

  Azama’s face twisted with surprise and hatred as Kojou bashed it with his fist.

  Azama’s body danced in the sky; then, it slammed into the ground, and didn’t move again.

  Seeing this, Kojou took a deep breath.

  He felt no sense of accomplishment. He didn’t feel like he’d finished anything. That was natural; from the beginning to the end, Kojou and Yukina had been in places far removed from the center of the incident. We just had to stop Azama, he believed, and that was something, at least. He still didn’t know if it was the right choice.

  But
when Kojou and Yukina turned around, their eyes were greeted by the sight of relief coming over Yuiri’s face—and Glenda doting on her with an innocent smile.

  Guess it’s fine, then…, he thought.

  From the pocket of his school uniform, someone laughed with delight. “Heh-heh.”

  OUTRO

  In spite of being the middle of the New Year’s holiday break, the passenger terminal at Haneda Airport was packed. Apparently, a mysterious windstorm occurring in the airspace above Tangiwa had thrown flight schedules into chaos.

  As tourists and homecomers hurriedly went to and fro through the departing gate, Sayaka Kirasaka was huddled in a corner, hugging a little stuffed animal. She had long, chestnut-colored hair tied in a ponytail and wore a school uniform.

  The black keyboard case complimented her tall, slender physique.

  She possessed refined beauty to the point that anyone would look at her, even if she was just standing quietly, but at the moment, everyone was walking past her as quick as their steps could take them, apparently trying to avoid her. This was because Sayaka’s beautiful eyebrows were ruffled as she desperately spoke to a stuffed animal.

  Bewildered, Sayaka stared into the eyes of the stuffed animal in her hand as she exclaimed, “I-it’s over…?!”

  At a glance, it appeared to be a stuffed cat; and while, in fact, it was made from one, it was now a catlike shikigami. Yukari Endou was the one controlling it—a sorceress of exceptional skill as well as Sayaka’s mentor.

  Responding to her call, Sayaka had traveled long-distance until finally reaching Haneda, but…

  “What’s the meaning of this, master?! Wasn’t this a special order from the Three Saints of the Lion King Agency—?! What do you mean, the incident’s all wrapped up, so never mind?! I’m finally out from house arrest and threw away my vacation to come here, you know?! And I came, you know?!!”

  Sayaka shook the stuffed animal around as she lamented. The little bell stuck on the cat’s neck made a light ringing sound in the process.

  However, the stuffed animal gave no response. The other party had relinquished control of the shikigami, arbitrarily ending the call.

  “—Um, master? H-hey, master, come on, don’t cop out on me!” Sayaka stomped on the floor. “That bitch!”

  That was when someone patted one of Sayaka’s slender shoulders from behind.

  “Heya, better give the hysterics a rest. You’re standing out way too much, y’know…”

  “Geh, a—a man?!”

  When Sayaka turned around, standing there was a male high school student with spiky, combed-back hair wearing headphones around his neck. Largely on instinct, Sayaka attempted to smash his face in with an elbow, but a light backward sway on his part made the attack hit nothing but air.

  Sayaka was now livid, nearly drawing a ritual scroll from a pocket when she finally remembered that she’d seen his face somewhere.

  “You’re…Kojou Akatsuki’s friend…”

  “Motoki Yaze. I’d appreciate it if you at least remembered my name by now, Kirasaka.”

  The chummy demeanor Yaze addressed her with made Sayaka really want to kill him.

  Despite that, and with her face twitching, she spoke in as composed a voice as she could manage.

  “…What’s a resident of a Demon Sanctuary doing in a place like this? You don’t look like a tourist to me.”

  “Same as you, probably.” Yaze’s shoulders sank as he spoke with a pained smile. “My tomboy childhood friend rushed off and left Itogami Island. I thought I’d go and see what’s happening, but it looks like the party ended before I could catch up.”

  “What the heck, are you some kind of stalker…? That’s gross…!”

  “You’re not one to talk with the secret photos you’ve been taking…”

  As Yaze spoke, he took out and showed Sayaka her very own cell phone, the one supplied to her by the Lion King Agency. She’d only just gotten it back after having it confiscated due to her house arrest.

  On the lock screen was a picture of Yukina Himeragi heading into school with Kojou Akatsuki beside her, something of an afterthought.

  “Wait a… Th-that’s my cell phone! Why do you…?!”

  When did he pick my pockets? thought Sayaka in confusion as she put a hand to the instrument case on her back. The case was the sheath for a silver longsword, permitted aboard airplanes due to her Attack Mage license. Inside was Lustrous Scale, a prototype area-suppression weapon of the Lion King Agency.

  “I-I’ll cut you down!”

  “Wait, wait! Here! I’m giving it back, okay?!”

  Mindful of the eyes of passing travelers, Yaze hastily thrust the cell phone forward.

  Sayaka’s face went crimson as she took the cell phone from him and said, “J-just to make this clear, the picture here features Yukina, and the others shown in the background are chumps I have no interest in whatsoever! If anything, I think they sully the image—!”

  “Sure, sure.”

  Yaze tossed aside the casual comment, nodding with an irritating, know-it-all look.

  Sayaka glared at him with teary eyes and insisted, “If you’re done, get going already to Itogami Island—or to hell, if you prefer!”

  “I’d just love to, but I found something that tugged at my mind a little—and if you kick up a big fuss here, those folks will get their guard up and that’d suck for me, so please, calm down a bit, won’t ya?” He squinted as he spoke. “Seriously, I’m begging you.”

  Apparently, the entire reason for Yaze speaking to Sayaka was to prevent her from unwittingly standing out too much.

  Meaning, the people who he didn’t want to see a Shamanic War Dancer of the Lion King Organization were close by…

  “By ‘folks’…you mean them?”

  Sayaka followed Yaze’s gaze to an airplane parked at the entrance to the airport’s loading apron. It was a small jet-engine passenger plane with specs like a cargo plane’s.

  Individuals looking like engineers were gathered around the plane, seemingly inspecting the cargoes being swapped. “Ohh,” went Sayaka, blinking her eyes when she saw a familiar face among the inspectors.

  “Kojou Akatsuki’s mother…?”

  “What, you know her?”

  Yaze asked as if that was somewhat unexpected. Sayaka nodded without a word.

  The woman dressed in a well-worn white gown with a sleepy face was Mimori Akatsuki. Sayaka had met her in a guest room of MAR Inc., an international sorcerous industrial conglomerate. Behind that fluttery, unreliable-looking baby face, Mimori was the chief researcher of MAR’s medical branch.

  “That plane’s a cargo plane chartered by MAR,” Yaze whispered, cupping his hand. “On paper, what’s in the cargo hold came in from Hokkaido, but it comes from somewhere farther up north.”

  “North… Wait, do you mean the Moscow Empire? But it’s a non-signatory to the Holy Ground Treaty…”

  Sayaka’s expression grew grave. The Moscow Empire, located in the northern reaches of the Eurasian continent, was a great nation with vast territory and abundant mineral resources, but it had next to no contact with Japan. As a non-signatory to the Holy Ground Treaty, the nation was under international trade sanctions.

  “That’s probably why they’re opening the container up here. If they treat it as humanitarian aid, you can receive patients with incurable diseases even from countries under trade sanctions, and inspections are lighter here at Haneda than they’d be in a Demon Sanctuary.”

  “…A patient with an incurable disease?”

  Sayaka’s eyes glazed over, feeling something ominous from the odd detail in Yaze’s words.

  “That sounds a lot like smuggling… Why is a corporation on MAR’s level going that far to…?”

  Sayaka’s train of thought was derailed when, immediately before the cargo was brought aboard the aircraft, the container door opened, and she caught a glimpse of the contents for a single instant.

  Packed inside the blue-glass container was som
ething that looked like a coffin of ice.

  Within it, a beautiful girl slept.

  “A…girl…?”

  Perplexed, Sayaka furrowed her eyebrows.

  There was but a single, brief word engraved on the container to identify the girl within.

  Oracle.

  It was nearly sunset when a helicopter arranged by the Lion King Agency came to pick up Kojou and company.

  As an apology for causing them so much trouble, they had made arrangements to return Kojou and Yukina to Itogami Island. Apparently, their absconding from the Demon Sanctuary and smuggling themselves onto the mainland was being swept under the rug as well. Of course, neither Kojou nor Yukina was going to complain.

  If there was one problem he could name, it was that Nagisa would be taking the same helicopter as he was.

  “Hey, listen, Kojou. Even though Shirona told Granny to check herself into a hospital over and over, she wouldn’t listen one bit. She was all… Don’t treat me like I’m old and stuff! And Gajou—the instant they told Gajou they were sending him to the hospital Mimori works at, he started thrashing around and saying Don’t! She’ll kill me! That’s because of that thing that happened when he came home drunk that one time, which, like, never happens, right?”

  The little sister whose face he hadn’t seen for some ten-odd days continued her monologue toward Kojou and Yukina with incredible vigor, seemingly to vent all of her frustrations. The pair could only listen dumbfounded as Nagisa kept talking for nearly two hours before tiring herself out and falling asleep.

  Though exhausted from the battle with Azama, Kojou felt like he ought to be grateful just knowing that Nagisa was all right. Incidentally, Nagisa apparently had no memory from the moment she’d collapsed in the bath at the temple, and no one had told her of the appearance of demon beasts.

  Kojou had passed off his reason for being at the temple as being concerned by her long absence and being unable to wait any longer. Though only so-so as an explanation, it paled compared to the wild tale Gajou had her buy into—that he’d sexually harassed the priestesses at the temple and Hisano had stabbed him for his trouble.