Golden Days

by Gakuto Mikumo

  Picking up the black spear at his feet, Meiga made a single, very deep bow.

  Vattler raised one eyebrow. Somehow, his expression registered regret that his conversation with Meiga had come to an end.

  “Going already?” the vampire asked.

  “Yes. There is something left that I must do before becoming an enemy to your kind…”

  Meiga traced a teleportation magic circle in midair.

  Vattler made no attempt to stop him. Watching as the black-clothed young man seemed to fade away, he made an exaggerated, pitying shake of his head.

  “Revenge against the Lion King Agency…? Such a hollow thing. If it is combat you seek, you should make combat itself your objective…a far purer thing. Do you not think so, Tobias, Kira?”

  Vattler murmured to himself as silver mist swayed and hovered behind him. That mist finally increased in density, transforming into the forms of two young men. Tobias Jagan and Kira Lebedev—these were nobles of Europe’s Warlord’s Empire, members of the militant vampire faction and Vattler’s close confidants.

  However, the eyes with which they gazed at their leader were brimming with an air of unconcealable concern.

  “—Are you truly fine with allowing that man to go, Your Excellency?” Tobias asked. The sharp features of his handsome face were reminiscent of a cold blade as he glared bitterly at Itogami Island, illuminated by the moonlight.

  Vattler looked back at him with an unexpectedly calm and collected expression.

  “But of course. Not only dead, but a pathetic puppet controlled according to Senra Itogami’s schemes—an actor suitable for an island of trash constructed of scrap metal and magic. Besides, the power of the Cleansers is said to be able to destroy even a primogenitor. A rather deeply interesting ensemble, is it not? If such a thing is true, I would very much want to obtain it myself.”

  “…That is why you are our esteemed leader.”

  Vattler’s words could be taken as rebellion against the primogenitors. Tobias just made a pained smile of resignation in response.

  Kira touched his right hand to his chest, reverentially lowering his eyes. “We are the same. We only feel alive in the middle of conflict. Even if half the world is reduced to ash, we shall accompany Your Excellency in your sport until the very end.”

  “This is nothing so grandiose, merely a sideshow before the banquet.”

  Vattler raised his glass up to the moonlight, swirling the red liquid as a sinister smile played over his lips.

  “Now, my beloved Fourth Primogenitor. The time is nigh. This twisted land, that pitiful doll, and the fake angel shall all be your playthings.”

  4

  The first thing Kojou felt was not surprise, but suspicion. Was everyone playing some kind of elaborate practical joke on him? He could not help feeling wary.

  The bewilderment filling him, half of which was an effort to escape from reality, finally turned into rage.

  “Himeragi’s becoming a Faux-Angel… What the hell do you mean by that?!”

  Kojou closed the distance with Yukari, violently grasping her shirt. Seeing this, Sayaka’s expression stiffened in fear, but Yukari made no special effort to resist him, coolly looking up at him instead.

  “You have seen it, too, have you not? Yukina using the Faux-Angel power to save you…”

  “Ugh…”

  “There must have been some indication beforehand, though asking a non-Attack Mage such as yourself to notice them would be quite unreasonable. That girl surely advanced along the road to angelification as she drew on spiritual energy beyond her limits.”

  Yukari betrayed no emotion in the casual tone with which she continued her explanation.

  Kojou, largely having been brushed off, pulled his hand away from Yukari’s collar and said, “What happened—to the ritual?”

  “Ritual?” asked Yukari, knitting her brows, unsure of what he was asking.

  “Didn’t it take a big sloppy ritual involving candidates killing one another to make a Faux-Angel?!” Kojou shouted, his voice going raw. It made Kanon shudder.

  The plan to mass-produce Faux-Angels as executed by Kensei Kanase involved a number of girls engaging in mortal combat, even inflicting heavy damage on Itogami Island’s urban areas. The candidates participating in that combat included Kanon herself—Kensei’s daughter.

  It was he who replied to Kojou’s misgivings:

  “That was because forcing the human body to become an angel requires a vast quantity of high-power spiritual cores.” Displaying neither pride nor remorse toward his own crime, he solemnly stated the facts, continuing, “It takes the spiritual core circuits of seven people, enhanced to the highest limit of what the human body can endure—and by transplanting all of them into a single human body, a complete Faux-Angel is finally born.”

  “Then what gives with Himeragi?! There’s no way she’s stolen even a single person’s spiritual core in all this time!”

  Kensei wordlessly nodded, then proceeded to rebut him. “But…she had the Schneewaltzer.”

  “Himeragi’s…spear…?”

  “The Divine Oscillation Effect created by the Schneewaltzer is one and the same as the divine essence controlled by a Faux-Angel. One might call her weapon, which draws upon her spiritual energy and converts it to divine essence, a mock spiritual core—and an exceptionally high-output spiritual energy circuit at that. Of course it would have an effect upon her body.”

  “That’s the side effect of Snowdrift Wolf—?”

  Kojou’s expression twisted in anger as he glared at Yukari once more.

  Snowdrift Wolf and a Faux-Angel each controlled the very same power—Kojou knew that for himself. After all, he’d seen Yukina’s spear and the attacks of Kanon as a Faux-Angel offset each other multiple times, up close and personal.

  “What the hell’s with that?! Are you just fooling around?! Why did you Lion King Agency people give Himeragi that spear to use?! Dammit—!”

  “Only a precious few compatible people can employ Snowdrift Wolf. The reason an inexperienced Sword Shaman like Yukina was selected to be your observer was because she possessed exceptionally high compatibility with that spear,” Yukari answered.

  She closed her eyes before continuing. She shook her head, as if anguished slightly. “But thanks to that, the girl’s angelification has advanced far faster than the Lion King Agency expected. The current incident came as a complete surprise, even to us.”

  “…What’s gonna happen to Himeragi?” Kojou asked, holding back his frustration. Blaming Yukari and the others was meaningless at that point. Even Kojou understood this, but that didn’t mean he could completely divorce himself from his feelings.

  Kensei explained in Yukari’s place:

  “If in a state without the spear active, her Faux-Angel awakening rate will be between Stage Two and Stage Three—a level that poses no hindrance to everyday life.”

  Kojou let out a sigh of relief. He couldn’t comprehend what was meant by those stages, but when he thought of Kanon’s prior angelification, it didn’t seem to be any great problem.

  “It’s not like Himeragi’s going to just vanish all of a sudden, right?”

  “The possibility is extremely low,” replied Kensei in a manner very much like a sorcerous engineer.

  “However, should she employ the Schneewaltzer—her awakening rate shall surpass Stage Five. It is easiest if I say that it would be like when you engaged Kanon in combat. If she expends a large amount of spiritual energy in that state, angelification shall likely accelerate all at once.”

  “Wha…?”

  The color drained from Kojou’s cheeks. Sayaka, perhaps having expected Kensei’s answer, remained unresponsive as she listened to the discussion.

  Yukari made a weary-looking smile and shook her head. “It would no doubt be best if she stayed far from ritual spells that amplify spiritual power, such as the Spirit Archery that I employ, to say nothing of divine armaments such as Der Freischötz and the Ricercare. It is
simply out of the question.”

  “Wait a… Then Himeragi…”

  “She will never recover…as a Sword Shaman, at least.”

  Yukari’s declaration was blunt. Kojou bit his lip. Yet, he had the odd sense of things falling into place. He could understand why Sayaka had lost her cool to that extent and why her anger had been so intense.

  From dawn to dusk, Yukina had undergone rigorous training from a young age for the sole purpose of becoming a Sword Shaman. Now her power as a Sword Shaman had been taken from her. Kojou could vaguely imagine just how cruel such a thing was. So, too, could he understand how to Sayaka, who grew up together with Yukina, it felt like half her body had been ripped away.

  “It is nothing that need pain your thoughts, Fourth Primogenitor. This is my responsibility as her master.”

  Yukari made a frail, self-deprecating smile. She stroked the back of the cat she held close to her.

  “Does Himeragi know about—?” Kojou began to ask when Yukari, albeit a little conflicted, interrupted him, drawing her shoulders inward.

  “That girl shall hear it from my lips when she awakens. Therefore, Fourth Primogenitor—may I ask you to retire for now? Yukina would not wish for you to see her in a depressed state.”

  “You’re saying to leave Himeragi here and go home?” He shot a cold stare Yukari’s way.

  “The Schneewaltzers are the Lion King Agency’s secret weapons, you see. By rights, they are not things to be spoken of to outsiders. Me relaying this classified information to you was to serve as an act of good faith.”

  Then Yukari shot Sayaka, fresh from bawling her eyes out, a sullen glare as she declared, “I will assign Sayaka to you until the next observer has been decided. Play nice, won’t you?”

  Sayaka’s head shot up in surprise as she quietly murmured, “Huh? Me?” Kojou grumbled a “Seriously?” as he stared down at her. After all, she had tried to kill him just a short while ago.

  Sayaka’s and Kojou’s gazes pulled toward each other, and when they met, they sighed simultaneously.

  ““Give me a break,”” the deflated pair groaned as Kanon anxiously watched the sides of their faces.

  5

  Kensei Kanase’s laboratory had been located in the lowest underground stratum of Island North. The place most closely resembled a prison cut off from the outside world. As the mastermind behind the Faux-Angel incident, he was under strict watch as a sorcerous criminal to this day.

  At the entrance to the lab, Sayaka flashed her Attack Mage license to the guards. As she did so, she dragged Kojou along with her while leaving the isolated district.

  From there, not a word was exchanged between the pair until they returned to the surface. She’d tried to kill him. He’d seen her crying face. Both found the situation too awkward for words.

  That is, until they left the underground road, and Sayaka murmured, “Ever since…”

  At some point, night had apparently given way to dawn. The needlessly intense tropical belt’s early morning sun brightly illuminated the buildings of the district.

  “Ever since I met Yukina for the first time, I’ve thought of her as an angel. She was cute, serious, kind, pretty… I never dreamed she’d turn into a real angel.”

  Sayaka laughed in a dry voice. Perhaps that was her way of trying to make peace, but put bluntly, Kojou wasn’t laughing. It was painful to see Sayaka forcing herself to put up a strong front.

  “Not like Himeragi’s much of an angel, y’know,” he retorted, sounding like a sulking child.

  Over the course of the last half year, Kojou had been with Yukina on a near-daily basis, but he’d never felt anything from her that could be considered even remotely angelic.

  “She broods, she does all this reckless stuff, she’s scared of planes, she likes mayonnaise way too much, and she’s obsessed with this weird cat mascot…”

  “That’s what’s cute about her… Yukina really must be an angel.”

  When Kojou levied his complaints without hesitation, Sayaka blatantly ignored him as she delivered that absentminded comeback. That doting behavior was just like her. Kojou genuinely admired Sayaka’s unwavering love.

  “Man, nothin’ phases you when you’ve got Yukina on the brain. I kinda respect that.”

  “N-not that I particularly want respect coming from you—ah, more importantly, Kojou Akatsuki, don’t you think things through at all? If Yukina stops being a Sword Shaman, you might never meet her again for all you know.”

  “Wouldn’t that be convenient from your point of view…?” Kojou pointed out with an air of annoyance.

  Don’t get close to my Yukina! was the sort of complaint Sayaka normally leveled to such an extent that having her suddenly act worried about him made it hard to react.

  Perhaps aware of that inconsistency, Sayaka said, her voice high-pitched from a bit of nervousness, “Eh? Ah……well, that’s true, but—I mean, my Yukina’s purity mustn’t be sullied by you any further!”

  “I haven’t sullied it! And don’t say easy-to-misunderstand stuff like that so loud!” Kojou shouted, conscious of nearby gazes. It was early in the morning on Island North, which had rows of corporate and university laboratories. The sidewalks for people heading to work and school did have a few pedestrians. Even so, Kojou and Sayaka stood out in the area because of their high school outfits.

  “Anyway, Himeragi’s just an ordinary human being, so living life with normal happiness is a hell of a lot better than turning into a Faux-Angel and vanishing—or some stupid thing like that,” Kojou murmured, almost as if saying it for his own benefit. If it meant Yukina wouldn’t vanish, he’d decided that never seeing her again would be worth it. In the first place, Kojou and Yukina were not technically friends. They were merely a vampire that was a target for observation and a watcher dispatched by the government to observe him.

  Sayaka, staring at Kojou as he tried to accept reality in that fashion, haltingly asked, “What is normal happiness?”

  “Huh?”

  “We were groomed to become Attack Mages ever since we were little kids. At this point, even if you told me to live a normal, happy life, I would have no idea what to do with myself.”

  “It’s not like she’ll be kicked out of the Lion King Agency just ’cause she can’t continue as a Sword Shaman, right?” Kojou asked. Still, he couldn’t shake his unease.

  Yukina was a serious person with a good head on her shoulders. Even if she couldn’t be combat personnel, there had to be any number of jobs she could do. Plus, there was no way the Lion King Agency would let go of a girl with enough spiritual power to turn her into a Faux-Angel.

  “Well, that’s true, but…”

  Sayaka paused awkwardly. Then she turned straight to Kojou with a serious expression and stated, “There was a do-it-yourself spiritual energy testing kit in Yukina’s room.”

  “Spiritual energy testing kit?”

  “She knew beforehand that…in the near future, she wouldn’t be able to be a Sword Shaman anymore…,” Sayaka murmured.

  Kojou felt like his heart had skipped a beat. He, too, had realized Yukina had been in an odd state for a while. And yet, Kojou had not thought deeply about why that was.

  “Why’d she keep quiet to me about it? She actually knew why Professor Kitty wanted to meet with her, didn’t she?”

  “No doubt she ran because she knew. She wanted to save Asagi Aiba before being sent back to High God Forest.”

  “Even though she might vanish as a result of that? Why would she…?”

  Kojou recalled the exchange he’d had with Yukina on the way to Keystone Gate’s Stratum Zero. She’d said there was nothing wrong with her body—Yukina had been dead set on going with Kojou, even though she was obviously lying about her state. He didn’t understand the reason why. Surely she had no reason to save Asagi if it meant risking her own annihilation.

  However, Sayaka seemed to understand how Yukina felt. She turned to Kojou with a gaze that had just a hint of envy in it. “To
her, that is normal happiness—”

  Suddenly, Sayaka gasped and came back to her senses. With Kojou standing still in bewilderment, she stomped on his foot with complete abandon.

  “Forget I said anything! And die, you idiot!”

  “The hell are you suddenly getting pissed off for?!” Kojou screeched, teary-eyed from having the heel of a shoe stomping the top of his foot.

  Perhaps satisfied at seeing Kojou in such a pathetic state, Sayaka sunnily straightened her back. Blatantly thrusting out her chest, she spoke in a condescending manner.

  “Well, for all those reasons, I’m going to help you rescue Asagi Aiba.”

  “You are, Kirasaka…?”

  Seeing the surprise on Kojou’s face, Sayaka hurriedly averted her gaze. “N-not for your or Asagi Aiba’s sakes, but for Yukina!”

  “Oh, uh, well, that’s a huge help and all…”

  Taking in the real reason for Sayaka’s sudden offer of cooperation, Kojou let out a sigh of befuddlement. It was then that a tiny figure rushed closer, heading in the pair’s direction.

  It was a girl wearing a very finely made elementary school uniform. Its defining feature was the adorable beret she wore over her red hair. Running through a crosswalk, the girl made a big wave of her hand toward Kojou and Sayaka as she called out:

  “Sir Boyfriend! Sir Boyfriend, is it not?!”

  For some reason, she spoke in an exaggerated tone, like something out of a period drama.

  “Who?” Sayaka grumbled as she glared at Kojou. You’ve even laid your hands on little girls…? spoke her suspicious gaze.

  “…Who are you?” asked Kojou, wariness on his face as he stared at the girl.

  “It is I, Lydianne Didier! Sir Boyfriend, art thou suffering from amnesia?” she asked, lifting her head indignantly.

  That was when the girl and Kojou’s memories finally gelled. When he’d first made her acquaintance, she had been dressed in some funky outfit; he didn’t recognize her in proper clothing.

  “Ah…you, huh? That’s right, you’re in elementary school, aren’t you?”

  “Indeed. I dost attend Tensou Academy’s elementary school.”