“Is this person in the suit popular?”
“Yes. He’s defeating demon beasts all over the land. The mana cost for teleportation is heavy, so the knights can’t do it. They can’t get there as fast as he can. They’re frustrated because he always steals the glory just as they’re about to arrive. So the civilians love him, but the knights say he’s violating the law and want to arrest him. For some reason, there are no records of his actions, and they can’t trace his mana. That suit must be equipped with a mana canceller. That thing’s illegal, and it’s a felony for an individual to possess it.”
“It is?”
“Yeah. But what worries me is that his equipment is specialized for taking down demon beasts. He’s working to help the people now, or at least he thinks he is, but I’m worried about what happens next. People like this can easily turn into vigilantes.”
“Vigilantes?”
“Their sense of justice can get too strong, and they start passing judgement on others by themselves. I myself have the same tendency.” Lily laughed.
“Then why is that a bad thing?”
“It’s not that bad. But when there are two people like that, it means a big fight.” Lily smiled brightly.
Akuto fell silent for a moment. Then there was a knock on the door. It was someone neither of them expected.
“May I come in?”
The man who came in had a white beard and white hair, and it was clear that there was no point in even trying to guess his age. Even in this era, where long-lived people were common, he was probably one of the oldest. It was clear that he was a century old at least, which meant he’d fought in the last great war. He was the Headmaster of Constant Magical Academy.
“Headmaster.” Lily stood up straight, which was rare for her. Akuto did so as well. “What brings you here today, sir?”
Normally the headmaster never showed himself in person — he just used the communicator. He didn’t have many reasons to talk to students to begin with.
“I was just passing through. No, that’s a joke. Actually, I had a feeling that an old acquaintance might come here. I saw it in a dream. No, that’s a joke too.”
The headmaster laughed. Lily and Akuto didn’t. They didn’t feel like they should say anything.
Suddenly his eyes, almost entirely hidden by sharp eyelashes, grew sharp. He turned towards the door, where a man was now standing.
Both Akuto and Lily tensed. They hadn’t sensed him coming at all.
The man was just standing there. And his face was relaxed. He was handsome, in a way that made it easy to open yourself up to him. But there was an almost visible pressure in the air around him.
“Nice to meet you, I suppose,” the man, Boichiro Yamato, said. His eyes were clearly looking at Akuto, who looked right back at him.
Akuto bowed, a little uncertain what was going on. There was too much calmness in the man’s eyes for there to be animosity, but there was no warmth in them either.
Then Akuto realized that he knew that face. He wasn’t sure, but when he’d met Peterhausen, he’d seen a strange image that could’ve either been a hallucination or a mana communication. It was the man who’d killed Fujiko’s brother — he didn’t really remember the face, but the man’s aura seemed to be the same.
Lily must’ve felt it too, because she went pale. She’d been there when it had happened as well.
“I see this is a group of very non-average people,” Boichiro said with a smile.
And in the next instant, Lily punched him. She hadn’t moved her body from the desk. She’d used mana to alter the structure of her arm and reach out to the door. The fist traveled toward him with the speed of a bullet.
The sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed throughout the room.
But Lily’s fist had landed on Akuto’s palm. “Landed” may not have been the right word, actually. The moment she’d launched her punch, Akuto had moved next to Boichiro and grabbed her fist.
“At least let my hand slip,” Lily said with a laugh. There was a smile on her face.
“If anybody’s allowed to show up here without warning, it means they’re with the government, right? I don’t know what’s going on, but have you lost your mind, just punching someone like that?” Akuto said.
“I’m quite sane. I know from the badge on his collar that he’s with the Cabinet Government. I’ve just got a problem with hand slipping when I see bureaucrats. And look at his face. There was no need for you to do that ‘faster than a speeding fist’ trick.”
Akuto turned to look at Boichiro’s face. He hadn’t moved an inch from where he was standing, and his expression hadn’t changed at all. The only thing that had moved was his right hand. At some point, he’d put it into his jacket pocket.
“It’s like he moved his hand without moving his center of gravity. And the reason his hand’s still in his pocket is that he saw you move and realized there was no need for him to draw,” Lily said.
If that was true, Boichiro had known everything Lily and Akuto were going to do. There’d been less than a fifth of a second between Lily’s punch and Akuto’s block.
“I’d rather you not do that in our first meeting. If I don’t respond with anger as well, it would send the wrong impression,” Boichiro said with his smile. His voice was still calm, but the air around him seemed to grow tenser.
“Don’t get too cocky, bureaucrat.” Lily’s tone dropped. She was smiling, too.
The tension was too much to bear, and it was clear that something was about to happen. Akuto looked at Lily and squeezed down tighter on her fist.
“There’s no reason for you to fight,” he said.
“Do you need a reason?” she answered.
“That’s not what I’m saying. We haven’t heard what he has to say yet.”
When Akuto finished his sentence, Boichiro gave an exaggerated shrug and smiled.
“I just came to warn you. I wanted to know if your security was up to par.”
“The student council runs it. We don’t need your advice.”
“Is punching people you’ve never met part of the security system?”
“You bastard...!” Lily shook off Akuto’s hand. His face went pale as he tensed up.
“If you’re going to get in my way, then I’ll fight you both...” Lily put her hand on her hat and warned them. Boichiro saw this and smiled assuredly, then took his hand out of his pocket.
The next minute, a violent storm broke out... or it should have.
But the only sound in the room was a “pop.” And then there was a light crunching sound as dozens of small objects hit the floor. It was the crunching of potato chips.
The headmaster had tried and failed to open a bag of potato chips. He’d pulled too hard and torn the bag open, and the contents had spilled everywhere. Potato chip crumbs fell everywhere, onto Akuto, Lily, and even Boichiro.
“I’m sorry, this bag was just really hard to open...” The headmaster scratched his head and looked at the group.
“The snacks in the basket are the treasurer’s private property, they don’t belong to the student council. Please replace them.” Lily said, too exasperated to fight.
Akuto took a step away from Boichiro and breathed. The bag had exploded just as Lily had been about to attack. Otherwise, nobody would’ve cared.
“You’re a crafty old man,” Boichiro said as he popped a potato chip into his mouth.
“Don’t say that. I was looking forward to those chips,” the headmaster laughed as he moved in front of Boichiro.
“If you’re worried about our security, you don’t need to be. We’ve gotten by just fine. Anyway, it’s been a while. What is your position now?”
Boichiro took a notebook out of his pocket. He opened it and showed the headmaster a badge. Lily’s eyes widened in shock when she saw it.
“The Cabinet’s Magical Information Officer...”
The post was one that you could only get after rising to the highest rank of the knights, and then working
as the headmaster of the knight’s training school. It was mostly an honorary post, but because of what you had to do to get it, it gave you massive power over the knights. Normally, no matter how talented, a young man like Boichiro would never be able to get it.
“Oh, the head of the Magical Information Investigation Department, huh? It’s an honor to have someone like that come to warn us directly.”
The Headmaster talked as if he were speaking to an old friend. Meanwhile, Boichiro still seemed to be on his guard.
“I’m warning you about your security systems. If something happens at this school, I may need to get involved.”
Akuto took that as a warning towards himself.
“Are you saying I’m going to do something?”
“No, you’ll be the victim.” Boichiro waved his hand.
“You’re the ones who won’t leave me alone. I don’t have any ambitions of my own. But there was that strange thing that happened at the island. Given that guy’s position, it’s obvious he worked for you. The report on the incident got shut down somewhere, though.” Akuto narrowed his eyes, but Boichiro ignored him.
“You people are too naive. You think I’m your enemy, don’t you? That’s true, in a sense, but who is the real enemy?” Boichiro asked him.
There was an edge in Akuto’s voice as he answered.
“Enemies? I don’t have any enemies. The very idea shows your lack of thought. Evil is something in the hearts of each of us. It’s not something you can fix by denouncing someone.”
“If the evil is human, yes. But haven’t you realized who the real enemy is? You, and you too.” Boichiro looked at Akuto, and then the headmaster.
“What?” Akuto was confused. The headmaster didn’t move.
“I came here because I thought we’d be able to talk. What I need to realize is where my position is, right? And it seems to me that your position is as part of an evil empire. You probably disagree, though,” Boichiro said to no one in particular.
“I am me. I’m the one who decides where I belong,” Akuto said.
Boichiro laughed.
“That’s childish. That’s fine. If you don’t get in my way, you’ll simply be overtaken by events and disappear. That would be best for me, since I don’t have to fight you then. I’d rather not hurt anyone.”
“Who are you, anyway?” Akuto asked.
Boichiro looked back at him, but then quickly turned away.
“...You can take this as one last warning,” Boichiro said, and he left the room.
“Who is he, Headmaster? You seemed to know him,” Akuto asked.
“I don’t,” the headmaster said.
“You don’t?” Both Akuto and Lily raised their voices at this.
“No, I mean I don’t know who he really is. He’s been like that ever since I was young.”
“Like that?”
The two of them both seemed skeptical, but the headmaster went through the basket of snacks like it wasn’t that important a question.
“He always has the same face when I see him. He’s always the same age. About a hundred.”
“A hundred...?”
“But he always has a different job. I’m not sure if it’s one person, or a bunch of people. But every one of them remembers me, so unless they share memories, it’s easier to assume they’re the same man.”
The headmaster stopped going through the snacks. He looked at Akuto.
“Sai.”
“Yes sir?” Akuto stood up straight, thinking he was about to be lectured.
“Why does the treasurer here only have such strange flavors of snacks?”
“I think... she just has bad taste.”
“I see.” He nodded.
2 - The Shadow of Iga Stripped Bare
The bus had come to take Akuto to Junko’s house, but he was so distracted by his meeting with Boichiro that he didn’t even think about where he was going.
The headmaster was still refusing to tell him anything, and the student council president had only strengthened her resolve to fight against the powers that be, and had called back the three members of the student council from their vacations. But it seemed to Akuto that there was more to the encounter with Boichiro than just a mysterious visit by a powerful man.
—It felt like he knew me well, and was there to watch me.
Akuto was pretty sure he wasn’t imagining it. It felt like he was testing how Akuto would respond in different circumstances.
—It seemed like he was testing the way I thought.
No matter what Boichiro was after, it seemed to Akuto that what was about to happen was deeply linked to the way he thought.
“The bus is here.”
“The boss is spacing out. Is he tired, you think?”
Korone and Hiroshi tried to get him on the bus. The doors to the flying bus were already open, and it was waiting outside the dorm for passengers to board. The only passengers were Akuto, Hiroshi, and Korone. Of course, Junko was there too, but she was already on board. She called out to them from inside.
“Come on, get on,” she said.
Akuto was staying the night, so he carried luggage with him as he boarded. Hiroshi was carrying a bag too. Korone had her usual purse.
The three of them got on, and the bus closed its doors like it had been tired of waiting and took off into the sky. Akuto sat down and took a look out the windows, and he saw that Keena had come outside the dorm to see him off. She seemed like she wanted to say something, so Akuto felt a moment’s guilt. But then she started to wave and smile, so he waved back, relieved.
—Come to think of it, we didn’t get a chance to talk yesterday.
He’d eaten with Keena after the meeting with Boichiro, and so he’d had a chance to talk, but he was so lost in thought that they hadn’t said much of anything at all.
“Keena’s going to be alone, isn’t she?” Hiroshi said.
“Don’t say that, you’ll make me sad. We won’t be gone that long, and she’s got Peterhausen with her. He’s busy helping Fujiko with her research, but he does get along with Keena,” Akuto said as he looked at Hiroshi. Hiroshi seemed strangely excited.
“You look really happy. So why say such a gloomy thing?”
“No, it was just something that occurred to me.” Hiroshi’s gaze was fixed oddly off into the distance. But his cheeks were flushed. Akuto didn’t understand what was up with him.
—Well, if he’s happy, that’s what matters.
Suddenly conversation in the bus stopped. Silence between the four of them shouldn’t have been that awkward, but for some reason Junko seemed terribly tense. She kept looking at Akuto and then glancing away.
“What’s wrong?” Akuto asked. Junko stammered out an “It’s nothing!” before quickly shoving her hand in her bag.
“Y-You know, I was wondering if you wanted something to eat...” She was rummaging through her bag, but she didn’t seem to be finding anything.
“You’re acting hysterical,” Korone, who had been silently sitting next to her, said.
“No, no, no. I’m just fine. That’s not true. I’m calm. I’m... I’m very calm.”
“You don’t look that way to me. You okay?” Akuto asked.
Worried, he reached out a hand, and she pulled away from him with a noise that might’ve been a “hyah!” or a “pyah!”
“I wasn’t going to do anything...”
“I-I-I know that.”
“Then are you sick?”
“No. I-It’s just...”
Junko seemed to want to say something, and then she stopped. And then Korone interrupted.
“If you have trouble saying it, then why don’t I...”
“No, no, no. I-It’s just... A political thing. Very high level,” Junko said, sticking her hand over Korone’s mouth
“A high-level political thing?”
Akuto’s face became serious. He remembered what Boichiro said. It seemed to him like he was at a point where he needed to think about things. In othe
r words, obeying the law, and thinking that the law was right, was natural to him, but he was starting to realize that maybe that was too narrow a view.
“I’d appreciate it if you told me. The time might have come for me to assume a big responsibility,” Akuto said, and Junko turned bright red. Her hand fell off of Korone’s mouth.
“You... knew?”
“Yeah, a little. I think I need to take responsibility for everything that’s happened.”
“A-Are you serious?” Junko’s mouth went wide open. But when Akuto nodded, she smiled goofily.
“N-No, I’m glad to hear that. If you noticed, there’s no need for me to say anything.”
She tried to hide her grin as she pretended to look out the window.
“Still, I need to hear it from your mouth to really understand,” Akuto said, and Junko blushed.
“D-Don’t make me say it. As long as you understand, that’s fine. My father will explain the rest.”
—I’m curious about why Hattori looks that way, but I guess it’s because we have something important to talk about.
Akuto steeled himself to find out what Junko’s words really meant.
○
The bus landed in a forest not long after that. Akuto thought it might be the Iga village, but when he looked outside, he saw that the bus had landed in an empty field about half the size of a soccer field.
“Is this the village?” Hiroshi asked.
“No, this is the landing pad. It’s about 20 minutes away.”
Junko led them all off the bus, and they saw a path continuing into the forest. They hadn’t been able to see it because the path was covered by trees. The trees didn’t seem naturally planted, so it was probably deliberately hidden.
“Is the village itself hidden too?” Akuto asked, and Junko nodded.
The bus they were on started to move towards the edge of the clearing. Suddenly the ground split open and an underground entrance revealed itself.
“That’s the parking lot,” Junko said, and the entrance vanished beneath the trees. The village seemed to really want to hide things.
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 4 Page 4