by Yuu Miyazaki
“I see. In that case, we’ll keep trying. I should warn you not to get your hopes up, though.”
“Thank you,” Ayato replied, bowing his head deeply.
At that, Yan all but jumped back in surprise. “How can you thank me, in this situation?”
“…Huh?”
“Hmph! Don’t worry about it!” the director said curtly before taking off back down the corridor.
“U-um…”
“I’ll have a pass made for you later! Use the staff entrance when you come visit! All right?”
“…Yes,” Ayato murmured, dumbfounded.
Madiath gave him an amused smile. “Well, now you know what kind of person he is.”
“He hasn’t changed in fifty years,” Helga, standing behind him, muttered in her usual calm voice.
As he left the hospital, a raging night wind pierced his bones.
Compared to Lieseltania, where he had been until yesterday, however, it wasn’t all that cold.
“It’s gotten quite late. Do you want me to drop you off at Seidoukan?” Helga asked, her stoic face not even seeming to register the change in temperature.
“No, it’s okay,” Ayato answered politely.
He was grateful for the offer, but he wanted to be alone for a while to sort out his thoughts.
Madiath, saying he was pressed for time, had already arranged a car to pick him up.
“I see. Well then, I guess I’ll excuse myself.”
“Thank you for everything, Commander Lindwall.”
Ayato hadn’t expected anyone to find his sister so quickly. He couldn’t thank her enough for what she had done.
“There’s no need for thanks. I’m just doing my job. But you know…there is something I should tell you…,” she said, drawing close to him and lowering her voice. “Don’t put too much trust in Madiath Mesa.”
“Huh?” Ayato caught his breath.
Helga’s sharp gaze drew nearer. “We might have been allowed to investigate Danilo this time, but we weren’t given permission to follow up on every lead we had. Only a very limited number, actually. But despite that, we managed to score a bull’s-eye, which just so happened to lead us to the whereabouts of your sister.”
“…Isn’t that reading a bit too much into it?”
“Perhaps. But as Madiath said, once a wish from the Festa has been accepted, carrying it out is our highest priority. If no useful leads had popped up within the range that we were given permission to investigate, we would have tried to widen our net. And they wouldn’t have been able to refuse us… I’m sorry to have to say this, but we were a little disappointed to have found her so soon.”
Of course, Ayato was ecstatic that Haruka had been found so quickly, but he could understand what Helga was saying. It had been a rare chance for her.
“It looks to me like they knew where she was to begin with, and gave us access only to what we needed to find her. And it seems it was Madiath who was responsible for that.”
“What? But why would the chairman go out of his way to do something like that…?”
Madiath Mesa’s job was, after all, just to manage the Festa operations.
“Well, I have a theory. Back when he was just a regular member of the Executive Committee, he was the leader of the faction opposed to Danilo. Which was why, after Danilo’s death, he was also chosen to act as the representative of the Internal Investigation Committee. That was somewhat unprecedented, but not entirely unreasonable. The situation surrounding Danilo is still a taboo subject within the Administrative Committee, so they couldn’t afford to put just anyone in charge.”
If that was true, it certainly wasn’t outlandish to suggest a connection.
“So this might just be a hunch, but unfortunately, my hunches have a habit of hitting the mark.”
“That doesn’t sound like a particularly nice skill to have…,” Ayato said with a forced smile.
“You guessed it,” Helga replied, her gaze relaxing. “Well, it’s time for me to go. But please, be careful.” She raised her hand lightly in farewell, before disappearing into the night.
Looks like I’ve got a lot to think about…
But at least he had found Haruka. Having seen her again at last, he could hardly contain his emotions.
Five years, huh…?
It was by no means a short length of time. For Ayato, it had been nearly a third of his life.
“Haruka…,” he whispered, shaking his head. It was still too soon to celebrate. In her current state, he couldn’t even talk to her. “But there’s nothing else I can do…,” he muttered again, when—
“That’s not entirely true,” a voice sounded from behind him.
“Huh?” He spun around to see a woman standing there.
He hadn’t been unaware of her presence, but he was nonetheless taken by surprise, as he hadn’t expected her to talk to him.
“You’re Ayato Amagiri, aren’t you?”
The woman looked slightly older than he was. She had a lean, thin physique, with long, slender arms and legs.
At first, Ayato had thought she was a doctor or nurse at the hospital, thanks to her white gown, but on closer inspection, he could see that underneath she was wearing an Allekant uniform.
She had well-proportioned features, but perhaps due to the coldness of her eyes, she gave off a somewhat suspicious aura. She had shoulder-length, messy hair, and impressively large glasses.
“I am,” Ayato replied cautiously. “Who are you?”
“Kee-hee-hee-hee. Do excuse me,” she said with a laugh as dry as the rustling of leaves. “My name is Hilda. Hilda Jane Rowlands. But you can just call me Hilda,” she purred, narrowing her eyes like a cat.
“Okay… What do you want?” Ayato said, struck by a sense of growing unease.
If he were trying to describe it, it was similar to what he’d felt when he had encountered Orphelia the other day, but he couldn’t sense any kind of threat coming from the woman standing before him. She didn’t even seem to be a Genestella, or at the very least, she didn’t seem to have kept her prana in shape. Judging from the unsteady way she held herself, she didn’t even look like she was in shape.
But for some reason he couldn’t explain, he felt overwhelmed by her presence.
“Ah, yes, that’s right. Ayato Amagiri. I thought you might be in need of my services, you see.”
“Huh…?” he replied, unable to understand what she was getting at.
Perhaps noticing his expression, she began to laugh once more in that strange voice. “Kee-hee-hee-hee. I mean, you do want to treat your sister, don’t you?”
“—?! H-how do you…?!” he stammered, reflexively crouching into a defensive posture.
Hilda merely shrugged with an amused smile. “I know. We at Tenorio have deep connections with this hospital. You might say it was leaked to us.”
Tenorio. Ayato had heard that name somewhere before…
“Oh, and I saw the news. It looks like one of our former members caused you a bit of trouble overseas. I’m terribly sorry about that.”
“…A former member…?” The conversation was jumping from one topic to the next faster than he could keep pace.
“You didn’t know? Gustave Malraux was a member of Tenorio—up until he dropped out of school, that is. That was several decades ago now, though.”
“He was, was he?” Ayato hadn’t expected to hear that name again, now that he’d returned to Asterisk.
“The data he left us is still very valuable to our younger students. Come now, Ayato. Don’t you remember those pseudo-life-forms you played with a while back? We call them viscous attack phryganellinoids. It seems they were put together based on his data.”
“I thought they were similar…”
If she knew that much, he doubted anything else she said could surprise him.
But it seemed he was wrong about that.
“Oh, I’m terribly sorry; I seem to have gotten off topic again. I’m always doing that. Allow me to get
to the point. If you let me, Ayato Amagiri, I can heal your sister.”
“—!” Despite the ease with which she had said those words, they left him completely stunned. He braced himself, looking her in the eyes, before responding. “Is that true?”
Once more, she let out that dry, unsettling laugh. “Kee-hee-hee-hee. It is. Truly, truthfully, true.” She nodded repeatedly, her narrowed eyes gleaming darkly. “Dr. Korbel won’t be able to help you. He might have been great once, but I’m sorry to say he’s lost his touch. He’s been trying for five years, after all, and he’s no closer to waking her than the day he began. But if you let me, Ayato Amagiri, I can do it.” She smiled, the corners of her mouth puckered up eerily.
At that moment, Ayato remembered just where he had felt this kind of presence before.
It was when he had met Ernesta Kühne, the head of Pygmalion, another faction at Hilda’s Allekant Académie.
But the two young women were diametric opposites. Whereas Ernesta’s spirit was like a blazing sun, Hilda emanated a drive like magma churning in some deep, dark place far beneath the earth.
“…Who are you, exactly?” Ayato asked again.
“My name is Hilda. Hilda Jane Rowlands,” she repeated gleefully. “President of Allekant Académie’s Research Institute, Tenorio.” And with that, a dreadful flame began to burn behind her eyes. “Some people like to call me the Great Scholar, Magnum Opus.”
EPILOGUE
“So…you’re saying that Gustave’s client was your father?”
Claudia bowed her head to her astonished friends. “Yes. I’m awfully sorry about it all. I never thought he would resort to that level of violence.”
Three days had passed since Ayato had returned to Asterisk. As soon as the others had all settled back, Claudia called the four of them to the student council room to lift the curtain on the incident in Lieseltania.
“But why would your father do such a thing…?” Kirin asked.
“It’s simple, I’m afraid. He would find himself in a difficult situation if I were to win the Gryps. Or rather, Galaxy would find itself in a difficult situation,” Claudia answered flatly.
“…But if that’s true, then they must have other ways of trying to stop you…”
“Galaxy will still be trying to work out how they want to deal with me, and measuring up the costs and benefits of doing so. My father probably wanted to put an end to it before that. He understands better than anyone what might happen to me if Galaxy decides they want to really put their minds to stopping my participation.”
Julis stared at her. “Do you understand what you’re saying, Claudia? If you make an enemy out of Galaxy, that’s the same thing as making an enemy out of Seidoukan Academy itself! And on top of that, you can’t know that you’ll even win!”
“You’re right to call it a bad idea. But I’ve no intention of giving up on my wish,” Claudia said, staring back.
Julis’s expression quickly softened. “I did think you were a bit smarter than that, though.”
“I’ve only done what was necessary.” Claudia, too, relaxed, smiling in return.
“But you won’t go up against them empty-handed, will you?”
“Of course not. I’ve been preparing for it ever since I became student council president. Anyway, there isn’t anything I can do if Galaxy gets serious about it, but I should be able to gain more time before that. What happened in Lieseltania will certainly help in that regard.” Claudia paused for a moment, frowning. “But I wouldn’t be able to call you unreasonable if you all wanted to press charges against him. Especially you, Julis, considering all the damage he caused to your country.”
“…”
Julis sat in silence for a while, deep in thought, before eventually shaking her head. “No. I can’t say I don’t want to, but you’re going to need all the bargaining chips you can get, aren’t you? Especially from here on out.” The intensity of her gaze seemed to suggest she wasn’t talking just about the Gryps.
“…I don’t mind either,” Saya added.
“I’m okay with it as well.” Kirin nodded in agreement, but she raised her hand nervously, as if something were bothering her. “But what is your wish, Claudia?”
“I can’t tell you that until I hear your answers to our conversation the other day,” Claudia responded, glancing around at everyone. “And like I said, joining my team might mean making enemies out of Galaxy. I can’t say that it’s a particularly good plan from any normal point of view. So if I was in your position, I would probably turn it down right away, I suppose.”
“…But you’re still inviting us?” Julis flashed her an astonished, yet at the same time amused, smile. “Oh well. Putting the circumstances aside, and looking just at our overall fighting strength, I think there’s definitely an appeal to it. I’m in,” she declared flatly.
“M-me too! I’ll join, too!” Kirin nodded with excitement. “I’ve wanted to fight alongside you ever since I saw you in the last Gryps…!”
“Thank you, you two. Thank you so much,” Claudia said, before turning her gaze toward Saya. “Miss Sasamiya, what will you do?”
“Hmm… To be honest, I’m not very interested in the Gryps… I’ve already helped my father out, and it looks like those puppets from Allekant won’t be able to participate either…”
The use of sentient machines as proxy fighters had been a special provision only for the Phoenix, and the majority of commentators seemed to be of the opinion that they wouldn’t be permitted again this time.
“…So my decision depends on Ayato,” she finished.
All gazes swung to him, who had been sitting in silence and not uttered so much as a word.
“Ayato… You’ve been acting a little strange recently. Is something wrong?” Julis asked uncertainly. “Your sister was okay, wasn’t she?”
They all knew why he had returned to Asterisk early, and he had told them almost everything that had happened at the hospital.
What he hadn’t told them was what had come after.
“…Julis, can we talk, later?”
“U-uh… Okay…,” she said, looking at him warily.
With that, Ayato once again strengthened his resolve, and turned to Claudia. “Okay. I’ll join your team. But on one condition—let’s make sure we win.”
AFTERWORD
Hello, Yuu Miyazaki here.
Here you have it, Volume 6 of The Asterisk War. There was a bit of a wait for Volume 5, so I wanted to bring this one to you as quickly as possible.
This volume takes place outside of the city of Asterisk. The story is supposed to mainly take place in Asterisk, as per the title, but I thought it would be a good idea to illustrate Julis’s background a little more (Julis is one of the story’s heroines, but at the same time, she’s also one of the protagonists).
I was originally going to have everyone stop at Kirin’s house, too, but due to the overall plot development and page count, I’ll have to leave that for another episode. As such, we plan to increase the overall number of volumes, so I’d like to ask Kirin’s fans to hold out just a little longer.
The Gryps arc will finally get under way in the next volume. It will start with the school fair, where our friends’ rivals from the various schools will make an appearance. Sylvia didn’t feature very much in this volume, so she’ll be entering the stage in full swing, too. I hope that you’re all looking forward to it as much as I am.
And okiura has given us some wonderful illustrations yet again. The cover art of Orphelia is so beautiful, it really sends a shiver down my spine! I’m incredibly obliged to him for continuing to produce such terrific illustrations for new characters with each and every volume.
On top of that, it was recently announced that a manga adaptation of a side story to The Asterisk War will be serialized in Bessatsu Shōnen magazine! I’ve been involved in producing the original story for it. Keep your eyes open for more information!
And of course, Ningen’s manga adaptation of The Asteris
k War in Monthly Comic Alive is still running strong. It’s about to reach the climax from Volume 1, so let’s all keep supporting it!
Last but not least, I’d like to thank everyone who helped me out so much with finishing this volume.
To my editor, Mr. Ikemoto, thank you so much for all your help despite the many difficulties. And I’d like to express my deepest gratitude to Ohrui and everyone else in the editorial department, and most of all, to all of you, my readers, for your continued support.
I’m looking forward to seeing you all again in the next volume.
Yuu Miyazaki
May 2014
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