A War of Primogenitors

by Gakuto Mikumo

  “Accordingly, I feared the resurrection of Root.”

  “Yeah,” went Kojou with a nod.

  The real Fourth Primogenitor, Root Avrora, who had once wielded that awesome might as a god-killing weapon—

  Kojou had fought her on the verge of her complete resurrection and stolen the power of the Fourth Primogenitor in the process. The source of her power was her right to rule the Beast Vassals.

  However, Iblisveil laughed derisively, seeming to mock Kojou.

  His sharp white fangs poked out from the corners of his lips.

  “Yet, I do not fear you in the slightest. You should think about why that is.”

  3

  Nagisa Akatsuki and Kanon Kanase were carrying their respective beloved eco-bags as they left the store.

  Inside the bags were eggs, flour, sugar, and salt in modest quantities, apricot jam, and various kinds of chocolate—ingredients for chocolate cake. Since there just happened to be a school break, this gave Nagisa the time to make handmade chocolates for Kojou.

  “She…broke his heart? Akatsuki’s?”

  With glossy-blue eyes reminiscent of glaciers, Kanon blinked heavily. She was just hearing about the shocking scene Nagisa had witnessed at Thetis Mall the day before. Gossiping about other people’s love lives wasn’t something Nagisa especially liked to do, but she’d judged that if it was with Kanon, then it was fine.

  Kanon was an acquaintance of Kojou’s, after all, and she wasn’t the sort to circulate things said in confidence. Besides, her help was indispensable for making cake for Kojou’s sake.

  “Mmm… I’m not sure he’s heartbroken or if he just feels abandoned… Well, it’s largely him reaping what he sowed, mind you,” Nagisa said, conflicted, her brows knit in spite of her smile.

  The fact that Asagi Aiba had been in the company of a boy other than Kojou was actually much more of a shock to Nagisa than anyone else. Faced with the impact of that, she could bluntly say that a giant flying boat nearly grazing the campus rooftop as it barreled forward, and the lightning strike uproar that occurred immediately after, were completely trivial in comparison.

  To Nagisa, who’d spent nearly half her middle school years in a hospital room, Asagi was a precious friend of the same gender. Often, she felt like a biological older sister. The fact that Asagi took a liking to Kojou was plain as day to everyone but Asagi herself, but that made Nagisa adore her all the more.

  “In the first place, it’s strange for a girl like Asagi to not have a boyfriend after all this time. Goodness, this is because Kojou was too slow to make a move!”

  Nagisa tapered her lips in a pout as they waited for the traffic light at an intersection to change.

  She wasn’t about to blame Asagi for her change of heart. She just thought it was rather sad. However, she couldn’t help but feel annoyed at Kojou on several levels for making Asagi come to that decision.

  Though, Nagisa had seen the sight of Kojou nervous with her very own eyes.

  Even if it was a matter of what goes around comes around, she did feel sorry for him. So she thought that the least she could do was offer him chocolate as a present in Asagi’s stead.

  “So that’s the story. Sorry, Kano, asking you to use your kitchen all of a sudden. But I mean, I can’t just whip up a present for Kojou at my place…”

  “Not at all; I am quite all right with it. I meant to make some sweets either way.”

  Kanon shook her head and gently smiled. As usual, she had a beautiful appearance that was just plain unfair. Nagisa understood immediately why she was often called the Saint of Middle School. Having that Kanon give you Valentine’s Day sweets might well be a huge deal in and of itself.

  “Wha—?! Really? For who? Who are they for?”

  Nagisa stared at Kanon with a twinkle in her eyes. Even if she wasn’t a fan of irresponsibly spreading rumors, romantic tales told by the girl concerned were another matter entirely. Nagisa asked with her interest visibly piqued, but Kanon looked back at her with the same calm expression as usual.

  “For everyone who normally takes care of me, and after that, pet-safe sweets for all the cats I’m taking care of, and of course to you and your big brother, Nagisa.”

  “Really? Yeah, he’ll be happy to get chocolates from you, Kano. But I see… Kano treats Kojou the same as a cat, huh…”

  For a single second, Nagisa had renewed hope for her big brother and his freshly broken heart, but it did not seem she could place such high hopes upon Kanon’s shoulders. Of course, with Kanon being so deeply afflicted with a love of cats to begin with, perhaps being the same as a cat in her eyes was reason for hope in itself.

  The signal to cross lit up, and Nagisa and Kanon walked forward. Their destination was Natsuki Minamiya’s apartment building, where Kanon was staying. She’d previously heard from Kanon about the presence there of an island kitchen worthy of a high-class mansion. She was in high spirits at being told she could make use of it that day.

  “Ah…”

  Nagisa came to a halt midway through the intersection. She noticed a girl standing on the sidewalk on the other side.

  The girl was small—around Nagisa’s height—and she wore a yukata. Thanks to her clothing, the impression she gave off was much different, but Nagisa could not possibly mistake her characteristic features for anyone else’s.

  Mysterious blond hair that seemed to change color depending on how it was exposed to light and gleaming blue eyes that shone like flames—

  “Nagisa?”

  Kanon looked back at Nagisa with a questioning expression. The traffic light had already begun blinking. Nagisa gasped, came back to her senses, and hurried to finish crossing the intersection.

  “Sorry, Kano. Hey, wait a sec!”

  Without stopping, Nagisa proceeded to head toward the girl in the yukata.

  Amid the noon sun bearing down, the blond girl watched Nagisa approach.

  “December! You’re December, right?! I’m so glad, I was getting worried when I didn’t hear from you after the terrorist incident not too long ago.”

  “December…?”

  The blond-haired girl echoed Nagisa, who was racing over with such force she seemed to fly through the air.

  “I see, the tenth month… That is what Dekatos called herself…”

  “Huh?”

  The girl’s indifferent reply felt like a cold brush-off to Nagisa. When she looked closely, the girl’s face looked exactly like December’s. However, this girl was so tense. The December that Nagisa knew possessed a far friendlier, more sociable air.

  “Ah… Could I actually have…mistaken you for someone else?”

  Nagisa straightened her back as she timidly posed the question. The girl in the yukata generously shook her head.

  “Thou art without fault, for she and I were both born from an identical source.”

  “Um… So I guess that makes you sisters, kind of?”

  Though the girl’s archaic phrasing threw her off, Nagisa felt like she’d somehow grasped her meaning.

  The girl in the yukata nodded.

  “Thou art not mistaken. Thou aided my little sister in her time of need, Nagisa Akatsuki.”

  “No, no, not at all. December was the one taking all kinds of care of me… Er, huh? Why do you know my name?”

  “’Tis not only her thou hath saved. ’Tis thee who hath linked thyself to my little sister’s life, for which ten thousand thanks art not sufficient.”

  “R-right…”

  After having come that far, Nagisa still could not comprehend the girl. It was not an issue of the complexity of her Japanese; she had no idea what the girl was speaking of to begin with.

  However, the girl paid no heed to Nagisa’s confusion and, without warning, offered her right hand.

  “Come with me, Nagisa Akatsuki. Accept the truth thou hath lost.”

  “Huh…”

  Invited by the girl in the yukata, Nagisa moved to take her hand. She could not grasp the meaning behind the girl’
s words. However, the girl’s invitation had Charm behind it that made it difficult to refuse.

  The fingertips Nagisa had subconsciously reached out with moved to graze the yukata girl’s fingertips—

  “Nagisa, don’t!”

  It was Kanon’s voice that stopped her without a single moment to spare. Nagisa, who was approaching the yukata girl without realizing it, was halted by Kanon from behind.

  Seeing Kanon do so, the girl in the yukata quietly said, “Oh my,” a corner of her lips rising as if her interest had been piqued.

  In contrast, Kanon was staring at the girl with blatant suspicion. Though Kanon seemed quite meek at first glance, the fact was, when it came to protecting other people, she had an obstinate side that did not shirk at sacrificing herself. Even under the gaze of this girl from parts unknown, she seemed to have no intention of letting go of Nagisa’s hand. And then—

  “Your Highness!”

  The leaves and branches of an ornamental roadside tree shook above Nagisa’s and Kanon’s heads. A slender silhouette leaped down from them, landing with lithe movements reminiscent of a panther. It was a young woman with close-cropped silver hair. She wore a mysterious outfit with white fabric and gold thread embroidery that seemed to straddle some invisible line between a knight’s ceremonial attire and a ninja outfit.

  “Are you safe, Your Highness? Please fall back—”

  The ninja girl drew a sword and, shielding Kanon and Nagisa, turned its blade toward the girl in the yukata.

  “Miss Justina, wait. You must not attack her!” Kanon hurriedly moved to hold her back.

  “Huh?! But this person is…!”

  Clear bewilderment came over the silver-haired woman Kanon had called Justina.

  Apparently, she was the person the kingdom of Aldegia had assigned to be Kanon’s covert bodyguard. She’d no doubt leaped out in such a rush because she discerned that Kanon was in danger.

  To a certain extent, Nagisa, too, had heard the information that Kanon was Aldegian royalty. Though she was a bit surprised by the fact, her willingness to accept it was stronger. After all, the floaty detached-from-the-world atmosphere Kanon gave off suited the title of princess very well, and from Nagisa’s point of view, there wasn’t much difference between a saint and a princess. Even so, the fact that the ninja-outfitted bodyguard had been there caught her by surprise.

  “Kano… What was I doing just now…?”

  Nagisa’s voice trembled as she looked down at her outstretched right hand.

  Nagisa didn’t really understand why she was obeying the words of someone she didn’t even know. But when she watched the girl, mysterious emotions came bubbling to the surface. It was something bizarre—like a mix of fear and affection.

  “This spiritual energy… Thou art of the Royal Family of Aldegia, then? What is thy name?” the yukata-clad girl asked, staring at Kanon propping Nagisa up.

  “I am Kanon Kanase. And you are?” Kanon calmly replied, faltering in no way.

  “Hmph,” said the girl, a smile appearing on her lips. “My name is Hektos—the sixth Kaleid Blood.”

  “What?!” Justina exclaimed. She was a knight of the kingdom of Aldegia, which, bordering the Warlord’s Empire, was on the front lines of disputes with Demonkind. They knew more than anyone the menace vampires posed.

  Furthermore, if Nagisa’s memory was correct, Kaleid Blood was the name of the most dangerous of all, of the World’s Mightiest Vampires—

  Accordingly, it was small wonder that Justina assumed an attack stance, but—

  “Ngh?!”

  Suddenly, the long sword the female knight poised went flying from her hand as if swatted aside.

  After a slight delay, the crack of a gunshot reverberated. Someone had sent Justina’s sword, and only her sword, flying off with accurate sniping from some removed location.

  Nagisa and Kanon could only stare with bewilderment as Justina instantly drew a spare short sword from behind.

  From behind them, the pair heard the throaty chorus of a high-class car engine and the tension-free voices of various girls.

  “Oh, Hektooos!”

  “It is time. If we do not return now—”

  A crimson, open-top convertible pulled over and stopped at the curb of the intersection right next to Nagisa and Kanon.

  Sitting in the driver’s seat was a foreign girl wearing an all-white dress. A girl wearing a pitch-black dress was standing up on the passenger side with an assault rifle raised. Somehow, both of the girls brimmed with class as if they were royalty. From the pair’s words, they seemed to have come to pick up Hektos.

  Nodding as if she understood completely, the girl in the yukata walked forward. However, she immediately came to a halt. Then, she extended a hand, as if inviting Nagisa and Kanon both.

  “Accompany me, Nagisa Akatsuki and priestess of the kingdom of the Valkyries. Kojou Akatsuki awaits thee.”

  “Kojou…?”

  Nagisa stared at Hektos in surprise. She did not know why Kojou’s name had come out of her mouth. But for some reason, she believed Hektos’s words. Mysteriously, Nagisa, who supposedly suffered from demonophobia, felt no fear from her specifically.

  “Indeed. Together with thy truth—”

  Staring at Nagisa, Hektos offered her a desolate smile.

  Gripping her bags against her chest, Nagisa gazed into Kanon’s eyes in silence.

  4

  Asagi Aiba was getting off a bus at a stop on a desolate beach.

  As the sea breeze whipped her hair around, she checked her smartphone’s map to confirm she had arrived at her destination.

  She was heading toward an abandoned, rusted warehouse just ahead, the sort that felt like a place the mafia would be doing drug deals.

  However, Asagi showed no particular sign of being afraid as she strode into the warehouse. She stopped just after entering the dimly lit building, surveying the area as she waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, when she heard a voice overhead.

  “Lady Empress, so thou art hither—”

  Asagi looked in the direction of the voice. Two girls sitting at the top of a steel stairway waved to Asagi as they competed in a smartphone game. They were wearing white sailor-themed dresses and school-mandated berets. The girls wore the uniforms of a renowned elementary school.

  “Sorry to keep you waiting, Tanker.”

  Asagi waved toward the owner of the voice that had just addressed her.

  One of the girls said, “’Tis nothing, ’tis nothing,” in a voice straight out of a period drama. This was the extremely skilled hacker bearing the alias of Tanker—Lydianne Didier.

  “You are fourteen minutes late, Miss Asagi. It is not good to be fickle with time.”

  The speaker had a tone reminiscent of a disgruntled kitten. She was a young girl with a rather adult face. Asagi had come to know the girl on Blue Elysium two months earlier—her name was Yume Eguchi.

  Her sassiness hasn’t changed a bit, either, thought Asagi, smiling and taking the high road as she let it slide.

  “That’s why I said sorry, geez. A high school girl is all kinds of busy, unlike you elementary school babies.”

  “Is that so? That is most terrible. Makeup must take so long to apply—”

  “Wh-who’s wearing makeup?! I’ll have you know my face is practically bare!” Asagi retorted.

  Yume had blatantly and publicly declared that she would marry Kojou when she was older, and for that reason, she was oddly antagonistic toward Asagi. Truly, she regarded Asagi as her rival. Furthermore, Yume was quite a beautiful girl, which made Asagi unable to handle the matter with a particularly calm heart.

  “…It’s not very mature to get ticked off at a kid, li’l miss.”

  As if to tease Asagi for that fact, a synthetic voice, albeit oddly humanlike, coursed out from Asagi’s smartphone.

  This was the avatar of the five supercomputers that controlled Itogami Island’s urban functions—the support AI dubbed Mogwai.

 
“Oh, shut up!” Asagi angrily shouted at her own smartphone.

  “I am not a kid!” yelled Yume at virtually the same time.

  Perhaps viewing Asagi’s and Yume’s anger as the sweet fruits of his labors, Mogwai let out a sardonic “Keh-keh” before falling silent. Asagi sighed and said, “Good grief,” before stuffing her smartphone in her pocket.

  “Well anyway… You two know each other, right?”

  “Indeed. We’re in the same club,” Lydianne replied with pride.

  The uniforms the two were wearing belonged to the elementary school of the highly reputable Tensou Academy, well-known within Itogami City. An all-girls school with the entire student body staying in the campus dorms struck Asagi as a troublesome environment, but from the looks of Yume and Lydianne, they were having a good, trouble-free life.

  “Really? What club are you in? A period drama lover’s society?” Asagi asked, a little surprised.

  Why period dramas? Yume’s narrowed brows said.

  “A handicrafts club,” Lydianne replied.

  “Ah, somehow, that’s incredibly…normal.”

  “More importantly, Lady Empress—”

  Lydianne suddenly changed her tenor. Asagi nodded and pulled her smartphone out once more. The girls were not meeting at a shady abandoned warehouse to chitchat.

  “Yes, yes, let’s get down to business. Here’s the posture control software and the visual analysis algorithm. Also, there were some glaring bugs in your company’s preinstalled OS, so I’m sending you a patch to fix the bugs, too.”

  “…I have no words. I humbly accept your assistance.”

  Spreading out her notepad PC, Lydianne spoke formal words of thanks as she watched the file transfer.

  The programs that Asagi had whipped up in one night were pieces of control software for next-generation industrial robots. Compared to the products currently in use, their capabilities were a couple of steps above the rest, and the resulting corporate profits would be in the tens of billions of yen at minimum. Asagi was trading that software to Lydianne’s very own family’s Didier Heavy Industries for something of commensurate value.