A War of Primogenitors

by Gakuto Mikumo

  Shio knit her brows as she put her thoughts in order.

  “Should I take this as Glenda lifting the seal because she acknowledged you as the Priestess of Cain?”

  “Not exactly… It’s Kojou she recognizes, not me.”

  Asagi looked up at the ceiling as she shook her head. Yuiri and Shio blinked in bewilderment.

  “Kojou?”

  “Kojou Akatsuki is the Fourth Primogenitor, right? Isn’t he Cain’s enemy?”

  “But that girl’s really fond of Kojou. Am I wrong?”

  “Mm…”

  “Now that you mention it…”

  Yuiri and Shio crossed their arms as they began mulling over the matter in earnest. However, Asagi had no intention of explaining things to the pair any further. Though she’d established a working hypothesis, Asagi couldn’t possibly be confident as to whether it was really the truth.

  “Either way, Glenda’s duty is over. I don’t mind if you take her and go. What are you gonna do, though? I think it’s a bit difficult to get off Itogami Island at the moment.”

  After lowering her eyes, visibly perplexed, Yuiri stared at Asagi and posed a question.

  “Asagi, you seriously intend to protect this island?”

  “Well, it can’t really be helped, can it? That Holy Ground Treaty Organization bunch is attacking either way. The government can’t protect us, so we have to do it ourselves.”

  “…Why go that far?”

  “Because I was raised here in the Demon Sanctuary, that’s why.”

  With Yuiri looking straight at her, Asagi averted her gaze just slightly as she replied. Then, she gazed at Lydianne and Yume, the primary school duo, and gave a strained smile.

  “Besides, it’s not like I’m doing this alone.”

  “It’s not…like I am doing this for Asagi’s sake, either, you know.” Yume’s cheeks reddened as she murmured with a visible sulk.

  “Such opportunities doth gather this much live combat data cometh not often, so…,” Lydianne replied, invigorated.

  That moment, as Asagi changed clothes, her smartphone vibrated a single time. An oddly humanlike synthetic voice coursed from it.

  “Li’l miss, the enemy fleet’s gone on the move. Two destroyers have separated from the fleet, probably to do forward reconnaissance.”

  “Well, that figures… Yume, Tanker.”

  Nodding at Mogwai’s report, Asagi turned toward the elementary school duo.

  “Yes.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  Yume and Lydianne immediately stood up and nodded. There was no need for detailed instructions. Everything was moving in accordance with their initial plan.

  Clutching her favorite laptop, an impetuous smile came over Asagi as she shouted.

  “You’ll regret trying to lay a hand on our island—let the war begin!”

  From behind the enthused trio, Yuiri and Shio stared, at a loss.

  4

  Natsuki Minamiya’s apartment building, built on Island West’s plateau, was her personal possession. Natsuki’s room was on the highest floor, and one could view the water’s distant horizon from its veranda.

  However, at present, all that filled Kojou and the others’ vision was a vast, artificial isle spreading out in a spiral. Cain’s legacy, manifested by Asagi, covered the surface of the sea. The scenery was at once twisted and malevolent, yet, it gave off a mechanical beauty.

  “As expected of Cain… It is quite magnificent.”

  Standing on Kojou’s shoulder, Nina Adelard let out carefree words of praise, as if all this was someone else’s problem.

  “It’s too damn big… What the hell’s with this artificial island…?”

  Kojou made a fragile rebuttal. The island was truly egregious in size. It had completely enveloped Itogami Island, with an empty urban landscape devoid of people, surrounded by a metallic wall covering all 360 degrees. Even if Kojou ran all day and night, he didn’t feel like he’d completely make it across the island’s circumference. He felt like the might of the world-rewriting Cleansing was being deliberately rubbed in his face.

  “Through trilateration, I have made a simplified estimate of surface area.”

  With a thick range finder in hand, Astarte reported in an unmoved tone of voice.

  “Surface area of the newly emerged artificial isle portions estimated at one hundred and twenty times to one hundred and fifty times that of Itogami Island itself. However, this is a number for reference only, applying solely to the portions exposed above sea level and ignoring the effect of the atmospheric refraction rate.”

  “A hundred and twenty times that of Itogami Island…?”

  “Affirmative. Either estimate is the total area of a small country.”

  “So she just dragged this stupidly big thing out of another dimension…”

  Kojou felt an endless dread that made his shoulders visibly shudder.

  A moment later, he heard a light sound, like that of a small doll falling over. Yukina, realizing something was wrong, immediately turned around, and swiftly leaped into the living room. Kojou reflexively followed her.

  The first thing they saw was a teacup that had tipped over. Droplets of tea coursing onto the table formed a smear upon its white surface resembling a pool of blood, and upon it lay Natsuki Minamiya.

  The small-statured witch was limp with her eyes closed, defenseless in her fallen state.

  “Ms. Minamiya…!”

  Yukina picked Natsuki up. However, no sign of life returned to the side of Natsuki’s refined face.

  “Natsuki? What gives all of a sudden…?”

  “I do not know. However…”

  Yukina touched her fingers to Natsuki’s wrist. She probably meant to take Natsuki’s pulse. However, a fiercely shaken look came over her eyes. There was no response whatsoever from Natsuki’s delicate wrist.

  “She’s dead…?!”

  Yukina murmured the words as if she could not believe them. No way. Kojou, wobbling, fell to his knees.

  Someone violently thrust something small into the back of Kojou’s skull. Bonk, went the small hand striking the top of Yukina’s head.

  “I would prefer you did not kill off your teachers unbidden.”

  Kojou and Yukina heard a haughty yet somehow lisping voice from behind.

  Turning around, Kojou’s eyes were greeted by Natsuki, who was wearing a white one-piece negligee and clutching a pink teddy bear against her. Kojou’s eyes bulged. The other Natsuki wearing an extravagant dress was still in Yukina’s arms.

  “Two…Ms. Minamiyas?”

  “…Don’t tell me, this is Natsuki in the flesh?”

  Kojou murmured in a small voice as he touched his hand to the cheek of the Natsuki clutching the bear. Unwittingly pulling on Natsuki’s cheek, he found it soft, conveying the warmth of her body.

  “Stop speaking about me like I am meat on a rack.”

  The Natsuki in sleepwear violently slapped Kojou’s hand away.

  It was then that Kojou realized the truth behind her emergence. This was the young girl who had formed a pact with a devil, continuing to sleep while trapped in her own dream—that was the true nature of the Witch of the Void. The real Natsuki, who ought to have been in the Prison Barrier, had appeared that moment, awake and in the real world. That was why the doll she used in her stead had ceased to move.

  “An effect of Aiba’s Cleansing. The materialization of Cain’s legacy interfered with spatial control, destroying the seal upon me. The Prison Barrier has emerged into reality.”

  Natsuki clicked her tongue. Kojou grimaced in turn. He recalled having laid eyes upon that prison on the night of a late autumn festival.

  Natsuki Minamiya had sealed a prison, meant to incarcerate criminals deemed dangerous even by Itogami Island standards, inside an alternate dimension of her own personal creation. This was the price she had paid to obtain the power of a Witch.

  However, spatial disturbances created by The Cleansing had destroyed Natsuki’s pocket
dimension. As a result, Natsuki had awakened from her dream, and the Prison Barrier had been returned to the real world.

  “…We gonna have a repeat of what happened back during Hollow Eve Festival?”

  Kojou lowered his voice. Recalling how Aya Tokoyogi, the Witch of Notaria, had engineered a prison escape of sorcerous criminals, he did not realize how his expression had hardened. Things were chaotic enough already; the Gigafloat Management Corporation had nothing to spare for dealing with escaped prisoners.

  However, Natsuki continued clutching her bear as she shook her head with a neutral expression.

  “There is no effect on the prison’s functionality. It is not like back then. After all, I, the warden, have not lost my magical power.”

  “—Meaning, those sorcerous criminals ain’t gonna get outside…”

  “The problem is the fact that I have awakened from the dream.”

  As if to pound a nail into Kojou’s relief, Natsuki glared at him without bothering to blink.

  “Huh?”

  “Have you forgotten? Time was stopped for Nagisa Akatsuki only because she was inside my dream.”

  “Ah…!”

  When he understood the meaning of Natsuki’s words, Kojou felt all the blood in his body run cold.

  Natsuki’s barrier was what had bought them time in order to save Nagisa. They’d just managed to keep Nagisa’s condition stable by incarcerating her in a pocket dimension cut off from the real world.

  But that barrier was broken now. Nagisa, still parched of spiritual energy and on the verge of death, had been returned to the real world once more.

  Spiritual energy supplied from Kanon was somehow tethering her to life, but in her unstable condition, that was unlikely to hold for long. They no longer had a second to lose to save Nagisa’s life.

  “You cannot redo the seal upon the Prison Barrier?” Yukina asked, her voice shrill from nervousness.

  “A troublesome sorcerous ritual is required to send it into another dimension. Either way, I cannot employ large-scale spatial-control magic until the effects of The Cleansing subside. Restoring the seal is impossible for the time being.”

  “Can we not at least send only Nagisa and Kano back int—”

  “The cessation of time inside the Prison Barrier is merely a side effect of the curse upon me. I cannot cut unrelated persons off from the flow of time at my own convenience. Unfortunately.”

  Natsuki replied in an emotionless voice. Yukina, at a loss for words, fell silent, for now she understood—even Natsuki, with the power of a witch, could not save Nagisa from her current state.

  “Take us to wherever Nagisa is. Right now!”

  Kojou drew close to the nightwear-clad Natsuki. Still clutching her teddy bear, Natsuki nodded.

  “Understood. Come.”

  5

  Sitting in the captain’s chair of the missile destroyer Crossley, a naval commander sipped on a cup of cold, bitter coffee.

  By rights, his ship was assigned to the North American Union Pacific Fleet, but at present, it was acting as part of the Holy Ground Treaty Organization Military’s multinational armada. The current location of the Crossley was at sea some 520 kilometers south of Tokyo, on its way to destroy the large-scale destructive sorcerous device known as Itogami Island.

  The crew members on the packed bridge were being worked to death analyzing the information transmitted from patrol aircraft. They’d already confirmed through visual imagery the full contours of the mysterious artificial isle appearing in the sea around Itogami Island. Its coastline had a length exceeding one thousand kilometers—a fortress city on an unfathomable scale.

  “So this is Cain’s legacy—”

  The commander coldly smiled, concealing his internal unrest.

  “I wasn’t enthusiastic about slaughtering five hundred thousand civilians, but this does make it a little easier, doesn’t it, XO?”

  “The enemy’s combat strength is unknown. At the present juncture, I cannot judge whether this constitutes ‘easier.’”

  A white lieutenant commander sitting in the executive officer’s chair replied in a voice that barely sounded human.

  The commander found his well-educated, rationalist XO to be a difficult person to deal with. Tough bastard to like, thought the commander, venting internally. Even a homunculus came off as more human.

  “UAV imagery?”

  The commander asked, lips twitching in annoyance. The XO’s expression remained unsociable as he turned the tablet in his hands the commander’s way.

  “See for yourself.”

  “What…is this?”

  The commander knitted his brows as he gazed at the image displayed by the tablet. On that screen were dancing cartoon characters meant to appeal to children.

  “It is not just this ship’s UAVs. The imagery from patrol aircraft and orbital satellites is all like this. Our tactical data link appears to have been hacked.”

  “Hacked? Is that even possible?”

  “Perhaps, for someone with an absurd amount of skill.”

  The executive officer nodded with a neutral stare. The commander subconsciously bit the nail of his thumb.

  “Can we aim this ship’s main guns at the island directly?”

  “There is still time remaining before the attack is slated to begin, according to the HGTO directive…”

  “They won’t care. It’s not like we’re attacking Itogami Island itself. I’ll leave target selection to you.”

  The commander rudely spat out the words. Even if the tactical network was unusable, that posed no obstacle to human-piloted reconnaissance craft and measurements by eyesight. Surely a little naval gunfire would gain them a great deal of information about the enemy defense system and armor composition.

  “Aye, aye. Turret No. 2, prepare the long-range land-attack projectile. We are expected to support the ground forces, so prioritize destruction of coastal structures.”

  “Turret No. 2, entering fire-control sequence now.”

  One after another, crew members announced their compliance with the XO’s command as the ship instantly went on red alert.

  The Crossley was equipped with a 155 mm single-mounted gun employing shells propelled with the assistance of magic, granting it a firing range in excess of a one-hundred-kilometer radius. The mysterious artificial isle that had appeared in Itogami Island’s environs was already within attack range.

  However, before the gunner had established the target for attack, a communications operator looked back with tension on his face.

  “Emergency message from the Ducane while on patrol. An object is approaching this ship from underwater!”

  “—A submarine?”

  The commander’s hips grew a little lighter. No information had come to him that Itogami Island deployed attack submarines. However, their opponent was Cain’s legacy. Nothing was out of the question.

  “Prepare for anti-submarine combat! Emergency CIWS, hurry!”

  The executive officer rapidly issued commands. Even among destroyers of its generation, the Crossley was a ship granted particularly high-precision anti-submarine warfare capabilities. Through an underwater search system employing magical detection, it had succeeded in virtually nullifying all submarine stealth capabilities. Even if the opponent was Cain’s legacy, its superiority remained undaunted. But—

  “Image on screen!”

  “…What the hell is that?!”

  Looking down at the captain’s chair monitor, the naval commander’s eyes bulged. The mechanical spirit photography characteristic to the pale screen displayed an unfamiliar object. It was an enormous silhouette resembling a gigantic whale—or perhaps a sea serpent. It was moving at a depth of two thousand meters, leisurely swimming at the bottom of the deep sea. No anti-submarine missile could reach such depths.

  “Current position of unknown vessel?”

  “Approximately thirty-five kilometers southwest. Currently approaching this ship at over forty knots. Unknown vessel�
�s total length is…in excess of four thousand meters…!”

  The sonar operator’s shout sounded like a scream. Fierce unrest spread throughout the bridge. Past or present, no submersible weapon existed that exceeded four thousand meters in length. None, save but one single exception—

  Everyone present knew that weapon’s name.

  It was a sea monster recorded in holy script. It was the World’s Mightiest Living Creature, created by the very gods.

  Trembling, the commander voiced the monster’s name.

  “Leviathan…!”

  6

  A stonework cathedral stood on a tiny artificial island covered in rocks.

  It was this cathedral that was the true Prison Barrier in which Itogami Island’s sorcerous criminals were incarcerated.

  The pocket dimension that Natsuki Minamiya, a preeminent witch, had herself crafted incarcerated this artificial isle whole. Itogami Island’s Prison Barrier was feared as a place from which escape was absolutely impossible.

  However, that very moment, the small artificial isle floated atop the sea, utterly defenseless.

  It was some forty to fifty meters from the shore of Itogami Island proper to that mass of rocks. Connecting the two artificial islands was a floating bridge of simple construction, flickering like mirage with a fickle sway. It served as proof that the space around the Prison Barrier was unstable.

  “Hurry, Akatsuki! Vrooooom! Vrm—vrm—vrm! Screeech!”

  “Don’t yell sound effects when riding on top of someone else’s head!!”

  Kojou angrily shouted at Natsuki, dressed in nightwear, as he ran at full speed. Thanks to the lingering aftereffects of The Cleansing, she was unable to teleport them to the Prison Barrier’s interior.

  With Natsuki reverting to the child she appeared to be, Kojou could not abandon her partway, so he kept her on his back as he crossed the tilting bridge.

  Yukina remained just ahead of the pair as she arrived at the cathedral. Using her silver spear to rend the vestiges of the vanished barrier, she leaped into the room.

  Left alone within that vast room were two girls wearing identical school uniforms. Nagisa Akatsuki rested, unconscious, as Kanon Kanase held her tight.