“2V! Since when were you this good at combat?” Lily howled at 2V. But the girl just laughed in response.
“Hah! You didn’t notice, did you? It’s not what you think it is. I’m not controlling them at all.”
“What?”
“What if there was somebody who was better at controlling dolls than me? What if they could control multiple dolls at the same time?”
“Shut up! That’s impossible... No... You can’t mean...” Lily’s jaw fell open in astonishment.
“Hahaha! That’s right! I told you... Zero, the first Demon King, can control all Liradans! Any autonomous AI! Zero was a program that was sealed in VPS. He was the first Demon King, and I gave Zero a body! I’m his master now!”
2V’s laugh echoed through the room, and Hiroshi went pale.
“Then what I saw outside...!”
“What? There’s something happening outside?” Lily turned around as she punched a doll.
“Outside... the cars stopped, and the air buses fell from the sky... And I kept hearing the sounds of things breaking...” Hiroshi said.
Lily fixed an intense glare on 2V.
“You bitch... You used the Liradans to destroy the city...!”
“Hahaha! It wasn’t me! I can control him, but Zero’s a little crazy! But I’ll be going now.”
“Wait...!”
“Does anybody ever wait when they hear someone say that?”
The doll carrying 2V went to jump off the veranda to the ground below, but suddenly it stopped. 2V turned back.
“Oh, right. I told you I had the students hostage. But that was a lie. You can’t alter the program like that from the outside. Remember that.”
“You stupid bitch!” Lily raged. “I’ll get you for this, damn it!”
“I never want to see you again. Good luck surviving! No, maybe it’s better if you don’t. You might end up with a world where Liradans rule.” The doll holding 2V vanished as she dropped below.
“2V!” Lily screamed, but she was surrounded and unable to move. She turned to Hiroshi with a pained look on her face.
“Do something! You’re a man, right?”
“B-But...” Hiroshi stepped back as one of the dolls started moving towards him. “O-Oh no...”
Before he could run, though, he felt a sudden pain in his wrist.
“Huh...?” He looked down at it. It was bracelet he wore as a good luck charm. The device he’d once used to summon the anti-Demon King suit, which no longer worked.
—H-How? Don’t tell me I can use it again...!
“B-Brave...” He whispered the activation keyword.
○
Akuto was back in the courtyard where he’d first vanished. The students around him were amazed to see him covered in blood.
“Uwah!”
“Why is he covered in blood?”
None of them liked him, but they couldn’t just let him lie there, wounded.
“Can anybody here heal?”
“No way... I thought he was immortal!”
The students began to murmur.
A moment later, Keena and the others appeared in the yard as well.
“Ackie!” Keena ran straight up to him and cradled his head in her hands.
“The mana in my body started to heal me as soon as I got back... I think I’ll be alright,” he said in a pained voice.
“We need to use healing on you... We could use a Liradan’s healing tools, right?” Fujiko looked around. The only ones who appeared when the game ended were Akuto, Keena, Junko, and Korone.
Keena was still talking to Akuto, Junko was standing over him with a pale face, and Korone was frozen.
“Korone, are you listening?” Fujiko said to her. “You need to heal him.”
As always, Korone was expressionless. She must have heard Fujiko, however, because she jammed a hand into her pouch.
“That’s right. Get your medkit out,” Fujiko said. Then she turned her gaze back to Akuto. “Hurry up and heal him...”
Clack-clack.
Fujiko heard an ominous sound behind her.
“Clack-clack?” she repeated, and turned around.
Korone was holding a huge weapon at her hip. It was a beam weapon that fired mana.
“Th-That’s not a medkit!” Fujiko said, but Korone clearly wasn’t listening. “I never could figure out what you were thinking, but this is going a little too far...”
Korone was pointing the weapon at Akuto.
“Watch out!” Fujiko yelled as she fired a mana ball at Korone to try to stop her. “Th-This can’t be happening!”
But Korone continued to ignore her — and she fired the weapon. Junko turned around at the sound of the mana ball firing and Fujiko’s voice, but she was an instant too late. The beam from the weapon tore through Akuto’s body.
“Gwah!” he screamed.
“Ackie!”
“Akuto!”
Keena and Junko’s screams overlapped.
The mana ball hit Korone clean in the face, but she just staggered for a moment before aiming the weapon again.
“Wh-What are you doing, Korone?!”
“Stop it, Korone!”
Junko and Keena yelled.
But Korone’s expression didn’t change. Behind her, they could see smoke rising up from the city below.
Afterword
Thanks for reading! It’s me, Shoutarou Mizuki.
This is Volume 7. It’s the start of a new chapter, and a multi-book story. I’m not sure yet if it’ll be just two books, or if it will keep going. I think it’s fun to let the characters just do whatever it is they feel like, so my style of writing is just let them be the ones who drive the story. I hope you’ll treat it like a serial and enjoy it.
As for other stuff, there’s a second drama CD coming out from Beatnicks on September 30th 2009. This time, Akemi Kanda is playing the role of Lily Shiraishi, and Satomi Sato is Eiko Teruya. All of you readers know what Eiko Teruya is like, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out.
Souichi Itou’s manga adaption has a volume on sale too. It’s running in Champion RED right now. I got a chance to hear what he’s got planned during a meeting with him, and it’s really amazing! Both of our versions end up at the same place, but they take different routes to get there, so I hope you’ll give it a try.
Now, on to some small talk.
A while ago I received some motsunabe, which is offal stew. It was really good, but what I’m not sure about is when you’re supposed to swallow the white offal.
I can guarantee I’m faster than most people. I probably only need 3/4ths the amount of chewing that most people need. But if I don’t swallow it quickly, I always end up chewing it for a long, long time. If only there were some rule, like, “Chew the white offal X number of times!” I wouldn’t have this problem. Or perhaps a way to be sure you could bite cleanly through the offal.
I’ll be waiting for answers from white offal fans all over Japan, whether they like the offal fried or in a stew.
Lastly, some thank yous.
Thank you Souichi Itou, my illustrator. Thanks for coming over to celebrate my move. I hope we’ll get another chance to hang out soon.
Ohashi, my editor. I feel like I’ve grown as an author because I only missed my deadline a little. But I’m sure it’s just my imagination, so I’ll try to go even faster next time.
Also, I want to thank everyone else who’s helped with this work, especially those who did the drama CD. I’m going to keep doing my best, and I hope you will too.
See in you Volume 8! It will pick up where this story left off. There’s lots more fun to be had!
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Copyright
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 7
by Shoutarou Mizuki<
br />
Translated by Adam Lensenmayer
Edited by Aimee Zink
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2009 Shoutarou Mizuki
Illustrations Copyright © 2009 Souichi Itou
Cover illustration by Souichi Itou
All rights reserved.
Original Japanese edition published in 2009 by Hobby Japan
This English edition is published by arrangement with Hobby Japan, Tokyo
English translation © 2018 J-Novel Club LLC
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.
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The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
Ebook edition 1.0: September 2018
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 7 Page 13