Hiroshi blushed and shook his head. “No, I’m not that strong. Don’t do anything dangerous, please.”
Junko hated herself a little for feeling more annoyed than pleased by her sister’s happiness.
—It’s still only been a week...
It had only been a week, but her old life had begun to feel very far away. The horrible danger, the emotional outbursts, all the things she’d wanted to be rid of when they were happening to her, had all begun to feel sweet, like fond memories.
—And he was the one who brought them all to me, wasn’t he?
Akuto was on her mind. Maybe she’d regret for the rest of her life not running away with him in those last moments. Now she didn’t know if she’d ever see him again.
—But he doesn’t care about me...
It had been a huge shock to her when he’d told her to spend more time with Yoshihiko inside the game. She didn’t want to admit it, but that was the reason she’d leapt off the Cerberus’s back.
—But maybe I should’ve stayed with him, no matter what the cost?
She let out a low sigh.
“Sis, you okay?”
Yuko’s voice brought her back to reality.
“I-I’m fine. It’s nothing. I just think it’s not safe to relax so much,” Junko said as she coughed and shook her head.
“Aww, fine. I get it. I’ll make sure I keep in touch,” Yuko said as she swallowed her tea and turned to Hiroshi. “You’ve still got time after this, right? There’s someplace I want to go with you.”
“S-Sure. As long as I’m not out too late,” Hiroshi replied.
“What? You’re not a kid anymore. You don’t even live in a dorm anymore. You’ve got your own apartment, right?”
“Y-Yeah, that’s true. But I’m a little busy today...”
“Fine. I’ll just make sure you don’t get home too late, then.”
Hiroshi and Yuko were already in the middle of their own conversation, so Junko awkwardly scooted her seat backwards.
“I think it’s time for me to get going,” she said.
“Yeah. I’ll call you if anything comes up. Make sure you watch when I’m on the air, okay?” Yuko replied. Junko left a happy-looking Yuko and a slightly stammering Hiroshi, and headed back to her room at her dorm. There was barely anything in the room except the bare necessities she needed to live. She sat down.
The only form of entertainment she had was internet streaming. She could communicate with anyone she wanted online, but the only people she knew well enough to talk to were the people she’d studied magic with. And talking about anything political would invite attention she didn’t want.
As she watched the news, only half paying attention, she began to feel like she was going insane. The news was so much more peaceful than it had been before. There was no news about any crimes, just stuff about sports and food. Maybe there wasn’t any crime anymore.
Some of the Liradans weren’t made to be beautiful, but made to look identical to humans. She’d heard stories about them stopping crimes before they happened, or arresting people immediately afterwards. If that was true, it would mean that humanity was being watched it all times.
—If I keep watching this, I’m going to go insane.
She turned off the news, but now there was nothing left to do but sit in a quiet room.
—I wish... I could just talk to somebody about how I really feel.
But the only person she wanted to talk to was Akuto.
—Am I just... regretting that I didn’t go with him?
Just like Fujiko had said, she may never see him again. As she sat there in the silence, thinking about that, her face began to feel strange. She put a hand up to it, and it was wet.
—I didn’t even realize... I’ve been crying...
Nobody was watching, but she still felt horribly embarrassed.
—Did I really care about him that much?
And at the same time, she started to feel pathetic.
—Then why don’t I just tell him? Why can’t I do that? Why do I keep screwing it up?
Junko looked up to keep herself from crying more.
—Is this the end of everything?
○
Hiroshi had transferred to a school without a dorm, and ended up living in an apartment instead. He’d spent enough time with Yuko that day that when he got back, it was early evening. When he entered the room, there was a girl standing in the back, watching him with sharp eyes.
She was short, and tomboyish, but her expression was one of a person used to command, and her first words to Hiroshi were an insult.
“You’re late, idiot! I thought something had happened. You need to be more careful.”
It was former student council president Lily Shiraishi. After 2V had escaped, she’d managed to defeat the dolls with Hiroshi’s help. But with Zero holding the empress hostage, and the gods under his command, there was nothing for her to do but flee and hide.
Fortunately, they’d managed to keep it a secret that Hiroshi had regained the suit given to him by Yamato Boichiro. The suit’s mana canceller had stopped that information from getting to Zero. After that, they’d decided to hide in Hiroshi’s apartment.
“I can’t help it. I’ve got a life to live, you know.” Hiroshi sighed and turned on the light, only to freeze in shock.
Lily was sitting cross-legged on the floor, naked except for her underwear. Hiroshi quickly averted his eyes.
“P-Put some clothes on...!” he stammered.
“Stop acting like a horny teenager. I’m washing my clothes right now, idiot,” Lily sighed. She didn’t seem to even think of Hiroshi as a member of the opposite sex, because she didn’t show the slightest sign of embarrassment.
“Then put some of my clothes on while you wait!”
“I’m not wearing your clothes. It would go against my sense of aesthetics.
“And your sense of aesthetics lets you sit around in your underwear?”
“If you don’t find your own body aesthetically pleasing, it means you need to train harder,” Lily said.
Hiroshi glanced at her, a little confused. “I mean, you’re not fat, but you’re not very feminine...”
Lily’s eyes flashed, and her left hand shot out as she remained seated. She sat there for a moment, before standing up like she’d remembered something.
“That’s right... I’m not used to the fact that I can’t use magic yet.”
She walked over to Hiroshi, stretched herself as tall as she could, and then grabbed Hiroshi’s face with her right hand.“Owwowwoww!”
“Shut up. It’s all some people can do to maintain the body they were born with, you know.”
“I get it. I get it, so let go!”
“Sheesh... I would’ve preferred to share an apartment with a more manly man, anyway.” Lily took a step away.
“Like the boss?” Hiroshi said, rubbing his face. Of course, he meant Akuto.
Lily’s lips curled up into a grin. “Heh. It might be fun to have a relationship with a man I’ll want to kill someday,” she said, sounding far more grown-up than her body looked.
Hiroshi stood there for a moment, uncertain of what to say.
“Anyway,” Lily said, eventually deciding to change the subject, “you’re all I’ve got now. I need a little more manly spirit out of you.”
Hiroshi’s expression tightened. “I know that. We can’t use magic now. Which means our only weapon is my suit, right?”
“Right. You have to be my messenger, now that I’m stuck in here.” Lily turned the computer she was holding to face him. “So, what did you learn about who 2V really is?”
Hiroshi transferred the data from his student handbook into the computer and said, “There’s limits to what I can find out on my own, but one of your dad’s old workers passed me the data. Just like we thought, the Kazuko that issued the surrender proclamation was computer-generated. It wasn’t really her.”
“So the rumors that the current empress is a litt
le different are true, then. It definitely looks like a healthier 2V.” Lily still seemed skeptical, though.
“But even if she did have Zero’s help, the only way she could’ve taken over the palace that easily is if she was related to the Empress. If we assume it’s true, a lot of things make sense,” Hiroshi said.
Lily crossed her arms. “Yeah, that’s the thing. But what does she do now, then? If I were her, I’d be looking to either kill the real Kazuko, or kill us... But she doesn’t seem to be doing much at all.”
“Yeah. I expected to run into more trouble by now. If Empress Kazuko is dead, which is a possibility, that would just give her more reason to want to kill you. You know her secret.”
“But all she’s doing is getting rid of anti-government forces and black mages. That means she’s after Akuto.”
“It just doesn’t make sense, does it...?” Hiroshi fell silent for a moment, lost in thought.
“But whatever the reason, it’s perfect for us. We can kill 2V and our problems are solved. That’s where you come in. I’ll work with the priests to come up with a plan of attack for the palace. I just need you to be my messenger boy.” Lily tapped him on the shoulder.
Hiroshi just sighed. “All you care about is killing 2V. Why not take it easy for a while? Relax, try and look cute for once?”
Lily’s face broke into a grin. It wasn’t a cute smile, though — it was the smile of a veteran warrior. “I can be cute when I need to. But she shut down my school, and she’s taken over Arnul, one of my Liradans. There’ll be plenty of time to be cute when she’s dead.”
Hiroshi took a step away from her. “I-I get it. I won’t ask for cute. Just stop scaring me all the time.”
“Quiet. If I stopped, you’d try to sneak into my bed,” she said.
“You say that, but you’re the one who’s stolen my covers... If I did sneak into your bed, it would be just so I could stop freezing at night,” Hiroshi sighed.
“Fine. You can have one of the smaller blankets back. If you wrap it around your stomach instead of trying to use it as a blanket, it might actually keep you warm,” Lily said, strangely confident.
“...Even if we’re not boyfriend and girlfriend, I’d thought that living with a girl would be a little more fun...” Hiroshi sighed, but Lily just ignored him.
“I said quiet. If you can’t cook dinner, go buy me something from the convenience store. Don’t just buy two dinners, or they’ll know there’s two people here.”
2 - An Empire Controlled
“It’s a lot of fun being out in the mountains, huh? I never thought of myself as an outdoors person, but if you think of it like an RPG, it’s a pretty otaku-ish hobby, isn’t it?” Yoshie said happily.
“Yeah, it does feel like a video game. You need to gather equipment and use it at the right time, and even craft and gather sometimes,” Keena said cheerfully.
“You two need to take this a little more seriously,” Fujiko sighed.
They’d been in the mountains for two days. It would take them three to get to the black mage village that Fujiko remembered.
During their escape, they’d stopped to pick up camping equipment and other necessities from places that the Liradans hadn’t yet started guarding. Between that, and Fujiko’s ability to use black magic, they were able to escape without a trace.
Since they’d had plenty of time to talk, Yoshie had gotten Fujiko up to speed. But even putting what both of them knew together, they couldn’t figure out Zero’s secret. They’d seen Kazuko’s speech, but that was all the information they had. The two of them were more concerned, however, with Keisu.
“I think that Liradan is the key to everything, honestly.”
“So you’re saying the only thing that can seal Zero away again is this little Liradan named Keisu that you met inside VPS?”
“Yup. That’s why Zero should be after her as well.”
“He’ll look for Keisu while he searches for us.”
“Ideally we’d find her first, but... where is she?”
“She entered VPS a long time ago. There’s no telling where she manifested when she left.”
And so they decided that the goal of their journey while they escaped would be to give Akuto time to recover, and then find Keisu.
Akuto was still unconscious. His wounds would have killed a lesser man, and without a chance to rest somewhere, he wasn’t going to get better.
“But... why is Zero so intent on killing Akuto? If Zero is the first Demon King, then I’m not even sure what a Demon King is anymore,” Fujiko said, puzzled.
“It’s possible that he’s only looking at the bad parts of human history. Not that it’s a possibility I want to think about. If what you guys heard earlier is true, the Demon King’s job is to give humanity a temporary death to make it evolve, right? I like that, it’s mythological,” Yoshie said calmly.
Fujiko was beginning to understand that Yoshie had the personality of a cheerful mad scientist. Another way to phrase that would be “just an otaku,” though.
“That’s the opposite of what Zero is doing. But either way, Akuto is trying to rid himself of that fate and follow his own path. So he’ll be fine,” Fujiko said.
Yoshie’s eyes started to shine. “Woah! I love it! It’s like humanity’s willpower overcomes all! He’s the Demon King, but also the savior of humanity? Ooh! So he’s like, got to control his evil dark side and stuff? That’s so exciting!”
Fujiko frowned. “U-Um... can you please not go into your own little world there?”
Yoshie scratched her head, embarrassed. “Sorry, I live for this stuff. It’s my hobby. Hey, do you want to come up with a name for our group? How about ‘Maidens of Freezing Flame’? I like that name,” Yoshie said.
—H-Her tastes stopped maturing in middle school!
Fujiko was astonished.
“You see, a Demon King who’s the savior of humanity is a contradiction, like a freezing flame! You know, you’re cool, and Keena’s a redhead,” Yoshie said, still cheerful.
Fujiko let out a little groan. But then Keena joined in.
“I like it! Yeah, that’s what we need!”
“N-No. We don’t need it. We don’t need anything like that at all. C-Come on, we’ll be there early in the morning, so let’s go to sleep early tonight,” Fujiko said, but Keena and Yoshie kept chattering away happily for a while after that.
Fujiko finally got to sleep a few hours later, but she had a dream of strange and impenetrable words.
—Ugh. Instincts of Burning Heat, Gravitational Sacrifice, Lonely Gale, Mad Archangel, Eternal Moonlight...
In the morning, however, her luck improved. There were people in the village who recognized her, and she was welcomed warmly. If anything, they seemed about ready to throw a party when they saw Akuto.
“I never thought I’d get to see the Demon King in person!” the villagers all said.
It was a tiny village, just a few farms in the wilderness, but there was a wide range of ages. That was proof enough that this was a black mage village. If it was an ordinary one, the young people would’ve left long ago. Everyone here had something holding them together.
The party was invited to stay in the village elder’s house. Akuto was given a bed to rest in, and the rest were given tea and snacks to relax.
The “elder” was a middle-aged man with a quiet demeanor, a wife and kids, and a large Japanese-style house.
“Things are getting bad out there, huh?” he said as he watched the news on his terminal.
There was nothing at all about any trouble in the city. No crime meant that either information was being censored, or that society was under total control. “It’s the death of freedom,” Fujiko whispered.
He nodded. “To people like us, who’ve spent our whole lives trying to make magic free for everybody, it’s a terrible thing. Society’s going backwards.”
“I believe our only hope is Akuto, but even once he’s recovered, we won’t know what to do,” Fujiko said.
“Can you lend us your wisdom, Elder?”
The elder thought for a moment, and then shook his head. “That’s a tough question. I know more about the history of the black mages than most, but I’ve never heard of any ‘first Demon King’ that sealed the gods.”
“Then what makes him different than Akuto and the other Demon Kings?”
“I can’t tell you that, either. I thought you would know, Eto.”
“Me?”
“The villagers assumed that the Demon King knew everything.”
“No... Nobody knows the details. All we know is the relationship between the gods and the Demon King...” Fujiko sighed. At this rate, they’d be forced to flee in total ignorance.
“I’m sorry I can’t help. I thought the Demon King had gone back to the place where he was born, though.”
Fujiko suddenly looked up. “The place he was born? What do you mean?”
The Elder raised an eyebrow in confusion. “You don’t know the legend? The Demon King fled from the land where he was born, and lived among the normal people as an orphan. So when he visits the place he was born, he’s supposed to receive all kinds of wisdom...”
“But Akuto said he doesn’t know where he was born.”
“That’s a problem, then. It means nobody knows. If only there were some clue...”
“I’ll look for it. Akuto can probably tell me something when he wakes up.”
“You’re right. Get some rest. Our magic conceals us from the government’s sensors, and the gods are given false records of the lives of the people who live here. So it’s safe.”
“That’s a huge help,” Fujiko said, lowering her head gratefully.
The elder brought the conversation to an end and suggested the three of them take a bath. They were covered in dirt after their trip through the mountains, so they happily took the towels offered by the elder’s wife and headed for the bath. Suddenly, however, Yoshie stopped.“You know, I’d like to wash Akuto before we take a bath,” she said. The elder’s wife apologized for not thinking of that herself, and brought them a small bucket of water and a towel.
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 8 Page 3