Hiroshi went off to school, and Yuko went to the TV station. When Yuko waved just before she left, Hiroshi felt a terrible pain in his chest, but there was nothing he could do.
When he got to school, it was as boring as ever. Neither the students nor the teachers had any interest in being there. Any dreams or goals they’d had were meaningless now, so what was the point? Hiroshi glumly sat in his classes, ignoring what he was being told.
—If I just don’t care about anything, I can live out my life... Maybe everybody’s okay with that. So why am I suffering like this?
He couldn’t help but think like that.
After lunch, Hiroshi took out his terminal to watch Yuko’s program. Class wasn’t over yet, but most of the students were doing the same. The teacher was ignoring it.
Yuko was appearing on a cooking program, where she and the other talents on the show were eating the food that was brought to them on a live broadcast. Even after what had happened last night, she was still wearing a bright smile on her face, and cheerfully clapping each time a new dish was brought out.
—She’s a pro, isn’t she?
Hiroshi was impressed. But in the next instant, something happened that made him forget what he’d been thinking a moment ago. The camera zoomed in on Yuko as the host asked her what she thought about the dish she’d just been given. Yuko’s smile suddenly turned into a serious expression.
“I have something important to tell you all today.” There was a sense of resolve in her words. He could sense that the other actors in the studio were confused.
Yuko talked fast, probably to keep them from cutting her off, but her words were clear and enunciated. “Don’t you think that there’s something wrong with our country right now? Because there is. Don’t you realize that you’re being ruled by force? If every one of you speaks up, things will change! Go out into the street, and start talking! Start saying what you think, and speaking up—”
Before she could finish, the camera quickly moved away.
“Cut the audio!” someone screamed.
“Should we put a different program on?”
He could hear the staff panicking, and the other talents getting angry. There were yells and confused shouts, before finally the show cut to commercial.
“What just happened?”
“Something weird is going on...”
Many of the others students in the class seemed to have been watching the program too. He could hear murmurs around him in the classroom.
—No...
Hiroshi felt the blood drain from his face.
—Was this her idea for how she’d try to help?
Yuko had done her best to start a revolution. But she hadn’t thought it through, and the result wasn’t going to be good. He didn’t know what would happen next, but he knew he wasn’t going to like it.
Hiroshi took out his student handbook and used its mail function to contact Yuko. It took a long time, but he finally got a message back. He let out a sigh of relief.
They got really mad at me, but it’s okay, the message said.
—So the worst that can happen is that she’ll be fired, huh?
Hiroshi felt a little guilty.
Yuko was back to school before class ended. She’d changed back into her uniform, so she’d probably intended to at least stay for last period, but by the time she got there the day was almost over.
“I couldn’t help myself, hehe,” she giggled. She didn’t look as upset as he’d thought she would.
“That wasn’t a good idea, you know,” Hiroshi said as he left the school building with her. “I’m glad it wasn’t any worse for you, though.”
“They were really mad, I told you. But I’m done with them. The whole business is just so boring now.” Yuko frowned.
“You say that, but I know you’ll regret it...” Hiroshi trailed off.
They were walking on the road outside the school, so of course, it was filled with students. But they’d realized that something was wrong; there were more students around them than there should be.
“Hmm...?”
“Huh? Something’s...” Yuko noticed to, and was about to say “something’s wrong” before somebody tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around to see the school nurse.
“Yuko Hattori, our tests showed you have an illness,” the nurse said suddenly.
“Wh-What are you talking about? My tests didn’t come back with anything wrong...” Yuko replied.
“That’s right. And those tests were a while ago. Why didn’t you tell us sooner...?” Hiroshi suddenly tensed up and got between Yuko and her teacher. He hadn’t been at the school long, but he did recognize her as the school nurse. But still, something in her words seemed disturbing.
“Don’t worry. It won’t take long at all to cure it. But it’s contagious, and you need to be quarantined,” the nurse said, and raised a hand as if she was giving an order.
The students around them began to approach Yuko.
“Kyah! Wh-What’s going on?”
“Stop it!” Hiroshi tried to protect her, but one of the students grabbed him from behind. “Let me go!” He tried to shake them off, but the student’s power was incredible.
—A Liradan!
Hiroshi was shocked. He’d seen the faces of the students around him in class, which meant that they’d been intermixed with the rest of the school from the start.
“Then the nurse is also...!” Hiroshi gasped and looked at her. He was right; the teacher’s expression hadn’t changed.
“Help!” Yuko screamed.
Hiroshi struggled, but on his own he was no match for a Liradan.
—Should I... use my suit?
He wasn’t sure. If he did, he could save her here. But it would mean the end of his plan to assault the palace. And every second, Yuko was getting dragged farther away from him.
“No! Help! Let me go! Please!” Yuko struggled, but the Liradan students had lifted her off the ground so she couldn’t get away.
“Wait! Stop! What are you doing?” Hiroshi yelled.
“Don’t worry,” the nurse said, “we never harm humans. She’ll come back in a few days. You have nothing to worry about at all.”
—What?!
Hiroshi felt something like despair inside. He’d heard about people vanishing and then coming back a few days later. Were they being brainwashed? Or perhaps replaced with Liradans?
“Stop right there!” He activated his suit. “Brave!”
A field appeared around him, blasting away the Liradan that was holding him. In the next instant, he was wearing the suit.
“Welcome, Brave,” the computer said in a voice only he could hear.
—There goes the plan... But I’ll just do it all myself! I’ll save Yuko, and drag 2V and Zero out of the palace!
○
Akuto had been watching the program Yuko appeared on too.
“Is she going to be safe, saying that...?” Akuto said, watching on the monitor in the village elder’s house.
“Unlikely, if you ask me. But the people are getting upset. I hope this will spur them to action,” Fujiko replied.
“Think she can be a modern Joan of Arc?” Yoshie mused. She only knew Yuko as an idol.
“Hey, what do you think that rice she was eating tastes like? She never got to tell us, did she?” Keena was drooling on Akuto’s shoulder.
Akuto had spent the past week in the elder’s house, recovering. The three girls had been clinging to him the whole time. Each of them kept the others from getting too grabby, so a delicate balance was maintained. But Akuto didn’t know how to deal with any of them.
“What am I supposed to do at times like this?” Akuto sighed. There were other things he wasn’t sure about, either. He’d more or less recovered, and was ready to take action. But he wasn’t sure of what action to take.
“Of course, you need to become the messiah and bring peace to the world. Zero’s not a god, and shouldn’t be allowed to call himself one. You, Akuto, are the only god t
his world needs,” Fujiko said.
“What?” Yoshie interrupted. “He doesn’t seem to want to do it, though. Why not just get through this and then live in peace?”
Fujiko scowled at her. “That won’t satisfy his believers, though. And this world is definitely going in the wrong direction now. If we want to live in peace, at a minimum we need to get rid of Zero.”
“I agree with you there, but the world the black mages want, where nobody controls who can use what magic, feels like going backwards in time.”
“That’s none of your business. It’s Akuto’s decision to make. Right, Akuto?” Fujiko turned her eyes upward at Akuto.
“I don’t feel like it’s my place to decide either, though...” Akuto said, uncertain.
“With power comes responsibility, you know. You need to keep that in mind, okay?” With that last “okay,” she poked Akuto in the cheek.
“Hey, you don’t get to get all touchy-feely with him! It’s not fair!”
“Let me join in!”
Yoshie and Keena started to poke him in the cheek and forehead too, and then began to touch him even more.
“Get off him, you little brats!” Fujiko yelled. “This is private time for grown-ups!”
“It’s still the middle of the day...” Akuto sighed. “And I actually wanted to talk about serious things with you three...”
Despite all the tension in the outside world, the three of them were still taking it incredibly easy. And if anything, the villagers seemed to be impressed by it. As they cheerfully attended to his needs, they said things like, “If he’s so relaxed, he must be a master of emotional control,” and “The fact that so many women love him is only a sign of his greatness.”
—Yuko’s probably going to be in danger, which could affect Hattori, too.... Yuko seemed to be fine for a while, but now I’m worried...
He thought for a moment, and then slapped his hands against his knees, ignoring the girls clinging to him. “Okay, that settles it,” he said.
“Settles what?”
The three looked at him, confused.
“We’re leaving,” he said.
“Leaving? We’re finally ready to do something?”
“Woah! This is getting exciting, huh?”
“The rice here is good, but maybe it’s time for a change.”
Each of them responded in a different way, but nobody was opposed to it.
“Where are we going?” Fujiko asked.
“Well... that I haven’t decided. Maybe we go look for Keisu,” Akuto said, suddenly hesitant.
“...Akuto, that’s not funny,” Fujiko sighed.
“This isn’t the time for jokes,” Yoshie added.
“But there’s nothing wrong with just roaming for a while with no goal, is there?” Keena said cheerfully, but Yoshie wagged a finger at her.
“Tch-tch-tch. Our goal is to defeat Zero and save everyone. And to do that, we need to find Keisu. But right now, we don’t have the strength need to make that happen.”
“I’m aware of that. But if I want to get stronger...” Akuto looked uncertain.
“It would mean awakening as the Demon King, right? But to do that, you’d need Peterhausen,” Fujiko said, before turning Yoshie and filling her in on who Peterhausen was.
Peterhausen was a dragon, a being whose job it was to support the Demon King and keep his mana under control. He was also what functioned as the black mages’ god.
“...But Peterhausen turned his functions over to the gods and some computer somewhere, and then he was destroyed,” Fujiko finished.
“Which means there’s still some mechanism out there that can control the Demon King’s mana, huh?” Yoshie said.
“The gods don’t have physical bodies. If Akuto was in the right mental state, he should be able to draw out that power.”
“But, well...” Akuto trailed off. That would mean making an important decision. It would mean accepting that he was the destroyer of the world. Unless there was something he really wanted to do with that power, it was something he needed to refuse at all costs.
“Why not go to where Ackie was born?” Keena suddenly said.
“Where he was born?”
“It’s a secret that even the black mages don’t know, right? So maybe we could learn something there. But Ackie, you were at an orphanage, so you don’t know where it is, right?” Keena tilted her head and spoke.
“I went to that orphanage right after I was born, so yeah. I heard they left me in front of the doors with nothing but a cape coat to use as a blanket...” Akuto said, and everyone gasped.
“Oh, the one you’re always wearing!”
“Maybe we can learn something from it!”
Akuto quickly went to where their clothes were kept and took out a beat-up old cape coat. It had been damaged in his many battles, but the fabric was sturdy. And it must have had some kind of protective magic on it, because there were no major tears.
“Let me take a look at that,” Yoshie said, taking the coat out of Akuto’s hands. She put on her goggles, and started to fiddle with the attached switches.
“Hehehe, this is actually an analyzer!” she explained proudly.
“I don’t know if I like the way you said that,” Fujiko sighed, but Yoshie wasn’t listening.
Yoshie began to carefully check both sides of the coat before screaming, “Whoa! I found it! That was... easier than I thought.”
“Found what? Hurry up and tell us.”
“Oh, I’ll just put it on my terminal.” She tapped a few more of the controls on her goggles and displayed what they were showing on a screen.
It was a magnified image, enhanced enough that you could see the individual coat fibers.
“What about it?”
“With fancy clothes like these, the maker usually puts a mark on them somewhere. Normally you can’t see them, but if you look through it with a microscope, you’ll find it.” Yoshie put her finger on the mana screen and drew a circle. There was a little logo there.
“There’s a mark on each thread of fiber...” Fujiko said.
“They use these special threads for part of the coat to make it harder to counterfeit. And when they do, they put their own name on it...”
“Wh-Where is this manufacturer?”
“The name of the place is ZeroG 10... Let me see... Found it.” Yoshie displayed the results of the search she’d just done on the screen. It was a brand that used special fibers to make work clothes.
“But if there’s lots of places that sell it, that doesn’t tell us anything.”
“Hmm... You’re right, but it doesn’t look like that’s a problem. There’s only one factory that makes this stuff, and only one place that sells it. It’s in Okutama. That’s... surprisingly close.” Yoshie took off her goggles and looked at Akuto. He looked back at her and nodded.
“Let’s go,” he said.
“Right. Time to get ready, then.” She stood up.
“Isn’t this great, Ackie? You might get to meet your mother,” Keena said cheerfully, but Yoshie wagged a finger at her.
“My mother, huh?” Akuto didn’t look nearly as happy as she did, though.
Fujiko poked her with her shoulder. “It’s not necessarily going to be a happy reunion. You need to think about how Akuto feels.”
“Hmm... I don’t know...” Keena didn’t seem to agree.
Just then, though, there was a commotion outside. The elder was running through the house
“What’s wrong?” Akuto said.
The elder came around the corner with a serious look on his face. “They’re here.”
“They?”
“The Liradans. They’re armed.” He was calm, but they could see from the tension in his eyes that he was ready for battle.
“We’ll be right there,” Akuto said, but the elder shook his head.
“No, if they find you here, it will just make things worse. Please flee.”
“But aren’t they here because they’re after us
?”
“It seems that they’re not. The Liradans are doing raids on every town, village, and city in the area.”
“Why? To find us?”
“We don’t know that. But we know that they’re doing it. Please, flee. Get out of here. If it’s just us, we may be able to fool them,” the elder said.
His words may have sounded harsh, but Akuto knew that he was willing to expose himself and the rest of his village to danger to protect them.
“Very well.” Akuto nodded. He grabbed his things and headed out the back door. Fujiko and the others quickly followed after.
“What happened, do you think?”
“Search raids on the whole empire? Why would they do that?”
“Do you think the villagers will be okay...?”
As they climbed the mountain behind the village, Keena turned around and looked behind them. Liradans in military uniforms were going from house to house. Nothing had happened so far, but if the government found out they’d been there, there was no telling what would happen to the villagers.
“Let’s just hope it’s still true that Liradans can’t kill humans. Now let’s get going before we put the elder and his family in danger,” Fujiko said. She called to Cerberus, which had been left to run loose on the mountain, and loaded up everyone’s things on it.
—When I get to the place where I was born... will I find out what I’m supposed to do?
Akuto turned back for one last look at the village, but then he quickly turned around and started to walk.
○
It was 2V, of course, who’d ordered the search. There were human staff in the palace, but 2V was surrounded entirely by Liradans. For this reason, even though she wasn’t yet in control of the entire empire, her life wasn’t much different than it had been when she’d been in that cheap condo.
She was sitting on a luxurious throne now, and wearing expensive clothes, but the only people around her were combat dolls and Liradans. She slumped in her seat and stared at her mana screen, giving orders.
“Empress, what shall we do about the attacker?” one of the Liradans asked, bowing her head. Her screen showed Brave (Hiroshi) flying towards the palace. He seemed to have given up on hiding, and was now flying low to the ground in a straight line.
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 8 Page 5