But the real reason that Akuto couldn’t move was something else entirely.
There were two eyes that had been staring at them for a while now. They weren’t human. And they were looking down from a tree. He couldn’t tell if they were canine or feline, but they were sharp and wild.
It was a four-legged beast, and a big one. It didn’t seem like the one from before that had caused the mana abnormality. When he tried to manipulate the mana in its body, he felt a power resisting it.
—So that’s the guardian of this place, huh? It doesn’t look like it’s has a human-like mind, though...
The other two guardians had both had something resembling personalities. But this one was pure wild instinct. Because of that, he had no idea what it would do.
Junko and Eiko didn’t seem to notice, and they were continuing their battle. Both were evenly matched for now, but it looked like Junko was being slightly pushed to the defensive...
—What should I do here?
He looked around the vicinity of the beast, being careful to keep an eye on it at all times, and saw a tiny shrine beneath it. It had been buried in leaves so he hadn’t noticed it until he’d looked. That was probably why no one else had found it either.
—So it’ll attack anybody who gets close to that shrine, huh?
That was Akuto’s best guess. Just then, a pair of Eikos and Junkos moved their fight towards a spot near the shrine.
“Watch out!”
Akuto started to run. He could see the beast move out of the corner of his eye. He leapt between Junko and Eiko.
“What are you doing?!”
“Don’t interfere!”
Junko and Eiko yelled, but their voices quickly faltered. A beast, twice the size of a man, pounced down on Akuto.
Akuto grabbed the beast and threw it off of him. It was far stronger than an average animal, but it was no match for his strength. And yet, the beast simply spun in midair and landed on a rock. It didn’t seem to have taken any damage.
“A wolf?” Junko yelled.
“It’s dangerous, so get—...”
The beast didn’t give Akuto time to finish his sentence. It leapt just an instant after it landed, its claws heading straight for Akuto’s face.
“Yikes!”
Akuto just barely managed to dodge it. When the beast landed on the rocks behind him, it spun nimbly and pounced at him once more.
This time, Akuto wasn’t fast enough. The beast’s claw took a chunk of skin off his shoulder.
“Aah!”
Akuto dropped to his knees, clutching his shoulder. But the beast didn’t wait to see how effective its attack had been. It came leaping at Akuto with its claws for a third time.
All of the Eiko and Teruya clones leapt at the beast at once.
“Hiyaah!”
“Kyeeeh!”
They surrounded the beast as they landed, but then they lost sight of their target.
Confusion appeared on dozens of faces. And then all of them were blown back at once. The beast was right in front of Akuto.
By the time Junko and Eiko realized that it had dashed past all their clones and blown them all away, most of their strength was gone and they were gasping for breath on the ground next to Akuto. Damage to a clone was fed back to its creator as damage to their total energy. Both of them were exhausted after just one attack.
—I guess there’s not going to be any kind of miracle this time, huh?
Akuto prepared himself for death. The other guardians were only interested in driving him away, and had avoided any attacks that could prove fatal, but this one was a wild beast. It wasn’t going to hold back at all. If it weren’t for that first attack, he could’ve hit it with a full-powered punch that might’ve killed them both. But now that he was wounded he couldn’t do that either.
The beast attacked again.
Junko and Eiko huddled up against him, terrified.
Akuto lowered his face. Acting on pure instinct, he threw himself on top of them to protect them.
He grit his teeth and waited for the pain of claws ripping through his flesh.
But—
Nothing happened.
The only sound was the sound of the water.
He looked up fearfully and saw the beast floating on the surface of the water. It seemed to be asleep.
—I’m safe, I guess...
Akuto slowly stood up, unable to believe what he was seeing. He realized that he was holding Junko in his arms. She was shaking and clinging to him.
“Hey,” Akuto said, and Junko opened her eyes.
She looked at him, and then at the floating beast, and instantly relaxed.
“W-Whew...”
The strength drained from her body, and she slumped onto Akuto’s chest.
“W-Wait, what are you...”
When Akuto started to panic, she finally realized her situation. She let out an incoherent scream, jumped back, and sunk beneath the waters of the hot springs.
“So that’s it...”
He heard an upset voice. It was Eiko. She was behind Akuto, a little bit away. She had just stood up from the ground.
“What you do without even thinking shows how you really feel, doesn’t it? Junko, it looks like Akuto Sai chose you!” Eiko yelled. And then an evil smile filled her face as she continued. “Then why don’t you just die? Sure, you’ll get your hands on that treasure! And when you do, I hope it kills you!”
Eiko walked through the water towards the shrine, stuck her hand inside it, and pulled out something that she threw at Akuto.
Akuto caught it. It was a key, just small enough to fit into his palm.
—A key?
Eiko then threw herself into the hot springs without a word. Akuto could see her swimming through the water back to where he’d come from.
—Damn it. What the hell’s going on here?
Finally, he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder.
“Owww...” He dropped to the ground as he clutched it. Junko ran up to him.
“Are you okay?”
“It won’t kill me,” Akuto said as he looked away from her.
“I’m sorry. We’ve ended up in such a weird situation...”
When he apologized, Junko’s face turned red as she shook her head.
“I-It doesn’t bother me. If only I’d realized Eiko was here sooner... No, wait, that’s because I wasn’t leaving my room, and the reason I wasn’t leaving my room was that you stripped me naked during class!”
Halfway through her speech, Junko had switched from apologizing to blaming him.
“Sorry. Yeah, you’re right.”
Akuto apologized, and then asked something he’d been wondering for a while.
“Have you known her for a long time?”
“We’ve been rivals for years. You heard her. She’s the kind of girl who never thinks about anything except what she’s feeling in the moment.”
“I got that sense, definitely. That’s how she was around me,” said Akuto, nodding. Junko looked astonished.
“What happened?! I mean, not in a weird way...”
“It was fine. She caused a lot of trouble, though.”
“That’s good, at least. Anyway, she’ll change her whole life to revolve around her man. And her whole idea of ‘serving’ someone is just wrong. So, well, you know. Just be careful, because when she talks about you being her master, it’s all one big fantasy. Also, she said something about you choosing me, but I mean, it’s not like you did that, right?”
Junko became more and more flustered as she spoke.
Akuto thought for a moment before he opened his mouth.
“No, I mean I guess if I had to choose someone, it would be you. But...”
Junko didn’t listen to what came after his “but.” She started to flail her arms in panic and splash hot water everywhere.
And Akuto didn’t get to finish, either. A ditzy-sounding voice from above cut him off.
“Ackie, Junko!”
It was Keena.
He looked up and saw Keena flying down from the sky. She was facing down, with her arms and legs drooping. Bizarrely, Fujiko was on her back, sitting sidesaddle.
“Why are you two just sitting there talking? Didn’t you find it strange that that beast suddenly fell asleep? And what were you going to do if I didn’t show up? You left your gun behind, didn’t you? It was really hard to track you down!”
Fujiko was playing with a vial of medicine in her hands. She must have used it to put the creature to sleep.
“Ackie, you’re really hurt!”
Keena floated down towards him.
“I’m fine. I just need to have Korone patch up my wounds and then get dressed... Um, so does Hattori.”
“I-I don’t need you looking out for me!” Junko yelled back at him.
4 - The Rage of the Student Council President
After Akuto’s wounds were healed, everyone gathered in a corner of the forest, unsure of what to do next. Nobody had any idea about what was going on. According to Korone and Hiroshi, Eiko had come back, put on her clothes, and ran off somewhere angrily. Now there was no one left who knew the real story, and so their discussions were getting them nowhere.
Akuto wanted to go back to the school, and Fujiko was insistent that they activate the keys right there. The others couldn’t decide which of them was right. However, Keena seemed to behave like she was on a picnic.
Fujiko’s behavior seemed especially unusual to Akuto.
“...And so that’s what happened there. Next...”
Midway through his explanation of the events so far, Fujiko had begun to fidget and bite at her nails repeatedly. When he was done talking, Fujiko spoke up.
“Can I see these ‘key’ things?”
Akuto was a little worried about her activating them on her own, but then he remembered something.
—Come to think of it, her brother’s supposed to be involved in this, right?
More out of pity than any logical reason, Akuto handed her the three keys.
The doll-shaped keychain with a recording function.
The notebook-sized tablet, where you could take photographs and scribble on them.
And an object shaped just like the key to a door.
Fujiko gathered the three of them in front of her, lifting each one to her face and carefully examining it.
Both of her identities, the “perfect student” and the “evil queen,” had vanished. She was just a young girl trying her hardest to search her memories.
“So these really do belong to you?” Akuto asked. But Fujiko didn’t answer.
The way she held the keychain and plate in her hands, as if she knew them well, told him all he needed to know however.
“You said your brother was an awful man. What did he do wrong?”
He tried another question, but Fujiko shook her head.
“I don’t know. But I feel like I have to find out...”
Fujiko began to play with the key in her hand. When she twisted it, there was a loud click.
The key began to tremble and glow.
“Look!”
Everyone stared at the key.
It began to draw a magical circle, five meters in diameter, around it in the air.
“This is teleportation magic,” Korone said.
Keena looked confused.
“So what does that mean?”
“If the person who goes inside the circle wants to go, it will teleport them to a pre-determined point. It twists open a hole in space and drops them through it. Since it doesn’t disassemble the subject and transfer them electronically, it’s one of the safer forms of teleportation,” Korone explained.
“If they want to? Does that mean...”
Akuto realized something, and started to speak. A second later he found out that he was right.
Fujiko had disappeared. She had all the keys.
“W-Wait! What happens if the keys disappear?!” Akuto asked.
“There’s no need to be concerned. For safety reasons, the magic circle does not immediately disappear. It will disappear after a minute or so, but before it does it’s still possible to use it.”
“Then we have to decide if we want to follow her in the next minute?”
“That’s correct. But if you’re inside the circle when it disappears, it won’t hurt you. You’ll simply be left behind.”
—Fine.
Akuto made his choice. He looked around and the others, and it seemed they’d made the same decision as well. He mentally assented to the teleportation, and his body suddenly became lighter. A moment later there was a falling sensation. In fact, he really did seem like he was falling. It felt like stepping off a chair onto a stone floor. When he landed, he was in a place he didn’t recognize.
Akuto looked around. It was a wider space than the underground mausoleum. He wasn’t sure that he was underground, but the ceiling above him was very high, so it seemed a safe assumption. It was tall enough to fit a whole building down here, and there was a ton of space around him, too. He thought that you might be able to fit an entire small city in this one room.
The location they’d appeared at was the front of a gate.
—A palace...?
Akuto couldn’t believe it. The others had fallen silent in surprise as well. The gate in front of him was studded with elaborate gold decorations. Past the gate was a stone path that continued for a hundred meters or so, and then an altar.
“There’s an altar over there...” Akuto began to say, when suddenly someone appeared in front of the gate.
He couldn’t tell who it was yet, but they were standing with their hands on their hips as if to block him from entering. The person wasn’t that big, but they seemed strangely imposing.
“Hey there, everybody.”
The person lifted up the brim of their hat a little as they spoke.
“The student council president...”
Everyone gasped.
“This is the goal. Fun game, huh?”
The student council president laughed, and the three other members of the council appeared from behind her. A thin girl in black. A tall girl, no longer wearing her three-meter high armor. A muscle-bound girl, still looking sleepy, with her limbs transformed into those of a beast.
—These three... The thought had crossed my mind, but...
Akuto looked at each of them. That was definitely them. They had been the three monsters who’d been protecting the treasure all along.
“Did you say this was a game?” Junko said, annoyed.
The student council president laughed.
“That’s right. A little event the student council put on. A treasure-hunting game. Did you enjoy it? The prize is... hmm... I’ll give you a kiss on the cheek,” she said, and laughed again.
But the only ones laughing were her and Keena, who was jumping up and down and shouting “Yay! Yay! Kiss!” The three other student council members were looking at Akuto angrily. The president realized they weren’t laughing and turned around.
“Come on, guys! I’m forcing myself to laugh! You can too! Let’s make this more fun!”
“Ahahahaha!”
“Dondon-pafupafu!”
“So fun-gyah! You’re so smart-gyah! You’ve got the best taste in games-gyah!”
The three forced themselves to laugh as well. But the only one who was truly enjoying herself, of course, was Keena.
“You know that’s impossible. You’re going to tell us what’s going on here, right?” Junko asked.
“Like I said, it’s a game. I made you find that treasure map, set the three of them around to stop you, and then the first person who gets would get a prize.”
The smile was gone from the president’s face now, too.
“That’s not possible...” Junko refused to give up, but Akuto motioned for her to be quiet.
“Who cares? It was a fun game. Right?” he said.
The false smile returned to the president’s face.
&nb
sp; “Right? Right? Right? It was so much fun! Ahahaha!”
“Ahahaha,” Akuto laughed back just as insincerely.
But even his fake laugh vanished a moment later. Fujiko, who’d been standing silently and holding the keys, started to run.
“You’re letting me through!” she yelled as she threw a vial of some drug at the president’s feet. Instantly there was a puff of smoke, and everyone was blinded.
“No...!” the president yelled.
Fujiko leapt into the smoke. The three tried to stop her, but she slid through the gate before they could.
The next thing everyone saw was her running down the stone path towards the altar.
“Fujiko!”
Akuto went to follow her, but a sharp yell from the president stopped him.
“Don’t! It’s dangerous!”
There was something abnormal in her voice that made him stop. He stared at her face.
“This is no game, is it?”
“Everybody knew that. I do appreciate the fact that you played along, though. That’s right. This isn’t a game.”
She shook her head, as if giving up.
“Everything past this point belonged to the last Demon King?”
“That’s right. This is the lowest level of the labyrinth underneath the school. The last battle was held underground. This was the Demon King’s base.”
“Why’s it still here?”
“You’ll know soon. But I will say one thing. Don’t go through this gate.”
She stared at him, her eyes were filled with a strange intensity.
But Akuto refused to give up.
“Why?”
He stared back at her. Hiroshi backed away, of course, and even Junko followed suit.
“Because I tell you to. No matter what happens, don’t move. It won’t do anyone any good.”
Her words were soft, but heavy.
○
Fujiko was the only one to notice that the faint light from the keys pointed towards the altar. And she was sure that this light would illuminate her past. It was what would resolve all the contradictions she felt.
She ran down the stone path. Nobody followed her. When she got close to the altar, she slowed her pace and looked down at the keychain and the tablet.
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 2 Page 11