Yashakiden: The Demon Princess, Volume 5 Omnibus Edition

by Hideyuki Kikuchi

  “Hmm,” grumbled Tonbeau, but quickly made up her mind. “Can’t have that. Close it!”

  “Yes!”

  Tonbeau glanced at the doll girl, situated next to the generator. The room was perfectly normal. The box sat undisturbed on the table. The lid was closed. The only difference were the two bodies lying on the ground next to the table.

  The startled doll girl stared. “Setsura-san!” She ran over to him. “Setsura-san! And Yakou-san too!”

  “Move it.”

  Tonbeau shoved the doll girl out of the way, took the pulses of Setsura and Yakou, and peered down at them. “They both seem alive. Aki is badly injured. We’d better treat him pronto.”

  The two picked the men up and laid them down in two beds. Going over to the shelves of medicines, Tonbeau looked around. “The lid opened and these two popped out. There should be a lot more where they came from. The Akashic Records must make its own choices.”

  “Perhaps there is somebody in charge, somebody keeping the records,” said the doll girl, gazing down at Setsura’s face. “And they chose these two. This must be for the good of the universe, as it watches and remembers.”

  “Huh. Nothing but speculation.”

  Tonbeau returned holding a green bottle. The viscous liquid scooped up by her caterpillar-like fingers was the same color as the glass. She daubed it on Setsura’s wounds. Then she stopped.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Something’s wrong. This young man isn’t normal.”

  “Eh?”

  “The feel of his skin is strange. It’s water. Go ahead, see for yourself.”

  Looking a bit abashed, she touched Setsura’s cheek. She turned to Tonbeau. “You are correct. He has all the symptoms of an aquaman.”

  “Exactly. The man is half water.”

  No less impressive were the witch and the doll girl, who could discern such a thing from a single touch. Tonbeau laid a hand on Yakou.

  “This one’s all right. But he is under some sort of strange spell.”

  Again, she had diagnosed him in the snap of a finger.

  “What kind of spell?”

  “He has been deprived of his will at a very high level.”

  “How could Setsura have ended up in such a state?”

  “Probably this chap here.”

  A fierce rage rose to the doll girl’s eyes, and then faded away. “Shall we heal them both?”

  “Yeah, but it’ll take some time.” Tonbeau nodded, then smiled.

  “Ah, that face.”

  “What? Don’t look at me like that. Healing people around here is a fee-for-service business, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, when it comes to normal doctoring.”

  “And you’re saying I’m different.”

  “Well—”

  “C’mon, spit it out.”

  “Well—”

  “What?”

  “Compared to the average doctor, Tonbeau-sama has something of a perverse bedside manner.”

  “What of it?”

  “You don’t intend to charge Setsura-sama for healing him, do you?”

  Caught in the gaze of her clear eyes, Tonbeau cringed a bit and retreated. There was something so human about that look. “Who do you think I was thinking of?”

  “You were thinking of the mayor, perhaps?”

  “Hmm.”

  “You cannot be serious. In the first place, the mayor would have no reason to.”

  “That doesn’t follow,” Tonbeau said, raising a sudden objection. “The mayor brought that box to us, and would obviously be expected to take responsibility for whatever came out of it. Moreover, young master Setsura here is working on behalf of the city. It would only make sense for the mayor to also take responsibility for any injuries that might befall him. Wouldn’t it? Wouldn’t it?”

  Tonbeau pushed out her chest, intending to intimidate the doll girl with her ample bust and belly.

  However soft her voice, she was not cowed in the least. “You should not take the mayor for granted. He is considered one of the most able mayors since the founding of Demon City for good reason.”

  “We’ll know soon enough. Time to swing into action.” She plucked at both their cheeks for some reason or another. A moment later, the fat lady’s eyes narrowed. “What’s that?” she exclaimed.

  The doll girl looked on impassively. The Czech Republic’s second greatest witch—and she clearly deserved the honor—must have detected something her supernatural senses couldn’t.

  “I’m going upstairs,” Tonbeau said, heading for the door.

  “Um—”

  “You stay here and watch over them.”

  “Tonbeau-sama,” said the doll girl, no differently than before, but with an extra degree of resolve in her voice. “A fearsome enemy, perhaps?”

  “Perhaps. Interesting. I’m not so nice a person as my big sister, you see. Hold on, and I’ll soon enough turn ’em to dust.”

  “I’m coming too.”

  “What are you saying? You doubt my powers?”

  “No, human nature.”

  Tonbeau glared at her. The doll girl said without reserve, in her quiet manner, “You wouldn’t be planning on running away?”

  “Nonsense! I’m just looking for a good hiding place.”

  “I’ll come with,” the doll girl said with a sigh—or what would pass for a sigh in her case. “This is the house of your big sister, Galeen Nuvenberg. No matter who he might be, no one may set foot in it without being invited. Tonbeau-sama may hide herself in whatever place suits her. Leave the rest to me.”

  The fat lady shifted back and forth. “Really?” she said.

  “Yes.”

  “Then I will stay here and treat these two.”

  “Here is to your health.”

  “Annoying brat. Shoo. Be on your way.”

  “If you would excuse me,” the doll girl said with a little curtsey, and turned to the door without the slightest sign of concern.

  After passing down the hallway—a wonder that Tonbeau could even fit between its narrow walls—and scaling a flight of stone stairs and turning down another corridor, she emerged into the living room.

  The light slanting through the windows was at last strong enough to be called sunlight. After taking a single breath with her small lungs, woven from the finest down, and letting it out, the doll girl patted the dust off her dress.

  And paused. The door was right in front of her.

  Chapter Three

  The old man standing in the entranceway to the Nuvenberg residence was wearing a long gray robe.

  “What a bother,” he said, stroking his long, wizardly white beard and hobbling up to the door with his twisted staff.

  This was Kikiou, who had come here after leaving Setsura in the care of pretend Mephisto.

  “Thanks to that dimensional vortex, the nexi are all scrambled and confused. But I wouldn’t have imagined finding myself at the Nuvenberg house in order to retrieve it. This is fate at work.”

  Tendrils of indescribable evil twined about the one-story house and the great warlock. Princess had disposed of Galeen Nuvenberg, and yet the magical miasma surrounding it, though disheveled, was hardly weak. Kikiou could only conclude that a force no less powerful had stepped into her shoes.

  “The only way in is to put that force to the test.”

  He pushed out the fist holding the staff in front of him. A buzzing sound came from within his robes. With a sound like a muffled gong, the door bent inward.

  “So force alone is not enough, eh? In that case—”

  He pointed the end of his staff at the door. A moment later came the sound of the latch unlocking. Without pushing or pulling, the door opened. Kikiou started to stroll through the threshold. He stopped.

  In the dim light, light that filtered through ancient ruins, a head of golden hair bobbed in a bow. “How nice to see you, Kikiou-sama.”

  “This is the first time we’ve met. Are you the creation of Galeen Nuvenberg?”
/>   “Yes.”

  “And a beautiful voice to match. I should have expected nothing less.”

  “Thank you very much.”

  “Anyway, something that belongs to me is in this house. Would you be so kind as to fetch it for me?”

  “Well.”

  Kikiou flashed a gentle smile utterly at odds with the character of the man familiar to anybody else who knew him.

  “My mistress isn’t in presently. I will be sure to let her know that you dropped by.”

  “That will not do, as I am in a hurry. I shall go look for it myself.”

  “I’m afraid I cannot allow that,” the doll girl said crisply. “It is not within my purview to allow anybody in at this time.”

  “So you are refusing me entrance?”

  “I’m sorry, but you may not enter.”

  “Hmm.”

  Kikiou cast his eyes down like a doctor whose patient had just inquired about the incurable disease afflicting him. The end of the staff snapped up. But it was Kikiou who gulped in surprise. On the tip of the staff, from which the murderous aura gushed forth, stood a small girl.

  Just before the staff could shoot out its qi in all directions, the doll girl sprang at his face. The way she pursed her lips could hardly be in deference to the memory of Galeen Nuvenberg.

  She blew a stream of purple mist at Kikiou’s face. Kikiou coughed. His skin turned an ashen color. The doll girl had spit out enough poison to kill an elephant on the spot.

  Kikiou staggered, planted the staff vertically on the ground and clung to it. The doll girl perched on the top of the staff and looked down at him impassively. Kikiou fell forward right outside the door.

  At the same time, an invisible bolt of energy released from the staff. The doll girl flew into the air. She struck the ceiling above the entranceway and fell to the ground, the joints of all four limbs shattered.

  The blue eyes calmly watched as Kikiou got to his feet. The mechanical pounding in his chest increased in pitch and magnitude.

  “For one bearing such a cute face, you do carry on in such a frightening manner.”

  The complexion recovered its original tone. Kikiou smiled. It was a surprisingly sad expression. This old man had mercilessly slaughtered thousands, but the blood of a scientist ran through what passed for his veins, and he could not but empathize with the creation of a mind equal to his.

  “I have also breathed the breath of life into a doll, and a soul also. But they all went mad. Or crashed. Meeting you has given me a whole new respect for Galeen Nuvenberg.”

  He raised the hand holding the staff. “I flushed the poison from my system using the power of my qi. Any repairs would be impossible without it. Rather than exposing your body to an ignoble death, I shall grant you an end most befitting your splendid construction.”

  Kikiou raised the staff high into the air. The unfathomable energy vanished into emptiness and a fierce wind flung him back to the street. His long robes moaned. In midair, he waved the staff. The wind stopped.

  The great wizard set down on the path and peered at the rectangular opening in the doorway. A shadow bulged out of it like a big bubble. Kikiou expected the jamb to break when it popped out of the opening. He couldn’t help taking a step back.

  The beer barrel-sized silhouette glanced down at the doll girl, then glared at Kikiou. She rubbed her hands, like slapping two sides of beef together.

  “You sure showed this little girl a thing or two, huh? Killing my big sister don’t mean Nuvenberg blood is on the buffet just yet. The sun may have set, but the moon still rises. I couldn’t tell you what four thousand years of Chinese whatever amounts to, but this time it’s you and me, buddy.”

  She noisily cleared her throat. At some point, she’d had a drink or two. The fat lady wiping her thick lips with a hand like a catcher’s mitt was none other than the witch Tonbeau Nuvenberg.

  Kikiou’s eyes flared with hostilities, but then softened. “Your legs are shaking, little sister of the great witch.”

  “Big deal. They’re shaking with excitement.”

  “You’ve had that habit since I met you.”

  “Eh?” she said, her eyes opening a little wider.

  “You probably do not remember. You were two at the time. A porcine runt of a tomboy who in no way resembled her wiser older sister. As I recall, she had a bowl of beef for every meal.”

  Tonbeau’s face flushed blue and red like a neon sign. “People who like to embarrass others in public don’t deserve to live!”

  “A tomboy, but really a coward who can’t sally into a fight without alcoholic reinforcement. I can smell the cheap wine from here. You have got a long way to go to fill Galeen Nuvenberg’s shoes.”

  “Shut up,” Tonbeau fired back.

  “But on to more important matters. Fragments of the Akashic Records are wafting about this place. What did you do with it? Did you open it?”

  “I did indeed,” Tonbeau answered with an evil smile.

  “What happened? Did something come out?”

  “Make that two somethings.”

  “Two? Who?”

  “Setsura and Yakou. My ally has returned. That sure turns the volume up a notch, eh?”

  “Only them? That means that Takako—”

  “An opening!”

  Tonbeau jumped into the air. She landed a moment later in the same place with a loud thump. At first glance, it seemed the fat lady was pitching a fit. But the earth quaked. The house rattled and shook. So did Kikiou.

  The startled warlock jumped backward. He knew that Tonbeau was up to something, but was a little slow off the mark. He felt the vibrations rattling up from the ground and through the bottom of his feet. He stuck the landing, but couldn’t stop shaking. Only Kikiou was shaking.

  This was no sleight of hand. The great warlock’s body was practically a blur.

  “How’s them magical apples for you? Let the vibrations my weight sets off reach even your fingertip and there’s no escaping it.” The fat red face laughed in an evil screech. “Off goes your nose, out comes your eyes and your teeth. The flesh sloughs off, the nerves fray like worn yarn. Last of all, your bones disintegrate. Dust to dust. I can make it last fifty, a hundred years if I’m in the mood. But you’ll fly apart here on the spot.”

  The earth rumbled again. Tonbeau sank low to the ground. Kikiou couldn’t retreat. His outlines grew more and more indistinct.

  Then, “Huh?”

  Tonbeau pinched her brows together. The faint blur of motion that Kikiou had become was stained with a kind of color. In the blink of an eye, he regained his true shape and form. Tonbeau Nuvenberg heard the rustle of his long robes.

  “If motion is your lock, then revolution is the key.” Kikiou stroked his white beard. The mannerisms of a good-natured old man cloaked an indomitable will that cast even the sunlight into shadow.

  Tonbeau watched as he stretched out his staff.

  Clenching her fingers hard enough to break and casting out a defensive perimeter, she crossed her arms before her eyes.

  It came at her and lifted up her massive body. Translated into physical form, Kikiou’s qi struck with a force of ten tons per square inch.

  The Czech Republic’s second greatest witch shot through the door, through the front foyer, and stopped at the back of the hallway only because she was caught between the narrowing stone wall.

  In a flash, a second attack came at her. Her shoulders were pinned by the wall. She was caught point-blank.

  Her body swelled up like a bowling ball dropped into a big bowl of raw dough. Rebounding to its original form, her puffy tear-stained face unleashed a scream.

  “Hoh,” said the old man. “Even that didn’t kill you.” His silhouette filled the doorway. “Although you cannot demonstrate it, this house is telling me your true abilities lack nothing compared to your older sister. I may have taken you for granted. Well, then. Let us take off the gloves.”

  “W-W-W-Wait a second—” Tonbeau struggled and writhed. In
her frantic consternation, she couldn’t say anything more than, “Whoa! Time out! Time out!”

  She stuck her right hand into the pocket of her shirt, and pulled out a wine bottle, somehow hiding it from view. Kikiou did his best to not watch as her sausage-like lips swallowed the neck of the bottle. This weekend warrior of a witch was hardly worth the worry.

  Tonbeau belched. Either she had a hollow leg or couldn’t hold her liquor, but the rosy tint returned to her cheeks. She brandished the bottle around her belly.

  “Go get ’em!” she cried.

  “Die,” Kikiou replied.

  He unleashed a fusillade of qi. The bottle leapt from her hand, seized the burst of invisible power and broke it to bits. Kikiou surely cursed his pride in that moment. Now it came back at him, his qi and whatever forces were sealed inside the bottle.

  His senses went numb as he was again blown back down the walk. He didn’t land gracefully but sprawled across the ground.

  Tonbeau Nuvenberg was no longer a two-year-old brat of a tomboy.

  “Fucked up again,” the great warlock grumbled to himself as he hurried toward Waseda Boulevard, dragging one leg. “But as long as the pathways are connected, no matter where it ends up, I’ll know where that box is. It will not be long until we meet again.”

  Kikiou was already hard at work scheming up his next plan.

  It took Tonbeau ten minutes to work herself free. She’d taken two fusillades of Kikiou’s qi. That was how long it took to recover her physical strength.

  She had carried the doll girl to her special room and was laying her out on the workbench when there came the flapping of black wings.

  The big raven peered down from the ceiling. “What’s up?”

  “You can see what’s up. Where have you been goofing off until now? You stumble across any information worth anything at all, and you’re supposed to bring it to me right away.”

  “I don’t know how much it’s worth, but I did find one amazing woman.”

  Tonbeau and the doll girl exchanged looks.

  “No, not her. I’m talking about Takako Kanan.”

  “Eh?”

  The doll girl’s eyes peeled as wide as physically possible—for she couldn’t move any other part of her body. “Where is she?”