The Fugitive Fourth Primogenitor

by Gakuto Mikumo

  “I mean, even though they told me you were the World’s Mightiest Vampire, you seemed oddly flaky. I could not really tell what you were up to, the talk of memory loss seemed very fishy, and you were indecent… How could I possibly trust a person like that?!”

  “I wasn’t indecent! Seeing your panties back then was totally an act of God!”

  “I told you to forget about that!”

  Yukina walked toward the station at a rapid pace, leaving Kojou behind. He lowered his shoulders in exasperation and chased after her.

  Even when they boarded the monorail, Yukina kept her face turned away from him as if she was sulking. Left with no avenues to pursue, Kojou pulled out his cell phone and began quietly checking his messages.

  The interior of the monorail car was emptier than usual, no doubt because few people commuted on New Year’s Eve. The jovial atmosphere despite that was probably because it was the year’s end, too. Even the billboard in the car was plastered with New Year’s greetings and advertisements for New Year’s sales.

  “Senpai… Umm, about our conversation earlier…”

  It was a while after the monorail set out that Yukina hesitantly opened her mouth. Kojou was still looking at his cell phone when he replied in a tone that seemed absentminded somehow.

  “Mm? Ahh, you mean about the panti—”

  “Not that!”

  The plastic strap Yukina was holding audibly creaked under the power of her grip.

  “I said earlier that I could not trust you, senpai…b-but I do not feel that way about you anymore, so…”

  Yukina’s voice was tense, as if she had wrenched considerable courage out of herself. She must have been quietly dwelling on how she’d unintentionally scolded Kojou out of stubbornness.

  “Ah…yeah.”

  “I mean, you are certainly as unreliable as before, sloppy, not self-aware of your being a Primogenitor, you get far too comfortable with other girls as soon as I take my eyes off you, and your incorrigible indecency is not a good thing, in my opinion, but you do still possess a few admirable qualities…”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “And I thought I should tell you that I do understand this, senpai, having watched you for these past four months.”

  “Mm.”

  Kojou had yet to meet Yukina’s gaze as she continued to explain herself, her voice threatening to fade away. However, Kojou’s reaction was indifferent. He showed no particular sign of satisfaction as he let Yukina’s words roll past him.

  “…Um, er… Senpai, are you listening?”

  Naturally, Yukina lifted her face and looked up at Kojou, sensing that something was off. Kojou, gazing vacantly at his cell phone, blinked in mild surprise and asked:

  “Huh? Ah, sorry. What’d you say?”

  “Senpai…!”

  Yukina scowled irritably when she realized that Kojou hadn’t listened to a word she’d said.

  “S-sorry about that. Nagisa hasn’t been in touch for a while, so that was kinda on my mind…”

  “Haaa…” Yukina glared at Kojou and let out a deep sigh as he hastily tried to vindicate himself. “A while, you say… You were able to call her normally up to last week, yes?”

  “Yeah, but it’s been a whole week since then. She said she was just about to arrive at Grandma’s place, and I haven’t gotten one word from her since, so that’s kinda worrying me a bit.”

  “Didn’t you tell me that cell phone signals do not reach where Nagisa went for the New Year? If so, I would think there is nothing unnatural about that being the case…”

  “Well, yeah.”

  Kojou grudgingly agreed with Yukina’s exceedingly sensible assertion. Now that his inbox was empty, he checked his missed calls one last time before putting his cell phone back in his pocket.

  “Besides, Grandma works people pretty hard. I think she’s probably just too busy helping at the temple to send me a message.”

  “Then, there is no need to be so concerned.”

  “Yeah…”

  Kojou nodded, unable to rebut her. Even he could understand that it was outside the social norm for a little sister in middle school to call her older brother without a good reason.

  “Incidentally, Himeragi, what were you talking about earlier?”

  Having apparently recovered his senses, Kojou looked straight at Yukina.

  “Eh…?! Ah, umm, nothing at all.”

  Startled, Yukina’s entire body went rigid before she shook her head in manic protest. Apparently, he was directly asking about a subject that contained details that were difficult to voice out loud.

  “Hmmm.”

  Displaying no particular interest, Kojou did not pry further, readily dropping the subject. As he did, Yukina glared at the side of his face, murmuring:

  “Stupid senpai…!”

  3

  Kojou ate a quick lunch in front of the station, and by the time he arrived back home, it was a little past three. Less than nine hours remained before the year was over.

  Taking the elevator to the apartment building’s seventh floor, Kojou opened the door to his own apartment, room 704. “Pardon me,” said Yukina quietly, following Kojou into the entryway.

  About ten days earlier, an incident had occurred that had left Yukina’s room—room 705—a complete disaster, and while repairs were technically complete, it still lacked the furniture and appliances required for everyday living. Thus, due to circumstances beyond her control, Yukina had become something like a houseguest at Kojou’s place.

  A third party would invariably mistake the situation for cohabitation, but Yukina had stated that she needed to keep Kojou under even stricter observation. Because this eased the burdens of living at home alone, Kojou had no compelling reason to drive her out, either.

  Having thus entered the apartment together without any particular misgivings, Yukina and Kojou both gasped in shock—for the three-bedroom apartment was in a state of total chaos. Everything in the drawers had been dumped onto the floor; the closet doors were open, too.

  “What the hell?!”

  “Don’t tell me…a burglar?!”

  Sensing a human presence, Yukina stepped ahead to shield Kojou. Apparently, the intruder who had made a mess of the apartment was still present.

  Kojou followed Yukina’s vigilant gaze when he, too, discerned the intruder’s location: the near side of the corridor in the master bedroom, usually left closed and unused.

  Yukina, seemingly on guard in case the opponent was armed, cautiously opened the door. Then they laid eyes upon an individual wearing a frumpy white coat, sitting on the edge of the bed.

  She was probably around thirty, give or take. She had unkempt, disheveled hair and eyes that seemed reluctant to open all the way. At first glance, the young-faced woman came off as a negligent adult.

  She heaved a contemplative sigh as she noticed Kojou and Yukina entering the room, adding, “Wow, Kojou. And Yukina, too. Perfect timing!”

  “Gah…”

  “Miss Mimori?”

  Kojou let out a low groan as a surprised Yukina addressed her by name.

  Sitting on the side of the bed and rummaging through the closet was none other than Mimori Akatsuki—Kojou’s mother. She usually slept at her workplace, more because she found commuting to be a pain than anything else, normally returning home once every week or so. But apparently, her colleagues had managed to shoo her out of the lab for New Year’s.

  That said, Mimori was the rightful occupant of the apartment. Of course, Kojou and Yukina had a hard time understanding why Mimori would turn her own apartment into a cluttered bird’s nest.

  She reached for a piece of luggage at the back of the closet and explained, “I finally found my suitcase, but there are things in the way, so I couldn’t get it out. Hold it down for a sec, would you?”

  “W-wait!”

  Kojou hastily tried to stop Mimori as she grabbed hold of the suitcase handle and gave it a good, hard yank.

  For Mimori, who lacked any
domestic capabilities whatsoever, the term “messy adult” did not even begin to accurately describe her. The closet in her room was packed with all sorts of things. The contents had less space between them than a wood mosaic.

  It was painfully easy to guess what would happen when the suitcase was yanked out. However, despite Kojou’s valiant efforts to prevent the inevitable, the wall of luggage collapsed, causing a wave of clutter to crash down onto him.

  “What a relief. Now I can finally pack.”

  Mimori, the culprit of that tragic spectacle, opened her suitcase in good humor, ignorant of her son’s suffering. Thanks to Kojou’s body acting as a dam, she escaped the luggage landslide unscathed.

  “You see all this, and that’s all you have to say…?”

  Kojou, bruised all over, pointed to the luggage scattered on the floor as he chided his mother. However, his words simply mystified her.

  “Well, there’s no time. Tonight, I’m heading out for the company trip to Hokkaido.”

  “You never mentioned that to me!”

  “Oh, did you want to go, Kojou?”

  “Nah, I’ll pass. I went through hell when I went with you on that company trip when I was in middle school!”

  “Did you, now?”

  “How could you forget?! I lost all my clothes in strip ping-pong, I lost all my New Year’s money betting in mah-jongg… All sorts of stuff happened!”

  Kojou’s eyes glazed over as he recalled the bitter experience. Mimori let his grumbling wash over her like she was listening to background music at a coffee shop.

  “Incidentally, I don’t see Nagisa anywhere… Kojou, do you know where she is?”

  “Dad took Nagisa to go see Grandma in Tangiwa. —A week ago.”

  Notice faster, dammit, went Kojou, sighing with an exasperated look.

  The instant Mimori heard the words Grandma in Tangiwa, her expression heavily contorted, almost as if by reflex. For Mimori, one to take everything in stride, it was a rare look of dismay.

  “Tch… That ghastly old bag is still alive?”

  “Gh…ghastly old bag?”

  A bewildered look came over Yukina as she watched Mimori curse her elder with vivid enmity.

  Kojou whispered to Yukina, “Mom and Grandma don’t get along very well.”

  Yukina gave a bewildered nod of understanding. One was an airheaded psychic working as a researcher for an international conglomerate; the other was a rogue Attack Mage and spiritualist working as a priestess at a shrine. They had no common ground to speak of, and beyond being a wife and a mother-in-law, their mutual compatibility was abysmal. Small wonder Gajou hadn’t said a word to Mimori about that year’s homecoming.

  “More importantly, why is this house so messy? Don’t tell me this is all from looking for that suitcase…?” Kojou inquired as he surveyed the area.

  Mimori seemed to notice the dismal state of the apartment for the first time. Gazing at the luggage strewn about the floor, she looked surprised for a moment as she said:

  “Oh, th-this is—you see… Yes, end-of-the-year cleaning!”

  “…Huh?”

  “Doesn’t it feel really good to get rid of a year’s worth of grime on New Year’s Eve and face the New Year with a clean slate?”

  “D-don’t make up such convenient lies! You made that up just now, didn’t you?!”

  Kojou responded a moment late to Mimori’s all-too-innocent explanation. While he tried to regain his footing, Mimori smiled in victory and changed topics.

  “Mm-hmm… Well, never mind that. The two of you, stand side by side. Yes, right over there.”

  “Ah…?”

  Prodded by Mimori to stand near the window, Kojou did as instructed, largely on reflex.

  “Yes, Yukina, can you take one step closer to Kojou?”

  “L-like this?”

  Yukina stood right beside Kojou, still unable to grasp what was going on.

  Mimori, seeing that Kojou and Yukina were nestled right against each other, suddenly said in a completely serious voice, “Now, question. What is Napier’s constant e’s logarithm to the second power?”

  What the heck? Kojou froze, not understand his mother’s question in the slightest. He couldn’t even tell if she was speaking Japanese anymore.

  For her part, Yukina looked just as bewildered as she easily solved the problem, resulting in…

  “Two…?”

  Yukina tilted her head as she brought up the index and middle fingers of her right hand.

  And because the Japanese word for two is ni, Yukina’s expression broke into a little smile. Mimori did not let the instant slip by, quickly snapping the shutter of the digital camera she’d brought out.

  As a result, she had taken a commemorative photo recording Kojou and Yukina in an intimate-looking scene. Furthermore, the way Yukina was making a peace sign with a smiling face made it a frighteningly rare image.

  “Er, umm…”

  “Mm. That came out pretty well.”

  In contrast to Yukina, unable to conceal her distress, Mimori smiled, satisfied. Kojou glared at his mother with a sharp look.

  “What the heck are you up to…?”

  “Alrighty. Yukina, I’ll give this camera to you. I found it when I was cleaning the room earlier.”

  “You mean you stuffed it in the closet by mistake, don’t you?”

  Kojou’s harsh jab didn’t even elicit a twitch from Mimori.

  Yukina accepted the compact, digital camera and its metallic silver case. The device was no bigger than a small smartphone model, yet its lens was very large. From all appearances, it was an expensive, state-of-the-art camera.

  The camera’s manufacturer was MAR—the international conglomerate Mimori worked for.

  “Is it really all right to give me something like this…?” Yukina asked, bashful.

  Mimori displayed a teasing smile. “It’s fine, it’s fine. Think of it as an impromptu New Year’s gift. In the first place, it’s a prototype from work that I got for free. Besides, if I give it to Kojou, he’ll use it for nefarious purposes, like taking pictures of you while you’re changing, taking pictures of your underwear, taking pictures of you in the shower…”

  “Like hell I will! How poorly do you think of your own son?!”

  Kojou made a show of his objection to being treated like some sort of peeping tom.

  A small, knowing smile escaped Yukina. “If that is the alternative…thank you very much.”

  “Whaddaya mean that?” Kojou grumbled, twisting his lips in displeasure.

  Mimori, seeing Yukina so reserved and happy, gently narrowed her eyes.

  “Mm-hmm, human memories are surprisingly hazy, so it isn’t so bad to make your memories tangible. Important moments that you don’t realize you’ll miss until you lose them…”

  “Miss Mimori…?”

  Yukina lifted her face, giving Mimori a look of deep respect. However, Mimori, a glutton for praise, got carried away as she said:

  “Well, I’m a psychometer anyway, so I’m completely fine without photos at all, you know!”

  “Like we need to hear that! What are you so proud of?!”

  Kojou muttered, visibly annoyed by Mimori’s childish behavior. Unsure whether or not Kojou and Mimori had a good mother-son relationship, Yukina couldn’t help but giggle.

  With a smile on her face, Mimori continued stuffing her suitcase full of things and closed the lid of the overflowing case with one hard push.

  “Okay, packing complete. Kojou, I’ll leave the rest to you.”

  “Hey! Wait—are you planning to run?!”

  Naturally, when Kojou saw his mother darting across the cluttered apartment, he tried to stop her. However, when Kojou barred her path, Mimori sent him flying with the suitcase.

  “H-Himeragi! Stop her!”

  “Yukina, take care of Kojou in the New Year, ’kay?”

  “Eh?! Ah, yes… Eek!”

  Yukina jumped a little as Mimori, passing through, gave her butt a litt
le pat. The opening allowed Mimori to slip past Yukina and charge out the front door, her sandals flopping around as she ran.

  Dumbfounded and drained of strength, Kojou and Yukina watched the woman flee.

  The damage Mimori had wrought did not stop with the bedroom. The living room, the kitchen, and even Kojou’s and Nagisa’s rooms had been ravaged in equal measure. It looked like a localized tornado had passed through. Putting everything back into its original state would require much more time and effort than the average cleaning.

  “So…in the end, it’s my job to clean this whole thing up?”

  Kojou, sluggishly rising to his feet, felt a twinge of despair as he shook his head. As he did, Yukina stood beside him, frailly letting out a sigh.

  “No, senpai. It’s our job.”

  4

  It took the two of them quite a while to clean up the wreckage inside the apartment. It was nine fifteen PM. Only two hours and forty-five minutes remained in the year.

  Right after Kojou took a shower, finally washing off the sweat and dust, the doorbell rang. The monitor displayed the face of his friend Motoki Yaze, who was quickly becoming an eyesore.

  “Heya, Kojou. I’m here.”

  Sporting a pair of earbuds around his neck, his spiky-haired classmate let himself into the apartment. He was holding a convenience store bag with both hands.

  “What’re you doing here at this time of day?”

  Kojou narrowed his eyes as he toweled his damp hair and greeted his friend.

  “What’re you talkin’ about?” Yaze, in apparent disappointment, continued, “We all promised to make the first temple visit of the year together, right? We were supposed to meet up at your place for it.”

  “Oh yeah…” Kojou nodded. “Guess we did.”

  Thanks to the extra lessons and the cleaning piled on top of that, the scheduled meet up had slipped right out of his mind. Plus, losing touch with Nagisa had done a number on Kojou’s ability to concentrate.

  “Come to think of it, what’s got you all worn out, Kojou?”

  “Ah…well, a bunch of stuff happened not too long ago.”

  “Ohhh?”

  For some reason, Yaze’s eyes glimmered in a show of heavy interest.

  “Well, allow me to intrude. I just bought sweets and drinks, after all.”