As Nina sulked from having this pointed out to her, they heard a new, gentle voice from behind Nina.
“Happy New Year, Yukina. And Akatsuki, too.”
Entering from the kitchen and carrying a tray of rice cakes cooked with vegetables was a small-statured, silver-haired, blue-eyed girl. It was Kanon Kanase wearing a long-sleeved kimono. The fabric was blue and embroidered with silver flower patterns, matching her hair and eye colors extremely well.
Yukina rushed over to Kanon, taking the tray that Kanon had been awkwardly carrying.
“Happy New Year, Kanon… Are you all right?”
“S-sorry about that. I am not accustomed to these clothes, so it is difficult to move in them.”
“Yes, but they’re really cute.”
“Astarte has one of her own. Miss Justina asked us… She said she wanted to see us in them.”
Kojou gazed at Yukina and Kanon continuing their harmonious conversation when he felt a faint ache in his chest. Nagisa got along well with both of them. He thought that if Nagisa was there, she’d be joining in, making the conversation far more boisterous.
But that scene wouldn’t become a reality until Nagisa came home safe and sound.
“…Did Kanase and the others make this?” Kojou asked, staring at the platters of rich food on the table.
Kanon gave a charming smile as she nodded and said, “Yes. Akatsuki, Yukina, please have some if you’d like.”
“Really? You’re a lifesaver! Come to think of it, I haven’t had a single bite since the year began.”
Kojou made a strained smile as he recalled that his own stomach was empty. It might not have been the purpose of their visit, but a guy still had to eat.
“Please wait a moment. I shall prepare the cutlery at once.”
With those words, Justina headed toward the kitchen. Yukina watched Justina’s back as she left, seeming a little unable to calm down when she said:
“Is it really all right? I feel bad imposing all of a sudden like this…”
Nina, the most useless-seeming person there, replied with a tone that somehow sounded haughty when she said, “There is no need for concern. While we were engaged in trial and error, we cooked a tad too much.”
“Trial and error…?”
The alchemist’s nonchalant murmur made Kojou gulp as an instinctive feeling of unease came over him. Besides Nina, a liquid metal life-form, there was a soldier from the Northern European kingdom of Aldegia, a royal girl raised in a convent, and a homunculus girl—not a single one seemed appropriately learned in the art of traditional Japanese cuisine.
Can anything those girls cooked really be considered proper New Year’s dishes? wondered Kojou, full of doubt.
Heedless of Kojou’s anxiety, Kanon put the New Year’s dishes onto plates, then offered them to Kojou and the others. Yukina and Astarte were already seated; he couldn’t just say I don’t wanna at that point. Feeling pushed by a wordless, coercive force at his back, Kojou sat at the table as well.
“Th-this is…”
Now that he was seriously looking at the food at close range, Kojou felt even more conflicted. Certainly, by appearance, the food resembled a traditional New Year’s meal. However, that which had been served clearly differed in several respects.
There was an aroma of steamed vegetables and rice cakes wafting around the bowl, and besides that, the scent of consommé.
Nina spread open a department store New Year’s cookbook as she confessed up front, “I looked at the recipe and followed it as closely as I could. It may differ somewhat from pure Japanese New Year’s cooking, but pay that no heed.”
When Kojou timidly brought the food to his mouth with chopsticks, he groaned as its powerful spiciness seemed to scorch his throat.
“Well, I pay it heed! Why the hell did you put chili beans into New Year’s cooking?!”
“Hm. Originally, beans were considered a very hardy food, so I thought them an indispensable ingredient in New Year’s cuisine. It was my hope that their hardiness might extend to the whole year.”
“Black soybeans and chili beans are completely different foods, you know! Well, not that it isn’t tasty or anything!”
As Kojou spoke, he brought a rice cake with a consommé taste to his lips. Meanwhile, Yukina wore an odd expression as she put a food resembling a rolled omelet into her mouth.
“Is this…roll cake?” she asked.
“Yes. I learned to make sweets at the abbey, so it became my specialty.”
“R-right, it’s delicious.”
A broad smile came over Kanon as Yukina conveyed her impressions with an odd look.
Kojou continued to eat silently. The New Year’s cooking feint had thrown him off, but if you treated it like creative, slightly oddball cooking, it actually wasn’t half bad.
“You’ve got Mont Blanc instead of sweet potatoes and chestnuts, but that’s no big d—Gnhh?!”
Just when he’d gotten used to the mysterious cooking, carelessly lowering his guard, the instant Kojou reached his chopsticks toward a new plate, he covered his mouth and choked.
“Wh-what’s that smell?!”
The beautifully decorated plate had food on it closely resembling pickled kohada millet. The fish went by different names as it increased in size, and if it was associated with anything, it certainly was to New Year’s cooking.
However, the pungent stench intensely permeating Kojou’s nostrils was clearly not from the warm, gentle cooking he was used to.
“This is salted herring, a traditional food of the Kingdom of Aldegia, my native soil. It is fermented via a strict two-stage process to add to the taste,” Justina explained with a proud expression.
“Wait a… You’re not telling me this is that pickled herring, considered, like, the smelliest food the world over…”
Kojou was gasping, tears streaming down his cheeks due to the extreme odor.
He could perfectly appreciate how Justina, a native of Northern Europe, would think of pickled fish as “cooking,” but the stimulus was just too much for Kojou. Even if that would not have once been the case, becoming a vampire meant Kojou’s senses were sharper than in the past.
“It is delicious.”
“I was surprised to learn that there were commonalities between east Asian New Year’s dishes and local Northern European cuisine.”
Ignoring Kojou’s agonized moans, Justina and Nina dug into the herring, broken apart from fermenting, with broad satisfaction. Though Kojou had his doubts that Nina, a liquid-metal life-form, could properly taste to begin with.
“Well, if you’re happy with it, that’s just great,” he said, resigned.
Then Kojou shifted his eyes toward the still-empty seat. Normally, Natsuki would be sitting in that chair, but there was no sign of her in the dining room.
“Astarte, where’s Natsuki…?”
“Unclear. I have received a command to the effect of Make the two of them wait—give them dinner or something.”
“Wait, Natsuki told you to do this?!”
Kojou exclaimed in shock as he gazed at the feast laid out before him. It wasn’t like she had other guests, so why had Natsuki ordered her to kill time? What’s going on here? thought a bewildered Kojou.
He then cleared off his plate with great haste, bowing his head to Astarte as he said, “Sorry, but I don’t have a lot of time. Can’t you just show us to Natsuki somehow or other?”
The atypical seriousness of Kojou’s demeanor made Astarte hesitate. Her pale-blue eyes wavered.
“…Accepted.” Her voice came slowly and quietly.
Kojou’s and Yukina’s faces met, and the two simultaneously rose to their feet.
“…Akatsuki?”
Kanon, noticing the tense expressions on their faces, murmured with unease.
“Hmm,” said Nina, narrowing her eyes, her interest apparently piqued. That was when Justina, right next to them at the time, abruptly vanished from the dining room.
4
Natsuki received Ko
jou and others in her so-called reception room, which was actually nothing more than a wide, empty space.
It was a dimly lit room lacking even a window. The vast interior, larger than a Saikai Academy classroom, contained only a single antique chair. Aside from a solitary light, there were no fixtures of any kind. Glossy walls, seemingly made of obsidian, surrounded the room, lending it a cold, imposing air.
“What is it, Kojou Akatsuki? Come to give your homeroom teacher a New Year’s gift?”
Natsuki, who seemed somehow small in the chair, made a wry, sarcastic smile as she spoke. Kojou shook his head and said:
“Hey, give it a rest. And Nina said that to me just earlier.”
“What, then? Surely you have not come to continue your extra lessons?”
“Well, not that exactly, but I did come to ask something of you.”
“Hmm?”
Turning back to see a rare look of seriousness on his face, for once, Natsuki rested her chin on her hand and motioned as if to say Out with it already. Kojou quietly steadied his breathing and spoke aloud:
“I want to go to the mainland. Please help me.”
“You need a visa from the government for that.”
Natsuki’s reply was immediate and blunt.
“The issuance fee is thirty-three hundred yen. However, applicants must be registered as demons. It would expose you as an unregistered demon. You don’t mind?”
“I’m not talking about that! I came to ask you because there ain’t time for red tape!”
Kojou replied gruffly. Naturally, Natsuki had seen through his nervousness from the very beginning, and yet, she’d still evaded the question, which made Kojou’s irritation all the greater.
“For you, waivin’ the inspection and getting us to the mainland is simple, right?”
“Even if that was the case, I do not believe I have any duty to go that far for the likes of you.”
“What if someone’s life is at stake?”
Speaking those words, Kojou thrust his smartphone toward Natsuki. It was the picture Nagisa had taken of the magic circle.
Natsuki’s delicate, doll-like eyebrows rose a few, precious millimeters.
But Yukina replied to Natsuki’s question with a question of her own: “What is that?”
“Do you know of Kannawa Lake?”
Natsuki indifferently shifted her gaze toward Yukina, seemingly searching for the point of the question.
“…An artificial lake in Tangiwa of the Kansai region, currently well-known as a tourist destination.”
“Yes.”
Yukina took a photocopy of a newspaper story out of her jacket pocket. It was an old story—from more than forty years ago, according to the date. This was what Kiriha Kisaki of the Bureau of Astrology had handed to Yukina.
“On the current Kamioda Dam site rested a single village—a tiny settlement with a population of less than three hundred.”
“So the village sank to the bottom of that lake, sacrificed for the dam. Tragic, but a common enough tale,” Natsuki said, her tone calm as she crossed her legs in a show of tedium.
Yukina nodded vaguely and said, “I suppose it is. However, it was not the construction of the lake that was the demise of the village. The village vanished three years before the dam was completed.”
“Why is that?”
“Because all the residents at the time disappeared, not leaving a single trace behind.”
At Yukina’s emotionally restrained words, Natsuki displayed clear interest for the first time.
“The cause?”
“I do not know. Perhaps the cause truly is unknown, or they have simply not divulged it to the public. However, this sunken village—old Kamioda Village—had a research facility from a corporation known as Saiki Shamanics.”
“Shamanics… So a maker of enchanted devices? I have not heard the name. They went bankrupt?” Natsuki deduced.
“Yes.”
In an odd coincidence, Saiki Shamanics went bankrupt the same year that Kamioda Dam was completed. At the time, all records of the proprietors and employees had been erased, without a single hint as to their whereabouts. The reason for it having gone bankrupt remained unknown.
“But that is odd. Why build a research facility in a backwater place like that?”
Natsuki prompted in a tone that did not sound particularly pleased.
“From this point onward is merely conjecture, but Kamioda District has a wreck from a crashed military aircraft. Additionally, I wondered if the cargo it was carrying might have included a powerful enchanted object.”
“Military aircraft? A plane from the last great war?”
“Yes.”
“So they went out of their way to build a facility to research that? These fetishes must have been quite a big deal.”
“I suppose so. However, would it then be too great a stretch to wonder if that enchanted object was also responsible for the disappearance of the villagers? Or perhaps Kamioda Dam itself was constructed to seal it away?”
“Not bad as conspiracy theories go, but not a very convincing one. What enchanted object would be so great as to require a man-made reservoir weighing sixty-five thousand tons to seal it?” Natsuki quipped.
“How about a relic dating back to The Cleansing?” Yukina replied, annoyed.
“Keh,” went Natsuki, smiling. “These are events over forty years ago in either case.”
“However, if there was a factor that could activate the relic—”
“Nagisa Akatsuki?”
Yukina’s voice, speaking at an increasingly rapid pace, was cut off by Natsuki’s single utterance. The Sword Shaman’s expression twisted into shock.
“Eh…?!”
“The Cleansing. Certainly, that field was Gajou Akatsuki’s specialty. Furthermore, Nagisa Akatsuki has opened the seal of a Cleansing-era ruin once before.”
“Why… Why do you know about that, Natsuki…?!” Kojou was just as surprised as Yukina.
Natsuki had no reason to suddenly bring up his sister’s name at that particular moment—not unless she’d known the entire circumstances of her situation from the very beginning.
“So how did you two get information that the Lion King Agency was covering up? Through the Bureau of Astrology?”
As Kojou and Yukina stood rooted to the spot, Natsuki, as cold as ice, stared at them.
That was when Kojou finally understood. Someone had leaked information to Natsuki before he and Yukina had arrived. There was only one person Kojou knew who could have done so.
“Don’t tell me that Kisaki chick came to meet you, too?”
“Just before the two of you arrived.”
Natsuki bluntly confirmed his suspicions. In other words, Natsuki had known their objective from the very beginning.
“Say that first, geez! You didn’t need to make us waste time tryin’ to explain!” Kojou shouted fervently.
A smile came over Natsuki as she shook her head. “That is not so. Now I know what that little Bureau of Astrology girl whispered into your ears.”
“Whispered into our ears…?”
“The interests of the Bureau of Astrology and the Lion King Agency are at odds, yes? Then, what made you want to believe that shady-looking girl? Do you have any proof that what she says is true?”
“This photo is the proof. I stumbled onto data left from Nagisa’s smartphone, but Asagi’s the one who gathered this evidence. The Bureau of Astrology had nothing to do with it.”
“Aiba did? Meddling in other people’s business…”
Kojou felt a slight crack emerge in Natsuki’s expression, triumphant up to that point.
Natsuki was an excellent Attack Mage. If it was purely a sorcery-related incident, even Yukina would yield to a simple explanation on her part. Yukina, honest to the core, would mentally waver and weaken, for Natsuki’s experience far exceeded her own.
However, that was not so where electronic data was concerned. On Itogami Island, Asagi was second to none wh
en it came to electronic warfare. With Asagi vouching that it was the real deal, there was no mistake that the image was the literal truth. It was that truth that had underpinned Kojou’s and Yukina’s willingness to take Kiriha’s information at face value.
“Well, fine. Whether you’re worried or not, your little sister is with Gajou Akatsuki, yes? You heading off will only make things more complicated. Leave this to the adults.”
Natsuki, giving up on glossing the matter over, shifted to brusquely persuading Kojou and Yukina.
Though Natsuki’s words were of little comfort to the primogenitor, she did have a point. It was Gajou who’d taken Nagisa off Itogami Island, and he had a solid record earned from wandering through a number of battlefields. Under normal circumstances, trusting Gajou to handle it would be the best plan.
“It’d be a hell of a lot easier if I could.”
However, Kojou promptly declined Natsuki’s suggestion. His eyes betrayed his nervousness and fear—the look of someone backed into a corner.
“Anything else, fine, but a relic from The Cleansing? No. That’s way out of his league. Besides, Dad’s not the one who set things up this time. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
Spurred on by unease he could not easily put into words, Kojou fiercely shook his head.
Kiriha Kisaki hadn’t given Kojou and Yukina all that much information. She’d merely raised the possibility that there was an enchanted object, apparently a legacy from The Cleansing, sunken at the bottom of the lake; and that a number of years prior, the Lion King Agency had expressed interest in that enchanted object. Also, that at the same time as Nagisa’s visit, the Sorcerous Disaster Commission, the Lion King Agency’s window to the government, had gone into motion…
Apparently, the Bureau of Astrology had yet to learn that Kamioda District had been sealed off by the Self-Defense Forces. However, for Kojou, the words relic of The Cleansing were reason enough.
In times past, within the ruin of a Demon Sanctuary in the Mediterranean, it was Kojou and Nagisa encountering such a relic of The Cleansing that had resulted in Nagisa being grievously injured, and Kojou and others entwined in checkered fates of their own.
Now, Nagisa was coming into contact with a relic of The Cleansing once more.
The Fugitive Fourth Primogenitor Page 10