Yukina and Kiriha, standing at Kojou’s flanks, gasped, astonished. Even they, completely on guard, had been utterly unable to respond to Natsuki’s attack.
“Ugh…!”
“I did not come here to play fight you. Unlike that Master of Serpents, troublesome things like this are not a hobby of mine, and I do not do them because I like to. If you go into the Prison Barrier like a good boy, I won’t have to hurt you.”
Natsuki, continuing to elegantly hold her parasol, spat her words like venom.
Kojou gritted his teeth as he lifted his face. “There’s no way…I can do that…!”
“If you will be lonely by yourself, I can send that transfer student to accompany you…or perhaps you would prefer Aiba?”
“I’m not talking about that!” Kojou wobbled to his feet as he howled raggedly at Natsuki. “I’m gonna save Nagisa. After that, extra lessons or Prison Barrier—I’ll do whatever you want. So please let me go for now! Or are you gonna go bring back Nagisa in my place?!”
“Bring back Nagisa Akatsuki…?” Natsuki let out a small sigh as she shot Kojou a stark look. “Do you seriously believe you can do that?”
“What?!”
“Ahh, no. Not in that sense. Of course, Nagisa should be coming home safe and sound—so long as you do nothing rash.”
Natsuki shook her head a little at the sight of Kojou consumed by a primal rage. Then she lowered her eyes in a show of pity and said, “It is you, specifically, who cannot bring her back, Kojou Akatsuki.”
“…What do you mean by that?”
“If that which is at the bottom of Kannawa Lake is what the Lion King Agency expects, you cannot come into contact with it and escape unscathed.”
Her reluctant tone shook Kojou faintly. He sensed seriousness from Natsuki’s explanation that went beyond a simple attempt to intimidate.
“And what makes you say that?”
“That’s how these relics of The Cleansing are. You have experienced this for yourself, have you not?” Natsuki smiled sadly.
What is she talking about? thought a perplexed Kojou when countless, fragmented images crammed into the back of his brain without warning. A rock-strewn, sun-swept land. A coffin of ice. Within it, a girl with hair spanning all the colors of the rainbow. Then, the scent of blood—
“G…uoa…?!”
“Senpai?!”
When Kojou moaned, stricken by a powerful headache, Yukina instantly put an arm around him to support him.
Kiriha appeared perplexed. She did not know that Kojou’s memories had been consumed or that fragments of those memories were causing Kojou this pain.
“It seems the conversation has come to an end,” Natsuki cruelly murmured as she looked down at the anguished Kojou.
One way or another, he no longer possessed the strength to resist her. It took all his mental strength to remain conscious in the face of the torrent of onrushing memories.
“We will speak more of this inside the Prison Barrier…provided you truly wish to know, that is.”
Natsuki quietly raised her left hand. A ripple-like distortion occurred in the air above her head, with silver chains unleashed from within.
“Don’t mess…with me…dammit…!”
Kojou glared at Natsuki as the chains entwined around his right arm. With all his vampiric muscular strength, he somehow shook off the chains trying to drag him into the midair distortion.
“If the existence of the Fourth Primogenitor’s connected to The Cleansing, what the hell is the Lion King Agency involving Nagisa for?! She’s not connected to any of it!!”
“Not connected…? Do you truly believe that?” Natsuki smiled scornfully at Kojou’s rebuttal, speaking the words in a tone rich with implication.
Kojou did not understand the meaning of her words.
Nagisa was not a vampire. She’d already lost her spiritual powers. So, of course, the Fourth Primogenitor and The Cleansing had nothing to do with her. She couldn’t be connected.
“…?!”
But Natsuki’s question clearly unnerved Yukina. The expression Kojou saw on her face was one of naked fear.
“It would seem this strikes a chord with you, transfer student,” Natsuki commented calmly. She would not let Yukina’s consternation slip by.
Yukina continued gripping her silver spear, nodding affirmatively without a word. “You don’t mean…Avrora…?”
Her terrified reaction forced Kojou to realize the truth.
Avrora Florestina, the twelfth Kaleid Blood—Kojou had inherited the power of the Fourth Primogenitor from her. Moreover, Avrora was no more. To save Nagisa from the wicked soul called Root Avrora, she had sacrificed herself, perishing in the process.
But what if Avrora’s soul remained, even to that day?
It was not impossible—if a powerful enough spirit medium kept her soul connected to the world. No, it was not out of the question for someone with abnormally high spirit-medium power, such as Nagisa Akatsuki once possessed—
“Avrora’s still inside Nagisa?! They’re trying to use Avrora to check out that relic of The Cleansing thing?!” Kojou, completely recovered from his confusion, shouted in raw anger.
It wasn’t that he’d subconsciously known all along; it simply made too much sense. It provided a reason for Nagisa, a powerful spirit medium, to have lost her spiritual abilities. It explained why she had deteriorated without an identifiable cause. If that was the cost of keeping Avrora’s soul connected to the world of the living, it answered a number of Kojou’s unanswered questions.
Nagisa probably wasn’t using her abilities on purpose. However, if the result was to give Avrora’s soul peace, Kojou could hardly blame his little sister. If anything, it made him proud of her.
I won’t forgive anyone for using Nagisa and Avrora’s soul for their own convenience, thought Kojou. Not even if it was the work of the Lion King Agency.
Natsuki bore the brunt of Kojou’s anger head-on, stating in a matter-of-fact tone, “I shall set your mind at ease about just one thing. The Lion King Agency has no intention of putting Nagisa Akatsuki in peril. It is the reverse. For the sake of their objective, they shall surely protect your little sister, even unto death.”
“Yeah…? Hearing that puts me at ease.”
Kojou stripped off the parka he wore as he unwittingly cracked a small smile.
“You’re cooperating with the Lion King Agency ’cause you know they’re not trying to put Nagisa in danger, right, Natsuki?”
“Of course. Your sister or not, she is one of my pupils all the same.”
Natsuki replied without hesitation. Kojou, expecting that reply, nodded with satisfaction.
“Himeragi…that means the Lion King Agency didn’t betray you, right?”
“Ah…!”
Yukina looked at Kojou, large eyes opened wide. Kiriha snorted, unamused.
To Yukina, caught between her loyalty to the Lion King Agency and her friendship with Nagisa, Natsuki’s words were salvation. The Lion King Agency wasn’t trying to use Nagisa as some sort of sacrifice. Knowing this, Yukina could trust in the Lion King Agency. Half the reason for her anguish had vanished.
“Thanks to that, I’ll keep on respecting you, Natsuki. Even after I beat the crap out of you, so you’ll let me go to— No, I’m going to the mainland, no matter what it takes!”
Dense demonic energy coursed out of every pore of Kojou’s body like lava from a volcano.
“If the Fourth Primogenitor’s power is needed to get some relic of The Cleansing thingy, that’s not Avrora’s job. It’s mine. Whatever reason people have, I’ll crush anyone using Nagisa and Avrora for their own convenience! From here on, this is my fight!”
“Hmph…”
As Kojou came rushing in with a demonic energy-infused fist, Natsuki held him in check with a single lash of her fan.
New chains unleashed by Natsuki assaulted Kojou from four directions. Kojou unleashed his demonic energy like an explosion, shooting them down one after the
next. However, Natsuki’s attacks did not relent. Then, when an attack came from Kojou’s blind side that he didn’t think he could dodge, a silver spear lashed out, knocking it down with a ferocious shower of sparks.
“No, senpai. This is our fight—!”
Yukina, wearing a dazzling smile free from worry, landed at Kojou’s side.
“—Himeragi?!”
“I now understand very well why the Lion King Agency left me at your side, senpai.”
As Yukina stared at Natsuki, her eyes held the powerful glint of restored confidence.
“To stop senpai from running amok, he requires a watcher who will act in concert with him until the very end, no matter where he might go—even if, as a result, the Lion King Agency itself stands in the way. That is why they did not inform me, so that senpai would not see me as his enemy—”
“That is quite a self-serving interpretation, but certainly, it is far from impossible. Unlike a relic of The Cleansing that may or may not even exist, the Fourth Primogenitor is a clear and present danger. He cannot be left to his own devices.”
A faint, pained smile came over Natsuki’s lips.
Though not the Agency’s unanimous opinion, Yukina had been left as Kojou’s watcher. She had not been abandoned; it was the opposite. Yukina had been isolated from all information to keep their trump card, the one-and-only World’s Mightiest Vampire, in a controllable state.
“And now that you know this, what of it? Will you become my enemy, Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency?”
Natsuki’s tiny body floated softly in defiance of gravity. The space around her distorted irregularly, much like flames. Magical energy, so vast that it rivaled Kojou at his most serious, circulated around Natsuki’s flesh.
“Move aside, Natsuki! Even you can’t take Himeragi and me when we’re serious!”
“Quite an interesting thing you’ve just said, student of mine.”
Whoosh! went Natsuki’s left arm, lashing out.
Immediately, Yukina, purportedly gripping her spear, was sent flying back, unable to even raise her voice. With a ferocious sand cloud rising, she slammed into the beach some four to five meters behind him.
“Himeragi?!”
Kojou stared, scarcely believing his eyes as Yukina went down without breaking her fall. He had never seen her get taken down in such a one-sided way before. Neither her Spirit Sight nor Snowdrift Wolf’s ability to nullify magical energy had been able to block Natsuki’s attack.
“Gah?!”
The instant Natsuki’s gaze shifted toward him, Kojou’s vision went blurry. There was neither pain nor impact, but Kojou lost his equilibrium, almost like he was intoxicated.
Kojou instinctively realized teleportation magic had been used to directly shake his brain. Vampiric healing ability was of no use unless it was an actual physical injury.
Feeling his mind grow distant, inching past the point where he could resist, Kojou desperately held on to his senses.
“You think the two of you can defeat me? You shouldn’t underestimate your elders.”
With his vision in pieces, like he was looking through a kaleidoscope, Kojou saw Natsuki looking down at him with scorn.
Then, with a twirl of her parasol, Natsuki unleashed countless chains toward the immobile Kojou.
2
“You, the girl over there, halt! Halt!!”
The men, clad in black body armor, ran down the connecting walkway inside the airport.
Asagi listened to their footsteps behind her as she dashed down the stairs. The men were part of the Island Guard airport security unit and, on top of that, an Attack Squad armed with anti-demon firearms.
Of course, there was no reason for such men to be targeting Asagi, yet they were, in fact, chasing her nonetheless.
“If you do not obey this warning, we will use force in accordance with Demon Sanctuary law!”
“Huh?!”
Asagi looked back without thinking when glass shattered above her head. It was a simple warning shot, albeit extremely accurate.
“Wait a— Mogwai, what’s going on?! They’re seriously shooting at me!” Asagi shouted at her AI partner as she desperately avoided the glass shards raining down.
“Keh-keh.” Mogwai laughed, his demeanor clearly amused. “They’re adhesive polymer rounds for capturing demons. Glue rounds, in other words.”
“Capturing?! They cracked glass just now like it was nothing, you know?!”
“Well, I suppose getting pumped with glue rounds still hurts a lot.”
“What the hell?! Why are they coming at me with stuff like that?!”
“The bottom line is: Someone doesn’t want you to leave Itogami Island, li’l miss,” Mogwai responded calmly to Asagi’s worked-up shouting.
Asagi had ended up being chased by the Island Guard just before embarking on an airplane headed for the mainland. It was plain that no one had been after Asagi prior to that point; after all, Mogwai had his paws on every surveillance camera on Itogami Island, so no one could have been using them to tail her.
“So they’re involved in that whole Nagisa thing?!”
Asagi’s breath was ragged as she ran down a freight hoistway alongside the parking lot. It was supposed to be off-limits, but fortunately, there was no sign of an airport employee to scold her. The Island Guard people seemed to have driven them off beforehand.
“Left at the next corner, li’l miss.”
Mogwai was reading the guardsmen’s movements and giving instructions accordingly. Asagi, no longer aware of even her own current location, shut up and did as he told her. But—
“—Wait, this is a dead end?!” Asagi exclaimed as she was suddenly driven into a cul-de-sac.
A despairingly high steel fence blocked her path. The fence had several layers of barbed wire laid on top, so climbing seemed out of the question.
When Asagi nervously looked back, Island Guard guardsmen had already surrounded her. Asagi stood in place, shocked as their glossy-black gun barrels were trained on her as one.
“Nah, I’ve got it handled. I thought this might happen, so I called a bodyguard over, you see.”
Asagi’s surprised ears heard Mogwai’s voice—a voice seemingly proud of victory.
“Bodyguard…?”
Just when that word left Asagi feeling conflicted, there was a dull, explosive roar behind her. The impact was reminiscent of a direct hit from a missile; she was sent flying. She hit the ground and collapsed.
A section of the concrete foundation smashed apart, rending the iron fence to pieces. Rolling over the wreckage, a spectacularly gleaming crimson weapon of land warfare emerged. It was an anti-demon, four-legged, micro-robotic tank designed for urban environments that seemed almost like a living creature. Its targeting camera whirled around to look at Asagi.
Without a moment’s delay, the armed Island Guard guardsmen attempted to engage, but antipersonnel submachine guns had no hope of penetrating tank armor. In contrast, the robot tank opened fire with antipersonnel machine guns embedded in its front legs, mowing the guardsmen down. Even if they were nonlethal rubber bullets, the might of the 7.62 mm machine guns was tremendous, nonetheless. The guardsmen cried out as they were sent flying—antiballistic vests and all.
“Seems that I made it in time, Empress.”
“You’re…Tanker?!”
Asagi’s mouth dropped open as she heard the voice flowing out of the tank’s external speakers. The voice with a lisp; the anachronistic, over-the-top verbiage—she knew only one person with those defining features.
“Indeed, I am. I, Lydianne Didier, hath arrived in accordance with Sir Mogwai’s request,” replied Lydianne Didier, Asagi’s peer from her part-time job and a rare hacking genius in her own right, in a roundabout, grandiose manner.
“…Hey, what do you think you’re up to?! This is totally an act of terrorism, isn’t it?!”
Asagi nervously pressed the point as she surveyed the flattened armed guardsmen.
It seemed th
at the tank-riding girl was the bodyguard Mogwai had arranged. For whatever reason, Lydianne had some kind of crush on Asagi, so she was no doubt happy to be called upon…and this tragic spectacle was the result. When added to blowing away the iron fence with the tank’s main gun, no matter how you sliced it, this was well beyond the realm of protecting.
However, Lydianne let out a cheerful laugh and said:
“’Tis not a problem. If we make a clean getaway, they shall cover it up after the fact. They have no more interest in this going public than thee.”
“Well, you might be right about that, but…!”
“More importantly, Empress, gaze upon parking spot 404 on the south side.”
“Eh?”
Using a manipulator for hands-on work nestled in the tank’s torso, she deftly pointed to a parking lot flanking a runway. Sitting there was the Pandion—a tilt-rotor, multi-role transport plane made by Didier Heavy Industries.
“I humbly took the liberty of putting that transport on standby. With it, thou may flee to the mainland. ’Tis best to run in this case.”
“Well, I suppose I do have to get on an airplane here…”
Asagi slumped her shoulders as she accepted the inevitable. It wasn’t like she could just go back to the airport terminal and board her passenger plane like nothing had happened.
That said, staying on Itogami Island presented its own dangers. Even if the Island Guard concealed what had happened like Lydianne had said, that required things cooling down.
“Indeed, ’tis so. Now then, quickly, straddle me.”
“Straddle…er, where?”
Asagi looked back with concern as the robot tank minimally lowered itself. The robot tank was heavily curved to defeat incoming rounds; it had no obvious place for a human to ride.
However, without hesitation or warning, Lydianne used the manipulator arm to pick up Asagi.
“Hey, you…! Wait a… E-every-everyone can see!”
The robot tank rushed to the parking lot, heedless of Asagi’s efforts to hold down her skirt.
However, the robot tank did not go even ten meters before it stopped with a clunk. The joints of the four limbs supporting the tank’s body lost their tensile strength; the armor scattered sparks as it crashed against the ground.
The Fugitive Fourth Primogenitor Page 13