After the Storm, and Before the Storm (Premium)

by Sakon Kaidou

  “I see.”

  So that kind of thing actually exists...

  “So there,” she added. “He’s not my boyfriend. I left my parents’ place in Kyoto and moved here for college, and he’s been a big help.”

  “In what way?”

  “He makes my breakfast and dinner. Sometimes even gives me some packed lunch.”

  “Mm-hm...”

  “He does the cleanin’ and laundry, too. Thanks to him, I don’t need a cleaning robot, no matter how much of a mess I make.”

  “...Hm?”

  “Whenever I almost sleep in, he takes me to college in his bike’s sidecar, he translates all the foreign papers I need for reports, and he always looks through The Lunar Society’s register and other documents.”

  I had no words. Wasn’t the guy working too hard? And why did it seem like Miss Eldritch did absolutely nothing?

  “I asked him to get material for yesterday’s report, too, but... for some reason, he’s not getting up from bed.”

  “Overwork! That’s your reason!” I shouted.

  Tsukikage! You’re pampering this cosmic horror too much!

  “Seriously, don’t you think you’re working him too hard...?” I added.

  “But I’m working, too. I wrote the report myself, and handed it in before the deadline,” she said with a smile, and puffed up her chest.

  “So this is where you were, president,” a familiar voice came from behind. It was Kozue Fujibayashi, AKA B3.

  “O-Ohh... B? Wh-What’s up...?” asked Miss Aberration. Her smile was looking a bit stiff.

  “Your mobile is off, so I went looking for you. Associate Professor Miyano left us a message in the club room.”

  “No! I don’t wanna hear it!” the aberration wailed as she closed her ears and shook her head.

  B3 ignored this and delivered the death sentence. “‘You need to fix the report. The deadline is 9PM today.’”

  The aberration made Tsukikage work so hard, and yet couldn’t even handle the report? I feel for the guy...

  “Nooo...! I don’t wanna go through that again! B! Do it for me!”

  “Who do you think you’re asking? We’re in different years and departments. Give up and go back to editing the report. And turn your mobile back on.”

  She clearly turned it off because she knew this would happen, I thought.

  “Nooo...! Help me, Kage!”

  You mean the person who collapsed because of you?

  Miss Aberration continued to whine for a few moments before finishing her tea and snacks and returning to the club room to fix the report. She’d always been just this indefinable, morally-grey cosmic horror to me, but now I knew that she could be a normal college student, too.

  “So... She has bad grades?” I asked B3.

  “Not bad or good. They’re normal. It’s just that she is juggling her studies and being the leader of The Lunar Society, so all the lacking bits really stand out.”

  That makes Tsukikage seem... really amazing.

  “Anyway,” said B3 as she took Miss Aberration’s seat. “Haven’t seen you in four days. In reality, anyway.”

  Chasing after Miss Eldritch had worn her out, so she was sitting down to take a breather, and I’d be damned if she didn’t deserve it.

  “That’s true. We just met on Friday,” I said. But on the other side, she’d been with me all the way through the events at Torne until returning to the capital. “Still, you get a few more days if you add the time in Infinite Dendrogram.”

  “True,” she agreed.

  The tripled time never ceased to weird me out.

  “How was it at your parents’ place? Did it all work out?” I asked.

  “Yes. The tea ceremony went by without a problem.”

  Her family back in Kyoto were practitioners of the Way of Tea, and when everyone there had caught a cold, she was called to fill in.

  I was glad to hear it had gone well.

  “I returned here yesterday, after cleaning up and catching up with my family,” she said. “You seemed to have a hard time, though... I saw the video.”

  “Ohh...” So Fujibayashi was more informed than Miss Aberration.

  “You really like going head-first into trouble, don’t you?” she commented.

  “I’d say that trouble likes coming to me,” I replied. Then again, I’d gone there to get the Prism Rider job. No one had forced me. So maybe you could say I’d jumped into trouble on my own.

  “Sorry I couldn’t help you,” Fujibayashi went on. “Are you still in Quartierlatin?”

  “Yes. I still have something to do there.”

  Quartierlatin now had many quests related to the town’s restoration and the ruins. I was fine with returning to Gideon next weekend, so I’d decided to hang around Quartierlatin for now. Besides, Azurite had said she’d stay there until Thursday, Earth time.

  “Then I will go there tomorrow,” Fujibayashi said. “I can’t come online today because I’m also busy with reports for college.”

  “Okay. I’ll be waiting.”

  We chatted about recent happenings and enjoyed some tea for awhile.

  “By the way, this is unrelated, but...” Fujibayashi seemed to have remembered something. “I have something to tell you about Hell General.”

  “What about him?” I asked as I remembered the devil-wielder.

  “Tonight... or more like tomorrow... he’s going to have a duel for his throne.”

  “Well, he is the first in the imperium’s duel rankings. It seems a bit sudden, though.”

  “I’m sure he knows the general opinion about him and wants to fix it as soon as possible. Thus, the duel.”

  Basically, he’d found out about the video and wanted to restore his reputation where he had the home field advantage — the duel arena.

  Since the arenas returned all the items you used, he was absolutely free to summon the Mythical devil he hadn’t been able to summon against me. It was definitely the best place for him to show his power.

  “Though, I can’t be sure if he will win this one,” Fujibayashi said after a sip of her tea.

  “Why?”

  Mythicals were two tiers above the Legendary Gigaknights I’d faced. If he was free to summon them, I was guessing he’d have the win in the bag.

  Fujibayashi answered briefly, but told me everything I needed to know in a few simple words: “Because he’s up against another Superior.”

  Side Story: Crime and Invitation

  April 5th, 2045, Imperial Capital, Vandelheim, Noble District.

  The countries on the continent all had capitals with a similar design.

  They all had a central building, such as a royal castle. It was surrounded by the noble district, which was surrounded by commoner houses and stores. Vandelheim was basically that, too — it was built around the Imperstand.

  The only notable difference was that its outskirts had military bases, and research facilities like The Triangle of Wisdom’s headquarters.

  The noble district of the city had recently begun housing people other than nobles... specifically, Superiors and Masters important to the imperium.

  But those who used them well were few. Franklin had a residence, but it was unused because he always slept at The Triangle of Wisdom’s headquarters. The King of Beasts had one, too, but due to that Master’s long absences, the only people living there were some servants who regularly cleaned the place.

  Out of the two new Superiors, one had simply refused the residence by saying, “Unneeded.”

  However, the other newcomer, the King of Chariots, Murdoch Martinez, now made good use of his, going as far as to use the attached garage for his hobby of tank maintenance. He also occasionally went to the outskirts to have some fun with his subordinates and Embryo in some tank battles using mock shells, so he really seemed to enjoy his new life here in the imperium.

  Now, Dryfe had one more Superior. It was the Hell General, Logan Goddhart.

  As a veteran Dryfean Superio
r right behind the King of Beasts, he obviously had his own noble residence and generally lived there. He had a large number of servants, and it was safe to say that he was the Master who led the most noble-like life in the noble district.

  However, he was now curled up in his own bed. “Nhh! Nngh!” he cried into the pillow he was holding tightly. It didn’t suit the beautiful young man represented by his avatar, but it was something you might expect from his real self — a boy in elementary school.

  The reason for his crying was simple — he’d lost again. First, he’d lost in Quartierlatin, against the newbie, Ray Starling. Then, he’d lost against Franklin, who’d recorded his fight against Ray and uploaded it to the Internet. And now, he’d lost his third fight... along with his throne at the top of the duel rankings.

  “Damn it... Damn it...!” he sobbed.

  The first loss could be portrayed as an accident, and the second loss could be seen as the result of a trap, but the third loss, which had happened in his own domain on the arena, left him completely devastated.

  The person he’d just lost against was someone who’d climbed up to the second place in the duel rankings at an amazing speed.

  She was the King of Thieves, Zeta — one of the two new Superiors in the imperium. She was originally from Granvaloa, but something had led to her being put on the seafaring country’s wanted list.

  After many twists and turns, she’d ended up signing a contract with the imperator and becoming part of the imperium. Then she’d risen up the duel rankings at an incredible speed, and then finally faced Logan.

  It had been, for all intents and purposes, a Clash of the Superiors for the champion’s throne.

  Logan definitely hadn’t been holding back in that battle. In fact, he’d felt he had to win it at all costs, so he’d faced the challenger without any conceit. And yet, he’d ended up losing without as much as scratching her.

  “What the hell was that?!” he screamed, remembering it.

  Right after the start of the duel, Logan had started to summon Zero Exceed. However, for some reason, he hadn’t been able to say a single word needed for the summoning of the devil.

  Then his vision had drowned in red.

  Whatever she’d done, blood had started flowing out of his eyes and nostrils, while the blood still inside started to boil.

  He’d tried to counter it, but Zeta had closed the distance between them at supersonic speeds, and then, without even scratching his skin or armor, she’d stolen his heart in the most literal sense. Logan had watched, utterly baffled, as she’d casually crushed it in her hand.

  All he understood was that the final attack was the ultimate job skill of the King of Thieves.

  The inability to speak, the bleeding, and the blood boiling were all a complete mystery to him. He’d never experienced such a fight while rising up the imperium’s duel rankings.

  Surely the only one there who had understood everything, audience included, was Zeta herself. All everyone knew now was that Logan was no longer Dryfe’s duel champion.

  Once that realization had spread, the arena had drowned in cheering, and Logan had fled back to his residence, as if to escape them.

  “Those fricks...!” he cursed.

  The passion from the audience made it seem as though they’d wanted him to lose, and that was nothing but the truth.

  Logan had only been the duel champion because of his ability to crush all his duel opponents by summoning Mythical devils for literally no expense whatsoever.

  His battles were always the same: summon Mythical devil and win. Even if he was up against someone stronger, he’d just summon more and maybe sprinkle some Legendaries here and there. All of his battles had been won the same way.

  The only Dryfean Master capable of facing multiple enhanced Mythical devils was the King of Beasts. However, the imperium’s strongest didn’t participate in duels, so Logan’s matches had always ended up becoming nothing but Logan’s summoning shows.

  Watching something like that was more like a chore than a duel.

  The audience hadn’t been pleased, and the duel rankers had lost a lot of their motivation.

  All of that was more than enough reason to cheer for Logan’s defeat.

  “Gh...” Logan moaned. He felt completely crushed to have lost at something he’d thought he couldn’t lose, and that no one had wanted him to win. After burying his face in the pillow for a good few hours, Logan whispered, “Maybe I should quit Dendro...”

  He’d become a Superior, the duel champion, and had held some of the greatest war potential in Dryfe. He’d believed he was at the top of Infinite Dendrogram.

  Little boy that he was, he had little life experience, and thought he was better than everyone. This game had affirmed his delusion and satisfied his pride.

  But now, after three defeats and the loss of his position, the pain and embarrassment made him want to quit, which, again, was very much like the little boy that he was.

  Without Logan, the imperium would become a far weaker foe in the war. However, since he was about to quit, Logan didn’t care about what would happen in this game. He activated the logout timer and prepared to leave Infinite Dendrogram for good.

  “Restraint. I am stopping your escape.” A certain person placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping the logout process.

  “Eh...? You...?!” Logan jumped away and brandished the Viledragon’s Prideblade, Woltgyzur.

  His weapon was aimed at a strange person fully covered in bandages.

  It was none other than the one who’d defeated him and became the new duel champion: the King of Thieves, Zeta.

  “No one let you in here!” he yelled. “What do you want?!”

  His tone as he said that wasn’t that of the “Logan” avatar he played, but the little boy he was in real life. However, neither he nor Zeta seemed to care.

  “Response. I have an offer for you,” she simply answered his question.

  Her manner of speech was strange, but Logan could understand it. “Offer...?”

  “Addendum. Before I speak of it, allow me to say that I heard you mumble about retiring. That would be inconvenient, so I am stopping you.”

  Logan said nothing. He realized that she hadn’t just appeared out of nowhere; she’d been hiding in this room, watching him.

  He wanted to sue her for violation of privacy, but crimes between Masters couldn’t be taken to the court of law, so that wasn’t something he could do.

  Of course, since Logan was underage, he had special restrictions and protections put on him. If Zeta had done something inappropriate, she’d have received a penalty, but Logan didn’t realize that.

  “I’m not talking to someone who sneaks into people’s rooms! Get out!” he shouted.

  “Appeasement,” Zeta replied. “Please do not be upset. I apologize for sneaking in, but the offer I have is one you will like.”

  “I will?”

  “Affirmative. Specifically, I can provide you with a plan to make you a lot stronger than you are now.”

  “Ah...!” That was something that he, defeated three times in a row now, couldn’t ignore.

  He really wanted to become stronger and show all those who’d wished for his defeat who was boss.

  However, since the person making the offer was the one responsible for the third defeat, Logan wasn’t sure about this.

  “Can you even do that...?” he ventured.

  “Affirmative. We have a unique compiled database, using which we can give you several sub-job plans that suit you. Additionally...” She fell silent before continuing. “We can provide info about a maximum of eighteen undefeated UBMs.”

  Surprise filled Logan’s face.

  “I can even give you one right now.” Zeta took out some sort of orb.

  Logan looked at it. He didn’t know what it was, but he could tell that it was related to UBMs.

  “What’s that?” he asked.

  “Answer. A Treasurebeast orb. It is not an item, though.”
r />   “Hm?”

  “Treasure. A national treasure from the eastern empire of Huang He.”

  “National treasure?”

  Zeta nodded and said, “Beast. It has a UBM sealed inside.”

  Those words surprised Logan.

  “Statement. You can have this one... and I will give you info about all the UBMs whose locations I know.”

  “...!” Logan wanted that so badly, he almost jumped on it.

  Logan’s trump card, Call Devil Exceed, required MVP special rewards to work.

  He’d originally had three of them, but he’d used one up in his battle against the Celestial Knight, then another against Ray — which he ended up using against Franklin — and now, he only had the Viledragon’s Prideblade.

  MVP rewards could be great sacrifices and gear, and Logan desperately needed UBMs that could drop them for him.

  “If I had that...” he began.

  ...I could play Dendro again, he finished silently.

  However, he was also suspicious. He could understand if she just wanted to give him a job plan to make him stronger, but UBM locations and UBMs themselves were just too great of a treasure. Defeating them gave amazing prizes, so you’d expect any capable Masters to go after them themselves.

  And there was no way that Zeta, who’d mysteriously, yet easily, defeated Logan, wasn’t capable.

  Why would she just give such valuable information to Logan?

  What did she want in return?

  His suspicion was about as great as his desire.

  “...What do you expect to gain by making me stronger?”

  “Sound. I am here to sound you out about something,” Zeta said, then looked at Logan with her eyes peeking through the bandages on her face before continuing. “Invitation. I invite you to join our clan, Illegal Frontier.”

  Illegal Frontier, otherwise known as “I.F.” It was the most infamous clan, led by the King of Crime, Sechs Würfel, and made up exclusively of Superiors on wanted lists all over.

  Zeta was part of it, and she was inviting Logan.

  “I.F...? That I.F?” he asked.

  “Affirmative,” Zeta nodded. “With the Quartierlatin incident, you are officially on the kingdom’s wanted list. That gives you the qualifications.”