Labyrinth of the Blue Witch

by Gakuto Mikumo

  He looked around once more, seeing only the sights of the very familiar Akatsuki residence’s changing room. Kojou’s toothbrush was right on the washroom table right where he’d left it.

  Just to be sure, he went out of the dressing room, but this was indeed Kojou and Nagisa’s apartment; Nagisa was in the kitchen preparing supper, and Yuuma was helping.

  It was the exact same apartment in every way. The only things different were the expressions Nagisa and Yuuma wore.

  Nagisa’s face was beet red up to her ears while her cheek twitched.

  “Kojou…what…are you doing?”

  “Huh?”

  Yuuma had a pained smile as she covered her eyes with a palm.

  “That’s…ah, a bit of a problem. It’s still evening, and I’m not emotionally prepared for…”

  Seeing their reactions, Kojou remembered the fact he wasn’t wearing a single piece of clothing.

  “Eh?! Ah…!!”

  Here he was, calling out oddities and leaping out buck naked in front of his middle school–age little sister and his childhood friend, a teenage girl he hadn’t seen for four years. That was Kojou’s current situation. It was assuredly close to per— Well, no, it was perverted.

  Kojou yelled out as he returned to the dressing room.

  “U-uwaaaaaaaaa!”

  The echoes of Nagisa’s shriek and the breaking of the dishes she threw filled the air behind him.

  5

  Meanwhile, Asagi Aiba was still inside Keystone Gate. She was on the twelfth level below surface level.

  This was the Gigafloat Management Corporation’s security department.

  It was an office built with a domed roof reminiscent of the cockpit of a passenger jet aircraft filled with innumerable active monitors, keyboards, trackballs, and other input devices, but the keyboards were layered vertically like those of a pipe organ. It was a room that gave you the eerie, oppressive sense of being buried in machinery, but to Asagi, it was as comfortable as her very own home.

  Displayed on the monitor in front of her was a color-coded 3-D display of the city and, off to the edges, numbers and formulas, their meaning unclear. They were analyses resulting from Asagi’s diagnostic program.

  Eating jelly in place of a more normal nighttime snack, Asagi was looking all of that over when she made a bitter face as the chat window she was using to communicate with the AI showed an unidentified user butting in.

  The voice making itself welcome over the com audio was a throaty, electronically synthesized male voice.

  “Well—! If it isn’t Mogwai’s lady and mistress!”

  He was one of the freelance programmers in Asagi’s circle of acquaintances; apparently he, too, had been invited to work part-time by the Gigafloat Management Corporation. His lowbrow speaking style rubbed her the wrong way, but he specialized at intercepting intruders—and he was very, very good at it. Put another way, he was like a bodyguard hired by private industry.

  “Ugh, there he is again, that totally over-the-top guy,” said Asagi, unintentionally airing her real opinion out loud.

  But the other party made no sign of noticing as he made a hearty laugh.

  “Ha-ha-ha. So the Gigafloat Management Corporation got even the ‘Cyber Empress’ to come running. Oh, this is lovely.”

  “—So you got called to duty, too, Charioteer?”

  “Indeed. This uproar is quite a pleasant occasion. Surely you don’t believe that tosh about this chaos being caused by a simple virus or GPS malfunction?”

  “Not really,” said Asagi, not disputing his reasoning at all. There was no point hiding anything from a hacker on her own level. “I really wonder what in the world it is, though.”

  “Mmm. Traffic lights all aflutter, car navigation system errors, instrument landing system inconveniences, a large number of missing children…there’s no doubt something is interfering with the internal Gigafloat network systems,” Charioteer murmured in an unexpectedly dead-serious tone of voice. As she expected, his info was dead-on.

  The Gigafloat Management Corporation gathered detailed information from every corner of Itogami Island and used it to maintain the island’s environment. This, of course, included water and electrical utilities, but also included controlling the mundane communication networks critical to private enterprise.

  On an artificial island small in size with a heavily concentrated population, with most of its foodstuffs imported from off the island, any disruption to its communications network would have an instant effect on the lives of the island’s residents.

  That was why the Gigafloat Management Corporation managed a wide variety of information from sources such as monorail freight, road traffic, and even pedestrian footpaths and traffic lights, doing its utmost to maintain a harmonious transit system.

  But since a half day or so earlier, that information network was experiencing numerous impediments.

  Traffic lights and car navigation routes were leading to completely different places than their destinations; automated guidance systems for aircraft were losing the location of the island; and people continued to get lost, even in their own corporate office buildings.

  The cause of the large-scale network obstruction was not yet known.

  “The silver lining is that a lot of businesses are closed for the festival. If not for that, there’d probably be losses of one or two billion yen,” said Charioteer.

  “…Probably. And a lot of the people who are lost are tourists who don’t know any better.”

  “Mmm.” Seeing that Asagi agreed with him, Charioteer spoke in an emboldened voice. “But it is quite fortuitous to have met you here. To be frank, it was getting to be too much with just me on the case. Have you considered some kind of cyber attack that’s breached the Demon Sanctuary firewall?”

  Slumping back, slothfully burying her body into the back of her seat, Asagi spoke in languid tones. “About that… I wonder if this really is a cyber attack at all.”

  Charioteer made a low mm sound. “It is quite odd. There are strange readings coming from various circuits and location information systems all across the island…”

  “But no one found anything wrong with the sensors or connection lines, or signs of viral contamination for that matter.”

  As Asagi finished speaking, she switched her monitor display to the next diagnostic image.

  From all the data displayed therein, that the Gigafloat Management Corporation’s network was currently operating normally was now a proven fact.

  “So, how about this?” Asagi continued. “Nothing is obstructing the network. All of the readings displayed by the system are correct. So, the problem is on the city side of things.”

  “Are you saying there’s a spatial distortion happening all around Itogami Island…?”

  Charioteer fell into silence. Naturally, he’d suspected that such large-scale simultaneous disruptions had been caused by bugs in the programs themselves or cyber attacks from the outside. However, not even his abilities had located any trace of an intruder.

  But if the obstructions were occurring in real space rather than the information network…would not the current anomalies be the natural, logical result given a normally operating network?

  “Don’t tell me it’s not possible. This is a Demon Sanctuary we’re talking about here.”

  Charioteer laughed loudly upon hearing Asagi’s words of sarcasm. “That might well be the case. But spatial control rituals are a high-difficulty field of magic. Only very well-trained, high-quality magic users can do it, like big-time witches. You wouldn’t think that something affecting the entire island could be wielded by human hands.”

  “…I’m not sure what advantage bending space like this would bring someone, anyway.”

  Asagi tapered her lips in displeasure. She wasn’t going to wait for someone to prove her hypothesis to not be bothered by that loose end. Charioteer, too, made an anguished-sounding voice.

  “Indeed. If all you wanted to do was damage Itogami
City’s economy, it’d save a lot of time and trouble to just plant a bomb.”

  Mogwai intruded into the conversation. “No… Hold on, miss. There should be a record of a similar spatial distortion having occurred some ten years ago in the Island Guard’s archives. It’s classified as top secret.”

  “A sealed record from ten years ago…?”

  Asagi went fishing in the archives according to her support AI’s advice. She hacked her way in, of course. It was a lot faster than asking for permission.

  “What, the Black Bible Incident…?! The Witch of Notalia, then?!” Charioteer bellowed as he accessed the files the same way she had. Asagi was still a primary schooler when the so-called Black Bible Incident had shaken the entire Demon Sanctuary to the core some ten years prior, but she still remembered it.

  “Hey, Mogwai…”

  “Yeah?”

  “Lately, have there been any signs of criminal organizations infiltrating Itogami Island?” Asagi posed the question to her partner in a quiet voice. Mogwai’s reply was quick.

  “…Oh yeah, LCO operatives broke through the outer defenses. I’m pretty sure the Island Guard types are still after ’em?”

  “Oh-ho…the Library, they’re quite a handful, too.” Charioteer spoke with a tone of excitement. The Library of Criminal Organizations, abbreviated LCO, also known as the Library… It was the name of a criminal organization known worldwide. It was said they, too, had played a pivotal role in the Black Bible Incident.

  “I see… So that’s how it is…” Even Asagi could not hide her nervousness when her worst premonition turned out to be on target. Operatives of LCO had invaded; anomalies were occurring all over Itogami Island. The chances that the two issues were unrelated struck her as slim.

  And the next day would be the opening of the Hollow Eve Festival. There’d be a large number of tourists from off the island; it was the time when the Demon Sanctuary’s security was most brittle.

  “Mogwai, contact the Gigafloat Management Corporation. There’s probably something big coming down the pipe tomorrow.”

  Her words would prove truer than she could ever imagine.

  6

  Kojou was in a full kneeling bow on the cold, hard floor. The entrance was the same as the Akatsuki residence, but this room was far emptier with few furnishings. It was the living room of Yukina’s apartment.

  Sitting across the prostrate Kojou and looking down at him was Yukina, sitting on her knees in proper Japanese style.

  Beside her were Kanon and Astarte, their hair still wet from bathing.

  Yukina reviewed the situation in a strangely calm voice.

  “So, I’m not sure I have this all quite right but…my understanding is that you came to confess to having peeped on Kanase and Astarte in the bath?”

  Kojou looked up in great haste. “I didn’t! I mean, I did, but that’s not the biggest problem here at all!”

  It was quite true he’d entered the bathroom while Kanon and Astarte were in the bath, but there was surely something more important than that to talk about. Namely, that the Akatsuki residence’s dressing room was connected to the washroom of the Himeragi residence next door. It may have seemed a small thing compared to the problem of Natsuki’s disappearance, but this was certainly an anomaly.

  “But you did look, didn’t you?” Yukina stared straight at Kojou as she asked him.

  For some reason, the all-too-quiet tone of her voice made Kojou sense impending doom as he fiercely shook his head.

  “A-Astarte was under the water, and Kanase had shampoo suds all over her body so I didn’t see a—”

  “But you did look, didn’t you?”

  Kojou once again touched his forehead to the floor.

  “…I’m very sorry.”

  “You truly are hopeless…” Yukina remarked as she sighed at length.

  For her part, being apologized to made Kanon’s face go bright red.

  “I-it is nothing.”

  Kojou immediately refuted Kanon’s meek statement. “No, it’s, um, kind of a big deal actually…”

  This was, after all, a fully fledged princess; even setting that aside, Kanon had exceptionally good looks for a middle school student. Even if it was for but a single moment, the precious image of the momentary sight of her naked body was burned into the back of Kojou’s mind.

  Yukina seemed to see right through Kojou as he subconsciously recalled that image from his memory, impaling him with her chilly gaze.

  As if to drive him further into a corner, Astarte spoke in her usual unconcerned tone.

  “Apology confirmed. Furthermore, I recall witnessing the Fourth Primogenitor in a virtually identical circumstance.”

  Kojou quickly lost his nerve as she dragged that largely forgotten fact to the forefront.

  “That wasn’t my fault!! I didn’t make you come out of that tuning vat like that…!”

  Certainly, Kojou had encountered Astarte in a nearly nude state, but her body was being retuned by the Lotharingian Armed Apostle at the time; if anything, Kojou and Yukina had been her enemies.

  However, upon hearing Astarte’s statement Kanon’s cheeks turned even redder.

  “I have also been seen by Akatsuki before…so this much is all right, really…”

  Kojou desperately professed his innocence.

  “You were an angel at the time!! That was a complete act of God!”

  Yukina shook her head in exasperation as she watched Kojou protest.

  “At any rate, senpai, you tried to go into the washroom of your own residence and ended up in the washroom of mine, yes?”

  “Y-yeah… I didn’t think you caught that part.”

  Yukina refuted in an exceedingly serious tone.

  “No, I did. I do not believe Kanon or Astarte would tell lies…though a Peeping Tom is another story.”

  “Don’t call me a Peeping Tom!!”

  Yukina then pointed out the obvious.

  “Besides, there is also what Sayaka and the princess said.”

  Kojou felt ashamed of himself for letting that slip his mind.

  “Oh right… They went to get on an airplane and jumped to the sub-float, right?”

  Sayaka and La Folia had been tossed to a place far from the airport; Kojou had entered his neighbor’s bathroom. The locations and seriousness were completely different, but in both cases, instantaneous spatial shifts had been involved.

  Yukina carefully chose her words as she murmured.

  “Perhaps there is some kind of distortion occurring in the space surrounding Itogami Island.”

  Kojou audibly drew in his breath.

  Spatial control, using that for instantaneous movement—wasn’t that what Natsuki Minamiya, the Witch of the Void, specialized in—?

  “Spatial distortions…? Do you think this might have something to do with Natsuki disappearing?”

  “I do not know. However, I feel like the timing is too similar to be a mere coincidence.”

  “Seems like it.” Kojou nodded with a twist of his lips. “It’d be nice if we could get in touch with Natsuki, but where should we look for her?”

  Yukina spoke with a tone tinged with faint unease. “In this situation, carelessly walking around is dangerous. In any event, let’s wait and see for the moment. Please return to your own residence, senpai. There’s a chance Nagisa and Yuuma might become wrapped up in this. Also, there is no guarantee you will get back safely next time.”

  “I see. You have a point.”

  This time, Kojou had happened to go as far as the bathroom of Yukina’s next-door apartment, but next time might not be on such a small scale. If the next warp sent him to the stratosphere or the bottom of the sea, he might perish instantly, unable to return.

  Viewed from that perspective, Kojou’s experience earlier was an incredible stroke of good fortune.

  After all, he hadn’t been tossed out into a busy shopping district buck naked; the people at his destination were Kanon and Astarte, both acquaintances.
/>   Subconsciously recalling how they looked in the bath, Kojou blessed his good fortune with renewed fervor.

  As Kojou did so, Yukina shot him an emotionless glare even scarier than before.

  “Senpai…”

  Obeying his animal instincts, Kojou prostrated himself once again.

  “I’m really, really sorry…”

  7

  When Kojou returned to his own residence, it was Nagisa and Yuuma who awaited him, in the bath.

  That was not to say that Kojou was forcibly warped into their bathroom the instant he entered the doorway. It was simply that Nagisa’s and Yuuma’s voices from the bathroom were so loud that Kojou could hear them all the way from the living room. It was all kinds of girl talk about if they had boyfriends or not, what sort of guys they liked, ways to make your breasts bigger, and lurid rumors not meant for the ears of boys—all forbidden topics for discussion that Kojou knew nothing about.

  Yes, he was curious, but these really weren’t subjects he wanted to hear about from his own little sister’s mouth. In spite of that, he didn’t have it in him to announce, I can hear you, and so, with something of a heavy heart, Kojou grabbed a drink in a PET bottle and went out onto the veranda.

  Even Nagisa and Yuuma’s careless banter was not audible from outside the apartment.

  Leaning limply against the railing, Kojou poured the lukewarm sports drink down his throat. Then, he suddenly saw something that made his blood run cold.

  “…Eh?!”

  The hand holding the PET bottle shuddered. Kojou was looking at a park on a plateau on the other side of the street. The distance had to be almost a full kilometer away.

  If Kojou had not had vampiric vision kick in after sunset as it was then, and if the clothed man standing there did not stand out, he would surely never have noticed.

  “No…way. What’s he doing here…?!”

  Kojou put some shoes on and flew out of the apartment in great haste, running down the apartment complex’s stairs. He leaped over the exterior fence and plunged down the road, taking the shortest possible route toward the plateau. It was times like this that made Kojou curse his body for not being able to fly through the air in true vampiric fashion.