“Yuuma is very good-looking, but to me, you are…you.”
“Kanase…”
A warm and mushy feeling rose in Kojou bit by bit, making him almost shed tears. Even if this body was his good friend’s, being separate from his own definitely made him nervous. But Kojou had people who were waiting for him to get back to his own body. That alone came as a great relief.
The little homunculus girl spoke, her face hidden under the pumpkin mask.
“I concur.”
“Astarte…?”
“Although it is objectively irrational, after undertaking a comparative analysis I have determined I subjectively desire that the Fourth Primogenitor return to his original body.”
“Th-that so…”
That seemed to mean that even though Yuuma’s physical attributes were higher, Astarte personally wanted Kojou to go back to his old self. Kojou didn’t feel all that complimented, but by Astarte’s standards, this was her expressing goodwill with all the strength she could muster.
His mood having somehow improved, Kojou looked beside him toward Yukina. He was a little anxious over what she might think about that part.
Sensing Kojou’s expectant gaze, Yukina became a bit flustered.
“Huh? Wh-what?! I am merely a watcher… I will fulfill my duty no matter what you look like, senpai…”
Kojou made a strained smile at Yukina’s honor student reply.
“…Figured.” He decided he ought to be quite grateful her behavior toward him hadn’t changed along with his appearance.
Kanon suddenly looked at Kojou with a sharp gaze.
“Akatsuki…setting that aside…”
It was a rare stern look for her.
“You should not rest on your elbows during mealtime.”
Kojou, still slovenly resting his chin on top of his palms, straightened his back in response to Kanon’s scolding.
“Huh? Ah, er, right.”
“And you should not spread your legs when you sit.”
Thrown off by Kanon’s unexpectedly strict guidance, Kojou did as he was told and corrected his posture.
“Th-that so. Sorry.”
Kanon had been raised at an abbey when she was younger. No doubt that accounted for her strict upbringing.
Until now he’d never given the matter much thought, but Kanon and Yukina both had proper posture. Girls have it tough, being judged by appearance so much, thought Kojou as if it didn’t concern him.
It was the next moment that he learned that his thoughts were still quite naive.
Astarte spoke up, producing a mirror and brush from under her coat as if by magic.
“Supplemental. I advise that hair maintenance and grooming is necessary.”
“Uhh?” At the same time, Yukina raised an “Ah!” and reached toward the side of Kojou’s face.
“You didn’t put sunblock on, did you? You mustn’t let such pretty skin go to waste!”
“Please use this. It’s my makeup pouch.”
“Eh, wait a… What are you guys doing…?!”
Astarte and Yukina firmly grabbed both Kojou’s arms and marched him off. They were heading for one of the shop’s washroom. Kojou fell into a panic when he realized the wallpaper was pink.
“Hold on! This is the ladies’ washroom?!”
“It cannot be helped. Do you intend to go into the men’s washroom looking like Yuuma?”
“Well, no, but… Ehh…?!”
The ladies’ washroom was packed full of female customers touching up their makeup after their meals. Seeing a row of pretty ladies busily putting on lipstick and mascara was, truth be told, not something he really wanted to see.
Furthermore, a bunch of them were trading info about the impressions they’d gotten from their dates like they were hammering out plans for a matchmaking party. The exceedingly frank ratings they dished out made even Kojou feel bad, and he had nothing to do with it. He felt like if he stayed in that place any longer, he’d never be able to recover.
“…Incidentally, what should I do if I have to go use the john in this body?”
Kojou muttered, suddenly concerned about the matter. That’s actually a serious problem, he thought. Of course, Kojou had no idea how girls went to the toilet. At that point, Yukina shot Kojou a sharp glare. “You must not.”
“Y-you can say that all you want, but it’s biological necessity; I don’t have any say in…”
“You absolutely must not!”
“Huh…?!” Kojou was a bit despondent at Yukina’s unexpectedly emphatic declaration. Apparently, he had to get his own body back before this body developed the urge to pee. Apparently, Kojou’s time was running out…one way or another.
Perhaps it really wasn’t time to casually sit back and wait for Yuuma to kick up trouble. If she’s gonna pull something, how ’bout sooner rather than later, Kojou selfishly thought. Then…
As if granting his wish, a low impact shook the Gigafloat’s surface with a large thump. Even inside of Yuuma’s body, Kojou recognized it as a powerful surge of demonic energy.
“What’s this feeling?!”
Yukina was the first to react.
“It’s coming from Keystone Gate!”
Pulling her silver spear along, she rushed out of the store; Kojou hurried after her.
Everyone in the streets looked up at the sky in surprise, eyes wide.
The building at the center of Itogami Island was shaped like an inverted pyramid. On the roof of the building, the tallest on the island, something was wriggling. It was dozens of meters long, with mottled, creepy-looking tentacles.
“Himeragi! That’s…?!”
“Devilkin! A ‘Guardian’ for a witch!”
“Something like a familiar, then…! But that magic energy’s…?!”
The overwhelming sense of pressure he felt from Keystone Gate was not being given off by the Guardian.
In that place was a being with incredible demonic energy, even greater than that of the giant familiar. In one sense, the ominous surge was one Kojou dearly missed…
“Yes, that surge is senpai’s… The Fourth Primogenitor’s demonic energy.”
“Yuuma, then!”
Having confirmed her whereabouts, Kojou started running.
Keystone Gate was the core of the Demon Sanctuary. It was also the very first place Yuuma had visited upon her arrival on the island. In hindsight, Kojou felt that Yuuma choosing it as the site for a magical ritual was quite natural.
But.
“…?!”
As if to keep Kojou from reaching his destination, people he’d never seen before blocked his path.
They were men wrapped in black robes as if they were Grim Reapers. He estimated they numbered around ten, minimum. Their faces bore no hostility; nor did they carry anything one could fairly call weapons. However, Kojou certainly felt that they were trying to keep him from approaching Keystone Gate.
“Senpai, please stand back!”
Yukina readied her spear and moved out in front. No doubt she thought that now, with people in disguise all over the city, even using Snowdrift Wolf where people could see wouldn’t stand out much.
“What’s with these guys…?!”
“I do not know. But I believe their likely purpose is to delay us.”
“Pals of Yuuma, then… Been watching us the whole time, huh?”
Kojou ground his teeth at his own obtuseness. If he’d thought about it clearly, he would’ve anticipated Yuuma would have had Kojou’s movements monitored. Of course, she’d be on guard for Kojou trying to take his body back, interfering with her own plan in the process.
“Astarte, take care of Kanase!”
“Accept.”
Kojou instructed the homunculus girl to protect Kanon as she stood there, defenseless. Astarte nodded and summoned her own Beast Vassal. Wings emerged from her back and transformed into a pair of giant arms.
For whatever reason, the people watching all around them raised an “Ohh!” of admiration. Pe
ople broke into applause one after another.
“Looks like they think it’s an attraction for the festival!”
“Th-that is ideal to prevent a disturbance… But the crowd…!”
Yukina and Kojou looked at each other’s face, both at a loss.
At some point, the tourists on the street had opened up a roughly ten-meter radius gap; the black-robed group now surrounded Kojou and the others. Apparently they’d mistaken this for some kind of Hollow Eve Festival street performance. Well, with an openly villainous-looking group set to battle a group of beautiful costumed girls, they couldn’t exactly be faulted for thinking that.
But thanks to that, Kojou and the others no longer had anywhere to run.
If it was one-on-one combat, there was no doubt Yukina would clean up, but this time there were simply too many foes. Surrounded by this many people, Astarte couldn’t unleash the full might of her overpowered Beast Vassal, either. Having to cover Kanon and the current Kojou, neither capable of fighting, was simply too great a burden on the other girls. Furthermore, Yuuma would be completing her magical ritual during the time Kojou and the others were delayed.
Realizing they were completely hemmed in, Kojou clenched his teeth in anguish. The next moment…
“Wha…?!”
A “hoaaaaa,” like the shriek of a monstrous bird, echoed in parallel with a dull impact sound, blowing one of the black-robed men flying back with great force.
When Kojou and the others looked back in shock, they saw a young girl with her red hair in a double bun, long braid style, wearing a China dress. The girl unleashed another waist-level kick, causing another black-robed man to go down in agony. Saikai Academy’s middle school physical education teacher, Misaki Sasasaki, asked in a casual tone…
“Hiya, kids. Finally caught up to ya. Are you all right?”
Yukina couldn’t hide her bewilderment that her own homeroom teacher had entered the fray.
“Ms. Sasasaki! What are you doing here…?!”
“Natsuki asked me to. She said to help you and the Akatsuki siblings out if she ever went missing. Looks like things got pretty bad while I wasn’t looking?”
Yukina nodded frankly.
“…Yes. Quite.”
Seeing Yukina’s forthright behavior made Misaki break out in a satisfied-looking leer.
“Roger that. Leave Kanase and the others to me and go.”
As she said this, the lady teacher adopted a strange pose. This was one of the so-called animal styles of kung fu, emulating the movements of a particular animal.
She was at once Natsuki Minamiya’s junior and a nationally accredited Attack Mage. She was a female martial artist able to take out gangs single-handedly, split the ground with her bare hand, and release qi wave beams from her palm among other things, giving rise to a number of urban legends.
“Ms. Sasasaki, these opponents are corpses. There must be a necromancer mixed in controlling them, but…”
“No problem! I’ll just smack them all down!” As soon as she said it, exactly as promised, Misaki began sending everything wearing a black robe flying. It was a display of amazing brute force, but she was strong in other ways. She beat away the occasional magical attack flying her way with one flash of her qi.
As gaps opened up in the black-robed human wall surrounding them, Kojou and Yukina slipped through the ring of tourists around them.
“Ms. Sasasaki, is Natsuki…?!”
“She’s all right. For now, at least.”
As Misaki answered Kojou’s final question, she tossed in a wink for good measure.
After giving her a deep bow of his head, this time Kojou ran forward without looking back.
“Later, then… Take good care of her is what I’d like to have said.”
Seeing the students go, Misaki made a small murmur to herself.
Then, she shot the black-robed men a look that burned with her fighting spirit.
The corpse soldiers, surely lacking their own wills, backed off, overpowered by her aura. A ferocious smile came over Misaki’s lips, followed by another “Kishaa!” sound, as if from a monstrous bird. Sounds of admiration echoed among the tourists.
The festival had only just begun.
CHAPTER FOUR
HIDDEN PRISON
1
The girl had been born in the dungeon of an old castle.
She opened her eyes to spell chants in place of lullabies. The ones watching over her birth were homunculus maidservants. In place of her mother’s arms granting her warmth, there was only the cold chemical soup filling the glass vat.
She had no memory prior to the age of six. She had been granted the minimal knowledge required for everyday life and the pact with the devil. That formed all she could remember.
She was born with the body of a six-year-old, in a castle dungeon, alone.
…Where is my mother? she asked the homunculus maidservants.
“She is inside the prison barrier.”
That was the maidservants’ answer.
—Prison barrier? What’s that?
“It is a prison in Tokyo Metropolis, Itogami City, the Demon Sanctuary of the Far East. It is a place of eternal exile in a different dimension sealed off from this world. The abominable Witch of the Void betrayed your mother and keeps her captive in the darkness.”
The words of the maidservants came down upon the freshly born little girl like a curse.
“You were born to serve as Mistress Aya’s trump card for escaping her confinement. You are a pure-blooded witch, having formed a pact with a devil at birth. You are the Blue Witch, protected by the Blue Knight.”
The girl understood none of it. All she could grasp was that her mother was shut inside a place far, far away and that her mother needed her in order to escape from that place.
But the girl still had doubts.
If she was born for the sake of a prison escape, what would happen to her once that objective had been fulfilled? Would her own mother need her once no longer captive…?
“Your body is still young. Long years shall be necessary before you grow able to fully employ your demonic energy. Once you reach your sixteenth birthday, the season of darkness shall begin; on the day of the festival of bonfires, you shall go to the Demon Sanctuary and tear the prison barrier asunder.”
The maidservants did not allay her doubts. The only words they repeated over and over were to engrave upon her mind the details of the plan for rescuing her mother.
This, too, was surely a curse her mother had cast upon her. She had been born as a tool, one part of a complex plan for the great spell that would free her.
“There is no need for concern. We of the Library shall support you in every way. All is as your mother desires…”
Just as the maidservants had told her, her thirteenth birthday was the occasion for a great many sorcerers to visit the castle.
They granted her all kinds of knowledge: about the organization called LCO, about the Demon Sanctuary, how to decipher grimoires, how to control her Guardian, how to make use of her powers as a witch—
From birth, her affinity for witchcraft was well beyond the norm; finally, she obtained the title of Librarian from the organization. However, there was still no one who would answer her question.
—Did her existence have any value besides her role in the plan?
She posed her question to the Guardian who stood behind her back.
However, no answer came from the faceless knight. No answer ever came—
2
Kojou and Yukina escaped the throngs of people on the main thoroughfare and ran down a narrow alley.
It went without saying that Yukina in her apron dress, looking like a refugee from a fairy tale, and Kojou, currently stuck in Yuuma’s body, made quite a sight together. Even in a city full of costumed tourists, the sight of them sprinting together without even a single glance to the side made them really stand out; everyone looked straight at them. But as they emerged from the alley and arrive
d at a plaza, an even stranger group awaited them.
These were riot cops bearing shields and armored cars built with gray-colored plating. It was an Island Guard barricade.
Kojou ground his back teeth as he looked up at the giant structure looming above them.
“Aw, shit…! They’ve sealed off this way, too!”
The roof of the inverted pyramid building that was Itogami Island’s defining symbol had been taken over by a mass of creepy tentacles that looked like they came from a kraken. It was the monster Yukina had labeled a witch’s Guardian.
The Island Guard’s riot police were engaged in combat with that Guardian. Four combat helicopters were whirling above the building, firing machine guns and purification rockets in a merciless barrage.
Kojou was beside himself as he looked up at the spreading flames.
“Geez, they broke out the heavy artillery…!”
The onslaught had broken fragments from the building that poured down like hail falling from the sky. Ricochets and stray shots seemed to be spreading considerable damage to surrounding buildings. No doubt they’d sealed off the approaches to keep civilians from being harmed by such ferocious combat. But.
“We…can’t get close like this, can we?” mused Yukina.
“Well, this is their job, if anything we should be praising ’em for reacting so quickly, but…”
Yukina and Kojou both murmured in impatient tones. Any way they thought about it, with the Island Guard doing a typically robust job sealing off the area, it was useless to try to break through to get to Keystone Gate. Even if Yukina was a Sword Shaman with all the proper credentials, they’d never let them enter a battlefield with combat choppers buzzing around.
Furthermore, the riot police began bombarding the roof of the building from the ground. It was a barrage of flak guns loaded with anti-demon explosive rounds. Along with the explosions themselves, Silver-Elysium alloy fléchettes with high-purification properties racked the monster’s body. But there was no visible change in the monster’s movements.
“…Not a scratch?!” said Kojou as he gaped.
Yukina analyzed the situation with a composed voice.
“That Guardian has probably been strengthened via magic… It may well be impervious to attack.”
Labyrinth of the Blue Witch Page 14