From the Warlord's Empire

by Gakuto Mikumo

  Suddenly, Gardos threw the door open and entered, speaking in a very soldiery voice. “…It seems you are unaware of your own fame, Miss Aiba.” Asagi sucked in her breath and turned around.

  Behind Gardos, two men stood, wearing urban camouflage military uniforms. They were probably all beast men.

  “At the very least, there is not a single technician in our employ who does not know your name. Of course, not even they thought that the famed Cyber Empress is such a pretty young lady.”

  “Do you think transparent flattery like that is going to put me in a cooperative mood?”

  Asagi spoke as she glared up at the stern Gardos, not backing down.

  The aged officer made a satisfied laugh at her reaction.

  “Forgive my rudeness. I do not mean this as empty flattery, but I highly value your composure and resolute attitude. Not to put down civilians who’d lose their minds in this situation, but I wouldn’t want to entrust important work to them.”

  Gardos looked down at the reactionless, still-asleep Nagisa as he carried on.

  Asagi made a displeased look as she got up.

  “If I’m the only one you want, let these two go home first. Business can come after.”

  “If you absolutely insist, then I will comply with your demands, but…”

  Gardos made a gentle, strained smile.

  “If you earnestly wish for these girls’ safety, I cannot support that decision.”

  “What do you mean by that? I’ll have you know, if you lay even one finger on either of them…”

  “We are an organized band of warriors. There is none among us who would mistreat a civilian like a common ruffian.”

  Gardos’s low, resolute voice echoed, as if trying to dispel Asagi’s doubts.

  Even so, Asagi glared right back into both Gardos’s eyes.

  “What about the homunculus you shot in the clinic room?”

  “She was a tool for combat, the same as we are.”

  Speaking in a completely calm voice, Gardos lowered his eyes as if lamenting Astarte. His respectful tone of voice contrasted with his words, yet through them, one felt his unshakable convictions as a warrior.

  “…I can trust you?”

  “I swear upon our dead comrades and the honor of the Black Death Emperor Front.”

  “Fine, then. I’ll listen to what you have to say at least. Go on, explain.”

  Taking a deep breath, Asagi plopped herself atop the wooden crate.

  “Hmph,” went Gardos, his lips gently curling up in satisfaction as he gave a look to his men.

  His subordinates produced a ring file binding together a fairly thick bundle of documents. It looked like blueprints and a manual for electrical equipment of some kind.

  “Do you recognize this?”

  “—‘Souverän Nine’?! Where’d you get one of these?”

  Asagi let out a shocked voice as she looked over the English-language manual.

  “From someone who sympathizes with our cause. The Austrasian Army was due to purchase it before it was diverted. It is the latest model of the supercomputer series Itogami Island’s Management Corporation uses, is it not?”

  “So what you’re saying is, use this to decipher the command codes for that Nalakuvera ancient weapon thingy?” Asagi murmured in a very blunt tone.

  This time it was Gardos who sucked in his breath. No doubt he never imagined an unrelated person such as Asagi would be aware of the existence of the ancient weapon known as the Nalakuvera.

  “It would seem we need to raise our appraisal of you by several notches. Outstanding.”

  “So you’re the ones who sent me that boring puzzle yesterday, am I right?” Asagi asked while scowling her face in displeasure. Gardos nodded solemnly.

  “We sent the same e-mail to over a hundred and fifty hackers, but only eight among them were able to decipher what you call a ‘boring puzzle.’ Among them, only you produced the correct answer without any errors. Furthermore, you completed it in less than three hours, an astonishingly short time.”

  “A lot was going on that day. I wanted an escape from reality.”

  Speaking to herself in a pout, Asagi glanced sideways at Yukina for some reason. Yukina blinked her eyes with a bewildered feeling, averting her eyes out of some vague sense of guilt.

  Gardos paid no heed as he continued to speak.

  “Our objectives are the immediate destruction of that accursed Holy Ground Treaty and the obliteration of the First Primogenitor, betrayer of all demonkind. The power of the Nalakuvera is necessary for the realization of our goals.”

  “There’s no way I’d cooperate after hearing that, is there? If you succeed with a plan like that, worst case, it’d plunge the whole world into war!” Asagi shouted as she slammed the manual onto the floor. A laugh rolled off of Gardos’s lips.

  “That is the world we yearn for…but certainly, this conflicts very much with your values. Yet even so…no, because it is so, I trust that you will cooperate with us.”

  “Huh? What are you saying? There’s no way I’d…”

  “Do you know what this is?”

  As Gardos spoke, one of his men took out a thin tablet PC.

  The screen displayed a strangely long line of text. Though it looked like a spell, it didn’t fall under any of the magic rituals Yukina was aware of. But she did not think it was any meaningless sentence.

  It seemed to be a complicated formula broken down into a form that humans could pronounce. Asagi gazed upon it with a sour look.

  “The puzzle I deciphered…the command codes for the ancient weapon, huh? But isn’t it just one piece of a larger puzzle?”

  “That is correct. There were a total of fifty-four stone tablets excavated along with the Nalakuvera. This was but a single one among them. But you remember what was on this one, don’t you?”

  “You can’t…mean that…”

  Hearing Gardos’s words, Asagi’s face turned pale.

  The terrorist from the Warlord’s Empire looked very pleased as he made a glacial smile.

  “That’s right. That stone tablet’s title is ‘The First Words’—the Nalakuvera’s start-up command.”

  4

  His back resting against the wall of the clinic room, Kojou trembled. Even though he’d been calling Asagi and the others by cell phone, all he got was a voice message saying they were outside school grounds.

  Apparently the report was right—they really had been abducted by the Black Death Emperor Front.

  But Kojou couldn’t understand the reason why. Certainly, Yukina was after the Dead Black Emperor Front, but that was no reason to abduct her. All the more with Asagi and Nagisa, who shouldn’t be related to the Black Death Emperor Front in even the slightest way…

  “Wait…”

  There was one thing, and only one, that tied the girls together. Kojou ground his teeth as he remembered.

  The Nalakuvera. Kojou had asked Asagi to look into the smuggled ancient weapon, but for some reason, she seemed to already know the name. Also, she’d been drawn to the stone tablet that showed how to control the Nalakuvera.

  Kojou was well aware of Asagi’s skill as a password cracker. If the Black Death Emperor Front figured they could use her skills to decipher the stone tablet…

  “Kojou Akatsuki, haven’t they dispatched an ambulance yet—?!”

  Sayaka’s urgent voice interrupted Kojou’s train of thought.

  She was in the middle of giving the gravely wounded Astarte first aid.

  “They dispatched an ambulance, but looks like it’s not gonna arrive right away.”

  “Why not?!”

  “Dunno. But I figure it has something to do with that helicopter crash. Maybe they’re running short, maybe the road’s blocked?”

  “I see…so that’s it…”

  Sayaka bit her lip in apparent anguish.

  “She won’t hold on at this rate. If I don’t stop the fluid leakage at least…”

  “Stop the bleeding you mea
n? But…”

  Kojou pulled back on the verge of saying, Can you even do that?

  Astarte’s gunshot wounds were on a level that would have instantly killed a normal person. Even with a powerful man-made Beast Vassal dwelling within her body, Astarte was not a homunculus tuned for combat. Her physical durability was likely on par with a normal person’s.

  “It’s all right. I’ll take care of it. You bring over antiseptic and bandages.”

  Saying those words in a tone that thrust aside all doubt, Sayaka took something out from the cuff of her uniform. It was a metallic needle about fifteen centimeters long, so thin that the naked eye could barely make it out.

  “Nervous system mapping is Type One—Standard Humanoid. This should work…”

  As Sayaka murmured under her breath, she plunged the needle into Astarte’s back.

  “Kirasaka?!”

  “Don’t worry. It’s like acupuncture. It’s putting her into a coma and maintaining her vitals at a bare minimum. This should stop the bleeding and minimize cellular and brain damage.”

  “…Acupuncture…you can do that?”

  Kojou looked at Sayaka’s delicate fingertips in bewilderment. Certainly she was the only one he could rely on in this situation, but…

  Then, Sayaka made a hearty laugh, seemingly meant for her as much as for him.

  “I told you, Lion King Agency Shamanic War Dancers are specialists in curses and assassination, right? It’s my mission to control whether someone lives or dies. I absolutely won’t let a girl who helped Yukina die right before my eyes!”

  A frighteningly serious expression came over Sayaka’s face as she spoke.

  Kojou’s eyes were stolen by the sight of her. He felt that Sayaka, as she continued to treat Astarte’s fresh bleeding, was somehow sublime, even beautiful. Shamanic War Dancer—in other words, a dancing priestess. No doubt that just like Yukina, she was a spiritualist through whom the voices of the gods reverberated, seeing and knowing all.

  “…I have a suggestion, Fourth Primogenitor…”

  The powerless homunculus girl, still on the floor, called out to Kojou in a voice that threatened to disappear. Kojou brought his ear close to her lips.

  “Astarte?”

  “Master is…currently…en route to the Black Dead Emperor Front’s hiding place…to apprehend them…I believe Asagi Aiba and the others abducted by Kristof Gardos were headed to that same Black Death Emperor Front’s hideout…”

  “…So Asagi and the rest might be being held right where Natsuki’s going?”

  “Affirmative.”

  Having conveyed all the information she needed to, an expression of relief came over Astarte as she closed her eyes. She then lost consciousness completely. She entered a deep, deathlike sleep. However…

  “She’s probably going to be all right. Hospitals in a Demon Sanctuary should have homunculus tuning vats, and girls like her don’t have to worry about organ rejection.”

  Sayaka spoke while slumping down to the floor. A satisfied smile came over her lips.

  “I see. You really saved the day, Kirasaka. Thanks for coming.”

  As Kojou exhaled in relief, he offered his hand to Sayaka. She took his hand and got up.

  “Er, yeah. Thanks… Er, not that I was doing this for you, of course!”

  Suddenly regaining her senses, Sayaka violently shook free of Kojou’s hand.

  “That hurt. The heck’s up with you?”

  “Nothing at all. Go die already…sheesh.”

  Spitting her words behind her, Sayaka headed toward the clinic room’s lavatory, washing off her bloodstained hands.

  In the meantime, Kojou tried using his cell phone one more time. It was a call to Natsuki’s number. But…

  “…Figures there’s no signal! Shit, even if Natsuki knows where the terrorist hideout is, if I don’t know where she is, it doesn’t mean a thing!”

  As the cell call refused to connect, Kojou promptly gave up, making an exasperated sigh.

  If Natsuki was heading toward the Black Death Emperor Front hideout like Astarte said, there had to be combat taking place. There was a high probability Asagi and the others would be caught up in the fighting. He had to hook up with Natsuki and tell her about the abduction before that happened.

  But Kojou had no way of figuring out where Natsuki was at the moment…

  “Kojou Akatsuki. The homunculus said her master was heading to apprehend the Black Death Emperor Front, yes?”

  Sayaka returned from washing the artificial plasma off her, stripping off her stained summer sweater as she spoke.

  “Yeah.”

  “Then there will be fierce combat.”

  “I know. That’s why I’m so nervous.” Kojou replied with irritation. Sayaka looked at Kojou like he was a complete idiot. She spoke as if she was a famous sleuth teasing a clueless detective.

  “So. Question: Where is there fierce combat taking place on this island, right now?”

  “Ah…”

  Where was a fierce battle taking place, like a helicopter being hit by a surface-to-air missile and crashing?

  Kojou clapped his hands together as he recalled the location.

  5

  Itogami Island was fundamentally made up of four Gigafloats—East, West, South, North—but the island also had numerous smaller extension units all around it.

  They fulfilled various functions, such as floating crude oil depositories, dry docks for repairing ships, or even serve as a giant Dumpster for the storing of nonflammable waste. The buildings on Itogami Island’s Sub-float No. 13 constituted one such landfill facility.

  “—Sorry about this, but I can’t go any farther. The police have sealed the road.”

  The taxi driver stopped the car before they reached a sub-float connected to the coastline.

  The passengers in back, Kojou and Sayaka, leaned forward and looked over the scene before them.

  A fan-shaped piece of land with a radius of some five kilometers jutted out into the sea.

  It was a wide, flat, empty space suggesting a landfill still under construction. The only identifiable difference with a landfill was the presence of thick steel plates covering the entire surface.

  Certainly, there was a yellow-and-black barricade placed on the bridge connecting to the sub-float. Kojou could see patrol cars with red lights flashing, too.

  “This is just a rumor I heard from other taxi drivers, but I hear they found internationally wanted terrorists up ahead. Hey, you heard that noise just now? That’s gunfire. I know that sound pretty well from my time in the Shimabara Civil Conflict Zone before I got this job.”

  As the driver spoke, he shrugged his shoulders as they heard intermittent crackling sounds through the windows.

  Sayaka murmured, “Ah, I see,” and nodded appropriately.

  “Understood. Thank you. We’ll get off here.”

  “Sure. That’ll be eight hundred and ninety yen.”

  The cabbie made no special effort to stop Kojou and Sayaka, casually demanding only his fee.

  They were a pair of male and female high schoolers smelling distinctly of blood, carrying a suspicious musical instrument case with them. It wasn’t surprising he wouldn’t want to be involved, but…

  “You heard him, Kojou Akatsuki. Pay the man.”

  “The heck?! You get money from the Lion King Agency, too, don’t you?! Just call it an expense.”

  “I don’t have my wallet on me. You’re a primogenitor, you can pay that much. Oh, and die already.”

  “Like I’ll just die! Don’t call a taxi if you don’t have a wallet!!”

  Complaining all the while, Kojou was forced to pay the cab fare. For Kojou, living on a high schooler’s meager budget, even this fee was a lot of money.

  Thanks to this extravagance, they’d greatly shortened up their travel time. After leaving school, it’d taken them about fifteen minutes to get this far. The wreckage of the crashed helicopter was still burning at the farthest tip of the broad su
b-float. And even now, a gunfight continued within the white smoke hanging over the area.

  “It really is a war out there, geez…”

  Kojou groaned with irritation and frustration while listening to the ceaseless gunfire.

  The under-construction sub-float had cranes and watchtowers standing around like decrepit trees. The largest watchtower among them was a cylindrical building about five stories tall.

  A number of thickly armored trucks had that watchtower surrounded.

  Island Guard mechanized troops sheltered in the shadows of the armored trucks as they blind-fired small arms. Each time they did so, return fire came from the watchtower side; the fierce firefight had descended into a complete stalemate.

  There was armored truck wreckage strewn all around the watchtower; the casualties were not small in number. It was a war of attrition, like wading through a swamp. It didn’t feel like anything civilians like Kojou and Sayaka should be poking their faces into.

  “Looks like the terrorists are defending that place,” said Sayaka, coolly assessing the combat situation.

  “Defending? In a place like that?”

  Kojou shifted his gaze to her with a doubtful look.

  There was nothing for the Black Death Emperor Front to gain from defending a place where they could expect no support from allies and had limited weapons and ammunition. He didn’t think Gardos, who’d gone to a military academy, would choose such a foolish strategy.

  But Sayaka pointed to the still-burning helicopter wreckage.

  “I wonder if they weren’t planning to use that to escape. But the Island Guard shot the helicopter down, so they’ve lost the means to run.”

  “So they have no choice but to do this, you’re saying.”

  Kojou made an “mmm” through his nose. Sayaka’s explanation made sense on the surface, he thought. Criminals on the lam tended to hole up in any building close at hand.

  But though he couldn’t put it cleanly into words, Kojou still had a strange unease inside of him.

  “Landing a chopper in plain sight like this is practically begging people to shoot it down, isn’t it…?”

  “Eh?”

  “Er, nothing. Anyway, if the Black Death Emperor Front has nowhere to run, it’s possible they’d use Himeragi and the others as hostages?”