"It's not just matchsticks. I can also use it on toothpicks and small pieces of bamboo!"
It seemed like it's Sakura's specialty so Godou kept his reply very moderate. Which would be more practical anyway, a supernatural power like spoon bending or Sakura's magic...?
Anyway, Sakura had just displayed a hidden talent that looked like magic.
When she disappeared into the kitchen, saying she'd make some tea, Godou picked up the Western book. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, after all, and so he mentally ordered the remaining matchsticks to break.
However, nothing happened at first. Right after he inclined his head, wondering if he had failed...
CRACKCRACK. There was a loud noise. Outside the window, a tree toppled by the roadside. One side of Sakura's room faced the street and from the window Godou could see that one of the trees had broken off by its roots.
Godou looked over at Sakura in the kitchen. She was peacefully preparing the tea.
She hadn't noticed anything, so he nonchalantly placed the grimoire back on the table as if nothing had happened.
"That was that, Godoh-kun. Now that you believe me about magic, there's something I want to ask of you."
Sakura came back carrying two teacups on a tablet.
"Right, that's what this was about."
Trying to break matchsticks and destroying nature instead... The strength of his magical power coupled with his lack of sensitivity was a cursed combination. Godou reaffirmed that it was best for him not to learn magic.
"I only learned about it recently, but... apparently there's a fearsome great devil king in Tokyo."
"A great devil king?"
Somehow, that phrase seemed familiar to Godou.
Pushing his anxiety aside, Godou sipped his tea. Calm down. Sakura couldn't possibly know about campione. As the person in question, Godou was certain.
"Remember all those scary incidents that happened since the spring: a highway here in Tokyo collapsed and the Tokyo Tower caught fire, among other things... all of these were the fault of that great devil king!"
What was it about those incidents that gave Godou a familiar feeling?
Calm down. Right now I need to be composed. I must possess an unmovable, frozen heart.
"Godoh-kun, search for that great devil king with me! I want to ask him to stop doing these horrible things! Will you help me?"
Godou's attempt to play it cool ended in utter failure.
About halfway through his tea, he started choking. Search for the fearsome great devil king?
One of the seven devil kings himself? Could the world please stop fucking around with him!?
Afterwards, they took the subway to Omotesandou. It was about six in the evening.
The autumn sun bathed the stylish scenery of the Aoyama Doori[7] in orange.
"So, Sakura, why do you want to meet that, what was it, fearsome great devil king?" Godou asked as he walked next to his cousin.
Apparently there was a [Magic Shop] in Omotesandou that she and her friend frequented. The shopkeeper was very knowledgable, so they were on the way there to ask her for help.
"Ehm, that great devil king person seems to be reeeeally perverted and constantly lusts after girls."
"NO WAY! Don't believe all those strange rumors!"
Godou accidentally shouted. Sakura shrieked in surprise with a fearful look on her face.
"W-what is it, Godoh-kun? Why are you shouting so scarily?"
"Ah, sorry. I thought you were talking about me, so I just reacted instinctively..."
"Hehehe, you'd never be so perverted, Godoh-kun, you're too earnest for that. I understand~."
Sakura smiled gently in spite of his lame excuse. She trusted those she was close to implicitly. Doubt was unthinkable.
"Y-yeah, right, sorry for saying something so odd."
Godou was assailed by pangs of guilt from deceiving his pure-hearted cousin.
"So you see, my close friend, she is from an ooooold family of magic practicioners that long ago served His Majesty the Emperor"
Godou thought he had recently heard of another family just like that...
He remembered the background of Seishuuin Ena, who he had gotten to know a little while ago.
"Apparently there are other families with the same duty. And a little while ago, the great devil king fell at first sight for a girl from one of those families and made her his lover. He even forced her against her will!"
"Don't spout nonsense! She did that on her own!"
He shouted without thinking once again.
Godou apologized to Sakura, who was close to tears.
"Again, sorry. I just suddenly felt the urge to shout. Ignore it."
"O-okay. So you see, my friend is worried. He might also force her to become his lover. That's why I want to tell him to stop doing horrible things. If I plead with all my might, I'm sure he'll listen, won't he?"
Godou thought about how some of his acquaintances might respond.
Dejanstahl Voban would ignore her without blinking.
That idiot Salvatore Doni probably wouldn't even understand what Sakura wanted from him.
However, Kusanagi Godou was proud of his common sense. You could say Sakura's goal had already been achieved. So he wanted to quickly return home, but...
Ignorant of his wishes, his cousin entered a small alley.
"See, here we are. Is anybody in?"
The shop seemed to be a remodeled single-family house. Sakura opened its door and announced herself.
The shop seemed to overflow with handmade goods-various miscellaneous imported articles. [Kogetsudou] was written in small letters on the doorplate.
Godou followed Sakura into the store. The interior was a mess.
Various goods with Chinese, Southeast Asian, Mongolian, Tibetan, and Polynesian labels were lined up next to each other. Accessories, chinaware, clothes, furniture, different precious metals, fabric, folk crafts and so forth were all mixed together.
Some of them held feeble magical power.
They seemed unexpectedly cheap for real magic items. From lows of a hundred yen through a thousand yen, the price tags went up to twenty or thirty thousand yen. Even more expensive articles could be found in the showcases and behind the register.
Godou noticed a woman who looked like the shopkeeper. She was quite young. For some reason she was wearing traditional Japanese clothing and glasses.
"Oh my, dear customer, welcome~. How can I help you today?"
The shopkeeper talked to Sakura like she would to a regular customer.
"Ah, I'm not here to buy anything today. I had something to ask you."
"I see, how unfortunate. But, because of the business we've done recently, I can share some gossip with you for just a smile. Call it customer service."
So this woman really was knowledgeable.
Erica and Liliana or Hime-miko like Yuri and Ena were surrounded by an atmosphere that only the elite, those on the cutting edge of their field, possessed.
But the shopkeeper of this general store did not.
Instead she was more like a grass waving in the wind, gentle because she was not part of the elite.
"T-today I wanted to ask about the great devil king who is said to be here in Tokyo."
"Great devil king, you say? Ahh, you mean the Campione~"
"The campi-what?"
"Campione. It's Italian. In English it means champion. Because the first person to write about them was Italian, they've been called campione ever since."
Godou nodded in silent agreement.
"Well, if that's all you want to know, I guess I can tell you for free as customer service. There are only seven of those people in the entire world. First of all, in America there is John Pluto Smith. He is a masked hero fighting against evil secret societies. He even transforms!"
"Masked!? Transforms!?"
"In nearby China, there is Cult Leader Luo Hao, the Ruler of the Martial Realm. Somewhere in Arabia or Egypt i
s the Queen of Caves, the Eternal Beauty Madame Aisha. In Eastern Europe there is the master of storms, Marquis Voban. England has their Prince of Black Lightning, Black Prince Alec. And Lord Salvatore reigns in Italy, he who slices through all existence."
That made for a total of six people. At this rate, she would start talking about the seventh person.
Unaware of Godou's concerns, the shopkeeper kept going.
"And in our own country is the last one. ...until lately he was shrouded in mystery, but various bits of information about him have finally appeared."
"If I'm not mistaken, he's a totally perverted person, isn't he?"
"It certainly seems so. Apparently he hasn't laid his hands on just black and brown-haired Japanese girls, but also on blond and silver-haired beauties. He's a huge lecher."
"Even foreign girls?"
"Furthermore, he seems unexpectedly young. There's a rumor that he's not yet twenty..."
"Doesn't that make him a minor? Uhh, I didn't think someone so young could be so horrible..."
The two women were getting excited. Damn them for spouting whatever they felt like.
While scowling, Godou observed the latest development. If this shopkeeper happened to know his name...
"Could you possibly tell me the name of that perverted Devil King? I have to meet him and ask him for a favor..."
"His name... lately his personal information has been fiercely protected..."
Ge. The shopkeeper's reply unsettled Godou.
Didn't it sound like she knew his name, but couldn't carelessly disclose it?
"His name is not well known, you see... a certain organization is restricting that information. But they have made an exception for me..."
"If you know, please tell me. I'm begging you."
Sakura bowed her head in front of the smug shopkeeper.
Damn. The shopkeeper was secretly enjoying this. He had to seal her lips somehow! Godou thought of a certain object. Since he met with Sakura right after school, he was still in his uniform. He also still had his bag.
And luckily, inside the bag, he carried that...
He took out his student ID card and walked behind Sakura. He brandished his ID card behind her back so that only the shopkeeper could see his name and photo.
She shut up at once. She had a look on her face as if she'd just run into a brown bear.
Godou put his index finger to his mouth, indicating 'Please keep this confidential'. When he did so, the other person nodded vigorously.
"U-uhm... did something happen?"
"No, it's nothing at all. Also, I'm very sorry but the name of the Campione here in Tokyo... I'm sorry but I don't actually know it. I am really sorry but please don't ask about it anymore."
The shopkeeper babbled at the worried Sakura.
He had not intended to threaten her... Godou felt deeply apologetic.
"Ehhh. Didn't you say just now that you knew his name?"
Sakura was insistent, as if she were unwilling to consent to this sudden shift.
Just then, another customer entered the store.
Godou was surprised. He recognized that face. It was a man in his late twenties, wearing a worn-out business suit.
His name was Amakasu Touma. He was an enigmatic agent of the History Compilation Committee.
"Oh, did I interrupt? ...now now, what do we have here."
While calling out to the shopkeeper, Amakasu looked at Godou and smiled. However he did not speak to him. He probably wanted to avoid careless remarks until he understood the situation.
"Ah! Amakasu-san, you came at just the right moment."
The face of the shopkeeper showed relief.
"Dear customer, you should ask this person about your problem. Amakasu-san here is a specialist on that topic. He is way more informed than I am!"
"Eh, is that true? Amazing!"
"And what might 'that topic' be, now?"
The shopkeeper was suddenly wildly gesticulating, Sakura was infected with excitement, Amakasu couldn't keep up but played it cool. And Godou sighed.
Part 3
"So, the young lady here wants to talk with the great devil king... am I getting that right?"
Godou, Sakura and Amakasu had relocated to a nearby coffee shop.
They had nabbed some window seats and Sakura had just finished telling her story.
Amakasu's pitying stare expressed 'You've also got it tough, don't you, Kusanagi-san.' Sakura had introduced him as a 'relative and escort.'
"Yes. My friend is worried that that person might take her by force. Lately she's been really anxious..."
"You said you are enrolled at Akinomizu? So it's about the young lady of the Renjou's..."
With nothing more than Sakura's self-introduction and a few brief comments, Amakasu had identified the leak.
He was probably spot on. Sakura's eyes turned round.
Still, a civilian learning the name of a Campione... wasn't the History Compilation Committee's information blackout surprisingly poor?
Godou stared at the agent with biting sarcasm, but it only earned him a complacent smile.
"Well, I understand her concern. That great devil king is a rare womanizer and playboy. Putting it bluntly, you can even call him an enemy of womankind..."
Amakasu was smiling broadly. His joy was obvious for all to see.
"Well, I wonder about those rumors... I'm sure that person must be troubled by the half-truths everybody spreads about him."
Godou tried to defend himself. At this point, Amakasu's face turned evil.
"Oh, so you know him in person?"
"Ah, I haven't met him, but that's my gut reaction. I'm familiar with that kind of situation. He probably just wants to live in peace, yet people call him lustful and generally bother him. You should stop with this gossip."
"Did something happen, Godoh-kun? You've been acting strange for a while now...?"
When Godou suddenly started speaking so insistently, Sakura stared worriedly at him.
Godou boldly ignored her stare.
"Sakura, you should also stop this. Amakasu-san here will certainly inform him of your concerns. You don't have to act like a detective and-"
"I will inform him? I feel very uneasy about that..."
Amakasu said he felt uneasy, but he sounded totally carefree.
"Please do something. You're the only one we can rely on."
"I'm far from brave enough to admonish a great devil king. And there's so much other work that's piled up..."
"You just need to meet him and talk a little. That'll be enough to make him understand."
"Wouldn't that be impossible? He's a ladies man like no other, I tell you - he'd never listen."
"That's a baseless rumor. Don't pay it any heed."
"Hahaha, going by the rumors and his reputation, the man himself is unaware of the truth."
Godou's request was simply rejected.
Dammit. Godou had underestimated Amakasu's fondness for playing around. While smacking his lips, Godou steeled himself to give even more ground.
"By the way, do you know that person over there? She's been staring at us."
Upon hearing Amakasu's comment, Godou turned his eyes toward the corner of the room.
As he and Sakura looked in that direction, Godou was surprised. There sat a European girl with her glowing silver mane bound in a ponytail.
The bizarre sunglasses and mask she was wearing might have been an attempt at disguise.
"...What are you doing, Liliana?"
When he called out to her, the silver-haired knight twitched in surprise.
"Y-you must be mistaking me for someone else. I d-do not know you at all."
She tried to turn away. Godou stopped probing and wordlessly pulled off her mask.
"If you have any excuses, say them now."
"Excusing myself is unthinkable. Th-That is right, I was just thinking you might be in danger on your own. I am here to protect you. I definitely had no wretched feeling
s like wanting to see the face of the woman you ran off to see. Please don't misunderstand!"
Liliana took off her sunglasses while mumbling to herself.
She was obviously flustered. Well, whatever. Godou scratched his head. She always acted like that.
"Got it. Anyway, come over here for now."
The tables could accommodate four people, so there was an empty seat for Liliana. Now that Godou had noticed her, he couldn't leave her on her own.
"Is it alright?"
"Of course. Well, as long as you want to."
"O-of course I have no objection."
She was so energetic that if she were a puppy, she'd be enthusiastically wagging her tail. Liliana stood up. Her face was still overly serious, but it looked awfully happy.
When she came to Godou's table, she asked.
"But still, why would you be here, Amakasu Touma?"
"By coincidence, completely by coincidence."
While scowling at Amakasu's reply, the silver-haired knight sat down.
Godou regretted that he hadn't told her beforehand. He believed she wouldn't be careless because of Sakura, but...
"Are you acquainted with this person from abroad? And is she also acquainted with Godoh-kun?"
"Ahh, who would believe the coincidence, my friend was one of Kusanagi-san's acquaintances, too."
"Really? That's quite a surprise."
Amakasu's reply was inconsistent with Liliana's earlier statement.
However, Sakura didn't notice the contradiction. In spite of this ridiculous bargain sale of [coincidence], she was nodding. Her purity was dazzling.
"So what is her relation with Godoh-kun? I-is she his girlfriend?"
"Liliana my girlfriend? Why would you think so? We're just friends."
Sakura's question made Godou smile bitterly. "Right?", he said as he turned to Liliana.
Unlike her rival Erica, she wouldn't try to make the situation any worse.
"That is so. I am Liliana Kranjcar. I live my life with Kusanagi Godou, his knight so to speak. If you will, think of me as his lifelong companion."
Liliana's self-introduction was stern.
...the person in question probably didn't intend to, but her choice of words was ripe with potential for misunderstanding.
Should he respond by saying 'She's bad at Japanese. Sometimes she says weird stuff. Just ignore it.'? Unfortunately, her pronunciation was flawless and that excuse was holier than Swiss cheese, too, but...
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