Demon King Daimaou: Volume 6

by Shoutarou Mizuki

  “O-Okay, it’s done.”

  “W-Wait. If I touch it, it might mix up the image imprinted on it, right?” Akuto stepped back to avoid touching the vial.

  “N-No, just try not to imagine anything.”

  “It doesn’t work that way. And this is a practice class, so you need to do it yourself.”

  Akuto was a very serious, and completely uncompromising person. Any other person would’ve picked up that Junko didn’t want to touch the frog, but taking the hint wasn’t something Akuto was good at. And to make matters worse, Junko’s stubbornness meant there was no way she’d admit that she didn’t want to get anywhere near that frog.

  “Y-You’re right. I know that. Of course I do.” Junko froze.

  “What’s wrong? Hurry up!” Keina said. She was such a naive girl that she didn’t realize what was going on at all. She’d looked around and seen all the other teams change the colors of their frogs’ skin, and couldn’t wait to see it happen with her own group.

  “Yeah. I know. I know. Okay, here I go. Here I go!” Junko put her hand on the lid of the case. “I’m taking the lid off!”

  “You don’t need to give us a play-by-play, okay?” Keina said, but Junko was too distracted to listen.

  “Once I open the case, I’ll pour the drug onto the frog, and then it will be absorbed throughout its body.”

  She poured the drug in with trembling fingers. But her hand was far above the frog; it was 30 centimeters above the case. The frog was less than 10cm in size, so of course, she missed.

  You might’ve thought that Akuto would’ve figured out that Junko didn’t like frogs by now, but...

  “It’s such a simple exercise that she’s deliberately trying to make it difficult for herself,” he said to himself, and completely convinced himself of his own explanation.

  That wasn’t the case for Keina, however.

  “Just do it quick! Like this!”

  Keina grabbed Junko’s hand and pushed it towards the frog. The case shook, and the startled frog did a cute little hop. And then, it grabbed onto Junko’s fingers where she was holding the vial.

  “Nooooo!” Junko leapt up and screamed. She dropped the vial into the case and flung her hand around wildly, but the frog wouldn’t come off.

  “N-N-NOOOO!” Junko lifted her hand up into the air and flailed it around.

  “Oh, I see. Hattori doesn’t like frogs...”

  Akuto finally realized what was going on here. Once he’d finally picked up on it, he acted fast. He grabbed her arm and tried to remove the amphibian. But, even after he started to hold her arm, she wouldn’t stay put.

  When she finally did come to a stop, though, the frog took this chance to jump away from her finger, and into the sky.

  And what goes up must come down, of course.

  The frog landed on her neck and slid inside her shirt, leaving a slimy trail behind it.

  “Aaah! Aaaah! It’s so slimy!” Junko began to twist her body back and forth violently. Akuto grabbed her and held her down.

  “Calm down. It’s not a dangerous frog.”

  “Th-That’s not the problem... Aaah! I-It’s coming inside!” Junko began struggle in Akuto’s arms, her face turning red.

  “H-Hey, stay still.”

  Akuto couldn’t grab her tightly, or he might squish the frog. And he couldn’t pat her down to try and figure out where it was.

  “Where’s the frog?”

  “M-My back! My back...!”

  As she fidgeted, Junko turned her body so that he could see her back. He could just make out a green outline under her shirt.

  “I can’t put my hand in there... I know. I can use that motion I practiced last time in this class...” Akuto looked towards Keina. She nodded as if she understood what he meant.

  “Leave it to me! That precision motion we practiced last time, right?”

  Last time, Keina had controlled Akuto’s mana, enabling him to pile up blocks the size of grains of sand. If they did it again, they could easily remove the frog from Junko’s shirt.

  Keina touched Akuto’s hand.

  “I’ll start controlling your mana...!” she said, and Akuto began to go to work.

  But this task involved both of them. If they were trying to do different things, there was no way it could work. And, in this case, Keina had completely misunderstood him. And Akuto couldn’t stop her.

  “This’ll fix it!” Keina shouted, and in an instant, all of Junko’s clothes flew up into the air.

  It was an amazing display of undressing, almost like a magic trick. Buttons and hooks were undone without damaging the clothes, zippers were lowered, and even the waistband of the underwear was stretched out, enabling it to fall freely to the floor.

  “Aaah! Aaaaah!” Junko screamed again, though this scream was for an entirely different reason.

  Her classmates began to murmur among themselves as her naked body was put on full display.

  “Why now, in the middle of an ordinary class?”

  “’Cause he’s the Demon King! He’ll take your clothes for no reason at all!”

  Akuto quickly took off his jacket to help shield her from the boys’ curious eyes.

  “Aah, W-Wait...”

  When Akuto tried to put the jacket on her, it got caught on one of the unused vials on the table.

  “Aaah!” Junko had dropped below the table to conceal herself, so the bottle rolled loudly across the table before falling right on top of Junko’s head.

  “Oops...”

  “Aaah!” Junko screamed a little as the cold liquid splashed on her.

  But the real shock came a moment later.

  Akuto had already put his magic into the drug. Junko’s white skin began to turn gold.

  “It’s a gold dust show!”

  The student were whispering to themselves. And not just the boys, but the girls, too.

  “It’s some kind of kinky exhibitionism thing!”

  “It’s so evil, it’s honestly kind of impressive...”

  “Is this some new way for him to get his kicks?”

  Everyone was staring at the golden Junko as they whispered.

  “H-How humiliating...” Junko wrapped her arms around her body and wept.

  Akuto finally succeeded in putting his jacket on her, but all that did was make her mad.

  “Y-You dummy!”

  Junko slammed a golden punch into his stomach.

  ○

  “But why am I being punished, too? This isn’t fair...” Junko sighed.

  “I’m sorry. I’ll do most of the work,” Akuto said, as apologetic as possible.

  “But taking off her clothes was the best way to get rid of the frog!” Keina laughed.

  The three of them were heading for the old library. They’d been ordered to clean it and organize the books as punishment for the trouble they’d caused in class.

  The old library held books made from paper. Books written before the advent of digitization were stored here to be turned into data. Once the process was complete, instead of being destroyed, they were kept here where they were forbidden from the public. They numbered 20,000, not counting the smaller pamphlets and other items.

  “Some of the books there are pretty recent, right? I heard that’s what we’ll be working on,” Junko said, trying to change the subject. Keina recited the documents she’d read from memory.

  “There are still a few people who like owning physical books. And a few of the books they own are sent here. Some are digitized, and some aren’t. In most cases, if they aren’t it’s because the author refused to give permission for them to be digitalized. For this reason, most paper books made in recent years aren’t converted to digital, so they’re just piled up here.”

  “And that’s why they need to be cleaned and organized?”

  “Correct. Right now, we’re librarians.” Keina seemed happy. She was probably really excited to get to touch a physical book.

  “I’ve heard that people who like books end up ob
sessing over paper books,” Akuto muttered, and Keina nodded happily.

  “That’s right! I’ve never touched a real one, but it still feels really exciting to me! Like it’s a real real thing!”

  “A real real thing, huh?

  “The only person I know who cares about real books these days is Fujiko Eto, but it’s true that something you can actually touch does feel more real. What we’re reading is just letters, though, so in either case it’s the same information.”

  —The information we take in can never take physical form. But can the information the gods possessed be rebuilt into a real person?

  The thought suddenly crossed Akuto’s mind. He remembered what Boichiro had said during the war. As long as you had the Law of Identity, information could take physical form.

  —What kind of world is it that we really live in? I guess it’s something you’ll never be able to tell from the inside.

  And what was more, the Law of Identity was evidently Keena. Or, more precisely, some kind of will or mind that would suddenly awaken within her.

  “Why is it that we’re reluctant to trust digital information? Is originality all that matters to us?” Akuto said to himself, but Junko looked confused.

  “Sometimes I don’t understand what you’re saying. No, I guess ‘often’ is a better word.”

  But Keina picked up on a word he’d said.

  “That’s right! Originality! That’s what I want! Even if I don’t have any memories, if I read a ton of books, I can eventually become me!”

  Keina laughed innocently, but when Akuto heard her say it, for some reason he felt something akin to sadness.

  ○

  At the same time, Fujiko had been summoned by Korone.

  “It’s not often the two of us are together,” Fujiko said. She had snuck them into a classroom where students never came, since apparently Korone had wanted to be alone.

  “Correct. If I attempt to be involved with you, I’m likely to discover all kinds of terrible secrets. I decided that I’d rather not increase my workload,” Korone said flatly.

  Of course, Fujiko didn’t look happy.

  “You’re on the government’s side, of course. But you didn’t call me out here just to provoke me? Something big must be happening if you’re not watching Akuto when he’s acting irregularly.”

  “Yes. I would like to propose an exchange of information.”

  “Regarding Keina Doronz, yes?”

  Korone nodded.

  “Indeed. You were playing around during that date, but I’m sure you collected a sizable amount of information.”

  “Of course. But I’m afraid that I didn’t learn much of anything.”

  “Nor did I. And so I’d like to attempt the one method that is impossible unless we work together.”

  “In other words, what you want is the information the Black Mages have. The non-official logs of humanity’s actions.”

  “Yes. I will use it to enhance the precision of my own information.”

  “You’re trying to cross-reference the logs of every citizen in the empire and see what changed after the war, aren’t you? That’s a pretty ambitious project.” Fujiko grinned.

  “Correct. If you’re already aware of my plans, we can skip the explanation,” Korone said.

  After the war, any memories that were inconvenient to Akuto had disappeared from someone’s minds. Someone had erased them. If Keina Doronz’s appearance was somehow involved...

  “I’ll be happy to help, if there’s something in it for me,” Fujiko said, still grinning.

  “I thought you’d say that. Here.” Korone offered her a bag of ningyo-yaki.

  “I don’t want that!” Fujiko tried to knock it away, but Korone deftly dodged her hand.

  “Well, I knew you’d say that. What I’m really offering you is immunity for the crimes you committed when you cultivated Akuto Sai’s cells.”

  Fujiko’s eyes went wide.

  “I see. You’re the only one who could use the government to go after me. Now that the logs have all been altered after the war, that is.”

  She thought a little, and nodded. “I understand. Very well. I’ll give you limited access permissions for the data you seek.”

  Fujiko opened up her student notebook and called up an address and password on a mana screen. The Black Mages still hadn’t completely unlocked their own magic. They’d nibbled out their own areas of control in the gods’ memories, and saved their life logs there. They exchanged the passwords to them with primitive codes.

  Korone’s eyes began to flash.

  “I’ve analyzed the information. I’ll add in the data possessed by the Black Mages to the calculations I’ve done so far. This will improve my precision from 90% to 97%,” Korone said. The glow faded from her eyes, and then she nodded. “I’ve done it.”

  “What did you find?”

  “Until now, it’s only been a hypothesis, but now it’s almost certain. Keina Doronz is a human created from a data warp by the Law of Identity.”

  ○

  “Wow!” Keina’s eyes gleamed as she craned her head left and right.

  The huge building was filled with bookshelves far bigger than a man, spaced out evenly in rows like a futuristic city from an old sci-fi movie.

  “I’m afraid we’ll be doing our work over there,” Junko said as she pointed towards a counter at the entrance. There were piles of randomly stacked books, at least a few hundred of them. There was a wheeled cart next to them, which had books on it as well. Someone had brought it over and left it there.

  “The poor books...” Keina went over to the cart and picked up the books that had fallen off its side and placed them on the counter.

  “It’s a little hard for me to understand why you’d feel that way, but it’s not good to mistreat your possessions,” Akuto said, and he started to help Keina.

  But Keina didn’t seem to like what Akuto had said.

  “You don’t understand why I’d feel bad for the books?”

  “No, I mean books aren’t special. You have to take good care of your tools, of course.”

  “That’s not right! Books are special...” Keina flailed her arms in passionate disagreement, but she couldn’t think of what to say next.

  “I can understand why book lovers might think that. I’m sorry. I’m just not like that. Maybe I just don’t like the idea of getting too obsessed with a story. It feels too much like the way people get obsessed with belief in the gods, when they’re just a system.”

  Keina puffed our her cheeks.

  “Don’t try to make this difficult! Fine! If you don’t like books, then fine!”

  “I’m sorry. I’ll try my best to like them.”

  Akuto picked up one of the books. The only books printed these days had elaborate covers and bindings. The one he’d carelessly picked up was well-made, with a dyed red leather cover. He flipped through it, and the sound of the paper echoed throughout the room.

  —This feels pretty good, actually. Doronz probably became obsessed with books before even knowing what this felt like, though.

  Suddenly, someone bopped him on the head from behind.

  “No reading when you should be organizing. You should know better.” Junko was holding the book she’d whacked him with right in front of her.

  “Right. We’d never get done.” Akuto chuckled. He looked over at Keina, who was already absorbed in a large tome she’d opened and put in her lap.

  “Let’s just leave her.” Akuto grinned at Junko. Junko shrugged her shoulders in an exaggerated way and grinned back.

  “You’d better do a lot of work.”

  “I know.”

  Akuto went around the counter and checked the scanner. The manual on the screen said that it could scan the insides of a book placed on it and automatically digitize them.

  “So we put them through the scanner one at a time so they can be ready, huh?”

  “The digital versions will display organizer codes, which will tell us
which bookshelves they go on. It’s a simple job. The heavy labor is moving things to the shelves, though.” Junko smiled at Akuto.

  “I’ll do that part.” Akuto went out from behind the counter and switched places with Junko.

  ○

  “A human created from a data warp by the Law of Identity?”

  “Correct. It’s unbelievable, but the Law of Identity has the power to do it.”

  Fujiko and Korone were headed for the old library.

  “Then the Law of Identity can give birth to a new world?”

  “Probably, yes. But it doesn’t seem to have the power to change everything about our own.”

  “So we’re in an extremely unstable position, then.”

  “There’s no need to be so pessimistic. Humans have consciousness and free will. In this world, unless you physically take their life, you cannot erase someone’s existence.”

  “Then what meaning is there in the existence of a human being created from a data warp by the Law of Identity? What problem occurs if she exists?”

  “She was probably created to fix the data warp. Her existence itself isn’t a problem.”

  “Then why did you say we need to hurry to the old library?”

  “Because there’s a possibility a data alteration will take place, in order to truly fix the warp.”

  “And how will that be done?”

  “By completing ‘a story that could have existed’ in virtual phase space.”

  Fujiko’s mouth fell open.

  “What? What does that mean?”

  “The world was changed in order to conceal the actions of Akuto Sai. The data warp that was created when that happened has taken human form. In other words, when she is satisfied, the warp will disappear.”

  “When Keina Doronz is satisfied?”

  “It seems I don’t have time to explain.” Korone looked off into the distance.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m detecting a mana fluctuation. The Law of Identity will shortly make contact with the data warp, and attempt to repair it. I’m going on ahead.” Korone drew a teleportation circle in mid-air, and then leapt inside it.

  “W-Wait!” Fujiko stretched out a hand, but Korone had already gone inside, saying “Catch up later, please. I don’t think you’ll be able to affect the outcome, however.”