“But I can do the same thing... I have Zero on my side...” Kazuko said, and then stopped. “...Impossible! Zero! Why... why won’t you respond?”
“He saw a miracle happen. And realized the mistake he’d made.”
“What? You’re lying!” Kazuko looked up at Akuto as she summoned the sword of light in her hand. It was the same blade she’d always used, but its light seemed to be far more feeble than before.
“There’s no use in resisting,” Akuto warned her, as he began to accelerate faster.
“Impossible! Impossible! You shouldn’t be able to do anything! You’re just a weapon! Just a disgusting war machine!” Kazuko’s gentle smile vanished, and was replaced with the expression of a beast. “Impossible! There are no miracles! Die, Demon King!” she howled.
“Repent of your misdeeds, Empress!” Akuto, now a bolt of lightning spreading terror as he passed, headed straight for Kazuko in a straight line.
Kazuko fired off her sword of light directly above her. There was a massive flash of light, but it wasn’t from the sword. Akuto was in complete control of the mana. He erased Kazuko’s sword, creating the flash of light to keep the people from seeing the cruel thing. There was a rumble and a flash of light, spreading out like a wave, but the damage was limited to its center.
The battle was over in an instant. Akuto was standing tall on the dias with, Kazuko staggering at his feet. Beneath her was a tiny crater. She’d been struck by an impact directly from above.
But Kazuko was still alive. She was dazed, and blood was pouring from her forehead, but she turned her face towards Akuto and raised a hand to attack. There was nothing left of her personality now but an impulse to destroy.
“If you retire now, you can survive,” Akuto said.
Kazuko just laughed. “...The Empress does not take orders from others.”
“Hah. I don’t think that’s a good way to live,” Akuto said coldly. He heard someone running towards the dias.
“Demon King...!” It was Lily. She shot one of her extended-arm punches at him, and Akuto was struck in the chest. There was no real damage, but he pretended to be hit so hard that he flew back. Akuto knew exactly what she was doing; if he didn’t pretend to be the Demon King here, the people would just get more confused.
“An unimpressive attack,” Akuto said.
Lily looked up at him. “Shut up... What did you do to the Empress?”
“The Empress and Zero attempted to use the power of the Demon King, and so I eliminated them. Don’t forget. The power of the Demon King belongs to no one,” Akuto said so that everyone could hear.
Lily moved around to Kazuko’s front. The Empress had been standing, motionless. “Is it true that you tried to use the power of the Demon King? That was the same thing that we rebel priests said. We said that you were trying to become a dictator using Zero’s power,” she demanded. She was trying to tell the people the truth about what had happened.
Kazuko neither confirmed nor denied this. She just laughed in a wicked voice. “If the bloodline of the Imperial family ends, nobody will be left who can use the three sacred treasures. There’ll be no one left to prove whether the sacred treasures could control Zero’s power.”
She was right. In her speech, Kazuko had only talked about “the power to communicate with the gods.” That was all the people knew about the Yasukuni-no-kagami. No one would be able to prove that she was lying; that is, if she was dead.
“Wait...” Lily reached out a hand, realizing what Kazuko intended. Akuto didn’t kill her, but now that all her plans had come to naught, she was going to take her own life to protect the story of the Empress and the Demon King.
“Get a doctor! Brave! Take the Empress to a hospital!” Lily screamed as she reached out a hand to Kazuko’s neck. But even though she was still standing, Kazuko was already dead.
“Tch...!” Lily bit her lip. The whole place was in an uproar. The people were murmuring in fear, while the priests were silently overjoyed.
Now the old world would return. The gods would rule over mankind again. It wasn’t a perfect system, but for now, it was the only one they had. But the one who’d brought it back was someone that the system considered a heretic.
When Akuto looked down below and saw what happened, he realized he couldn’t go back to being who he was in that old world. The gods needed to be destroyed, but the time hadn’t come yet. Not as long as people were living according to the best system they knew. And as long as that system functioned, he would continue to be the Demon King.
Akuto prepared himself for one final act. “Don’t forget the terror you felt today! I’ll be watching, no matter where or who you are!” he shouted, and then quickly vanished into the sky.
○
Just then, the second biggest shock in imperial history occurred.
Hiroshi came down from the sky to land next to the deceased, still-standing Empress, carrying Keena in his arms. The only ones who could officially declare the death of an Emperor or Empress were the court doctors. The body needed to be taken to them.
Hiroshi set Keena, who had Akuto’s cape wrapped around her, down, and approached the Empress. Her eyes were silent, and blood was dripping from her mouth, but suddenly, her body shook.
For a moment, his eyes went wide as he thought she’d come back to life, but he was wrong. Balls of solidified mana came out of her body. A small sword from her mouth, a small, round mirror from her chest, and a blue magatama jewel from her right arm. It was immediately obvious that these were the three sacred treasures of the imperial bloodline.
They flew up into the sky as if they had a will of their own, and then headed towards Hiroshi. “Huh? What?” Hiroshi panicked, but then they flew straight past him. And then the three of them slipped straight through Akuto’s cape and into Keena’s body.
“Huh? Huh? HUH?” Keena shouted in surprise.
“Wh-What just happened? Let me see!” Lily said as she reached out a hand try and grab the cape.
“Hey! No! I’m not wearing anything under this!”
“Shut up! This is serious! What did you... do?!” She tried to yank the cape off.
“Noooo!” Keena screamed, and Lily’s body was blown back.
“Gwah!” Lily rolled along the ground and moaned. She shook her head and sat up, only be astonished when she saw what had knocked her back. “That’s...”
Keena’s body was surrounded by the mana balls that Kazuko had used.
“That’s impossible... But then...” Lily fell silent, as did the people around her.
“Huh? Really?” Keena stuck out her right hand as if she wasn’t sure what she’d just seen. With a rumble, a sword of light appeared.
Only someone with royal blood could use the three sacred treasures. Everyone knew that. Kazuko had just said so herself. Which meant...
“E-Empress!” somebody screamed. The knights and servants who’d rushed over to help Kazuko all quickly dropped to one knee.
“Huh... Wh-What do I do?” Keena asked.
Lily stood up and walked back to Keena, then whispered in her ear. “You’re the only one who can calm things down. It will help Akuto Sai, too.”
Keena realized that there wasn’t time for hesitation. She shook her head and assumed a tense expression. “Everyone, it seems... that I have royal blood,” she began.
All the mana screens began showing Keena’s face. The color of her eyes suddenly changed, and her voice became clear and elegant, like a completely different person’s.
“I have inherited the three sacred treasures. And now I know... The last empress used the power of the mirror to revive Zero, and tried to make his power her own. The result was the battle we just saw. So I retract the words my predecessor said!”
○
“What the hell happened?”
“What’s going on? Where is Akuto?”
“We’re rebuilding the palace and the churches. We need the Empress’s approval.”
“Wow, this is getting inte
resting. The new empress didn’t even know she had royal blood? And she was an orphan, too? Exciting!”
“Everybody stop talking at once!” Keena screamed.
Junko, Fujiko, Lily, and Yoshie were all talking to her at once. After her declaration, Keena had convinced her new servants to let her borrow a room in a nearby building so she could change clothes.
“First, we need to hear what happened,” Junko said.
Keena nodded. “I said this a little before, but I went flying.”
“Flying? Oh, you mean when you disappeared from the girls’ dorm. What about it?”
“I went flying.”
“We know that. You flew off. How did you meet Akuto?”
“No. I went to get him,” Keena said. Nobody said a word.
“Huh?”
“To the moon.”
“You went to get him? To the moon?”
“Yup. I flew, and... I felt like I had to go there... So I was able to fly.”
“Through space?”
“Yes.”
“Naked?”
“Yes. Nobody was there, so I didn’t need to disappear.”
“That’s not what I meant!”
“No, but... I was able to fly,” Keena said, but nobody could believe her.
But that didn’t change things. Akuto was back.
“No, it’s possible that the Akuto we saw was an illusion. Where did he go, anyway?” Lily asked.
Keena looked gloomy. “He said that since he was going to defeat the Empress, he couldn’t show his face in public anymore.”
Junko looked sad too. “Then he’s...”
“He was willing to do it. He said when it was over, he was going to go to the moon.”
“That’s...” Junko paused. “...Not what I want.”
“Yeah. Of course. So it’s perfect that I was able to become the Empress.”
“Perfect?”
“Let’s bring Akuto back to school!” Keena said. It wasn’t going to be that easy, but nobody could tell her no.
“Is it okay to do that...?”
“No. But we need him back.”
“I guess it’s not as selfish as what the last Empress tried to do. But things are going to get complicated now. There were too many victims,” Lily said as she opened the door.
○
The moon. Zero was sleeping peacefully in the lunar city. He’d chosen of his own will to hibernate. Before he went to sleep, he stared at the lunar waste. It was the first time the rocky, empty plains had seemed beautiful to him.
After days of fighting Akuto, when he’d gotten tired of counting how many times they’d punched each other, she’d come. Light had descended on the lunar waste, and red hair and white skin followed.
“There is a truth I have as a human,” the Demon King said.
No, it wasn’t Akuto the human who said that. A living human had flown, by herself, through space. No, if it was possible for her, perhaps she wasn’t human at all, but for now, that didn’t matter.
What had come down to the lunar surface was a truth beyond the truth of living things. It was something great and powerful.
“Is that the miracle you spoke of?”
“It’s a miracle. If it’s not a miracle, what is it?”
“Is that the story you spoke of?”
“Yes. A huge, foolish story, that erases stories themselves.”
And with that, the two of them stopped fighting. In the face of such a reality, it felt stupid to fight. Zero and Akuto shook hands. Even in the airless void, they could talk now without having to strike one another.
“So you’re saying that’s... love.”
“Yes. It’s something huge, and something great. And it loves humanity. That’s the kind of story it is. It’s foolish, but if you don’t believe in it, there are countless tiny, incorrect stories that will hurt mankind.”
“Does it even love someone like me?”
“That’s right. There are some who fall from its hands of loving grace, like grains of rice falling from a bowl, but in the moment you’re born, you are surely loved,” Akuto said.
Zero nodded. “Go home. It’s come for you, right? You must go with it.”
“And you?”
“I will sleep. I will let you control humanity instead of me.”
“That’s your job. Do you not care about it anymore?”
“I won’t say that every part of what I did was meaningless, but I realize that what I did was wrong. My attempting to control humanity will amplify those mistakes. I’ve made the logical decision.”
“Then there’s no need to sleep. You can stay awake.”
“I don’t want the Empress to use me. She makes too many mistakes.”
“I don’t want that either.”
“What I’m trying to say is that I’m tired of dealing with humanity.”
Akuto knew that Zero’s words were a joke. He laughed. “Alright. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye. You and I are similar. If you ever find yourself without a home, come back here.” He gripped Akuto’s hand tighter. And then he started to walk back to his tower.
But a moment later, he stopped, and seemed to say something. Akuto couldn’t hear what it was, but he knew it without hearing.
“My friend.”
6 - The Two Who Came Back
A fancy black limousine was parked in front of Constant Magical Academy. A flying limousine was a car for the elite, and of course, was out of place at the school.
The door of the limousine opened and servants in black suits came out. They hurried over to the front desk, and asked what could only be considered a ridiculous question.
“Is the Empress here? She took off her clothes and flew out of the car!” There was a dress in one of the servant’s hands.
The woman at the front desk calmly searched the day’s attendance lists, and said, “I’m afraid she’s not.”
“Can we go inside and look?”
“I’m afraid it’s against the rules.”
It was the same conversation they’d had many times before.
“Is her observer Liradan here yet?”
“I’m told they’ll be arriving in a few days. Once they do, you’ll have nothing to worry about, right?”
“I hope so... But the new Empress is just too-free spirited... She disappears, you know! And stark-naked, too... That’s not... not what empresses are supposed to do,” the servant said, and the woman at the front desk began to laugh.
“She’s always been a problem child.... No, I suppose it’s rude to say that about the Empress. And our biggest problem child is someone else...”
○
The second-biggest problem child was on the roof.
“Thank you,” she said as she took her uniform and student notebook. She put on her clothes and then appeared.
“Whew... We don’t even have a palace yet and they still want to control everything I do,” Keena sighed.
Junko, the girl she’d called to the roof, sighed too. “It’s a lot more confining to suddenly have to leave class to bring you clothes all the time.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll still get credit. I’ll use my imperial powers to make sure of it!” Keena puffed out her chest.
“That’s not the problem!” Junko waved a hand.
Keena had been empress for a while now. Constant Magical Academy was back, and the other systems were being rebuilt as well, along with the areas that had been destroyed in the battles. The media had initially been fascinated by the new empress, but when the truth about just how free-spirited she was hit them, they began to self-censor.
“So, what are you doing here today?” Junko said, a hand on her hip.
“I’m still a student here, you know!” Keena pouted.
“Yeah, but you’ve been absent for a while.”
“Yeah. I was testing to see if I could use the three sacred treasures.” Keena said, and nodded. “And so,” she said to Junko with a smile.
“So what? That grin is cre
epy,” Junko replied. “And there’s no way a test of the three secret treasures isn’t top-secret information. You shouldn’t go around telling people...”
Keena didn’t stop grinning. She cut Junko off and shouted in a loud voice, “It turns out I can control Ackie’s power!”
“Huh? What did you say?”
“I can make it so Ackie’s not the Demon King anymore! If I say so, he loses his power!”
“I-Is that true?”
“It’s true! So he can come back to school!” Keena raised both hands, and spoke as if calling out to someone far away.
“Well done, Keena!” Junko gave her a big hug.
○
That night, Keena brought everyone up to the roof of the girls dorm.
“So, where has Akuto been all this time?” Fujiko said enthusiastically.
“He said he was in the forest reading books the whole time. He can peek at lots of different things about the world, so he probably wasn’t bored,” Keena said.
“That sounds just like him. Where’s the Student Council President, by the way?” Junko asked.
“She’s not coming, she says. She thought she was going to be the one to defeat the last empress, so I guess she doesn’t like Akuto now.”
“There’s no point in trying to compete with him...” Junko chuckled.
“I’m not even a student, and I’m here.” Yoshie shrugged.
Suddenly, Keena pointed up at the sky. “He’s here!”
Everyone looked up and spread their hands. Akuto was slowly floating down. When he landed, Keena took out the cape he’d given her and threw it over him, and gave him a big hug while she was at it.
“Hey, I haven’t even said hello yet!” Junko shouted, but Keena wasn’t listening. She’d already buried her head in Akuto’s chest.
“Hey, that’s not fair! Me too!” Fujiko leapt at Akuto too. He was knocked over and almost fell off the roof.
“I-I need to say hello first. Get off me, guys,” Akuto said. He pulled the two of them off, stood up, and then scratched his head. “I’m back, everyone. I’m home.”
“Welcome home!” They all said. Keena and Fujiko leapt on him again.
Yoshie watched with a grin, and then gave Junko a poke in the ribs. “Hey, you’re not going to join in? You need to be more honest about how you feel.”
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 9 Page 12