“Do it anyway. With a name like that, it has to be related to that Demon Sanctuary wrecking crew, right? Why does he always do stupid, dangerous things without so much as a word to me? It pisses me off!”
Asagi sighed, irritated. This was Kojou and Yukina, so there was no doubt in her mind they’d been wrapped up in the Great Pile incident the night before.
“Tell Kojou to wait a bit; I’ll look into it. I’m visiting Motoki’s place right now, and when he has time, he should come, too.”
“Sure thing.”
Asagi ignored Mogwai’s laughing reply and stuffed the smartphone into her uniform’s pocket. Yaze’s boarding house had just come into view.
It was a small, two-story apartment building constructed of wood, a rarity on Itogami Island. A large nuclear family lived on the first floor, and Yaze lived in a room he was renting on the second floor.
A female student wearing a Saikai Academy uniform was standing in front of the apartment building’s steps. When Asagi noticed that, her feet came to a halt.
“That person… I’m pretty sure that’s…” Asagi knit her brows. “Hmm.”
The girl wore glasses and gave off a rather plain air. Asagi had never spoken directly to her but did remember having seen her. It had to be the third-year senior who had begun dating Yaze as a result of his passionate onslaught several months prior.
That senior was standing still in front of the steps, staring at Yaze’s apartment with a neutral expression.
In front of her chest, the girl was hugging a basket filled with fruits. It was the sort of extravagant fruit basket one took when visiting someone who was sick.
“Um…if you’re looking for Motoki’s room, it’s on the second floor, number three.”
Asagi tried addressing the bespectacled girl from behind. She imagined the girl was in a bind from not actually knowing where Yaze’s room was. However, when she looked at Asagi, her eyes seem to waver in fear; she broke into a run as she tried to make her escape. That made Asagi the nervous one.
“Ah, wait… Wait, please! Er… You’re Yaze’s senior, aren’t you?”
Maybe Asagi had gotten through to her, for the girl trying to run away stopped in place. Then she looked at Asagi with an extremely worried look. She had the face of a fainthearted heroine in a romance manga, particularly in a scene where she’d just stumbled upon her boyfriend flirting with another girl.
“Ah, you have it all wrong! I’m just a classmate of Motoki’s, just a childhood friend here to see how he’s doing. If I’m in the way, I can go home right now!”
Asagi explained rapid-fire to the senior-class girl who was trembling like a small animal. She wouldn’t be able to stand it if she got involved in something troublesome because of some kind of weird misunderstanding.
“Um, there’s really nothing going on between Motoki and me. I have a boyfriend of my— Well, not quite, but anyway, someone like that.”
“……”
The bespectacled girl looked back in silence as Asagi continued her earnest explanation. Then, she held out the fruit basket she was clutching to her breast in front of Asagi. Acting on reflex, Asagi took it without a thought.
“Ah…!”
While Asagi was distracted by the fruit, the girl broke off into a run once more. The scene was over in a second; there was no time to stop her. All Asagi could do was stand in a daze as she watched the girl go, receding in the distance.
“Awww. She totally misunderstood, didn’t she?” Mogwai laughed with a muffled voice.
“Hey, hold on a…! I’m not at fault here!”
Asagi, standing there completely at a loss, finally sighed deeply.
4
An old basketball, abandoned and forgotten, gently traced an arc before dropping into the rusted hoop.
In a corner of a seemingly deserted public park, Kojou was practicing free throws over and over in silence. Immersing himself in free throws when hitting some kind of impasse was a trait of Kojou’s, a basketball player since elementary school. Even when he became the so-called World’s Mightiest Vampire, that hadn’t changed.
It was about an hour since he’d devoured the breakfast Kanon had made and had departed from Natsuki’s place. At the moment, Kojou and Yukina were waiting for Asagi to reply to the message he’d sent. They couldn’t think of anyone they could rely on to look into the Roses of Tartarus besides Asagi.
“It’s like there’s a…bad whiff in the air. Like calm before a panic breaks out or bloodlust floatin’ around.”
Finally putting his free throws to rest, Kojou murmured as he washed his sweaty face at a water fountain.
Maybe he was just imagining it, but he saw very few people walking around. Thanks to that, seeing only patrol cars, police vans, and Island Guard armored cars really stood out.
On the other hand, the supermarkets and convenience stores continued normal operations, but somehow, the imbalance seemed eerie. It felt like people stubbornly insisting on living their normal lives was actually pushing society to the brink.
“The fault is mine…,” Yukina weakly replied as she tendered a towel in front of Kojou.
Her abrupt words made him feel a little constrained. He wondered if the flow of water had caused him to mishear her.
“Huh?”
“If I had only protected the Great Pile, this would not be…”
“No, no, no… Why you gotta talk like that? Protecting the warehouses wasn’t your job, Himeragi.”
“I am a Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency, and yet…”
Yukina was deeply dejected. Kojou had thought that she’d said very few words since the night before; apparently, her fretting about this was the reason why.
From what he’d heard, the main mission of the Lion King Agency was to stop large-scale sorcerous disasters and sorcerous terrorism. It was because the Fourth Primogenitor was a viewed as a danger on par with international terrorist organizations and large-scale natural disasters that Yukina had been dispatched to observe Kojou.
Seeing Yukina like that, not having been able to stop the Great Pile from being blown up had been a far more shocking ordeal to her than Kojou had thought. But…
“Apprentice Sword Shaman, right?”
Kojou corrected her as he grasped both of Yukina’s cheeks. He proceeded to pull both outward, forcing her face into a smile.
“Um… Senpai…?”
A perplexed look came over Yukina, but she left Kojou’s hands where they were.
Even surprised like this, Yukina was indeed a pretty girl. At the very least, Kojou thought this was better than seeing her brood over things all by herself.
“A while back, I told you about me getting beat in a basketball match, right?”
“Yes…”
Kojou’s abrupt murmur made Yukina nod with a meek look.
Determined to win the match on his own, he’d caused misfortune for teammate and opponent alike. The feeling Yukina harbored that moment greatly resembled Kojou’s gloom from back then.
“I thought about that when December’s Beast Vassal took me over.”
“Eh…?”
“Even after Natsuki told me to butt out, I got a big head from being called this World’s Mightiest Vampire and thought I could save the island all by myself. And look at us now.”
“But…that’s…”
…not your responsibility alone, Yukina was going to say, but she swallowed her words.
There had been nothing Kojou could have done at the time; the same went for Yukina. Even if they’d had a way to know about December’s ability beforehand, they had no way to stop the sniping or the explosion.
Even with the power of the Fourth Primogenitor, Kojou himself was nothing more than a mere high schooler. And Yukina was Kojou’s watcher. Getting a leg up on a wrecking crew that even the Island Guard couldn’t stop had been an absurdity from the start.
Yukina’s face softened. She’d no doubt finally realized it for herself.
“Senpai…but�
�”
“Yeah, I get it. I don’t know about this Demon Sanctuary wrecking crew thing, but if we used our powers however we wanted, we’d end up the same as Tartarus Lapse.”
Kojou said that as he let go of Yukina’s cheeks. Shifting his gaze toward the black smoke plume rising from the warehouse district, Kojou pressed his right fist against his left palm.
Somewhere in his heart, Kojou’s pride had dictated that he could stop Tartarus Lapse. Yukina was motivated by her sense of duty as a Sword Shaman. Still, it hadn’t been enough.
December had a power that let her control even the Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor. She and her people had hurt Natsuki right before Kojou’s and Yukina’s eyes. From that point on, it was no longer a war between Tartarus Lapse and Itogami Island.
December and her comrades had picked a personal fight with Kojou and Yukina. Thus, they had to stop Tartarus Lapse. The two now had a reason to go and stop them.
“Gotta do unto others as they do unto you, right?”
“Yes!”
Yukina nodded with a powerful glint in her eyes. She looked like a loyal puppy staring at her owner.
Seeing Yukina dead serious with that easy-to-read expression brought a small, wry smile over Kojou.
“—All that said, the problem is December’s Beast Vassal. What the hell is that power anyway…?”
With a bitter look, Kojou recalled the silhouette of the Beast Vassal that December had summoned the night before.
They’d thought that Takehito Senga’s feng shui was the greatest menace Tartarus Lapse posed, but they’d been wrong. The sniper named Carly and the homunculus controlling pyrokinesis were plenty dangerous opponents by themselves; however, to Kojou, the truly difficult foe was none other than December’s Beast Vassal.
A Beast Vassal that could control other Beast Vassals; in one sense, that made it the mightiest servant of all.
Above all else, she could control even the Beast Vassals of Kojou, the Fourth Primogenitor. If he didn’t do something about that, he’d have no chance of beating her no matter how many times they fought. However…
“—I have a…hunch about just what that Beast Vassal is… And also, a way to defend against Miss December’s attack.”
For some reason, Yukina appeared melancholy, but she spoke crisply nonetheless.
Kojou looked at Yukina in surprise. “You do?”
“Yes. But it is already proven that Snowdrift Wolf can cancel her mind control. Knowing this, I must wonder if Miss December will politely engage you in frontal combat again, senpai…”
“That so…? I suppose you’re right…”
December’s objective was the destruction of Itogami Island. She had no reason to go out of her way to fight Kojou.
“But if that’s true, that means she has a way to destroy Itogami Island without using my Beast Vassals?”
“Eh? Ah yes… It would mean that, wouldn’t it…?”
Seemingly caught off guard, Yukina sank into thought.
Each of the Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassals possessed enough destructive power to burn away a city or two with ease. If December wanted to control another’s Beast Vassals and use them to destroy Itogami Island, the quickest and surest way was to control Kojou’s. And yet, she had made no real effort to use Kojou in that fashion to date.
“Meaning that they have some other way they can destroy the island?”
“I do not know,” said Yukina, shaking her head. “The Lion King Agency is supposedly reinvestigating the case of the Iroise Demon Sanctuary’s destruction, but it seems that there are few records remaining…”
“I’ve gotta say, Himeragi, it’s hard to tell if that organization of yours is reliable…”
“I suppose you have a point…”
Yukina clearly felt responsible and lowered her face.
This is rough, Kojou thought, letting out a sigh as he said, “So the only lead we’ve got left is that phrase, Roses of Tartarus…”
At almost the same time Kojou said that, his cell phone vibrated. A text had just arrived.
“Is it from Aiba?” Yukina asked, her expression tinged with anticipation.
However, when Kojou gazed at the brief message on the screen, he shrugged at her.
“Yeah, she says she’s trying to look into the Roses, but it’s gonna take a while. Also, she wants us to come along while she goes and visits Yaze’s place.”
“Is Yaze’s father—?”
“They still haven’t said anything on the news. For now, let’s go and see, I guess?”
“Yes.”
Seeing Yukina nod, Kojou shifted his gaze in the direction of the station.
That instant, when the corner of his gaze caught sight of a strange silhouette, Kojou’s breath caught, and he adopted a guarded stance.
A small-statured teenage boy with an androgynous figure had suddenly appeared, seemingly melting out of midair.
Just like Astarte, his hair was indigo, a color impossible in the natural world. This demonstrated that he was a homunculus—a product of alchemy and genetic manipulation.
“Sorry, Fourth Primogenitor, but I need you to come with us first.”
His voice had not cracked yet, sounding like a clear, boyish soprano. All around him were shimmers that wavered in the air. He’d used refraction from differences in air temperature to conceal all sight of him.
“You’re…the guy who blew up the warehouse district yesterday…!”
“Logi is fine, Kojou Akatsuki. Our teacher…Takehito Senga, would like a word with both of you.”
The pyrokinetic homunculus made the statement to Kojou in a nearly monotone voice.
“What’s there to talk about—?”
Kojou’s face twisted in anger.
There was no reason to respond to the request for dialogue. If they needed info on Tartarus Lapse, they could just capture the boy calling himself Logi and ask him. Kojou took a step forward to narrow the distance when—
“Senpai, don’t!”
It was Yukina who stopped Kojou.
Logi breathed out a huu, unmoved as he slowly surveyed the people walking to and fro in the surrounding area. Even if there was less foot traffic than usual, they were still close to a station. There were certainly pedestrians to be seen.
“I think you understand already, but our sniper is aiming at you. It would be good if stray rounds do not strike innocent people…,” Logi announced. Though his voice was calm and composed, his suggestion was pure extortion.
“Why you…!”
“I understand how you feel, Fourth Primogenitor, but if you prefer we kill each other, we can do that after we talk, yes?”
Logi’s expression did not shift. Kojou audibly gritted his teeth.
“Where do we need to go?” he asked, trying to restrain his emotions.
Logi turned his back toward Kojou and Yukina. He proceeded to walk forward, defenseless.
“You’ll find out soon enough. It is rather humble, so do not expect much for hospitality.”
“I won’t,” Kojou spit under his breath.
5
The building had been quietly constructed in a back alley of Island West. The billboard was stamped with a cartoonish paw print. Senga Pet Clinic—that was the building’s name.
“…An animal hospital?”
Kojou and Yukina, led there by Logi, looked up at the billboard, their feet halting in visible confusion.
It was a very normal veterinary hospital building. The compact building was all pastel colors, and a variety of cute animals made with colored paper were plastered over the window.
“You don’t seriously mean that Takehito Senga is here…?”
“Yes. This is Tartarus Lapse’s safe house.”
Logi replied to Kojou’s half-incredulous question. Written on the entrance was a sign reading NO EXAMINATIONS TODAY. Without reserve, Logi opened the door and made his way inside.
Though Kojou and Yukina were hesitant, they reluctantly followe
d him.
The atmosphere in the hospital’s waiting room was exactly that of any other animal hospital.
“To think they were lurking in the middle of the city like this…”
Unbelievable, seemed the tone of the murmur Yukina let slip.
A slight whiff of pride wafted around Logi as he looked back and said, “At a hospital, unfamiliar people entering and leaving garners no suspicion, and it’s an easy place to gather dangerous chemicals. It has a fair number of social uses, too. Convenient, isn’t it?”
“Should you really be bringing us to a place like this?”
Kojou voiced the simple doubt that came to mind. Logi made what looked like a casual shrug.
“Teacher decided, so there.”
“Teacher?”
I see, Kojou thought. If he’s a veterinarian who supervises younger vets, calling him Teacher wouldn’t be too strange.
Logi went to the examination room in the back of the building, beckoning Kojou and Yukina to follow.
The cutesy, handwritten logos and posters covering the hospital’s interior lent a child-friendly air, making Kojou feel really stupid for being on guard, wondering if it was all a trap.
When Kojou and Yukina arrived at the examination room, a middle-aged man sitting in a plain office chair greeted them. The gray jacket he wore and his long hair made him look like the sensitive artist type.
Noticing the pair had entered the room, the man’s eyes narrowed in delight. His face was alive with curiosity, like a man appraising the pupils of an acquaintance.
“Fourth Primogenitor and Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency, yes? I thank you for having come all this way.”
The man spoke in a quiet voice. His demeanor, with no ill will evident, threw Kojou off a little.
“You’re…Takehito Senga?”
“That’s right.”
“The one who used feng shui to blockade Itogami Island…”
“Well, you could say that is my job.” Senga replied to Kojou’s rude questioning in an aloof manner without any hint of irritation.
A light-pink curtain right behind Senga swayed. Poking her head out from it was a girl wearing a rather thick, puffy coat. She had a cute, refined face, but there was a foul, emotionless look in her eyes. There was a long scarf wrapped around her neck. She seemed to be around the same age as Logi—mid-teens, thereabout.
The Roses of Tartarus Page 12