2 - Who’s That Girl?

Akuto had a bad feeling. No, it was less a feeling and more a prediction. And of course, his prediction was correct.

As he was relaxing in his dorm at night, he saw one injured person after another being brought to the cafeteria. Evidently the nurse’s office was empty except for a single nurse at night, and she couldn’t handle the sudden influx of injuries.

Akuto was having some after-dinner tea with Hiroshi and Korone. He watched as one table after another was moved to the side, and male students were placed atop them like fish at a market. If this was a fish market, it would’ve been a great catch. The number of students kept going up. The students who were worshipers of Ko-Roh, who wanted to be doctors, were busy giving them first aid.

“This is probably because of that treasure hunt thing, isn’t it?” Akuto said. Hiroshi nodded.

“That’s right, boss.”

“Treasure hunting is for kids. There’s no reason to go out and get hurt in the process...”

The second the words left Akuto’s mouth, the air in the cafeteria froze. The other students must have thought he was insulting them. Eyes filled with anger and hatred stared at Akuto. He’d forgotten that the students here respected recklessness and a love of danger, and considered “dumb fun” a virtue.

—Crap.

Oddly enough, Akuto was extremely sensitive to these sorts of changes in a room’s atmosphere. He stood up and walked over to where a first-year student was healing an injured second-year, and smiled at him as best he could.

“I’m a worshiper of Ko-Roh too. If you can just teach me how to use healing magic... No, you don’t even have to teach me. I’ll help,” Akuto said, but the two of them wouldn’t have looked more scared if the world’s worst doctor had walked over. Their faces went pale and they just kept shaking their heads.

“You don’t need to be that scared. I’m not going to do anything.” Akuto leaned over, and the first-year screamed and leapt back. The second-year, who only moments before had been badly hurt, suddenly jumped up on the table and started hopping on one foot, screaming, “I’m better! I’m all better!”

“N-No, I’m sorry. I’ll leave you alone, okay?”

Akuto left and walked back to his seat.

“Korone, do you think you can help them?” he asked.

“Certainly. My orders are to obey the will of the my observation target.”

Korone trotted over to the injured boy. Unlike Akuto, she was extremely popular. When she took her medicines out of her bag, they all started to frantically motion her over.

Akuto watched her treat one student after another, and decided that now it would be easier to talk to them. He picked one of the closer students, and, as cheerfully as he could, asked the question that had been bothering him.

“So something got you, huh?”

The student went pale for an instant, but he must’ve thought that there was no point staying quiet, because he answered with a sour expression. He was a big guy, probably one of the strongest in the first-year class.

“Yeah. It took me out before I even knew what was going on. It was pretty strong.”

“Really?” Akuto said, and every student in the room looked back at him. The awkwardness that had temporarily vanished was back.

—I guess they thought I was implying that they’re all weak for losing, huh? Since they said they lost before they even knew what hit them, I was just surprised that something like that even exists.

When he realized what was going on, Akuto coughed and chose his next words carefully.

“Sorry. I just never knew a monster like that even existed. I mean, look at how many of you got hurt. If you all attacked at once, you should be able to take down even a strong monster, right?”

“We didn’t all attack at once. We were split up.” The first-year student sounded annoyed.

“Then all of you guys attacked it on your own?”

“We didn’t attack it.”

“Then it attacked you. But I mean, there’s so many of you. Shouldn’t you have just stayed grouped together?” Akuto was genuinely curious, but the first-year sounded even more frustrated.

“We weren’t all looking for the treasure together. We all went on our own. A few people went in pairs, but that was it.”

“Oh, right!” Akuto sounded as if something had just dawned on him.

“It was a treasure hunt! Of course you’d try to get there before everybody else! I’m sorry, I didn’t realize! If you weren’t so self-interested, there’s no way so many of you would’ve gotten hurt!”

The whole cafeteria went dead silent.

—Whoops. I screwed up again, didn’t I?

Akuto tried to make up for it by saying his next words loud enough for everyone to hear.

“No, I just meant that if you’d worked together, you would’ve had a better result. The students at this school are all really strong, right? With the right leader, you’d be very powerful.”

It seemed that the first-year student was now so irritated that he just didn’t care anymore, because his tone towards Akuto was now brutal.

“Shut up. We don’t have anybody to lead us.”

“No, you’ve got that ranking system, right? If you can just have the most powerful person lead you...”

And then Akuto realized his mistake. He hadn’t noticed until he’d said it.

—Wait. I was the one who defeated the last top-ranked person!

Akuto froze. The people around him were starting to murmur now.

“So you’re saying that if you were in charge, things would go well?”

“You want us to serve you, Demon King?”

“Wait, doesn’t that mean that the Demon King set the whole thing up so that this would happen...?”

“You’re right. He was the one who found the map, and it was his woman who put those copies of it up everywhere.”

This was going in a bad direction. They were all looking at Akuto with a mixture of astonishment and terror.

Akuto shook his head and stood up.

“That’s not true! I wouldn’t get anything out of doing that! I was just pointing out what you did wrong! But I don’t mean to criticize you. I’m just saying we can all work together now! Like maybe if you shared all your information about what it was that attacked you, you might be able to come up with a plan.”

One of Akuto’s flaws was that he always tried to act cooler than he was at times like this. But he had a point, so the wounded began to stir back to life and share information with the people around them.

“They turn into fog and you can’t attack them.”

“That got me too. And it was really dark, so I couldn’t see, but there were lots of insects or something flying around. I couldn’t hit them...”

“That’s right. The bugs were the attack, and the fog was what was controlling them. There’s no way to fight it.”

Akuto could hear them all talking with each other. Eventually, they started to discuss how to defeat it. But as the debate started to heat up, they started to argue about who should do what.

“So the decoy just has to draw the bugs away, you see?”

“Who’s going to be the decoy?!”

“Somebody fast.”

“Idiot. Everybody knows that you have somebody in heavy armor be the decoy.”

“What? Are you saying my opinion is wrong? Who are you calling an idiot?”

“That’s not it. I mean, it changes depending on who’s in charge.”

“That’s right. Who’s going to be in charge? Are we going to have a tournament to find out?”

“If we do that, then it’s just going to end up a fight to see who gets the treasure.”

“Who cares? If we have to fight, we have to fight. At least we’ll know who’s the strongest.”

The mood in the room began to turn dangerous. Akuto realized that it was his fault, in a way. He spoke up, hoping to fix things.

“Hey everyone, we don’t need to get like this! We don’t even know if the treasure exists. And it seems like it’s been left where it is for a long time. So why don’t we just pretend it doesn’t exist? Then everything will go back to normal.”

But that just poured oil on the fire.

“You’re the one who found the map!”

“And we’re fighting the monster to get revenge for injuring us! Not for the treasure!”

They started to shout. The fact that they’d switched their objective to “revenge” angered Akuto. It seemed to him like they were just trying to hide their own weakness.

“Then why don’t you all go out there on your own and lose again? There’s no point in talking to idiots who can’t even accept the fact that they’re weak! Why can’t you cooperate with each other?” Akuto yelled in frustration. His voice was loud enough that everyone stopped moving.

—I did it again.

But at this point, there was no backing down. Using this situation to put a stop to the treasure hunt would be to everybody’s benefit.

“Don’t go off on adventures if you’re too weak to handle them! If you really want to go, at least show that you’re capable of it first! And if you don’t have the guts to do that, don’t try and sneak around selfishly instead of working with other people! That’s all I want to say!”

Akuto ended his speech by slamming his fist down on the table. Inside he was shaking from embarrassment and regret, but if he backed down now after provoking them all, they might try to strangle him in his sleep. He stood up as straight as he could and glared at the people around him, then walked out of the cafeteria with his head held high.

Hiroshi followed after him, his eyes wet with tears.

“That was amazing, boss! You were so cool!”

“No... it just kinda ended up that way.”

“You’re being too humble! I get it! You’re not trying to rule the school by force, you want to make it so the whole school naturally respects you, right? And you’re training them so they’ll have the courage to make decisions on their own! You’re so smart! I’m learning so much from you!”

“Oh, uh... Good,” Akuto whispered, no longer having the strength to correct him. Hiroshi nodded vigorously.

“I’m so glad I joined forces with you, boss! Oh and don’t worry! I used the “speaker” to broadcast that speech throughout the whole dorm!”

“...The boys dorm, and the girl’s dorm?”

“Of course!” Hiroshi said, looking pleased with himself.

—Things will only get worse, now...

Akuto was starting to get a headache. In the end, thinking about it would get him nowhere, so he decided to stop thinking.

○

The next day, Akuto was summoned by the student council president. Akuto was an early riser, so he was already awake by the time he got the message. But the president herself still looked half-asleep. Even as she sat at her desk in the student council room, she was using her elbows to prop her head up and her eyes were drooping.

“Sorry to bring you here this early in the morning. I heard that... speech... yesterday. It was hilarious.”

Akuto couldn’t tell if she was upset or just sleepy, so he didn’t know how to react. She was a girl, but she looked like a strangely intimidating boy, and so it was hard to read her face.

“I’m embarrassed,” said Akuto, lowering his head.

“No, I think it’s fine,” she said with a yawn. “I was feeling bad about the kids getting hurt. That’s why I called you here. I want you, as head of the disciplinary committee, to officially ban treasure-hunting.”

“Officially?”

“Yup. Your powers as head of the disciplinary committee are pretty broad. You can punish people caught violating the rules. It’s kind of a ‘rule by fear’ thing, you see. And from what you said yesterday, you made it sound like if somebody is strong, it’s okay for them to go looking for it, right? You realize how bad that is, don’t you?”

“That’s true. I’m sorry.”

“Nah, it’s fine. If you’re going to apologize for something, apologize for not keeping your mouth shut about the map after I asked you to.”

“I am sorry about that. I wasn’t careful enough.”

“Hmm, well, it’s fine since you apologized. Anyway, it might’ve leaked from our side,” she said with a laugh.

Come to think of it, he’d given the map to Korone. She would never be careless with it,which means that Keena must have stolen it from here. But that wasn’t worth pointing out.

“I’ll take responsibility by issuing an order forbidding searching for the treasure,” Akuto said. As he spoke, he happened to look around the room.

“I don’t see the other three...”

“Oh, they’re out taking care of something. They’ll be back in time for morning homeroom,” she said. Then she ushered him out, saying she was going to do an emergency morning broadcast to the whole school.

○

An hour later, all the students in the school lined up in the courtyard. It was quite a sight to see all the students from the middle and high schools together. Akuto was standing in front of them, next to the student council president. Artificial life forms called “speakers” were floating in front of the courtyard podium, ready to broadcast the words of the speaker to the student body.

—They’re not here...

Akuto looked through the students from his own class, 1-A, and saw that Junko and Keena were missing. He knew that neither of them wanted to see him right now, but it really bothered him that they weren’t there.

But before he could think about it more, the student council president had already finished her introduction. He didn’t have the time to space out right now. All she’d said was, “Good morning. The head of the disciplinary committee has something to say to all of you,” and then she’d stepped down.

Akuto quickly ran up onto the podium. A normal person would be nervous speaking in front of the whole school, but not Akuto. He quickly put together the words he wanted to say and began to give his introduction. But he was interrupted by someone shouting out from the crowd.

“Akuto Sai! We just need to prove to you that we’re strong, right? Then I’m going to do it!”

It was a girl’s voice. He saw a girl with a long ponytail leap out of the rows of students. She flew several meters up in the air, her hair flipping in the wind, and then she spun and stretched out her right foot into a kick and headed straight for Akuto.

“Go! Exploding Aerial Three-Horned Kick!” she screamed as the mana gathered at her toes. Her foot was aiming straight at his head.

—Holy sh—

Akuto took a step to the right on the podium. He should have had more than enough time to dodge, but he quickly realized his mistake. Amazingly, she changed direction in mid-air. This meant that despite what it might have looked like, she wasn’t falling. She was flying at him. Her speed was incredible, but she was definitely in control. Sure enough, her foot was aiming for Akuto once more.

—Should I block her with my hands? But no, then my mana will go out of control again.

Akuto didn’t have any good options. He couldn’t let his mana go out of control and explode again, but there was no way he could block it without using mana.

—Then I’ll dodge it once she gets close!

Akuto made his decision instantly. If he moved to the left or right, she’d just change course again. Which meant that his only option was to move just before she hit him.

“Take this! Critical hit!” she yelled, confident in her accuracy.

But Akuto’s reflexes were faster than she anticipated. Just before she hit him, he craned his neck, turning his head away and dodging her shining foot at the last second.

“I missed?!” she screamed.

—I dodged it!

Akuto thought happily. But in the next moment...

Squish

There was a strange noise as something soft landed on Akuto’s head. Everything went black. For a moment, he wasn’t sure what had happened. Both cheeks were being pinched hard between something soft. It was like there was some kind of soft cloth over his head.

“Kyaah! No!”

It was only when he heard the scream above him that Akuto realized what had happened.

The girl’s legs were wrapped around his head. He was still standing, so it was like he was giving her a reverse piggy-back ride.

“Uwaah! Hey!” Akuto couldn’t just shake her off, so all he could do was stand there and stomp his feet

From the outside, it must have looked ridiculous. No, he knew exactly how it looked. It looked like he was standing in front of the entire student body with his head inside a girl’s skirt, rubbing his face against her crotch.

“What are you doing, Akuto Sai?!”

The girl probably couldn’t concentrate enough to use her mana again, because she didn’t just fly off. Akuto did his best to keep from dropping her.

“You’re the one who tried to kick me...!”

“Hyah! Don’t talk! It feels weird!”

“Oh, sorr—”

“I said don’t talk! Don’t move!”

“I’ll stop moving, so get off me!”

“Hyaahh! B-But I’m stuck and I can’t move! It feels like I’m going to fall backwards!”

“Then just stay still. I’ll put you down.”

Akuto groped around until he found her hips. He lifted her up, and then moved her legs off his shoulders and lowered her down. She kept her legs wrapped around him as she was gradually lowered to the ground.

But when she got to the point where her face was level with his, she wrapped her legs around him tightly and stopped moving.

“Get off me,” Akuto said, confused.

She had striking features, and while you might call her beautiful, something seemed off about her. It was because her eyes and her expression showed her feelings too plainly. It was the girl that Fujiko had encountered the other day.

“What’s wrong?” Akuto asked again.

Her face was only a few centimeters away from his. Her breath felt ticklish on his skin.

“Up close, you’re pretty good looking, huh?” she said, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. Her legs were still wrapped around his hips, so it looked like she was hanging from his front.

“Thanks, I guess. Can you get off me?”

Akuto somehow managed to stay calm. This might have been because the situation was so outrageous that he was simply in shock. He didn’t understand it himself. Maybe it was just that it was in his nature to try to act cool no matter what the situation was.

“You’re really interesting! Hey, how’d you dodge my kick like that?”

The girl’s smile reminded him of a child who’d found a new toy. Akuto turned away and answered her question, hoping she’d get off him soon.

“If I had blocked you, my mana would go out of control and cause an explosion. I’m too powerful. And I knew that you were controlling your flight path, so I decided to dodge at the last second. I dodged inwards because if I went the other direction, you’d go right past me and blow yourself up, and I didn’t want that. Now get off me,” he said, but that just interested her more.

“Wow, you’re amazing! You figured all that out in a single instant! You’re only the second guy I’ve ever met who’s like that! Should I be his woman, or yours? What do you think? If you want, we can do it right now!”

She pressed her hips against Akuto. Given that she was lined up right against Akuto’s crotch, this could — no, it certainly did — look like an incredibly obscene act.

“Get off me, please.” This was enough to fluster even Akuto, and so he tried to get the girl’s arms off his neck. But she had strong legs, it seemed, so she held onto him anyway. And the instant she got the chance, she moved her arms back around his neck.

—What is up with this girl...?

Akuto looked around in search of help. The student council president was chuckling in a strange way, and spinning her finger in a circle to encourage him to wrap it up. The teachers were too stunned to do anything, and the students were all pointing and murmuring.

“Hey, what’s going on here...?”

“I can’t believe he’s going to do it in front of the whole student body!”

“No, he may already be doing it!”

“I can’t see from here. Do you think maybe she’s not wearing anything under her skirt?”

“N-No, even if he’s the Demon King, he can’t... And he looks weirdly calm, right?”

“No, villains always do it with girls without changing their expression, right?”

“Th-That’s true... But seeing it done right in front of me actually makes me feel like a loser by comparison...”

“In front of the whole school... that’s crazy...”

—What the hell is going on here?!

But even now, Akuto couldn’t bring himself to get angry at a girl. He cleared his throat calmly, and said in as loud a voice as he could muster, “Everyone, be quiet!”

His voice was amplified by the “speakers,” and echoed throughout the courtyard with a terrible feedback noise. The students covered their ears. He cleared his throat again, and the whole school fell silent and turned their attention towards him.

“Everyone, I told you yesterday that if you wanted to go treasure-hunting, you needed to show your strength! She seems to have believed me, and tried to challenge me, but I want you to understand that this is a futile act!”

Akuto gave up on prying the girl off of him, and continued to speak while she held onto him. The students started to murmur again.

“I see... He’s saying he’ll defeat us, just like he did her...”

“He must’ve used some magic to seduce her...”

“It must’ve been when he shoved his face into her crotch... He must’ve done something then...”

The students’ voices began to rise in terror.

—You’ve got it all wrong, guys! No, I can’t blame you for thinking that. This girl is just crazy! You’ve gotta understand that!

Akuto wanted to scream these thoughts out loud, but he knew it wouldn’t help. The only option he had now was to do his job and get off the podium as soon as possible.

“By my authority as head of the disciplinary committee, I am putting a ban on searching for the treasure! Anyone who defies me will be punished! That is all I—...”

But the students started booing before he could finish. Clearly they weren’t happy about the ban.

—Any other day I’d be able to put things in a way that wouldn’t make them so mad, but they won’t believe anything I say with this girl hanging off me...

And then the girl spoke. She was talking loud enough that the “speakers” could hear her.

“You’re taking back what you said last night? That’s not very manly of you. If you don’t want the weaker students going, then why don’t you go yourself?”

The students started to cheer.

“That’s right! You go out and put yourself at risk!”

“If you think we’re weak, then take responsibility!”

“Don’t hog all the treasure, though!”

Akuto looked towards the student council president, unsure of how to handle this uproar. She was giving him an “I don’t care, just wrap this up,” gesture.

—I guess the important thing is that the students don’t get hurt...

Akuto gave up.

“Alright. I’ll go. But no other students will be allowed within a one kilometer radius of the spots on the map.”

And then he got down from the podium. It was only then that the girl finally got off him. He looked at the student council president with a “who is this girl?” gesture, but she just shrugged.

“Who are you?” Akuto asked, and the girl turned back towards him, her ponytail flailing behind her.

“Eiko Teruya. I was just going to tease you a little, but I think our relationship is going to be a long one, so remember my name, understand?”

○

“The weekend starts tomorrow, so just get it wrapped up before next week. If you can’t find the treasure, then just lie and say you did.”

The student council president wasn’t happy about Akuto going treasure hunting. After that speech, she’d called him to the student council room and started to lecture him

“I’m sorry. Somebody needs to find out what that monster is, though, right? So I’ll just find that out and then come back,” he said.

He’d noticed the other three (treasurer, secretary, and vice-president) were looking at him with hatred in their eyes. This was his attempt at calming them down, but it didn’t work.

All of them were oddly imposing. The treasurer was a wild-looking girl with very thick eyebrows. The secretary was tall for a girl, and expressionless. And the vice-president was thin and pretty, but her skin was so pale she looked unhealthy.

Akuto sensed that the three of them would make dangerous enemies, and wanted to avoid making them mad, but that seemed impossible right now.

“Don’t worry. I won’t cause any trouble,” he assured them.

The student council president seemed to want to say something.

“Um, listen. If you... fail... I won’t tell anyone... so you can just come on back, okay? Yeah... Yeah, that’s the best thing to do.” She nodded at Akuto.

“It sounds like you want me to fail.” Akuto tilted his head, confused. She nodded.

“You can feel free to interpret things that way. I just want to pretend this whole thing never happened, you see.”

“Then you should’ve done something back there. You didn’t do anything about that weird girl, remember?” Akuto said, a little angrily.

“No, well... that’s true, but... I didn’t want to bother you when you were enjoying yourself,” she mumbled.

“I was not enjoying myself! What were you thinking? And who is that girl, anyway? She just vanished right after that.” Akuto pressed her for an explanation.

Suddenly the student council president’s cheeks twitched a little. She put her finger on the rim of her hat. Akuto didn’t know what that meant, but he could feel the three girls behind him stepping back in fear.

—Huh?

But then she quickly took her finger off her hat. She tapped her fingers on her desk, her cheeks still twitching.

“That girl isn’t one of our students. She was wearing our uniform, but that’s all. I can’t say anything more than that. Because of my job, there are some things I can’t say. But... I’m not sure if this is a warning I’m giving you, or a favor I’m asking for, but please don’t let her do whatever she wants. Also, take a damn hint for once. There are some truths that are better left buried.”

The way she was acting, and the words she was saying made no sense to Akuto. But after she put it like that, he had no choice but to obey.

“Understood.”

With that, Akuto left the student council room. But he couldn’t help but feel suspicious about what she’d said.

○

—I have to get ready, but...

Akuto had opened up the backpack he’d borrowed from the school to get ready for his journey, and put it on the floor of his dorm room. But before he could figure out what to put in it, he had to decide what to do with the two people standing next to it.

Those two people were Korone and Hiroshi. They both insisted on going, and wouldn’t listen to him when he told them no. Korone was one thing. She was his observer, and when he needed help, she’d be there to provide it. The problem was Hiroshi.

“I’m coming with you, boss! I’m prepared to lay down my life for you...”

Hiroshi went on and on about how dedicated he was, but Akuto wasn’t listening.

—He’s probably going to come no matter what I say, so there’s no point in telling him no. But there’s too many weird things going on, including that Eiko Teruya girl... Hiroshi can be helpful sometimes, but I’m not confident that I could keep him safe in a monster fight. I might be getting Hiroshi in over his head...

Akuto thought for a moment, and made a decision.

“Can you pack my bags? I have something else to get ready,” he said.

Hiroshi seemed overjoyed to have been given a job to do, and he was almost crying as he headed for the cafeteria to get provisions.

—Now then...

This was going to take some courage, but Akuto took out his student handbook and sent a telepathic call.

And half an hour later, he was waiting for someone in a certain room in the underground labyrinth beneath the school, a room he’d been to before. It had once been used as a planning room, and it was separated by just a single wall from Fujiko’s secret lair.

“You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that. What on earth are you thinking, coming to me?” Fujiko appeared in front of Akuto, looking angry.

“I couldn’t blame if you if you didn’t show up, so thank you for coming.” Akuto stood up and bowed.

All the students’ memories had been wiped after what had happened, so only Akuto and Keena knew who Fujiko really was. Of course, this is why Fujiko had come to meet him.

“Don’t tell me you’re planning on blackmailing me.”

“No. It wouldn’t work, would it? And even if I did tell everyone who you really were, nobody would believe me,” Akuto said quickly.

“Then what are you doing? I still haven’t given up on making you mine, you know,” Fujiko said, looking strained.

“I know. But I think we’re better off with a normal relationship, like that of an underclassman and upperclassman.”

“Listen...” Fujiko crossed her arms in an exasperated fashion and looked down at Akuto. “I’ll ask you not to insult my ambitions as a black mage. To black mages, the Demon King is a symbol of liberation, but I want to surpass him.”

“Don’t worry. I don’t even want to be the Demon King.”

Fujiko didn’t seem to know how to handle this.

“Th-Then what do you want? You ruined all my plans, and then set a trap for me instead...”

Akuto didn’t tell her that this was only thanks to Keena’s shenanigans. He just held her gaze steadily.

“Wh-What is it?!”

“I want you to teach me how to fight with magic. I’m still letting my mana go out of control, and I don’t know how to use it properly. I can’t afford to wait until I learn in class.”

Akuto’s tone was completely serious. Fujiko looked shocked.

“And so you came to me?”

“That’s right. I wanted to ask the best fighter I knew.”

Fujiko smiled wickedly.

“I might try to set a trap for you.”

“I think you will, but still, you’re the best person I can learn from.”

Fujiko could tell he meant it, and she had no idea how to react.

“Y-You’re really naive, you know that? Or is this some kind of attempt to show me what a good person you are?”

“No, I don’t think I’m really a good person. Sometimes I get mad and take it out on other people, for one thing. But I think it’s safe to say that I have faith in you.”

“And that’s why you’re naive.”

“No, that’s not true. You have a nasty personality, right? You’re self-interested, you worship power, and you try to turn other people’s power to your advantage. The problem is that you don’t believe in other people. That’s why you end up getting scared and doing things in secret.”

“Wha—...?” Fujiko’s jaw dropped.

—Did I say too much? But it is true, after all...

Akuto kept talking despite worrying that he’d already gone too far.

“Like I said before, I have faith in you. You know, even if there’s somebody you can’t trust at all, you can trust them to work to their own advantage, right? So I’ll give you something in exchange. It’s not exactly a trade, but maybe I can make you a promise. If you teach me magic, I promise that I won’t interfere with your activities. How about that? Knowing how much you love to scheme, I think you’ll accept.”

Fujiko angrily slammed her palms against the table in front of him.

“You think you know everything about me, don’t you?”

—You claim to be a villain, so I was trying to give you a compliment a villain would like... And isn’t it normal to do a little research before deciding to associate with someone, anyway?

He crossed his arms and frowned, but since he realized he was getting nowhere, he lowered his head.

“I apologize if I was rude. But I’m here, knowing the risks. And you’re the one who wanted to make me your servant, right? So if you can have me as your student...”

“Wh-What is your problem?!” Fujiko screamed. She was slamming her fists onto the table again. “Fine! You want me to teach you to fight, I will! I’ll do it right now! But don’t blame me if you end up regretting this later! You demon! Demon King!”

—Well, I got what I wanted, but now she’s mad at me for some reason...

Akuto slumped his shoulders.

“Um... there’s one more thing...”

“What now?!”

“Could you... stop calling me Demon King?”

“I refuse! I don’t want to admit it, but you’ve got the talent for it!” Fujiko slammed her fists in the table a third time.

○

Fujiko told him to open his student handbook and take notes in it.

“Magic is the art of using the mana in your body to cause a reaction with the mana in the air. You know that, right? And the mana in the body acts in response to electrical signals in the brain. Everyone knows that, too. Now, what decides how the mana itself behaves? The gods. ‘Energy’ is what is produced by the central generator and is released into the earth itself, so it wouldn’t be the right term to use here. It’s better to call it a kind of ‘mana program.’”

That, Akuto knew. But he only vaguely knew about the information that followed.

“The behavior of mana is decided by the gods. Mana may seem omnipotent, but in this way, it’s actually limited. And so the question here is, what are the gods? The gods are beings that constantly monitor and log human brain activity via mana. That’s the simplest way to put it. Some people think of them as computers while others consider them entities worthy of worship. It depends on the individual. If your emotions are being monitored, that means that the gods can give you more or less of their blessing based on your behavior. The logs themselves are never made public, but this means that humans are, in effect, forced to be good because of their desire for the convenience that magic offers.”

“Philanthropy is a virtue according to the god Ko-Roh, while Suhara prefers bravery. And so they each make their own type of magic easier to use. Normal people just worship the gods as divine beings, but at the upper levels it’s much more systematic. The truth about what the gods are isn’t kept a secret or anything. It’s just that most people don’t want to think about it too hard. All those involved in academics are aware of this. Even among those who aren’t, most intelligent people simply ‘choose’ to act as if it’s a religion. Doing so allows magic to make your life much more convenient, and there’s a great advantage to it.”

“So the ultimate goal of this academy’s graduates is to become priests; who are capable of influencing the inner workings of the gods themselves. But the black mages are opposed to this. In other words, we oppose this system, and want to see a revival of humanity’s old ways. At least, the organized black mages do. I won’t deny that many of them are just people who enjoy committing crimes.”

Akuto interrupted.

“So what’s a Demon King then?”

“You don’t know anything about yourself, do you? No, I suppose nobody’s tried to tell you. Children born in this country are baptized, right? That’s a contract with a god, and without it, you can’t use magic. But this means that those who are left out of this system cannot live regular lives as humans. It’s said that the last Demon King was someone who doubted this system. This information isn’t particularly classified either. It’s just that nobody cares.”

“So what does this have to do with using magic?”

“Certain types of magic require special rights to use them, and using them is considered a crime. But you’re aware that just because it’s a crime doesn’t mean it’s impossible, right? For example, you’re supposed to need a license to use flight magic, but everyone here at the academy practices it. The same can be said of ‘forbidden magic.’ You can’t use it unless you have the required rights. But if you can deceive the gods into thinking you do, it’s possible to use it. You could say that black mages are people who do that. But the use of ‘forbidden magic’ is monitored by the gods. You can trick the gods into thinking you have the right to use it, but that doesn’t stop them from penalizing you. So the more you use black magic, the weaker you become.”

“Then there’s no point in being a black mage, is there?”

“Correct. That’s why the black mages sought their own god. A god of freedom. A god who would forbid nothing.”

“And what happened to that god?”

“It’s gone now. It was destroyed in the last war. Recreating it is the dream of all black mages. That’s why some black mages are trying their best to get the High Priest to turn. Only the High Priest, and those around him, has the knowledge required to create a god.”

“I see,” said Akuto, nodding. Fujiko had covered most of what he’d learned in his first-year classes.

—But it seems to me like the black mages are just being selfish... I guess if we see things that differently, I couldn’t become the Demon King, huh?

Fujiko finally got to the point.

“So, we were talking about fighting. The reason I told you all that was to explain that the god that baptized you, as well as the layout of your psyche, determine what types of magic you’ll be good at.”

Fujiko stretched out her hand over Akuto’s student handbook and drew a diagram. Four lines intersected to form a star shape. She’d drawn an eight-pointed matrix. And at each point of the star, she wrote these words, in this order.

“Illusion,” “Healing,” “Telekinesis,” “Destruction,” “Spirits,” “Artifacts,” “Religion,” “Transformation.”

“These are the eight magic specialties, determined by your psyche. As the diagram suggests, nobody has both one specialty and its opposite. People who are good at illusion magic are terrible at spirit magic. Recognizing this is the key to improvement.”

“What’s your specialty?”

“In my case, it’s transformation, using mana to change the structure of matter. That means I can make medicines, or transform the body itself. In my case, I’m specialized in making medicines. What’s important is to realize that that means I’m bad at destruction magic. You learn them all in class, but in a fight, it’s best to just give up on the ones you aren’t good at. It’s not efficient. In your case, you’re very clearly my opposite. It’s obvious that your specialty is destruction magic.”

“Which means that’s what I should focus on, right?”

“Right. Once you know that, you have to learn the rest through practice, but we don’t have time for that, so...”

Fujiko put something that definitely looked like a gun on the table.

Akuto gave her a confused look.

“What’s this?”

“An incantation gun, which uses mana bullets. The bullets come pre-loaded with mana, and the spell takes effect after you fire it. Everybody is capable of using it, but someone who can control their mana can tune the bullets to do different things.”

Fujiko lined up the bullets in front of him.

“You always carry this with you?”

“Yes. Is that a problem?”

“Isn’t that illegal?”

“Not necessarily, at the Academy. Everybody here can already use dangerous magic.”

Fujiko opened the revolver’s chamber and gave him a simple demonstration of how to use it.

Then there was a brief pause in their conversation, and Akuto suddenly remembered something that had been bothering him.

“Hey, you’re the dorm head, right?”

“That’s correct.”

“Do you know a girl named Eiko Teruya then?”

“No, I don’t... Is that the strange girl who was doing filthy things with you this morning?” asked Fujiko, her face tensing up.

“Do you know anything about her? The student council president said she didn’t, but it felt like she was hiding something. And she even told me to be careful around her...”

Fujiko seemed to think for a moment.

“She seemed to have it out for me, so I was wondering about her too,” she said.

“Did she attack you?”

“No, just gave me a bit of a hard time. If there’s something both you and I have in common, it’s probably that treasure map...”

Fujiko quickly put her hand over her mouth, realizing her mistake. But Akuto didn’t miss it.

“What does that mean? Do you know something about the map?”

Fujiko’s expression clouded.

“N-No... I just think it might’ve been something my late brother made.”

“Then...”

“N-No. My brother said he didn’t.”

“Huh? Wasn’t he dead?”

“Necromancy. Did you forget? I’m a black mage.”

Fujiko looked like she was trying to seem stronger than she really felt. A shadow had fallen on her normally arrogant attitude.

“I think I remember hearing that when you use necromancy on someone, they can’t tell lies, right? Sorry. It must’ve been painful, having to use necromancy to talk to your brother.”

Akuto was trying to apologize after seeing the look on her face, but she just started to shout frantically.

“Not at all! He’s a terrible man! He shamed our family! I remember being with him all the time when I was young, but that must just be because he was an awful lolicon! If he was still alive today, he’d be a sex offender!”

—If you’re worried about shaming your family, why’d you become a black mage?

Akuto decided to keep his thoughts to himself.

“Either way, I’m worried about that Eiko Teruya girl. But I just don’t know how to be forceful around women...”

Fujiko stared at him with fury in her eyes.

“You’re pretty forceful around me, don’t you think?”

“Well, sure... but... you’re evil, right? And I doubt you’d want me to suddenly start being gentle with you after all we’ve been through,” said Akuto without thinking. Fujiko pointed the incantation gun at him, her voice shaking.

“I hate men who disobey me, and even if they do obey me, I hate men who are weak!”

“Sorry about that...” Akuto reached forward with both hands and respectfully took the gun from her.

○

Akuto put the gun through its paces in the woods behind the school building, and it seemed to work well. He could immediately blow up a soda can that he’d placed a good distance away from him. He could control the bullet’s path, and the timing of when it blew up, so it was pretty easy to use. And unlike when he used his own mana, the bullet’s power was limited. He was relieved to finally have a weapon he could control.

Before long, Hiroshi showed up with a huge backpack. It seemed that he had finished packing, and Korone had come along with him.

“Boss, I packed you enough stuff to camp out for a week!”

“Thanks... But wouldn’t it be better to pack two bags?”

“I can’t let you carry our things, boss! Leave it to me!”

“Okay, but it doesn’t do me any good if you start wasting energy.”

“Don’t worry! I’m always wasting energy!”

“I see... Okay then. I guess it’s time to go,” Akuto said.

“It’s evening now. We’re not leaving tomorrow?” Korone asked.

“Let’s leave earlier than planned. I want to get started before anyone sees us going. It would be bad if we were spotted,” Akuto said, only to be answered by a voice above him.

“Spotted by who, Akuto Sai?”

He looked up in shock. Eiko Teruya was standing on a branch above him. She was puffing out her chest and standing with her legs apart, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he could see her underwear. Or maybe she wanted him to see it.

“You’re...”

But before he could continue, Akuto was astonished to see the underwear coming towards him. Eiko had leaped. She spun in mid-air, and landed directly on his shoulders with her legs around his head.

“Hey, you promised to take me with you!” said Eiko excitedly.

“I didn’t promise...”

“I’m going with you whether you promised or not. It’s okay, right?” Eiko rubbed her crotch up against the back of his head.

“Hey...” Akuto was stammering as he tried to speak, but Hiroshi complained violently in his place.

“Get off the boss, you whore!”

“You shouldn’t use ugly words like ‘whore!’ And anyway, it’s my business whose shoulders I ride on!”

“It is not! Boss is mine!”

“Are you gay? But he isn’t. Look, when I do this, his face gets all hot. See? See?”

She pressed harder against the back of Akuto’s head. With two soft thighs pressed hard against his ears, even Akuto couldn’t stop his cheeks from turning red.

“S-Stop it, please...”

But Akuto still couldn’t bring himself to protest strongly. And at the same time, Hiroshi just whined, and didn’t try to touch her.

“Take me!” Eiko insisted. “Even if you tell me you don’t want to, I’m going with you anyway.”

“No way!” Hiroshi said.

“Please don’t... Come on, it’s probably dangerous,” Akuto protested.

“I’m coming with you no matter what!”

Several fruitless minutes passed like this, before finally Korone spoke up.

“Arguing isn’t going to change anything. More importantly, the sun has already set. Why don’t we camp here for tonight?”

And so that’s what they did.

—Wait. Why am I camping in the woods out behind the school?

The question only occurred to Akuto after he was lying down in his tent.

At some point, Eiko vanished. So he decided to try leaving the tent and sneaking away in the dead of night. But Eiko quickly popped out from behind a tree, so he gave up.

—I guess that means she’s watching me. She doesn’t seem like an artificial human, so she’s probably trained so she doesn’t have to sleep. Who the hell is this girl, anyway?

At this point, Akuto decided to just give up and go to sleep.

○

Hiroshi woke Akuto early in the morning, and he quickly broke camp. He decided he looked so stupid camping in the woods behind school that he didn’t want the other students seeing him.

At the same time Akuto was leaving, Junko had returned home from meeting with her father. He had told her that Eiko Teruya had snuck into the Academy in order to complete some kind of mission. What the mission was, or who her employer was, he didn’t know.

The Hattori and Teruya clans had a long and complicated history. They were both believers in Suhara, but they had different interpretations of the god’s teachings and they’d fought over them for many, many years. The Hattori had chosen to involve themselves in politics during peacetime to advance the nation’s defense, but the Teruya saw this as a sign of weakness. They preferred to devote their lives to mastering the arts of combat.

—If someone like that is here at the school, it’s probably because of...

Of course, the first thing Junko thought of was Akuto. Without even waiting for the morning’s flying bus service to begin, the first thing she’d done when she got back was head to the window outside Akuto’s room. But a single glance told her he wasn’t there. The curtain was open, and the bed was neatly made.

“He left? This early?”

Junko headed back for the girl’s dorm, where she knocked on Keena’s door. There was no answer, but the door wasn’t locked, and it opened when she turned the knob.

Junko went inside. The room was filled with stuffed animals and empty food containers. Keena was sleeping in her bed, oblivious to the noise.

“Sorry to bother you this early...”

Junko shook Keena by the shoulders and she started to mumble in her sleep.

“I can’t eat any more Koshihikari...”

“Why Koshihikari?”

“But I can eat more Milky Queen...”

“Stop talking nonsense and wake up!”

It was only when Junko started to shake her violently that Keena woke up and rubbed her eyes.

“Is it morning? Night?”

“It’s early morning. I’m sorry, but this is an emergency. Where did Akuto Sai go?”

“Hmm? Ackie left.”

“Where?”

“He went treasure-hunting.”

“He’s doing WHAT? Is he five years old?” Junko said. She hadn’t seen the whole fuss from before.

“No. It’s real. There’s a pirate treasure here in the school. Only a truly courageous adventurer can gain it...”

“Enough of this nonsense! Tell me the truth!”

“It’s true, though... It must be Captain Kid’s treasure. His great voyage ended here at this school 50 years ago, but the treasure was never found...”

“We’re miles inland!” Junko yelled. Asking Keena was a mistake. She decided to go find someone she could trust more. But it took until breakfast to find out anything useful.

“That idiot decided to take responsibility by going to find the treasure himself.”

“He was with some weird girl. Not Keena, but a girl with long hair. One I’d never seen before. I don’t know if there’s any student like that at this school. Was she a graduate?”

“Who cares? She was on top of him the whole time.”

“I mean, during that homeroom speech they were... hehehe! Aww, it’s too embarrassing to say...”

“Tell her! Tell her exactly what they were doing!”

“And this was during homeroom! I mean, can you believe it?”

Since there were only girls around, none of them bothered to hold back. And what they told her was almost enough to make Junko pass out for a moment.

—What? What are you thinking, Akuto Sai? And don’t tell me that girl you were with was Eiko...

By the time Junko got her own copy of the map and gathered her things, it was well into the afternoon. Then she secretly set out in direct defiance of the disciplinary committee head’s order.