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 creepy,” 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.”

“D-Dummy... That’s not true!” Junko turned red and looked away.

“Right, right.” Yoshie laughed and gave Junko a pat on the head.

“Gaah! Stop! What’s wrong with you?” Junko yelled.

Yoshie ignored Junko’s rage and instead clapped her hands together to draw everybody’s attention.

“Attention, everybody. I’ve got a present for you!”

When she saw everyone was looking at her, she took out Korone’s bag. The smiles disappeared from everybody’s faces.

“Oh...”

“That’s right. Korone is...”

“Hey, that’s pretty insensitive, isn’t it?” Fujiko stormed over to Yoshie. “What the hell do you mean, calling that thing a present? Korone’s dead...”

And then she stopped. A hand came out of the bag, followed by a body.

“What...?” Fujiko couldn’t believe it.

“Korone!” Akuto yelled.

“Korone!” Keena and Junko yelled too.

It was indeed Korone who was standing in front of them.

“When we leapt into the teleportation circle, I grabbed her head and stuffed it in her bag. I knew if I had it, I’d be able to repair her,” Yoshie said. “So, I repaired her in secret and turned her on, but I don’t know if her memories are working right. She and I never knew each other. So, tell me. Do you have your memories?” Yoshie asked.

Korone blushed and pointed at Akuto. “I have memories of the night he held me tight...”

“Oh, that’s definitely Korone,” Akuto sighed, and then laughed.

“Yes. I’m back,” Korone said, actually smiling. And then she gave Akuto a hug.

“Hey, is this another one of your jokes?”

“It’s not a joke. You gave me your love, even though I am a Liradan. I need to show you that I feel the same way,” Korone said in a serious voice.

“L-Love? Wait...” Akuto began to stammer.

Korone suddenly raised her head to look up at him. “Do I look like the kind of girl who would say that? I have a new body, so I am, in a sense, a virgin. So I thought I should act like one.”

“Listen, you...” Akuto frowned, but he didn’t try to take Korone’s arm off his waist. Instead, he put his hand on her head. “You do look a little more virginal.”

“I do? Oh, by the way...” she said, and then turned to Keena. “I am now the Empress’s aide. An observer, if you will. So you’ll be seeing a lot of me.”

“Really?!” Keena said with a huge grin.

“Yes, really.”

“Hooray! Welcome back, Korone!” she yelled, and jumped on Korone to give her a big hug. The two of them almost fell off the roof, but Akuto saved them.

Everyone laughed, and kept laughing until the students on the top floor of the dorm started banging their ceiling with brooms to quiet them down.

○

“A new empress... There was no need for such a thing, but...” Kento sighed. He was lying on the couch in his room, talking to a man on a mana screen.

“You’re always so clever. You seem to think everything will go the way you want it to,” the man on the screen said, annoyed. He was bald, with a strange rubbery black skin.

His codename was “Rubbers.” He was a member of CMID-8, and had once participated in the attack on Constant Magical Academy.

“That’s right. If something doesn’t go the way I want it to, it’s an irregularity,” Kento said calmly.

“So it was part of your plan to have CMID-8 lose so many members?” Rubbers asked angrily.

“It’s not my fault. It’s the fault of the people who screwed up. But it’s difficult for even me to determine what the next move is.”

“Because there’s a new empress?”

“Correct. It’s going to make completing ‘The Last Judgement’ a little more difficult.”

“You really believe in what Boichiro said before he died, huh?”

“I’ll do a better job than him. I’m not going to let my personal feelings get in the way.”

“Then what do you mean it’s gotten ‘more difficult’? I thought you always did everything perfectly.”

Kento ignored his provocation. “The issue is these irregularities. There should be several others with the imperial bloodline. If they want the throne, we could have a problem.”

“I’m not interested in being Emperor.”

“Me neither. That’s the one thing we agree on. But I want to be on the side of the Emperor or Empress who wins in the end,” Kento said, and ended the call.