5 - The Menacing Optimist

For Akuto, the next morning was particularly gloomy.

The entire school had been abuzz since before dawn. During the previous night, the news of Akuto’s subjugation had spread, and become common knowledge thanks to telepathic communications, flyers, and many other distribution channels.

• Any number of students notified may participate.

• The time will be limited to the one hour lunch period.

• Should the target escape from the school, his crimes will be overlooked.

• Should the target die, participants will not be held accountable.

• Providing assistance to the target is allowed, however those who support him shall receive the same treatment as the accused.

“So I just need to successfully run away from all the students in the school during the lunch period.”

Akuto had made up his mind overnight. As he headed to the cafeteria for breakfast, the crowd in front of him parted in two with an efficiency that would put Moses to shame.

—I’ve never been more hated — or feared — than I am now.

Akuto couldn’t help but feel shocked by everyone’s reactions. But when he arrived at his own seat, a voice filled with shrill excitement and affection almost bordering on worship, called out to him.

“Boss! I’ve got your back! Even if it kills me!” Hiroshi, despite his wounds, bowed his head down.

Akuto turned around and smiled, but immediately rejected Hiroshi’s proposal.

“No, that’s not good, not good at all. You should give that up. I won’t die. It’ll be fine.”

“But I know that you actually tried to save me before...” Hiroshi looked remorseful from the bottom of his heart as tears welled up in his eyes.

“That’s precisely why I’m saying I won’t die. That, and it should be simple enough to escape. I can do that much, so I’m taking it easy,” Akuto said, trying to sound as comfortable and carefree as possible.

Hearing this, all Hiroshi could do was back down from supporting him.

However...

—I’m sure everyone around me will only take that as a challenge...

Akuto faced the cold glares around him.

Even after he left for school and classes began, everyone remained restless, Akuto included. As the class went on, he could feel himself growing more and more nervous.

—I have to get away from Hiroshi as fast as possible, don’t I...

Akuto ran a simulation on what to do in his head.

—I could jump out of the window... After all, I don’t want to injure the other people in the class... Oh, now that I think about it, Keena isn’t in class today either. That’s pretty cold...

As he thought this, Akuto looked around him.

Five minutes until the end of class.

His classmates looked completely tense. A majority of the students agreed that they didn’t want to get hurt, and had no intentions of joining in on Akuto’s subjugation. But there were others who were Junko’s admirers, some of the boys clearly looked set on taking Akuto’s life.

To make matters worse, even Miss Mitsuko was excited, and had apathetically conducted class by just reading straight out of a textbook.

One minute until the end of class.

Students from other classed had started to gather outside the classroom. Their pre-lunch classes had either ended early or been canceled. The upperclassmen who looked raring to go were most likely friends of Takeshi that hadn’t been underground yesterday, or those rank four and below.

—They’re a little TOO excited, aren’t they...?

A wry grin appeared on Akuto’s face, but the countdown had already begun.

“Boss...” Hiroshi said to Akuto, looking worried.

“It’s okay. I’ll run away immediately.” But just as Akuto said this, Miss Mitsuko made a distressing announcement.

“Wait for the bell, okay? You can’t move an inch before it goes off. Five, four...” Miss Mitsuko counted down as she looked at the clock.

The bell rang.

“Now then, class is over for to—”

Before Miss Mitsuko could even finish her sentence, a barrage of throwing knives, blowguns, darts, and magic missiles came flying at Akuto. As Akuto put up a mana barrier around him, he kicked his own desk aside and jumped towards the window.

The mana barrier was able to stop quite a number of attacks, but the missiles that had been formed purely from magic managed to break the barrier and hit Akuto’s leg. He lost his balance and plunged into the glass window. Along with the shards of glass, he started to fall towards the school courtyard.

—Even though I was able to easily stop the attacks before... I can’t seem to focus my mind. Do I have to be angry like I was yesterday?

Akuto was confused, but he didn’t have time to contemplate this now as his back impacted the courtyard below. He had more than enough magical power, but he hadn’t learned how to use it at all, and now he became keenly aware of his own inexperience. The students all took aim from Akuto from the window and used flight magic to fly down to the courtyard.

—That isn’t fair, I can’t fly!

Akuto ran off towards the mountain behind the school. He was sure it would be easier to escape if he went in that direction. But that was a big mistake — Akuto didn’t think about the advantage the other students had by being able to fly. Instantly, the students above figured out his position and projectiles rained down on him from every possible angle.

—Crap, I get it, just hiding behind trees won’t be enough.

Akuto tried to head back through the school building, but he had a number of pursuers on his heels, and ended up directly charging into them as he went for the school.

—Damn it, most of these people are just here to see the fight!

“Move! I don’t want to hurt you!”

Akuto shouted out, and shot his mana out in front of him, causing a violent explosion. A number of them flew off into the air, but Akuto didn’t have time to determine if they had actually been blown away, or were just trying to fly off and escape the blast.

Akuto dashed through the middle of the explosion and dove into the school building, where in addition to the spectators from before, there were even more students running around trying to escape. However, since his pursuers could only follow behind him within the confides of the hallway itself, it was easier for Akuto to narrow down who he should attack.

“Out of the way!”

As he focused his attention on blowing away his opponents, Akuto ran around the still-unfamiliar school building. It had barely been ten minutes, but Akuto was already out of breath. He searched for a place to hide himself, but no matter where he went, there was always someone watching him. Most of them were just spectators, but that didn’t make them his allies.

Finding it impossible to keep running, Akuto began moving at a brisk jog, but then his pursuers began to close in on him. He had ended up stuck inside the school building like a hamster in a cage.

—Have they been plotting to gang up on me?

Akuto entertained these suspicions as he walked about aimlessly. A number of his pursuers were pretty strong, and knew how to aim their attacks at Akuto, but their pursuit never lasted long. It seemed he was being led somewhere.

Before long, Akuto ended up on the roof. There was a spacious, turf grass athletic field, but it was still just a roof. He’d always end up running out of space.

—So I’ve been cornered, is that the plan?

Akuto needed to get ready for a fight. Reaching the edge of the roof, he turned around, finding himself surrounded by a crowd of people. His opponent would have to be an excellent strategist, who’d used the fact Akuto couldn’t fly to corner him at this very location. That strategist was...

Junko stepped out from the crowd. Rather than wild bloodlust, her eyes were filled with a grim determination to fight to the death. Now she was brandishing a real sword rather than a wooden practice one.

“I’d like to say I’ll fight you one on one, but after having seen your display of power, I’m not too embarrassed to call in for help. Know that even if you dodge my blade, there will be another right behind it.”

Junko raised her sword up, ready for battle.

“I’d really like to put a stop to all of this... But I realize saying so won’t make you change your mind, will it?” Akuto laughed weakly.

Junko nodded.

“Yes, it’s futile.”

Then, Junko began to recite an incantation. Her body seemed to blur, and just like before, she created a copy of herself. However, this time she didn’t just split herself in two, but into an extra two copies.

Now, four versions of Junko faced Akuto and started advancing towards him.

—I can’t dodge four people at once... And it doesn’t seem like I’ll be able to send them flying either...

Akuto thought that if he had been trembling with rage, or if his mana was going haywire like before, he would have been able to defend against her attacks. But in his current emotional state, he wouldn’t be able to defend himself from the attacks of a real sword.

“Hiyaaaaaaaaah!” The four Junkos all jumped at the same time. Akuto was being assailed by four simultaneous attacks.

—Shit!

Akuto evaded one of the Junkos, and with his remaining mana managed to divert another one’s sword away from him.

But Akuto wasn’t able to completely evade the attacks. Scraps of his uniform and blood scattered into the air. One of the Junkos’ swords had slid down the surface of Akuto’s body.

“Ugh!”

Akuto stumbled and leaned back against the rooftop fence. The tips of the four swords were thrust closely up against Akuto’s throat.

“This is the end,” the four different Junkos said coldly and in unison.

“I still don’t think I’ve done anything bad enough to warrant this...” Akuto said as he groaned in pain. Junko’s face clouded over.

“You should change your outlook. No, you’re already too far off the deep end to reassess your life. I’ve seen you try to rule over others with violence. Do you understand how serious of a crime that is?”

“Ah... So that’s it,” Akuto understood.

The fact that he didn’t question his own actions meant that he probably did have the perfect personality to become the Demon King. If he had simply lost his temper and lashed out, no one would call him the Demon King, no matter how powerful he was. For the Demon King was a cold, calculating master of evil.

“But fundamentally, that’s just how I am.”

“It’s unfortunate, but if that’s the case then you have to die,” Junko said. In disbelief at Junko’s words, all Akuto could do was prepare himself for the possibility that he might actually die.

However—

“Someone’s personality can’t be changed, but their way of thinking can.”

Suddenly, a carefree voice could be heard from above their heads. Akuto and the four Junkos jumped in surprise and looked up.

Above them was Keena, floating in midair. Realizing Akuto was looking up at her, she pushed her skirt down in a panic and floated down onto the roof. Then she held both her hands together behind her back and gave a smile that wasn’t at all suitable for the atmosphere around her.

“Keena?”

“W-What are you doing here, you idiot?!”

Ignoring Akuto and Junko’s confusion, Keena spread out both her arms. Then, she spoke in a voice so entrancing it seemed like she was reciting poetry.

“The two of you are truly best friends. There’s no reason for you to hurt each other.”

“What nonsense are you going on about?”

“That’s right, we’re truly—”

“No. C’mon, don’t you two really like one another?” Keena spoke with far too loud of a voice, as both Junko and Akuto were taken aback.

“Huh...?”

“H-Hold on a second—”

“No! I’m sure of this! Ackie, I know in my heart that you are an honest person, and you’re really serious when you try to do something good for someone else. It’s just... sometimes you want to show off how cool you are while doing that, which can backfire. That’s all.”

“Hey...” Akuto was startled.

“And Junko... you actually want to get along with him, but you’re an earnest person, and are worried about your reputation. On top of that, whenever Akuto tries to do the right thing and immediately puts his ideas into action, you feel super jealous about how powerful he is. I know all of that!”

“W-Wait a minute!” The four Junkos’ faces turned bright red.

“So that’s why you two would make great friends! You’re both just clumsy. That being the case, there’s no reason for the two of you to fight anymore!” Keena spoke with a voice that reverberated across the rooftop.

Both Akuto and Junko were completely dumbfounded. Particularly Junko, whose face was bright red and looking down at the ground.

“Jeez... She blew the wind right out of my sails. I’m putting away my sword.” Junko’s clones disappeared. She averted her face from Akuto’s.

“Don’t listen to Keena. She just says whatever comes into her head,” Akuto said with a wry smile as he held his wound.

“I won’t... I mean, I never intended to. Anyway... it doesn’t solve the situation at hand.”

Akuto looked around at the students that surrounded him. There were several who were giving him fierce, murderous looks.

“That’s right, their rage isn’t going to subside just because I’ve withdrawn from this fight,” Junko said. She didn’t seem to realize that the ones who wanted to kill Akuto were mostly her admirers.

—Either way, it seems like I’m going to end up being killed. Damn it...

Akuto groaned internally. There was no way Keena’s speech had fixed everything.

“Should I... help you out?” Junko said, tilting her head back at Akuto slightly.

Akuto shook his head.

“You’re joking. Weren’t you the one who sparked this fight?”

“I know, I’m telling you that I think I went too far, okay?!” Junko snapped at Akuto as she turned around. “So just get over yourself and accept my help!”

“Isn’t it getting your priorities backwards to get yourself killed like this?”

“I’m saying I wouldn’t let that happen!”

“C’mon, I mean you’re weaker than me...”

“Shut your mouth, you’re pissing me off!”

Junko and Akuto were quarreling with each other, but their back and forth only seemed to make those around them even angrier. Gradually the enraged crowd began closing in on them.

When—

“It’s alright!” Keena yelled.

“Huh?” Akuto and Junko both looked at Keena in disbelief. There was no way she had a way out of this, but Keena was full of confidence. With her hands on her hips, she spoke out.

“If everyone eats rice together, this whole matter will be resolved!”

Akuto and Junko couldn’t help but hold their heads in their hands in response.

“Just forget about that, okay...”

“You have to do something about that idiot...”

Despite this, Keena remained undeterred.

“No! Rice is the greatest thing in this whole world! Now, Korone!” Keena suddenly raised her hand and called out. Then she looked down. Korone was standing in the courtyard, aiming her bazooka-shaped medicine dispersion tool.

“Huh?” Akuto was surprised. Then, Korone suddenly fired something like a cannonball from the bazooka-shaped device. The shot rose up, followed by a trail of smoke, and exploded with a bang near the roof.

—That’s what she said was used to disperse medicinal supplies over an area...

Akuto remembered Korone’s words from her previous idle chit-chat with Keena.

“Are you saying that thing is filled with rice?” he said.

Keena nodded.

“Now everyone in the school can have rice together! Now everyone can get along!” Keena declared.

Both Akuto and Junko’s faces grew dark.

“This... is useless, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, we’re doomed.”

They were both ready to fight, facing a mob of students who were about to boil over in anger... or at least that’s what they had expected.

“Huh...?”

The crowd seemed to have calmed down. All of them were spellbound by the glowing rice pouring down and washing over their bodies.

“You’re kidding...”

“This is absurd...”

Akuto and Junko both stood there in blank amazement. Keena was the only one delighted by what was going on around them.

“I did it! I did it! Rice really can make everyone get along!”

—I don’t know about getting along, it’s more like...

Akuto realized something as he looked at the strange scene around him. He couldn’t shake the feeling that the students who were hit by Korone’s bazooka all seemed to be under the influence of some sort of drug.

“Ah, hahahaha, hahahaha!”

“Anyone else feeling kinda good?”

“Man... This is great! I feel awesome!”

Everyone gathered there started reacting to the rice shower.

“Wh-What’s going to happen now...?” Akuto decided to put up a mana barrier, covering Keena and Junko as well.

Dumbfounded, they watched the crowd as it started to move. They were all staggering around like a horde of zombies. They began to head down from the roof in droves.

“You want to try and follow them?” Junko put her arm across Akuto’s shoulder and helped him stand. Akuto held pressure on his wound as he stood up.

As they followed the crowd, their numbers gradually began to increase. It seemed that somehow or another, all of them were heading towards the girls’ dormitory.

“What is going on?” Akuto tilted his head. But the answer soon hit him.

The throng surrounded the girls’ dorm. The girls in the crowd started heading inside. Then, the boys who couldn’t go inside all started to yell one by one.

“Mistress Fujiko Eto! Please show yourself to us! Just a peek is fine, but please show us!”

Inside the dorm, the girls were clearly surrounding her room. Their coquettish cries of “Mistress Fujiko!” began to ring out from inside the dorm.

“Wh-What...?” Akuto and Junko were both perplexed, when Korone came up behind them.

“This is certainly some sort of drug. Keena, did you put anything else besides rice in that shot?”

“Yeah. I put in some medicine I found,” Keena meekly nodded her head in agreement.

—Medicine she picked up... It can’t be, was that the medicine that Eto gave me?!

“Where did you ‘find’ this medicine?” Akuto asked, and Keena again meekly nodded her head.

“Ackie’s room.”

Looking at Keena’s carefree expression, Akuto was at a loss for words. But what if Keena had known everything, and had taken the medicine out of his pocket?

—Did she steal it back when Korone warned me on the stairs? Could she have been invisible and followed me?

“What exactly does this medicine do?” Akuto asked Korone.

“It was never intended for aerial dispersion, so this is just conjecture, but its current effect seems to be making one fall in love with a specific target. The effect has weakened due to the fact it was sprayed, so I do not know what its original effect was supposed to be.”

—If that’s the case, then does that mean Eto tricked me? No... There’s no proof, but... I guess I have to be careful.

Various doubts began to well up in Akuto’s mind. If Junko and Akuto had taken a stronger version of the drug, wouldn’t that mean the two of them would have fallen under Fujiko’s control? If so, that meant Keena had tried to save them from that fate without saying a single thing about it...

“Why did you put the medicine in with the rice?”

“Huh? Isn’t it obvious? After all, I heard this medicine would make people get along.”

“Did you follow me?”

“Yeah. Sorry. I kept quiet about it, though. So don’t be mad, okay?”

“Alright, so then Eto wasn’t trying to trick me at all?”

“Why do you think that? Eto is a good person, you know?”

Akuto had absolutely no clue about how much Keena understood, or how deliberate her actions had been.

—Uhh... Whatever... Anyway...

“When will everyone calm down?” Akuto asked Korone.

“I anticipate that the effect will wear off tonight.”

Just as Korone had predicted, the girls’ dorm remained surrounded until nighttime. Akuto couldn’t even imagine what could be going on inside of the dorm. All he could hear were Fujiko’s cries, and he watched on as the boys outside wept tears of great joy every time they heard her voice.

Of course, Akuto’s subjugation remained unsettled. It appeared the medicine had a considerable effect on the minds of the students, and most of their memories from that day became hazy. This meant that even after all this, they reverted back to bitterly hating Akuto.

○

Meanwhile, Fujiko realized that her plan had failed after a large number of students had surrounded the girls’ dormitory. Naturally, she had been watching Akuto from her monitor and understood what had caused the situation. She had realized that Korone had scattered her own medicine into the air.

“He must have seen through my plan!”

This wasn’t the case, of course, but it was natural for Fujiko to see things this way.

“As to be expected of the Demon King! Now that he has seen my true nature, I cannot hide behind my facade! I’ll definitely make him mine, and sooner than later this world will be destroyed...”

Fujiko took out her Notebook of Malice and started to jot down her grudge against Akuto and her plan moving forward. But then she heard the uproar outside through her crystal ball, bringing her back to the situation at hand.

The girl students were already entering the dorm. Tearing her eyes away from the crystal ball and turning around, she saw that the door to her room was shaking from the girls’ knocking, as if they were about to smash through it at any moment

“Mistress! Mistress! Mistress Fujiko!”

“Mistress, take me!”

She started to hear the frenzied calls from the girls outside her door. It appeared that because of its aerial dispersion, the effects of the drug had taken a strange turn.

“I’ll need to calm down this disturbance first.”

Fujiko put her hands on the lock to her door. The drug was meant to make others listen to her orders, so although there had been an alteration to its effects, Fujiko thought that she should be able to pacify the mob herself.

But the moment she undid the lock on her door, the girls all stampeded into the room at once.

“Whaaaaaaat?!”

Before she knew, it she was mobbed by the female students.

“Oh, mistress!”

“I love you!”

“I’ve always wanted to be with you like this, my mistress!”

Hands reached out from all over the place, groping Fujiko’s body. Then, as they desperately tried to get their hands on her body, they began tearing off her clothes.

“Nooooooooo! Stop this instant!” Fujiko cried out, but for some reason her screaming seemed to only make things worse.

“Oh, what a lovely voice! Please, cry out more!”

The girls only got more and more excited.

“Stoooooop! Don’t touch me there!”

“Oooh! Yes! Yes! This is amazing!”

“Eeeeeeeeeek!”

Completely naked and mobbed by the other girls, Fujiko’s hell continued until night time.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

○

“Anyway.”

After the uproar had died down, Akuto sat in his room, arms folded and deep in thought. He still couldn’t understand Keena at all.

“What are you thinking about?” Akuto asked Keena directly.

“Rice is delicious,” Keena answered. There was a rice cooker placed in front of her. She scooped some white rice out with a ladle.

The rice cooker was something brand-new that Akuto had bought. Akuto had seen it as an investment in order to figure out once and for all what exactly Keena’s intentions were, but he still didn’t know whether it would produce any results.

Then, there was a knocking at the window. Opening the window on her own, Junko thrust her head into the room.

“Girls shouldn’t be in the boys’ dormitory!” she yelled, pointing at Keena.

“You’ve come here too, haven’t you?” Keena complained.

“I’m not actually in the dorm! I’m just standing outside the door!”

“Huh? In that case, why did you come here in the first place, Junko?” Keena pouted her lips, and Junko’s face suddenly grew red, and began stuttering.

“Sh-Shut up! I have to be here since I’ve decided to rehabilitate this guy! I’m going to train you so you’ll never do anything bad again! I hope you’re ready!” Junko pointed at Akuto. Then, with the same passionate momentum, she turned towards Keena.

“More importantly, Keena! You made yourself invisible and snuck into my room, didn’t you?!”

“Why do you say that? You don’t have any proof, do you?” Keena scooped up some rice and brought it to her mouth.

“Proof? In that case, why did you know what I said to myself in private?!”

“Are you talking about what you were muttering to yourself about Ackie? I didn’t hear any of that.”

At Keena’s words, Junko blushed even more.

“You did hear! You totally listened in on me! No, don’t bother denying it! Shut up! Just forget about it!” Junko noisily rebutted. Keena also raised her voice, and the two of them began shouting back and forth at one another right in front of Akuto, who put his head in his hands.

“Jeez, what will happen next...”

“If you knew that, I believe you’d certainly be able to become the Demon King, don’t you think?” Korone replied to Akuto, who had been talking to himself.

“Boss! Do you want to play a game or something, boss?!”

From the other side of the door, Akuto could hear Hiroshi’s voice.

Akuto’s life at the Academy had only just begun, but it seemed to him that it would be even more dramatic from here on out.

○

There were other people besides Akuto who were interested in his life at the Academy.

Like the student council president and Miss Mitsuko, who were facing each other in the reception area of the staff room. Although she was petite, the student council president had an imposing attitude, which did not change even when speaking with Miss Mitsuko.

“Well then! It seems Miss Fujiko Eto herself has realized that her true nature has been revealed to Akuto Sai, and I believe that means more black magicians will find their way to the school,” the student council president said, as if she was complaining about the situation.

“I don’t know the details of what happened one hundred years ago, but I wonder if it will all play out like back then,” Miss Mitsuko said, pouting.

“I don’t know, either. But it’ll all work out somehow, won’t it?” The student council president laughed loudly.

“Anyway, whether he’s the Demon King or not, he doesn’t seem to be all good or all evil,” Miss Mitsuko said. “Take the appropriate steps to make sure he doesn’t take either side, okay?”

“Miss Mitsuko, that’s easier said than done. If Hattori’s parents come out and oppose the black magicians, won’t he then go along with Hattori and take her side?”

“You also need to adjust your actions accordingly around the feelings he’s developed.”

“Being the student council president doesn’t make me a god, you know! Anyway, there was one other thing I was curious about.”

“What?”

“Who exactly is Keena Soga?” The student council president asked meaningfully. Her teacher tilted her head at the question.

“Who knows? She’s just a normal student. Just a plain old, regular student.”

Miss Mitsuko gave a big grin.