CHAPTER TWO

SHADOWS OF INTRIGUE

1

The New Year’s Eve bells began to ring.

It was just past eleven fifteen PM. The announcer’s voice over the radio was rambling about the state of the entire country of Japan just before the New Year.

Motoki Yaze, sitting in the back seat of a taxi, grimaced as the noise filled the air while he pressed a cell phone to his ear. The other person on the line was Kazuma Yaze, his half brother who was ten years his senior.

After spending thirty seconds on hold, Yaze was starting to get irritated, but then he finally heard his brother get on the line.

“—It’s me, Big Bro.”

“I know. Motoki, what of Yume?”

The first thing Kazuma had asked about was Yume, making no effort to hide his displeasure. That fact elicited a small, strained smile from Yaze.

Even if it was just on paper, Kazuma was Yume’s guardian, and the power she possessed—that of Lilith, the Witch of the Night—made her a precious pawn of the Gigafloat Management Corporation. Even if Kazuma’s concern was based on such calculations, Yaze still found it oddly amusing that his calm, rational half brother was giving an elementary school girl such special attention.

“Li’l Yume is sleeping. I’m bringing her home with me right now.”

Yaze glanced at the little girl sleeping right beside him as he made his report. Maybe it was exhaustion from being unaccustomed to her outfit, but Yume was sound asleep by the time eleven PM rolled around. Left with no other option, Yaze was in the process of taking her to his home.

“More importantly, something kinda troublesome popped up. I want info.”

“Sorry, but I’m already past my regular bedtime. If you need something, talk to me tomorrow,” Kazuma gently rebuffed.

“Bedtime? It’s New Year’s Eve.”

“Dates are mere symbols humans employ for their own convenience. I have no reason to obey such strictures.”

“You will never land a woman.”

Yaze responded to his half brother’s cold reaction with harsh cynicism. He knew the busy Kazuma was very fussy about time, but not even listening to what his younger brother had to say was taking it too far. Yaze couldn’t live with himself if he didn’t get in at least one invective word.

However, Kazuma didn’t pay him the slightest bit of concern as he said, “If you have a monitoring report, tell it to the Information Department. Hanegiwa should still be there.”

“I’m talking to you because I don’t think it’s something Ryoko can handle.”

“…Explain. Make it brief.”

Perhaps Yaze’s desperate persistence had conveyed his haste, for Kazuma grudgingly opened the conversation. However, because he’d said Make it brief, Yaze’s response was not long-winded.

“Nagisa might’ve been caught up in some kind of incident.”

“Nagisa Akatsuki…the Fourth Primogenitor’s younger sister. I heard she had gone off the island, yes?”

“Tell me her current circumstances. You’re monitoring her, aren’t you?”

Yaze wasted no time in issuing his demand. Even if her possession by Root Avrora was temporary, it didn’t change that the girl known as Nagisa Akatsuki was such an important individual that even the Gigafloat Management Corporation was concerned. He hardly needed to ask if she was allowed to leave the island without being monitored; it was unthinkable by nature.

That was why Kazuma’s reply was tinged with an unmistakable bitterness.

“We lost her. It was right after she arrived on the mainland.”

“They shook off the tail?”

“They apparently used an amusement park crowd.”

The displeasure in Kazuma’s tone increased. For the methodical Kazuma, a subordinate’s failure throwing his plans awry was humiliation difficult to endure.

“The handiwork of Kojou’s dad, huh…?”

“Most likely. Gajou Akatsuki, the Death Returnee, would appear to be an even more troublesome opponent than rumored.”

The old man really got us, thought a flabbergasted Yaze. At minimum, the observer dispatched by the Gigafloat Management Corporation had to be a Hyper Adapter like Yaze—not an opponent that a middle-aged man who wasn’t even an Attack Mage could handle under normal circumstances.

“So in the end, we don’t know what kind of trouble Nagisa’s gotten caught up in… That’s not good.”

“Why have you deemed her situation perilous?”

Yaze’s face twisted in unease as Kazuma calmly posed the question.

“All contact with Nagisa cut off a week ago. But apparently, this was a photo left behind from her smartphone. Can you see it?”

“A magic circle… A rather large-scale one at that,” Kazuma murmured after checking the file his brother sent him. “Certainly, using this level of spell in a Demon Sanctuary is out of the ordinary, to say nothing of magic use on the mainland. However, you cannot judge that Nagisa Akatsuki has become involved in an incident based on this information alone.”

“I see what you’re gettin’ at. The Corporation can’t flex its muscles off the island, right?”

“Correct, particularly when this image is the only confirmation that something occurred.”

Kazuma’s tone was blunt and dismissive as usual. However, Yaze fully expected as much.

Itogami Island was considered part of Tokyo Metropolis, but the Demon Sanctuary was close to a de facto autonomous territory. If the Gigafloat Management Corporation ventured beyond the Demon Sanctuary, its various rights were rescinded. The organization was not permitted to dispatch the Island Guard’s law enforcement units off the island, even to rescue a civilian.

If push came to shove, however, that logic was nothing more than a front.

“And if I told you that Kojou is making noise about it?”

Yaze played his card strategically. Politics had a facade, a back side, and a gray area between the two sides. Demon Sanctuaries existed to govern that third, uncertain realm—and the people that lived within it.

If you had a card that trumped that false front—some kind of fake justification—you could make your move.

“He’s got a pretty serious sister complex, you know. If we don’t play this right, I can’t say he won’t rush right out of Itogami Island and look for Nagisa himself.”

“The Fourth Primogenitor having a sister complex is news to me.”

Kazuma’s voice did not waver. He’d no doubt expected Yaze to play that card.

“Well, fine. I understand the situation. I will add more investigators to search for more information. At this stage, it is unwise to dispatch Attack Mages in excess, however, we cannot simply let the situation lie.”

“I suppose realistically that’s all we can do.”

Yaze exhaled, dispirited. Even if she was related to the Fourth Primogenitor, Nagisa Akatsuki was an ordinary person, not a demon. Dispatching investigators at all was the largest concession Kazuma could make. For now, Yaze was forced to accept that.

“Roger. What do we do with Kojou, then?”

The mood was heavy. Yaze was not confident they could keep the World’s Mightiest Vampire under control when he was half crazed from obscure information suggesting his little sister might be in trouble.

However, Kazuma’s reply was unexpectedly brief.

“Continue monitoring him. If necessary, we will deal with him.”

“Deal with him… Big Bro, you can’t mean…?”

“Do not make me repeat myself. Continue monitoring him.”

Kazuma gruffly hung up on him. Yaze slumped his shoulders into the seat of the taxi. Beside him, Yume, in her long-sleeved kimono, was deeply, innocently asleep.

The change of date would soon be at hand…

2

A large crowd gazed in awe at the colorful streaks of light filling the night sky.

Boom! The loud bursts resonated across the island. It was the fireworks show for the New Year’s countdown.

Kojou and the others looked up at the wild dance of scattering lights in the night sky from the path leading to the temple.

Yukina’s eyes were open especially wide as she watched the fireworks. Asagi completely devoted herself to videotaping the fireworks using the digital camera she’d borrowed from Yukina. Kojou, on the other hand, sank his teeth deep into his lower lip, glaring at his cell phone with the look of a man fallen on hard times. With no calls getting through to Nagisa, all he could do was send text after text and pray for a response.

“Calm down, Kojou. We don’t know for sure that something’s happened to Nagisa.”

Asagi, seeing Kojou in a state of mental anguish, spoke like she was at her wit’s end. Kojou’s shoulders quivered, almost like a child scolded by a pet owner for playing pranks on the poor animal.

“I know that. I’m completely calm.”

“This is calm…?”

When Kojou looked back, making excuses with a quivering voice, Asagi sighed. As before, Asagi was in her long-sleeved kimono, but thanks to the temperature having dropped in the middle of the night, she was a bit sprightlier than before.

Incidentally, Kojou was wearing a casual outfit: shorts with a parka on top. Yukina, carrying her guitar case like usual, was wearing bordered knee socks and a miniskirt; she looked like she belonged in an all-girl band.

Meanwhile, the procession of visitors moved in an orderly fashion, and Kojou and the others arrived at the temple’s gate.

Itogami Temple, where Kojou and the rest had gone for their first temple visit of the New Year, was a popular spot for such occasions for a simple reason: It was a great place from which to see the fireworks. There were numerous islanders frolicking within the grounds, with numerous night stalls lined up to greet them.

Even amid that jovial atmosphere, Kojou’s face refused to crack a smile.

With Nagisa unable to take calls, her smartphone had taken a single photo. Its very existence robbed Kojou of the ability to calm down. His gloomy attitude definitely put a damper on the general mood of the highly anticipated New Year’s temple visit, but because Asagi and Yukina knew why he was feeling down, they were in no position to complain.

“Well, why don’t we pray? This temple is supposed to be blessed by a god, you know.”

Perhaps Asagi tossed up such irresponsible words because she couldn’t think of any better way to cheer Kojou up. With eyes like a dead fish, he sluggishly gazed at the sign standing before the temple.

“According to this, the god of this temple presides over prosperity in wealth and marriage…,” he said.

“Hey, it’s a god. It can fulfill a request or two outside of its specialties, right?”

Whether her argument was convincing or not, Asagi firmly presented the uncertain logic.

“Come to think of it, senpai, how did your fortune drawing go?”

Yukina rather forcefully changed the subject, perhaps hoping to brush the negative atmosphere aside.

Itogami Temple’s sacred lots were not mere tests of chance; rather, they were exceptionally accurate oracles produced with Demon Sanctuary technology. Considering Kojou’s current troubles, the odds were high that he had obtained beneficial advice from his drawings.

“…Senpai?”

However, Kojou remained silent as he offered Yukina his two sacred lots. Taking them, Yukina was aghast—for the two lots Kojou had drawn were stamped with the characters for bad and very bad, respectively. Apparently, Kojou had been unnerved after having initially drawn bad, redrawing only to get very bad instead.

“Umm…it is all right, senpai. If right now is rock bottom, it should only get better from here.”

“Right, right. Your misfortune might mean Nagisa has good fortune dancing all around her.”

“Yeah…well, not that it really matters to me right now— Ow!”

Kojou, largely the author of his own worries, spoke in a listless tone. Then, he suddenly felt a dull pain from the back of his head. Coins that someone had tossed toward the offering box had struck his head instead.

“Wh-what the hell?!”

As he continued to stand there, Kojou was grazed by other coins tossed toward the offering box. It was a common sight at a temple with so many visitors, but Kojou felt like a lot more coins were landing direct hits that year. He feared this was the result of his very bad fortune.

Yukina drew close to Kojou’s ear, whispering in a small voice, “Senpai, perhaps someone is aiming at you? Somehow, I am sensing some kind of ill will toward you…”

At that moment, the number of coins pouring down on him noticeably increased. Someone definitely had it out for him.

“Kojou, maybe someone’s jealous of you? You have Himeragi with you, after all.”

“No, Aiba, I believe you stand out far more in that kimono than I do right now…”

“Well, a lot of guys come to pray at a temple of marriage because they want girlfriends. He’s walking with a beauty on either side of him, so of course they’ll send hate his way.”

“What kind of logic is that?! And it’s not like we’re ‘together’ like that to begin with…!”

Venting to no one in particular, Kojou prayed in a hurry and fled the space in front of the offering box. Yukina and Asagi paid him no heed, remaining in place as they each offered prayers before the hall of worship.

Perhaps they prayed for the safety of Nagisa, their friend. Perhaps they asked for something else. Either way, it was not for Kojou to know.

Even then, the sound of fireworks celebrating the New Year continued to echo.

As he waited for Asagi and Yukina to finish their temple visit, Kojou pulled out his cell phone and stared at it again. The LCD screen displayed that night-sky photo, sent to him from the laptop.

When Asagi and Yukina met up with him after praying, he asked the following question just in case: “This image… There’s no way this is just fireworks, right?”

Giant patterns filled the night sky above them. Artificial radiance danced in the heavens. In that regard, the two scenes did have something in common. But without any hesitation, the two girls ruled out the possibility.