The Asterisk War, Vol. 9: Whispers of a Long Farewell

by Yuu Miyazaki

  A small silver charm dropped onto the sofa where Ayato was sitting.

  “What is it?”

  “Claudia gave it to me as a birthday present a long time ago. It’s supposed to bring good luck… Although, it was a pretty unpleasant present.”

  “Unpleasant…?” Ayato had no idea what she was talking about.

  “Don’t worry about it. Anyway, please give it to her. She can think of it as my revenge, if she wants.”

  Ayato stepped out of the diner into a dark, early fall day.

  The sun was hidden behind thick clouds, and the damp wind carried a distinctive aroma. According to the weather forecast, rain was expected later in the evening.

  “…Anyway, I need to find Claudia,” he muttered to himself as he hurried toward the road leading back to the school.

  What could have motivated her to do this? He had no choice but to ask her directly. If, as Laetitia had said, he was one of the keys to the mystery, he had to find her no matter what it took.

  Just as he had come to that realization, his mobile began to ring.

  He hurriedly opened an air-window, only to be met with an unexpected face.

  “Huh? Sylvie?”

  “Ayato, I heard what happened. It sounds serious.”

  “Ah, yeah. It is… But how did you find out about it?”

  “I am a student council president, you know, and here at Queenvale we do have our own intelligence organization, Benetnasch. They aren’t half bad.”

  Just like Laetitia had at Gallardworth, it looked like the other schools were starting to catch on to the situation, if belatedly.

  “That’s it! Can you use Benetnasch to try to work out where she is right now?” he asked, a glimmer of hope having revealed itself.

  Sylvia, however, merely shook her head apologetically. “I’m sorry, Ayato. They didn’t say anything about her current whereabouts, and I doubt they would tell me even if they do know.”

  Just as a part of him had expected, the higher-ups at Queenvale also considered the best approach to be to let things play out.

  They would, of course, know about Sylvia’s friendship with Ayato, and so there was little chance that they would divulge such information to her.

  “But you know, I’ve been thinking about it myself, and—”

  But before she could finish speaking, the air-window suddenly went black.

  “…Huh? No signal?”

  That was not a message he expected to see in the middle of Asterisk. With the exception of certain areas, such as the underground block where Saya had found herself several days ago, there should have been good reception throughout the entire city.

  Wondering what was going on, Ayato lifted his gaze to his surroundings and paused in shock. Without him realizing it, the scenery around him had completely changed. The streets were devoid of passersby, and the buildings around him were in a dilapidated state. He was in the redevelopment area.

  “How did I…?”

  He should have been going in the other direction, back toward Seidoukan, and yet, he had found himself here. Not only that, now that he had stopped in the middle of the street, a thick fog had begun to rise up around him.

  It was clearly an atypical mistake.

  He put himself on guard, scanning his surroundings, when a ghostlike figure began to emerge from the mist.

  “—?!”

  “…It’s a concealment technique, one that interferes with the target’s sense of direction. It’s practically impossible to counter if the target doesn’t realize what’s happened to them.”

  “Huh? That voice… Yabuki?!”

  “Yep, right on the mark.”

  The figure continued toward him through the fog, until finally Ayato could make out his roommate’s features. He was wearing a hood, and while his eyes were completely hidden, Ayato could make out a faint smile.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Now, now, Amagiri. Won’t you play nice and let me keep you tied down for a while? There’s no need for questions.” Eishirou, his hands in his pockets, stopped just outside the edge of Ayato’s range.

  “Let you keep me tied down…? Oh, so that’s how it is, is it?” Ayato asked with a slight scowl. His tone made his point clear. “You’re siding with the school on this?”

  “Well, I had wanted to pull back the curtain more dramatically… But I guess it’s too late now.” Eishirou lifted his hood, flashing Ayato his usual friendly smile as he scratched at the side of his head. “You’ve heard about Shadowstar, right? Basically, I work for them. Surprised?” he asked with a quiet laugh.

  “…Anyone would be surprised to hear that their friend works for an intelligence organization.”

  “You look pretty calm, though,” Eishirou pointed out.

  “I guess I’ve known for a while that you’re no ordinary student, Yabuki,” Ayato answered as he reached for his waist. “And I did think it was pretty unusual that you weren’t interested in taking part in the Festa.”

  “Hah, is that so…? Looks like I need to up my training.” Eishirou lowered his shoulders, crestfallen. “But still, I’m glad to hear you consider me your friend. I feel like I’ve been deceiving you this whole time.” Eishirou’s head was drooped, but there was a probing glint in his eyes.

  “Hmm… Conceal is probably a better way to put it, I’d say. And besides, there are things I’ve concealed from you as well, so I guess we’re both guilty.”

  At this, Eishirou stared back at him in silent astonishment for a moment. “I always knew you were softhearted, but come on, this is a bit much…”

  “That’s not it. I know what I’m doing. I mean, if you’re my friend, you might let me go, right?” Ayato replied with a grave expression, bracing himself for the worst.

  The air around them suddenly became tense.

  “Hey, hey! You trying to scare me?” Eishirou asked, unfazed. “To tell you the truth, though, speaking for myself, I’ve got nothing against doing just that.”

  “Huh?”

  “I’ve got my own problems, too, you know? My heart isn’t in this job,” he said, shrugging his shoulders in exasperation.

  “…Is Shadowstar really okay with its people having such a half-hearted work ethic?”

  It was an intelligence organization, after all.

  “Ha-ha… Of course not. I’m not trying to brag or anything, but I’m kind of the biggest troublemaker Shadowstar’s ever had. I’ve got a bit of a name for myself there, you know?”

  “…No, that isn’t something to boast about.”

  Even at a time like this, Eishirou didn’t seem to be feeling any sense of tension or nervousness. “You know, it’s different if I get a choice, but I hate being made to do jobs I don’t want to do. And this time, that’s what it is.”

  “So you’ll let me go, then, won’t you?” Ayato asked.

  Eishirou, however, gave him a broad grin. “Let’s say you do get away. Do you even have any idea where to look for her?”

  “Ah… Not yet.”

  He didn’t want to admit it, but that was the truth.

  “You won’t find her just fumbling around blindly. You know who it is that’s chasing her, right?”

  “Aren’t they…? No, more importantly, do you have any idea where she is, Yabuki? Anything at all?”

  “Hmm, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t,” he replied simply.

  “In that case—”

  Eishirou, however, raised a hand, urging Ayato to be silent. “No, no, no. It’ll come back to bite me if I tell you that. Far too dangerous.”

  “Yabuki, Claudia’s life is in danger here! Please!” Ayato begged him.

  “Well, I do owe the prez, and it’s not like I don’t want to repay her… All right, how about this?” he said, clapping his hands together as if coming across some great idea. “Amagiri, let’s have a match.”

  “A match…?”

  Ayato couldn’t help but wonder what Eishirou was thinking, and yet, judging from the situation, he
must have been trying to lead up to this from the beginning.

  “If you win, I’ll tell you where she is. And if I lose, it’ll give me a good excuse to give to the brass… And you know, I’ve been looking forward to this opportunity for a while now.”

  “We don’t have time for this, Yabuki…!”

  “I guess I can’t tell you, then.”

  “Ngh…!”

  Eishirou continued to watch Ayato with his usual carefree grin. His eyes, however, were serious. It was clear he wasn’t bluffing—and that he wouldn’t be willing to negotiate.

  “Haah… Fine. What kind of match?”

  It looked like he would have no choice.

  “Let’s see… I don’t quite feel like staking my life on it, so how about we do it empty-handed, no weapons? You win if you can take me down.”

  “And if you win…?”

  “I’m just supposed to keep you tied down, so let’s just say the longer this thing drags on, the better I can fulfill my job.”

  Ayato couldn’t help but feel as if he had been tricked into reaching this position, but there was no turning back now.

  “As for the place… How about that building over there?” Eishirou glanced around before pointing to an abandoned building nearby—the sort of dilapidated construction that you could find just about anywhere in the redevelopment area. It was four stories high, but parts of walls and ceiling around the top floor looked to have already given way to the elements.

  “Fine. Sorry about this, but I’m not going to go easy on you.”

  “Good. Just don’t underestimate me,” Eishirou replied, before disappearing back into the fog.

  “All right, then…”

  With that, Ayato released his seal and approached the abandoned building.

  “Huh…? What just happened?”

  In the corridor on the top floor of Queenvale Academy for Young Ladies’ Twin Hall, Sylvia tilted her head in confusion as she inspected her mobile.

  She had been talking normally until just a few moments ago, but all of a sudden, she seemed to have lost reception. For a second, she wondered whether it had malfunctioned, but the connection had dropped too suddenly for that.

  She could try to work out what had gone wrong with it, but she wasn’t particularly good at using machines, and to be honest, she didn’t know a lot about how they worked, either. Nonetheless, she stood there, playing around with it, trying to get it to reconnect, when—

  “…Who were you speaking with just now, Sylvia?”

  “Ah! Petra!” She spun around, only to see Queenvale’s chairwoman, Petra Kivilehto, walking toward her.

  “No, it’s nothing… I guess it’s not going to work,” she murmured to herself, hiding the device behind her back.

  She probably wouldn’t be able to talk her way out of this one, though, she thought, and so resigned herself to facing her elder. “I was talking to Ayato. Is there anything wrong with that?”

  “Ah… I already told you not to interfere with this, Sylvia. You might be the world’s most popular songstress, but you understand that even that won’t help you if you go up against the wishes of W&W, don’t you? Not even I would be able to protect you then.”

  “I—I know…”

  “Then take my advice.”

  Seeing no other alternative, Sylvia put her mobile back into her pocket.

  She wanted to help Ayato as much as possible, but as far as she could see, there wasn’t anything she could do for him right now.

  “But still, the wishes of the foundation…?”

  “What are you trying to say?” Petra’s expression, half concealed behind her visor-like pair of glasses, visibly stiffened.

  “Nothing. I’m just a little disappointed.”

  The life of Seidoukan’s student council president was now in danger because of the will of an IEF. Not only that, but just when she had thought the other foundations were ready to step in and bring a stop to it, they had all decided to stand aside and watch them kill her in silence. She couldn’t help but wish ill upon the whole lot.

  “They’re as self-serving as you could get, every one of them…” She cursed them all under her breath.

  Petra let out a weak sigh. “You’re still young, Sylvia. It isn’t just the integrated enterprise foundations. As soon as people find a way to better benefit themselves, they all become self-serving. It’s only natural. And in this world, that isn’t considered wrong.”

  “I don’t know… Not me, at least,” Sylvia murmured, as if trying to convince herself.

  She couldn’t help but think that, in the end, every student at Asterisk was no more than a pawn for the integrated enterprise foundations to profit off of.

  Even students like herself, who were afforded more liberties than most others, were simply granted a slightly larger cage from which they couldn’t escape.

  “…You know, Petra, this has just reminded me that it all boils down to nothing more than a big charade.”

  “There’s no use holding on to that sentimentality of yours, Sylvia. You decided for yourself to become an idol.”

  “That might be so…but I don’t think it’s that easy. You understand, don’t you, Petra? You were a student here, too.”

  Petra remained silent for a long moment, before answering in a somewhat muffled tone: “…I’ve forgotten. It was a long time ago.”

  Liar, Sylvia thought.

  There was no point, however, debating it any further. It would be unfair for her to take her anger out on the older woman and would only end up making her feel worse.

  At the very least, she could pray for the safety of the one who was willing to stand up and fight. “Ayato… Hang in there.”

  It was all but impossible to see inside the abandoned building. There was no lighting, of course, and the fog seemed to have seeped within the walls as well.

  No sooner had Ayato stepped inside than he noticed something disconcerting.

  I can’t sense anything…

  The Amagiri Shinmei style’s perception-expanding technique, the mental state known as shiki, seemed to be completely ineffective here. That, too, was probably due to Eishirou’s concealment techniques.

  “This isn’t good…”

  But there was no use fretting over it, he told himself.

  He glanced across the room, trying to make out his surroundings through the dim fog. In front of him, there looked to be an empty corridor. He could make out a flight of stairs in the back, along with a door hanging from its hinges on the far wall, so damaged that it looked as if it might collapse at any moment.

  Relying on the weak light peeking in through the window to guide his steps, he began down the debris-strewn corridor, when something came flying out toward him.

  “Ha…!”

  He managed to snatch it out of the air before it could hit him. It was a long, slender piece of metal—a bou-shuriken.

  “…What was that you said about doing this empty-handed, Eishirou?” Ayato called out into the fog, his voice filled with disgust.

  “I am empty-handed,” Eishirou called back. “Unfortunately, it looks like someone’s gone and set traps all throughout the building. I’ve got no idea who could’ve done it, but it looks pretty dangerous. You’d better watch out.”

  “You really are shameless…,” Ayato murmured, but there was no use complaining. He would just have to be careful.

  He could hardly even make out his own feet, but he proceeded through the building step-by-step, paying full attention to his surroundings.

  He had made it almost to the middle of the corridor, when all of a sudden, he sensed a sudden rush coming up from behind him.

  “Ngh!”

  He rolled forward to evade Eishirou’s knife-hand strike, the attack grazing past him.

  “Heh, so you dodged it. Looks like you live up to your name, Amagiri. The Phoenix wasn’t all for nothing, eh?” Eishirou gave a relaxed laugh.

  “You as well. I couldn’t sense you at all… What’s the trick?
”

  “Heh, attacking from the shadows is our specialty. If people could see it, that’d leave us in a bit of a bind, don’t you think?” Eishirou said, before once again fading away into the dimly lit fog. “This whole place is completely under the control of my techniques. You can’t even enter your state of shiki, right?”

  “I thought you’d done something… You keep saying technique. Are you a Dante, Yabuki?” Ayato called out, hoping to keep the conversation going so he could detect Eishirou’s location.

  “I guess you could say that, in a general sense. It’s more like Jie Long’s seisenjutsu, though. But unlike them, only my clan can use these ones.”

  “Your clan?”

  “My family’s been involved in this business for a long time. They’ve been teaching me practically since I could walk. My dear father’s taken it to heart that those without talent don’t deserve to live, so I guess you can say it would have been against his nature to go easy on me. You wouldn’t guess how many times I ran away from home…”

  The voice was coming from Ayato’s right side. Just as he began to turn around to face it, a low spinning kick knocked him off his feet.

  The attack had taken him completely by surprise. Even so, he landed on his right hand, twisting his body through the air, and leaping to safety with a backward somersault.

  “Heh-heh, you’d better be careful, Amagiri. Making our voices sound like they’re coming from somewhere else is child’s play for us.” This time, the voice came from directly overhead.

  “…Thanks for the advice.”

  Ayato finally understood.

  Eishirou Yabuki was formidable.

  He might have already known the location of their duel, and laid down traps, but the skill of his attacks and the way he moved were exceptional, easily comparable to those of a Page One.

  Fortunately for Ayato, Eishirou wasn’t trying to escape, but rather, he was proactively trying to land his own strikes.

  If what he said was to be believed, his goal was to delay Ayato for as long as possible. In that case, his best option would be to remain hidden and force Ayato to find him.

  Unless that isn’t his goal…? No, there’s no time to worry about that.