Golden Days

by Gakuto Mikumo

  During the momentary opening left by Yukari’s delayed response, Yukina finished activating the ritual scrolls. The metallic shikigami scrolls transformed into a flock of birds that swarmed Yukari. It was the sort of long-range attack that Shamanic War Dancers of the Lion King Agency, not Sword Shamans, specialized in. Because the attack was so unexpected, Yukari needed additional time to counter.

  Meanwhile, Yukina created a huge wolf shikigami and hopped on its back, intending to make her escape astride it. Of course, Kojou was right there with her. Tracking magic worked poorly against Yukina thanks to Snowdrift Wolf. Even with Yukari’s abilities, it would be difficult to pursue them further.

  And so, using the long-range attack magic that normally gave her such trouble, Yukina escaped from Yukari’s grasp.

  It was a method of fighting Yukina would never even have considered half a year ago.

  There was no mistaking that Yukina had grown, and at a speed surpassing even Yukari’s wildest expectations. She wondered if Yukina herself realized what misfortune this unexpected rate of growth would bring her—

  “Yukina…you’ve…”

  The elven Attack Mage narrowed her beautiful green eyes as she sighed.

  The black cat she held in her arms looked up, offering up a soft meow to the dusky sky.

  CHAPTER TWO

  INTO STRATUM ZERO

  1

  A crimson tank raced through the somber city. It was no bigger than the average automobile. It was a micro-robotic tank in a shape easily reminiscent of a land turtle.

  Constructed with anti-demon combat in an urban environment in mind, the robot tank had high maneuverability. It could traverse stairs and obstacles to a certain extent, even climbing sheer walls if the need arose. Its maximum burst of speed probably exceeded two hundred kilometers per hour. None would think one could chase a machine like that in a dense urban area.

  However, the driver of the robot tank refused to slow down. The crimson reinforced-plastic armor plating had countless nicks and scratches carved into it. Someone was chasing the robot tank as it continued to flee.

  “Warning—bogey at two o’clock. Range 1,800. Number: four.”

  Inside the robotic tank cockpit, warning sounds blared without pause.

  Heeding these warnings was a driver—a twelve-year-old girl—in a posture as if riding a motorcycle. She was a foreigner with fiery red hair. She wore a bodysuit, with DIDIER on the name tag sewn onto the chest.

  “Pursuers, hmm? They art swift, indeed.”

  Lydianne Didier clicked her tongue as she gazed at the information about her pursuers displayed on the screen.

  The tank’s internal leg motors were already overheated; output had begun falling. She would have loved to increase its speed to make a clean getaway, but that would be difficult given the circumstances.

  “Speed differential: minus 76.6 meters per second. Estimate seventeen seconds to contact.”

  The tank’s combat support AI issues fresh warnings. Lydianne’s cheeks puffed up like those of a sulking child as she lifted the safeties for all weapons.

  “Launch smoke grenades! Scatter stun mines!”

  “—Smoke grenades launched. Stun mines loaded. Commencing scatter.”

  The support AI repeated Lydianne’s commands as it fired the onboard weapon systems.

  The smoke grenades were a special model developed by Didier Heavy Industries’ Itogami Island lab to interfere with beast-people’s senses of scent as well as tracking via magic. The stun mines were powerful enough to knock the average demon out for at least half a day. No matter how skilled the pursuers, these surely weren’t obstacles that could be overcome with ease. And yet—

  In the next instant, the robot tank was assaulted by a blow from an unexpected direction.

  The blow came from straight overhead. It was as if a gigantic ax had been swung down at the robot tank.

  Shouldering an unexpected burden, one of the wheels lost its grip, sending the tank into a spin. The underbelly armor sprayed sparks in every direction as it scraped against asphalt.

  “Hizamaru—what was that just now?!”

  “Sniping via anti-materiel rifle. Damage is light. Analyzing bullet trajectory—shooter location determined.”

  “Machine guns, full volley!”

  “Roger. Auto-targeting. Machine guns opening fire.”

  The tank’s four onboard antipersonnel machine-gun ports belched flame. She didn’t think she could take out a sniper on top of a building by firing from the ground. It could at least disrupt the enemy’s sniping, though.

  At the same time, the robot tank regained its balance and attempted to flee once again.

  But a moment before that could happen, one of the pursuers emerged, charging out of the fog and leaping toward the rear of the robot tank.

  “A head-on attack?! He doth intend to climb aboard?!”

  “Machine guns have zero rounds remaining. Cannot maintain barrage.”

  “Turn! Rid us of him!”

  Lydianne made the robot tank spin powerfully, but the pursuer calmly remained latched onto it as he raised the sidearm he wielded.

  “Could it be possible…? Be they no mere humans? The Island Guard’s SSG, perhaps?!”

  Lydianne felt she had zeroed in on the true nature of her foe. The Sorcerous Suppression Group was rumored to be the mightiest of the Island Guard, a special unit under the direct command of the Board of Directors. However, the Gigafloat Management Corporation did not publicly acknowledge its existence. This was because the equipment of the Attack Mages assigned to the SSG was constructed with feedback from research on demons conducted on Itogami Island. Using the results of biological research on demons for military applications was a Demon Sanctuary’s greatest taboo.

  Wearing a pitch-black combat suit, the pursuer trained the barrel of his gun on the robot’s front legs. The six-barreled machine gun ferociously pumped bullets into them from point-blank range.

  “Hizamaru!” cried Lydianne at the top of her lungs.

  In the middle of turning, the tank lost its balance and crashed into a side wall on the edge of the street.

  “Sustained small-caliber Gatling gunfire at point-blank range. Front left leg heavily damaged. Fourth joint connection detached.”

  “Fire wire anchors! Use the monorail pontoon and abscond to the sea!” Lydianne instructed to her support AI.

  The armor of the tank she had dubbed Hizamaru was composed of special, ritually reinforced plastic. This armor, extremely impact resistant, could withstand direct hits from 20 mm cannon rounds and even anti-tank rockets, but it was surprisingly fragile against sustained attacks concentrated on a single point. The next time Hizamaru sustained a similar attack, it would surely be destroyed in its entirety.

  “Cannot employ wire anchors. Launch equipment has been destroyed. Rear legs and main generator unit heavily damaged. Switching life support to emergency generator.”

  The support AI sent up one damage report after another. Lydianne gawked at the several warning lights flashing around the cockpit.

  “Is this the end…?”

  Smiling ruefully, the red-haired girl extended a hand toward the self-destruct system.

  Lydianne was an elite child raised at Europe’s Didier Heavy Industries, a famous weapons-manufacturing enterprise. She had been dispatched to that Demon Sanctuary as a developer and test driver for that robot tank. Though dying on the field of battle was less than ideal, she had no regrets. Lydianne stubbornly refused to cease speaking in a traditionally formal manner, as if she were a samurai, because she revered the purity of their mindset—and their lack of fear of death.

  The one thing that ate at her mind was that she had not saved her friend. Lydianne had been pursued because she had failed to rescue that captive friend.

  The SSG Attack Mages were approaching, weapons in hand. Lydianne waited for them to get close enough before activating the self-destruct system.

  In the next moment, a flash of light dye
d the robot tank’s main monitor white.

  “…?!”

  The color of the Attack Mages’ faces changed.

  Without the least bit of forewarning, the area became flooded with demonic energy so potent, it threatened to burn their skin to ash.

  The energy coalesced into a gigantic blade that mercilessly swept across the ground.

  Caught in the sudden blow, the Attack Mages surrounding Lydianne were sent flying. The surrounding buildings collapsed and there was a gaping fissure in the road. Truly, it looked like a natural disaster had swept through. Lydianne had no doubt that any normal human would have died instantly.

  “Oh. So they survived, did they?”

  As the Attack Mages recovered from the shock wave, they heard a somewhat admiring voice from behind them.

  The speaker was a small-statured boy. He had beautiful black hair and olive skin. His eyes were the color of gold.

  He exuded an enigmatic sort of dignity that fit poorly with his youthful face. His disposition seemed to be that of a ferocious lion cub. Seemingly awestruck, the Attack Mages went on the defensive.

  “Those combat suits, they have beast-man cells implanted into them, yes? If memory serves, the use of demonic biological tissue for military purposes is a violation of the Holy Grounds Treaty, is it not?”

  The youth walked unceremoniously forward as he spoke in an icy tone.

  “Why wouldst he…?”

  Inside the damaged robot tank, Lydianne was at a loss for words.

  Lydianne knew the youth’s name. Iblisveil Aziz—a second-generation vampire from the bloodline of Fallgazer, the Second Primogenitor, and a crown prince of the Fallen Dynasty.

  But before Lydianne could wonder Why wouldst he appear here of all places? the Attack Mages went on the move.

  “Vampire… An Old Guard. Be wary of Beast Vassals.”

  A man appearing to be the squad leader gave orders to his comrades. Even with wounds over their entire bodies, the Attack Mages’ movements did not waver in the slightest. All at once, they surrounded Iblisveil and trained their gun barrels on him.

  “I have a connection to the little girl in that tank. Though it would appear you have been quite rude to her, if you depart immediately, I shall allow you to leave, you common whelps.”

  Iblisveil laughed cheerily, choosing to completely ignore the tension levels rising all around him.

  Out of fear, the SSG squad leader shouted, “Second squad, permission to snipe at will. Fire—!”

  “Fools…”

  As soon as the bullets left the Attack Mages’ barrels, they lost all velocity, as if they were intercepted by an invisible wall. The demonic energy perpetually surrounding Iblisveil had become physical pressure, forcing the bullets back.

  “Wha…?!”

  The squad leader’s voice trembled with horror, conveying his hesitation to the other members of the squad. It was precisely because they were such skilled Attack Mages that they realized the true terror of the youthful opponent they had provoked.

  “Mince them, Qebehsenuef—”

  Iblisveil unleashed a cloud of demonic energy that materialized in the form of a bird of prey. It was a golden peregrine falcon with a wingspan of fourteen or fifteen meters. The wind kicked up by its enormous wings became a vortex of countless blades.

  “Damn you… Don’t tell me you’re Fallgazer’s direct descendant…”

  The squad leader stared at Iblisveil in sheer terror. His words never reached him, for the tornado kicked up by the golden Beast Vassal engulfed the SSG Attack Mages without sparing a single one. Even with the power to limit damage to the surrounding area, its might was still overwhelming. The shock wave and blades created from vast demonic energy shredded their combat suits and neutralized their weapons.

  Finally, the blast winds vanished, leaving Iblisveil the only one standing there unscathed.

  The prince of a foreign land was wearing an extravagant white outfit embroidered with gold. In contrast, his right and left hands were holding a convenience store shopping bag and a steaming cup of ramen respectively.

  “Goodness. You insignificant flecks of garbage made my ramen go cold.”

  Iblisveil made a small, ill-humored snort as he stared down at the contents of his ramen cup. He’d been on his way back to his hotel, carrying the cup of ramen he had bought at a nearby convenience store.

  Then, as he turned his eyes toward the half-wrecked robot tank, he sighed, only murmuring “Goodness.”

  2

  Nagisa Akatsuki was very busy after school. She had her class representative meeting, her club activities, her homework, cleaning, laundry, and also dinner to prepare. Her mother, only returning home on a whim every one-to-two weeks, always arrived with a large bundle of laundry in tow. Also, she needed to visit her father in the hospital once in a while. If her older brother Kojou was there, she’d have shamelessly put him to work as well, but he’d said he would be returning late that day.

  So by the time Nagisa had finished her own portion of the daily chores, it had somehow reached past six PM. She stole a few bites from dinner as she awaited Kojou’s return.

  It was not long before she heard the doorbell ring.

  “Yes, yes. Just a moment, please.”

  Nagisa, still dressed down in a T-shirt and shorts, headed to the entrance.

  Then, when she opened the door, her eyes bulged. Standing there was a girl wearing the uniform of a school she was not familiar with. She was tall and slender—and stylish enough that one might suspect she was a performer. Her long hair, worn in a ponytail, was a light chestnut-brown. Her beauty evoked the image of a cherry blossom in bloom.

  “Er, um… Eh? Ah, you’re Yukina’s upperclass—”

  Nagisa looked at the girl, her wariness plain. She’d encountered this a number of times before. Her name was Sayaka Kirasaka. Apparently, she was Yukina Himeragi’s upperclassmate from the school she attended before coming to Itogami Island.

  Nagisa was unable to trust her whatsoever at the moment, because her first impression had been so awful. Nagisa had witnessed Asagi get caught in the crossfire of an altercation between Sayaka and Kojou. That, combined with a lack of information, left Nagisa with the notion that although Sayaka was unusually beautiful, she was a dangerous woman who might start swinging sharp objects at any moment.

  However, that day, Sayaka seemed noticeably different. She appeared fragile, as if she might break into tears without warning, and she looked at Nagisa with eyes that seemed ready to overflow with them. It’s like she worried herself sick and came here holding onto her last straw for dear life, thought Nagisa.

  “Hello. Um… Is…Kojou Akatsuki here?”

  Sayaka inquired in an awkward voice.

  For some reason, Nagisa felt apologetic as she explained, “He hasn’t come home yet. He said he was visiting Yaze—a friend of his, at the hospital today.”

  “Is that so…? Then I suppose Yukina’s with him.”

  “Yes. I believe so…”

  Nagisa nodded without hesitation. Kojou and Yukina doing things together was nothing out of the ordinary. At first, she thought it was strange since they weren’t a couple or anything. But lately, it had become so commonplace that she’d stopped questioning it altogether.

  “Um… You’re Yukina’s classmate, aren’t you?”

  “Eh? Ah yes.”

  Nagisa, fairly overwhelmed by the force of Sayaka’s approach, nodded. Sayaka seemed to be brooding over something as she gave Nagisa a serious look and asked, “How has Yukina been lately? Has anything about her…changed?”

  “Eh? What do you mean, ‘changed’?”

  “Like…does she seem sluggish? Do her eyes seem watery? Has she had a fever…?”

  “Are you asking…if she has a cold, or something?” Nagisa prompted, perplexed, not understanding the point of Sayaka’s question.

  She thought Yukina’s condition seemed no different than usual. Since she’d spent the morning delivering food as voluntee
r work, Nagisa was the one who was sleepier than usual. But if she really thought about a difference in Yukina’s behavior—

  “Now that you mention it, Yukina didn’t seem to have much of an appetite. Last night, she didn’t eat very much, and today at noon she said she was a little nauseated, so all she had was some lemon squash juice.” Nagisa followed up in a joking tone, “She’s already so thin. What’ll happen to her if she goes on a diet?”

  However, upon listening to this, Sayaka’s reaction was dramatic.

  “I knew it…”

  Face pale, Sayaka wobbled, and something fell from her hand to her feet. Covering her shapely eyes with both hands, she fell to her knees in apparent anguish.

  “Kojou Akatsuki, you idiot… What have you done to my precious Yukina…?!”

  “Huh? What about Kojou…?”

  Sayaka’s reaction unnerved Nagisa. Something must have happened between the two of that was bad enough to seriously upset Sayaka.

  “Wait, please. What has my dear brother done to Yukina? Or rather, let’s not stand and talk here. Please come inside. Dinner’s just about ready, so we can eat while we wait for Kojou and Yukina to come home—”

  Nagisa tried to drag Sayaka—who was now having a panic attack in the fetal position—into the apartment. In the first place, having a conspicuous girl like Sayaka sitting in the entryway was an abnormal situation. If the neighbors saw something like that, who knew what rumors might spread?

  However, Sayaka raised her head with a hollow gaze and said, “Thank you, but I have to find Yukina quickly… Right now, her body is in an abnormal state…”

  “U-ummm…!”

  Sayaka wobbled to her feet, walking off with an unsteady gait. With anxiety rising in her chest, Nagisa watched Sayaka depart.

  When Sayaka eventually completely vanished from view, Nagisa noticed the case that had fallen to her feet.

  “What’s this? A…testing kit? Ummm… That means this is some kind of testing fluid, right?”

  Spurred on by a vague sense of unease, Nagisa plucked the case off the ground.

  Sayaka had probably dropped it. Inside the plastic case, as large as a thumb, was fluid along with a small paper strip. Having experienced a prolonged hospital life, just looking at it gave Nagisa a pretty good idea of how it was used. The testing fluid inside the kit reacted to a single drop of blood or saliva to detect some kind of change in the body—that sort of thing.