Golden Days

by Gakuto Mikumo

  For instance, viral infection, allergies, or perhaps, whether a woman was pregnant—

  “This test reads…positive…… Huh?”

  This time, it was Nagisa who gawked as she saw the explanation written on the case.

  3

  It was a canal under a raised highway bridge—there, Kojou Akatsuki watched the rain.

  The weather had changed right after Kojou and Yukina had fled from Yukari Endou.

  On Itogami Island, floating atop the Pacific Ocean, sudden showers in the evening were not a rare occurrence. However, the rain that day seemed to drag on for quite a while. The evening mist clouding the artificial isle skyline made for poor visibility. It went without saying that this was convenient for a couple of fugitives like them, but that thought gave way to gloom.

  “Senpai, are your wounds okay?” Yukina asked him meekly as she looked at him sitting limply.

  Kojou’s uniform was covered in blood. His four limbs each had grisly puncture wounds from the arrows bored into them, and his chest had been slashed horizontally; all wounds inflicted by Yukari Endou. He hadn’t been beaten so severely, nor so easily, since Paper Noise had wiped the floor with him on New Year’s.

  It was strength on par with—or greater than—the Three Saints of the Lion King Agency. If he deeply understood one thing about Yukari’s seemingly limitless might, it was that. No wonder Yukina was afraid of her. But—

  “They’re pretty much healed already. Thanks for buying a change of clothes for me.”

  Kojou made a show of putting strength into both his clenched hands. The wounds Yukari had inflicted on his entire body throbbed only with minor pain. One would expect nothing less from a vampire primogenitor’s completely broken regenerative ability.

  “It was nothing. After all, it was my master’s fault for being so reckless in the first place.”

  Yukina shook her head with a hardened expression. She probably felt responsible for involving Kojou.

  “I suppose,” came his noncommittal reply as he locked his hands behind his head, laughing casually. “But all things considered, I didn’t expect the real Professor Kitty to be so pretty. Plus, she was wearing that cloak thingy that looked super-stuffy. What was she trying to do, give the cat heatstroke?”

  “Really? That was your main concern?”

  Yukina’s expression finally softened a little bit. As she did, Kojou looked up at her.

  “Come to think of it, why’d she attack you in the first place, Himeragi? If she was just ‘testing her disciple’ or whatever, don’t you think that was a bit much?”

  “I believe Master meant to…drive me into a corner.”

  Yukina’s reply came with a fragile smile. The look on her face perplexed him.

  “Enough to make you get serious? Did she have a reason to go that far?”

  “Yes. Probably.”

  Yukina bit her lip and lowered her eyes. Remaining silent afterward was probably an indication she didn’t want to speak about it further. Apparently, she had some kind of circumstance she couldn’t tell Kojou about.

  “Well, fine. More importantly, Himeragi, aren’t you cold? If this rain keeps up, we could buy an umbrella at a convenience store on the way back, or—”

  He started to get up as he spoke, but then a light, barely audible impact connected with his back. Through his uniform, he felt faint warmth and soft elasticity.

  Yukina had crept close and embraced Kojou’s defenseless back with her entire body. There was no way for Kojou to hide his surprise.

  “H-Himeragi…?!”

  “Senpai… I don’t want to go home tonight.”

  “Huh?! Huhhh…?!”

  Unable to believe his ears, Yukina’s words made Kojou’s thought process screech to a halt.

  “Nah, this isn’t right. There are a lot of things not right with that phrasing! More to the point, um, you live alone, Himeragi, so what do you mean you don’t want to go home—?”

  “That room was provided by the Lion King Agency. I have no doubt it is being occupied by a pursuer from the Lion King Agency this very moment.”

  “Eh? Ah, so that’s what you meant by not wanting to go home…”

  Now that he understood her intent, Kojou recovered from his shock. He knew this was probably stating the obvious, but she really was anxious. Attacked by her master, Yukari Endou, and pursued by the Lion King Agency—which had practically raised her as family—there was no way she could be calm about the situation.

  “Um, but why is the Lion King Agency after you, Himeragi? I could understand them being after me, but it’s not like you did anything wrong. That fight earlier was legit self-defense.”

  “No. I understand why the Lion King Agency perceives me to be dangerous.”

  Removing her hands from Kojou’s back, Yukina hung her head. Turning around to face her, he knit his brows without another word. Over the last few days, Kojou had somehow picked up on the fact that something was off with her, but he didn’t think that was an issue necessitating the Lion King Agency’s pursuit.

  The reason they were after Yukina was probably hidden in the brief conversation between her and Yukari Endou. However, no matter how much Kojou thought about it, he couldn’t imagine what that reason might be.

  As if showing consideration for the perplexed Kojou, Yukina smiled charmingly and shook her head. “I am sorry to have spoken so selfishly. Senpai, please return home ahead of me. I’m sure Nagisa must be worried about you.”

  “Ahead of— What are you gonna do, Himeragi?”

  Kojou asked this because the expression on Yukina’s face gave him a bad feeling. She looked as if a great weight had just been taken off her shoulders.

  “I won’t be returning to that room. But worry not. I shall properly observe you, senpai. I shall watch you until the very end.”

  “Nah, I can’t relax after hearing that. I’m even more freaked out now, actually.”

  Rubbing the goose bumps breaking out on his upper arms, Kojou let out a deep sigh. Any way he sliced it, leaving Yukina alone in her current state, like she had her back to the wall, was too dangerous to consider.

  Besides, he wanted to avoid a situation similar to how Nagisa became involved in a Lion King Agency attack because Kojou and Yukina had gone home and left her alone. Perhaps, at the very least, it was best to remain away from home as much as possible until the circumstances had been cleared up.

  “Well, fine. There’s no school tomorrow, anyway. How about we change clothes somewhere and go do some karaoke?”

  “Karaoke…?”

  Yukina blinked wide-eyed at Kojou’s sudden proposal. There was no particular reason to do karaoke, but there weren’t many other places where a middle schooler could spend a long period of time after classes without arousing suspicion. Of those, a karaoke club was the first one that came to Kojou’s mind.

  “Come to think of it, I haven’t done karaoke with you before, huh, Himeragi? Actually, Himeragi, do you even know what karaoke is?”

  Once Yukina accepted that Kojou was being completely serious, she pursed her lips and glared at him.

  “Um…by any chance, are you making fun of me? Even I can sing.”

  “Huh? You can?”

  The evident surprise in Kojou’s reply only served to deepen Yukina’s frown.

  That said, it was pretty hard to imagine Yukina and other girls going through intensive training at High God Forest performing karaoke. Just what kinds of songs did people who walked around with spears and swords stuffed into instrument cases all the time sing anyway?

  “I’m not as familiar with the more popular songs… Oh, but I do remember the song Asagi sang.”

  When Yukina made the assertion with a hint of pride, she gasped and realized her verbal slip. The song “Asagi” sang—the popularity of which was spreading through the city like wildfire—was a fraud created by the Gigafloat Management Corporation. Kojou and Yukina were attempting to meet with her in order to prove that very thing.

 
“I… I’m sorry… It was not my intention to…”

  Yukina backpedaled, trying to be considerate.

  “No need to apologize. The song didn’t do anything wrong.”

  Kojou gave her forehead a light flick.

  “Ow,” she muttered, putting a hand on her forehead, but somehow, she looked relieved as well.

  “Well, if we’re gonna hit up karaoke, how ’bout we grab some ramen or something, first? It’s no surprise that I’m hungry after all that, what with the blood loss and all.”

  “Ramen, you say? I see. If it’s noodles, I might be able to eat, too…”

  “I’m pretty sure there’s a shop with tasty ramen nearby. Asagi told me about it…”

  What was that place called, again? pondered Kojou as he searched his memories. Asagi, a glutton despite her looks, religiously frequented the pop restaurants in Itogami City. Kojou had met up with Asagi a number of times at one place among those she was particularly fond of. One of those instances was fairly recent.

  Fortuitously, the rain was easing up right around that moment.

  As he and Yukina headed in the direction of the commercial district, Kojou remembered the name.

  “Menya Itogami—that was it.”

  4

  The shop’s interior was enveloped by a strange atmosphere.

  The establishment called Menya Itogami was located in Island West on the first floor of a multi-tenant building near the train station. There were nine seats at the counter and four chairs to a table. The storefront gave off the image of perfectly average ramen establishment. The shop was relatively full, with a line going out the door.

  A party of two was sitting at the table farthest in back, facing each other.

  This pair was the cause of the bizarre atmosphere possessing the shop.

  Both were clearly foreigners. Neither the boy nor the girl looked any older than their early teens.

  The boy was dressed in a luxurious white tunic, with unmitigated dignity and nobility effortlessly oozing from his every word and gesture. His overflowing charisma suffused the air of what was very much a commoner’s ramen shop, turning the comfortable interior space oddly uncomfortable.

  And sitting in front of the boy was a small-statured girl with fiery red hair.

  She was wearing an outfit that resembled a school swimsuit fitting very snugly against her petite frame. Guests inside the shop stared at her, a borderline criminal air hovering around them.

  Suddenly, that very girl rose to her feet with excitement, calling out to Kojou as he stood before the ticket machine.

  “Sir Boyfriend! Sir Boyfriend, is it not?! You are Lady Empress’s Sir Boyfriend, yes?!”

  “Huh? What the hell?”

  Kojou, taking his ticket, raised his head, shuddering as everyone’s gazes suddenly converged upon him.

  The guests looked between Kojou and the girl as they started to murmur.

  The extraordinary reaction of those people made Kojou and Yukina exchange troubled looks. They hadn’t the faintest idea what was going on. Though Kojou felt like getting the hell out of there, he’d already bought their meal ticket, so he couldn’t bring himself to leave and waste it.

  Then, the girl stood before Kojou and excitedly pointed to the name box over her chest.

  “It is I, Lydianne Didier! Dost thou not remember me?”

  “Oh…! You’re that friend of Asagi’s…!” Kojou shouted as the realization struck him.

  She was the robot-tank driver that Asagi called Tanker. The reason it had taken Kojou so long to remember was that he had never actually seen her outside of the tank.

  The murmuring inside the shop grew in intensity the moment Kojou and the others uttered the word Empress, the buzzword for Asagi. At that point, there was hardly a single person on Itogami Island who did not know the name of Asagi Aiba, the Cyber Empress. Of course, all eyes were going to gather on a group including a “friend” and a “boyfriend” of hers.

  A cold sweat broke out on Kojou’s back as the urge to run out the door clawed at him a second time.

  Perhaps knowing nothing of Kojou’s sentiments, Lydianne dramatically pulled up the abdominal slit of her pilot suit as she said, “I hath failed, Sir Boyfriend. Because my power is insufficient, Lady Empress remaineth away from us… I shall atone for my sins accordingly and cut my stomach—”

  “Wait, WAIT! What the hell are you doing, exposing yourself in a place like this?!”

  When Lydianne tried to wield her chopsticks as if to plunge them into her stomach, Kojou grabbed her arms and held them behind her.

  By this point, the gazes gathered upon him were no longer at a warm and fuzzy level; now the guests inside the shop glared with open hatred. They looked as if they were watching a criminal act. Kojou supposed that if he saw a high school student holding a swimsuit-wearing little girl’s arms behind her back in a ramen shop, he’d give the guy a similar look.

  Someone who looked like the proprietor of Menya Itogami was approaching their group. We’re gonna be thrown out for sure, thought Kojou in sincere resignation when—

  “You two are making quite a fuss. Don’t you find it rude to the proprietor?”

  Silence fell over the shop, seemingly summoned by the echo of that voice. The murmuring guests swallowed their breath, and the proprietor halted just as he was about to open his mouth. The speaker was the robed boy. His eyes, shining gold, beheld Kojou.

  “Y-yeah. I guess so, sorry.”

  The one making a fuss is the chick with you, Kojou wanted to say, but he resisted the urge and bowed his head. The brief exchange completely changed the atmosphere inside the shop.

  At present, the boy in the luxurious clothing had complete command over that place. An atmosphere had been created that even the shop’s staff could not hope to dispel. The people had subconsciously yielded to his majesty, seemingly that of a born-and-bred noble. His commanding presence was such that even Kojou had to gawk.

  Pulled in by Lydianne, Kojou and Yukina ended up sitting at the same table as the boy.

  This meant they were being seated out of turn, but of course none of the guests voiced any complaint. Touch not the gods, suffer no curse—apparently. The people were tacitly acknowledging Kojou’s experience along those lines.

  The ramen the boy had ordered was brought over immediately afterward.

  Splitting the chopsticks with a practiced hand, the boy first took a sip of the soup. Then, he gently brought the noodles into his mouth. He seemed to be something of a master at eating the dish.

  “I see. In this land, the seafood is rather fresh, and the soup employs pork bones and vegetables. The sauce uses soy and sake…and chicken skin and red peppers? Hearty ramen made in-house. They also seem rather picky about the ingredients. Hmm, small wonder Asagi recommended this place.”

  “Y-yeah… Um, who are you anyway? One of Asagi’s gourmet buddies?”

  Kojou, a little creeped out by the rather detailed critique, stared at the boy as he posed the question. It was deep analytical ability that would put even most ramen critics to shame. He inferred from the earlier statements that the boy was an acquaintance of Asagi’s, but aside from their bizarre obsession with the beauty of food, he couldn’t think of anything connecting her and the foreign boy whatsoever. Kojou was mentally patting himself on the back for his deduction that the two were gourmet buddies, but…

  “Senpai, please be careful with your words. This person might well be—”

  Having maintained her silence up to that point, Yukina whispered as if scolding Kojou. Kojou stared at her with a questioning look and asked, “You know this guy, Himeragi?”

  “No,” said Yukina, shaking her head. “However, his power…is equal to or greater than the Duke of Ardeal’s…and yet, it seems different somehow…”

  “Oh my.”

  The boy’s chopsticks stopped, and he looked at Yukina with apparent interest. For one brief moment, something like a glint of bloodlust flickered in his eyes. It was then that K
ojou finally realized what the boy was.

  He was a demon. A vampire. And for that matter, an Old Guard with enormous, off-the-charts power—

  “I had meant to conceal my aura, but alas. I would expect nothing less from a Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency. She has good eyes.”

  “So you truly are—”

  “Know your place, Sword Shaman. I am speaking to the Fourth Primogenitor as Prince of the Fallen Dynasty. It is no place for a mere observer to intervene.”

  The prince’s cold words were offset by the blissful expression he wore as he enjoyed his ramen.

  His blunt murmur made Kojou’s expression freeze over. Naturally, even someone as ill versed about demonic affairs as Kojou knew of the Fallen Dynasty. A prince of the Second Primogenitor, Fallgazer, who governed a malevolent Dominion in the Middle East, meant he was son to the Second Primogenitor himself.

  “Your Excellency… Iblisveil…Aziz…,” Yukina murmured.

  The tone of dread in her voice wasn’t Kojou’s imagination. After all, there was only a tiny table between the prince directly descended from the Second Primogenitor and the Fourth. If their demonic energies were to clash, the whole of Itogami Island would likely be wiped off the map. At that moment, the shop had become the most dangerous place on the planet. Being surrounded by an army ammunition stockpile—on fire—might well have been safer.

  However, even under those conditions, Iblisveil calmly continued to eat.

  “Proprietor, seconds. With extra boiled scallions, and a pickled egg, if you please.”

  The prince of a foreign land brought out a jingling pouch as he conveyed his order. The proprietor awkwardly nodded and promptly began to cook.

  Gazing at that exchange with half-lidded eyes, Kojou asked, “Is this really a prince? Isn’t he acting a little too…folksy for that?”