The cameras were watching these two famous people meet, but they shouldn’t have been able to hear his voice.
Yuko whispered back to him.
“I want you to kill them for me. Kill lots and lots. I hate them.”
She smiled innocently. It was the same smile as her idol persona, but for some reason it made Hiroshi feel scared.
He was using the mana canceller to block out the mana around him, so nobody could hear what they said, but he could still feel Junko and the others watching him. Junko was looking at him suspiciously. Did she realize that something was wrong with Yuko?
Hiroshi didn’t answer her request to “kill them.” Fortunately one of the cameramen was approaching, so he took this opportunity to escape to the sky. He waved his hand and just said, “When the battle begins.”
—When the battle begins? What do I even mean by that?
Hiroshi found his own words funny, and laughed. He’d decided to protect Yuko, but he still wasn’t sure how he would go about it.
Hiroshi realized a little too late that even a little bit of power meant your actions had an effect on those around you. He realized now that Akuto was in the same difficult situation... But he shook his head. He was planning to sacrifice everything for Keena’s sake. Because of that...
—Even if it wasn’t his fault directly, he’s still done this to Yuko and done nothing to fix it.
○
Eiko had finished positioning her troops and was about to give the attack order when suddenly someone called out to her from behind.
“So what’s the plan here, exactly? It’s hard to see from this position exactly what you’re trying to do. Don’t tell me your plan is to kill every last one of them? That’s impossible. It will ruin the soldiers’ morale.”
Eiko was surprised that someone would talk to her, the commander, like that. Since she was in front of the cameras, she couldn’t let them get away with it.
“Our foes are emotionless demon beasts. There’s no choice but to wipe them out. And the soldiers know exactly what they’re...”
She turned around and saw a man in plain clothes, not a soldier’s uniform. She stopped in surprise. The media was gone, too.
“Who are you?”
“I’m with the Cabinet Magical Investigation Department. I asked the media to leave, so we can talk about things that we wouldn’t want them hearing,” he said, and laughed in an easygoing tone.
Eiko relaxed when she heard him identify himself.
“Did you bring the knights?”
The Cabinet Magical Investigation Department, as the name implied, worked for the Cabinet. They were essentially an intelligence organization. There were eight standing members of it, often known by the acronym C-MID8, but little beyond that was known. They worked for Boichiro — that was all Eiko knew. They had little influence over the army, but great influence over the knights.
“No, they’re keeping civilians out. That’s not really our job, so we’ve come alone.”
“So what? You don’t expect me to let you take over, do you?”
“No, no. You don’t need to worry. We just want to act on our own.”
“Because your leader’s inside?”
“Correct. Don’t worry. We won’t complain if the army accidently shoots us from behind. We just want you to grant us the authority to act on our own.”
Eiko thought for a moment, but in the end, the only thing that mattered was whether they killed the demon beasts. Nothing C-MID8 could do would affect the operation.
“Very well. If that’s what you want...” But before Eiko could finish her sentence, the man was gone.
Eiko was a little worried about the decision she’d just made, but it was time for the operation to begin, so she put it out of her mind. Once she saw that the media was back, she shared with them the name for the mission she’d just come up with.
“Today at 0700, we will begin Operation Destructive Hammer.”
○
“Kill the gods?”
Boichiro was looking at Akuto in astonishment. He wanted to laugh, but couldn’t. He’d felt Akuto’s power grow when he said the words.
“If you do that, everything will end. You yourself won’t survive. Humanity is already completely dependent on the gods. Part of our bodies, of our brains, is already controlled by mana.”
“There are ways around that. It’s better than someone having complete control over humanity’s future,” Akuto said. There was no doubt at all in his eyes.
“Then we have no room whatsoever to negotiate,” Boichiro said. He tried to contact Eiko outside, but there was some kind of mana jam preventing him from doing so. “You shielded the whole school?”
“You can’t use mana to escape, either,” Akuto answered.
It was 2:00 AM. Dawn was still far away.
“I’m sure your plan was to keep me from taking her out of the building, but did you realize that you’ve cut off your own escape?”
“That’s fine. I’m planning on defeating you. It doesn’t matter.”
“I’m not sure how long that self-confidence of yours will last. You’ve gotten a little stronger, it seems, but as long as I have a weapon I can still handle you. In the end, mana is just a microscopic machine. The energy is pumped from generators directly into the earth. You could call it ‘The World System.’”
“I don’t recall signing up for a lecture.”
“You’re using power dependent on this country and its gods. How can you say you’re going to destroy the gods? That’s the point I’m trying to get at. And because of that system, no matter how strong you get, there’s a limit to your power.”
Boichiro sheathed his sword and stretched out a hand. Something that looked like a teleportation circle appeared. With the mana shield from the demon beasts around the school, teleportation via mana should be impossible — which meant that this teleportation wasn’t magical at all.
Boichiro took out a single sword from the circle. It was huge, almost as tall as him. The hilt was almost hidden by the vast blade, and it even had control boosters and counterweights to maintain its center of gravity.
“This weapon has no name, but I’m not the type to get attached to my weapons.”
Boichiro gave it a light swing to test it.
The air around the weapon exploded. Even at its incredible size, it was still capable of moving faster than the speed of sound.
Even Akuto, he thought, wouldn’t be able to survive a hit from it.
“Now then...” He held the sword level and approached.
Akuto’s expression looked tense.
With no mercy, no hesitation, Boichiro attacked with the sword.
“Ackie!”
“Akuto!”
Keena and Fujiko both screamed.
But their screams were drowned out by clashing metal and a sonic boom.
Akuto was blasted back into a wall. The demon beasts that made up the wall cushioned the impact, but the wounds in his stomach and arms where he’d tried to block the attack were smoking. It was clear that the attack had been incredibly powerful.
“Ackie!” Keena tried to run towards him, but Fujiko grabbed her.
“Don’t.”
“But...!” Keena wept and tried to struggle, but Fujiko shook her head.
“If you go over to him, he’ll be forced to fight. If he can’t win, then what he needs to do is escape and form a plan. Our job is to get Akuto out of here,” she said.
Fujiko took control of one of the demon beasts forming the walls, and used its arms to carry Akuto to her. She loaded him and Keena onto the Cerberus, and it raced down the staircase and out of the lounge.
“But what’s the point of running? Ackie is...” Keena asked, and Fujiko grimaced in annoyance.
“Neither you nor Akuto are nearly cunning enough. If we run, it buys Akuto time to recover, and for another thing, did you forget that he has a weapon?”
“A weapon...?”
“Peterhausen. He’s wai
ting for Akuto below,” Fujiko said, turning to look behind them.
Her face froze. The Cerberus was fast, but Boichiro was charging at them even faster. He was using his huge sword to fly. It sliced through the air as it came towards them.
“He’s going to catch up...!” Fujiko shouted in fear.
But just when it was about to reach the Cerberus’s tail, a figure suddenly appeared out of the shadows.
“Ah!” Boichiro stopped.
The shadow had come walking out of one of the hallways, the same way a careless old man might walk into the street.
In fact, the shadow actually did belong to an old man. But it was clear from his steps that he intended to cut Boichiro off.
“Well, this has certainly gotten out of control...”
It was the school principal. The old man, with his white hair and beard, didn’t seem to be flustered in the slightest as he spoke to Boichiro.
“Old man... are you going to get in my way?” Boichiro stood in front of the principal.
“I suppose I am, actually. I just remembered something, you see, something that happened a hundred years ago,” the principal said, like he was about to share a particularly interesting piece of gossip. He turned toward Fujiko. “Go. I’ll take care of this.”
“But...!”
Fujiko wasn’t sure what to say. The principal was as old as he looked — there was no way he could fight Boichiro. He must’ve sensed her doubts by the look on her face.
“No, no. There’s no need to worry. It’ll be fine.” He waved his hand to tell her to go. “I plan to live for several more centuries, and I’ve been saving up the power to do it.”
As he spoke, the principal’s body began to transform. The transformation began with his arms: the muscles suddenly bulged up and grew five times in size. Then his shoulders, and his chest, all of the muscles in his body swelled up until they were huge.
“P-Principal...?” Fujiko was shocked. She was now looking at a man with the face of a geezer and the body of a giant.
“The trick to a long life is to save your energy,” he said as he squeezed his muscles. The shirt he’d been wearing was already stretched to the limit, and this was enough to make it burst. He turned back to Boichiro. “Now, let’s think back to what happened a century ago. The sides are a little different now, though.”
Boichiro looked upset.
“You’ve switched sides in the last century?”
“That’s right. Changing with the times instead of being hard-headed is another secret to long life.”
“If that’s the case, then I won’t show any mercy.” Boichiro readied his sword.
The principal laughed. “That part of you hasn’t changed at all. That’s why you don’t age properly.”
○
Fujiko headed for the basement.
“If he’s that big, we can probably leave it to him, right?” she said.
“I wonder if he eats lots of rice,” Keena replied.
Both Fujiko and Keena were astonished by his transformation, but they were definitely thankful for it. They used the time he bought them to flee to the basement.
But waiting for them at the entrance wasn’t Peterhausen, but Lily Shiraishi, the Student Council President. Her hat was tilted down over her face, and she crossed her arms as she looked up at the Cerberus.
“What do you think you’re doing to our school?” There was rage in her voice, but also interest.
Akuto woke up when he heard her.
“I didn’t want to cause trouble for the school. I’m actually about to leave.”
“Leave?” Lily called up a mana screen for him to see. It was a broadcast of what was going on outside. The military was deployed, and the carrier Genkaku was floating nearby.
“That’s what’s going on outside. There’s about 4,000 soldiers, I think.”
Akuto frowned.
“That’s not good. A few of them might get injured. If there were only a thousand, none of them would’ve had to get hurt.”
“Hey now...” Lily didn’t know what to say to that. She crossed her arms as Akuto got off the Cerberus to come down to her. “I’ve been watching since Keizo Teruya first came here, so I know what’s going on. I heard what the principal had to say too. That’s why I’ve been waiting to see what you’re planning on doing.”
Akuto nodded and softly asked,
“So what about you? I don’t want to cause trouble for you.”
“I’m going to be the one who decides what I do now. And there’s only one option: denounce Eiko Teruya. The rest, I don’t care about. Of course, doing that means fighting 4,000 soldiers. Hahaha,” she laughed happily.
“What do you have on your side?” Fujiko asked.
“The student council. All three are here, so the three of them.”
“Is that all?”
“You should be saying ‘You’ve got so many!’ instead,” Lily said, annoyed, and then waved for Akuto to pass her.
“That dragon is waiting. Go. But I’ll tell you one thing: I don’t think the same way you do. If you want to destroy the whole system we have now, I’ll stop you.”
“I understand.” Akuto walked past her into the darkness.
“Ackie!” Keena yelled, worried.
Akuto looked back at her.
“I’ll be fine. Wait somewhere safe. I’ll be right back,” he said, and turned back into the darkness.
At the bottom of the labyrinth waited a black dragon. When it saw Akuto, it roared with a century’s worth of emotion.
“I’ve been waiting! I’ve been waiting for this moment, my lord!”
“I didn’t mean to keep you waiting.”
“But I waited just the same! Now, take back your true power! Let us fly the skies and destroy our foes!”
“I know. I’ve made my choice. And that choice has given me power.”
Akuto went around to Peterhausen’s side. There was a saddle on the dragon’s back. He smacked his fist against it lightly, and declared this:
“I will say it again: I will kill the gods.”
In that moment, Akuto became the Demon King.
Peterhausen’s howl of joy echoed throughout the Earth. The vibrations shook the whole building.
“Let us go, my lord! Together, none shall ever stop us!”
He raised his head towards the ceiling, opened his jaw, and fired one of the metal stakes he created within his body. This stake, carved with a spiral, spun rapidly and smashed through the rock ceiling, carving a path to the surface with a terrible noise.
○
The soldiers on the surface looked at each other in confusion when they heard the howl from below. But a moment later, they screamed as a massive stake burst through the ground in a shower of dust and rock.
Even after shattering through the rock, the stake maintained its energy, flying high into the sky. And then it started to fall down onto them.
“Evade!”
The soldiers beneath screamed and scattered. The stake fell to the ground with a roar, and the dust it kicked up blinded everyone around it.
The company commanders were forced to yell at their troops to maintain order.
“Get back into formation! Don’t let them scare you! They’re just demon beasts!”
But the commanders’ words were immediately forgotten as they began to scream too.
Something with massive black wings appeared out of the hole that the stake had created. Its shadow covered the soldiers and chilled their hearts.
The legendary dragon was right in front of them. To them, it was like fear itself had been given form.
A man in black riding a black dragon. Everyone who saw it whispered the same thing as they quavered.
“The Demon King... The Demon King is here...”
Afterword
As always, thanks for buying the book. It’s me, Shoutarou Mizuki.
Lately I’ve been watching nothing but baseball, F1, and other sports. And of course I watch it on TV, so it’s ext
ra unhealthy. I think all of you should spend your winter playing outside.
Actually when I was little, I once got stuck in a graveyard a few dozen meters from my house due to the snow. If I’d died there, I would’ve gone straight to the grave. But even so, boys should play outside.
I hope you’ve enjoyed volume four. Thanks to you readers, I’ve been able to do the first two-part book in this series. It’s also the first time I’ve written a two-part book. I’m writing the second part as we speak, actually. Those of you who started here, and those of you who’ve been reading since volume one, I hope to see you next time. My apologies to those of you who are picking up this book at a different time, but as of right now, December 2008, the comic version of this book is being run in Akita Shoten’s “Champion Red.” The adaptation is being done by Souichi Itou himself. It’s following its own original plot now, so even those of you who’ve read the book can still enjoy it.
I also hinted at something beyond a comic last time, and that is a CD drama. This will be available early next year. It will star Daisuke Ono and Mai Nakahara. The rest of the cast will be first announced on the homepage (http://www.hobbyjapan.co.jp/hjbunko/), so I hope you’ll check it out there. I’m looking forward to it myself.
This really doesn’t have anything to do with anything, but I just bought these cordless headphones, and for some reason I was only getting static out of the right side. I went to the store and swapped them out. The guy there said they were fine, but I took them home and tried them and I had the same problem.
Since they were cordless, the problem was probably with the infrared transceiver. I didn’t want to go back to the store again, so I got mad and smacked the transceiver, and it fixed it. I didn’t think that worked on things anymore...
So each time after that when it stopped working, I would hit it... And after that, it broke completely...
Um, anyway, back to the book.
As always, there’s no real need to explain it, but you’ll probably enjoy it more if you’ve read the previous volumes. Some characters appeared in volume two but not in volume three, so if you read back, you’ll know who they are. So for that reason, I hope that those of you who are starting with this volume will go back and read the ones before it. You see, it’s nice to have finished stories each volume, but as an author, I think this is also part of what makes a series fun: seeing a character you introduced earlier in a minor role go on to do great things.
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 4 Page 12
