Outbreak Company: Volume 8 (Premium)

by Ichiro Sakaki

  “Looks... like it worked,” she said, trying to get a glance at the sky.

  I hurried out of the carriage and looked up. The only thing I saw was a seemingly endless expanse of blue.

  Nothing else. The massive, threatening black pillar was gone without a trace. Heck, there weren’t even any clouds up there. Maybe Imarufe Bisurupeguze had blown away all the clouds, too?

  “Man,” I said, “that is some bomb...”

  I marveled anew at the power of magical weaponry. When the Assembly of Patriots had brought the Consuming Flame into the school and threatened to blow the place up, I had imagined it had the power of several sticks of dynamite. But this thing—it seemed dangerously close to being on par with a nuclear weapon.

  I heard furious shouting. “What just happened?! What the hell is going on?!”

  I looked back to see a whole crowd rushing up to our carriage: JSDF soldiers, royal knights and mages, all rushing over. I didn’t immediately see anyone who looked injured. They must have listened when we told them to get back. At the head of the whole group was Garius, his handsome good looks unfortunately coated in a film of dust and dirt. He must have been right out in front.

  “Ahh...” I was just thinking about what a pain it was going to be to explain this one when Minori-san saved me by heading over to talk to everyone.

  “Shinichi-sensei.” Lauron got out of the carriage, too.

  “It looks like no one’s hurt,” I said, turning to her. “Even the bird made it... I’m glad to say.”

  The huge avian who pulled our carriage had sat down, thoroughly exhausted, in a sort of egg-incubating posture. But as far as I could tell, it was unhurt.

  Then I turned to Lauron, who was standing beside me, and said, “Lauron, thank you.”

  “Wha...?”

  “I don’t know what we would have done if you hadn’t been here.”

  I never would have gotten Imarufe Bisurupeguze out of the storeroom, I wouldn’t have caught the card when it went flying, and I definitely wouldn’t have been able to pitch the weapon into the whirlwind. All of that was thanks to her.

  “What? But—I...” Lauron looked down awkwardly. “I didn’t think, I just...”

  “To be able to do all that on instinct is really something.”

  I really meant it. If I’d been in her place, I didn’t know if I could have pulled off the kind of eleventh-hour miracles she had.

  “But I’ve b-... broken... the rules again...” Lauron’s lower lip was trembling again.

  Caught up in the moment, she had done what had to be done—but I guess getting over a habit you’ve hammered into yourself for years and years doesn’t happen in the space of an afternoon. Maybe, faced with her impetuous actions, she was starting to feel sick again.

  Well, I could hardly hold it against her. Again, a visceral emotional reaction isn’t something you just decide to get over.

  Nonetheless, I said, “You’re right, we weren’t supposed to use Imarufe Bisurupeguze. But—using it was how we got rid of that thing.”

  I looked around, and Lauron followed my gaze.

  The cloudless blue sky spread out above us. And if we looked to earth, we could see smiling soldiers and knights and mages.

  “All this is because of the way you improvised. Do you think that’s a bad thing?”

  Lauron was silent. She just bit her lip as if she were holding something back and looked at the ground.

  As for me, I looked back up at the sky. All the panic of just a few minutes before had vanished like a mirage. All that was left was the breeze, causing lazy ripples in the grass.

  It had been several days since the magical aberrations. Minori-san, Hikaru-san, Lauron, and I were all summoned to Eldant Castle.

  “We are fully aware how desperate the situation was at that moment...”

  We were in one of the audience chambers, lined up as usual in front of Petralka.

  “But to abscond with Imarufe Bisurupeguze entirely of your own volition! This demands punishment, even for you, Shinichi!”

  The empress was irate. I had never seen her like this, practically jumping off her throne with anger.

  She was flanked by Prime Minister Zahar and Garius. I guess they both pretty much shared Petralka’s opinion of the situation, because neither of them said anything to stop her.

  That left us only one option—

  “I’m sorry...”

  “You have my sincere apologies.”

  “I’m really, really sorry...”

  —abject apology.

  All of us had gone pale—including Lauron. For her, being subject to the empress’s anger had to be like getting yelled at by God.

  Actually, there was one of us who wasn’t pale. Hikaru-san, who’d had nothing to do with the entire Imarufe Bisurupeguze incident, stood there watching the rest of us with exasperation, as if this was no concern of his. Which, I guess, it wasn’t. He was only here because he had been with us right up until all this happened.

  “For the love of...” Petralka seemed to have shouted herself out somewhat; now she heaved a deep sigh and settled back on her throne. “You need not have simply made off with the weapon. If you had spoken to us, we could have found a way to help you.”

  “Everything was happening in such a rush... I didn’t feel like there was time to talk.”

  “And if you had been cut down by knights who mistook your intentions?”

  “Huh...? Er...”

  She had me there. Imarufe Bisurupeguze had originally been brought in by terrorists—by the Assembly of Patriots. So what I had done, in effect, was to break into a military base and walk out with a weapon of mass destruction confiscated from those very terrorists. If any guardsmen had seen me, I couldn’t have blamed them for stabbing first and asking questions later.

  “Again. Very, very sorry...”

  Petralka was still glaring at me.

  “But, look. I’m the one who did it. I sort of pushed Lauron into going along with me, and Minori-san felt she didn’t have any choice, being my bodyguard and all... So, uh, if you have to get angry at someone, I’d appreciate if you’d get angry at just... me...”

  “Shinichi!” Petralka snapped.

  I straightened up in a hurry. “Y-Yes, ma’am!”

  “You truly understand nothing,” she said, almost in a sigh.

  “Huh? What don’t I—”

  “Time and again, you take it upon yourself to do things that cause such worry for those around you...”

  “Petralka...?”

  Whoa. Wait a second.

  Why was her voice so thick? She almost sounded like she was going to cry.

  Petralka furrowed her eyebrows and bit her lip. Her clenched fist trembled, and those big eyes of hers started to get moist...

  “Huh? I-I’m sorry! Um, er, P-Petralka, please don’t cry!”

  “We would never!” she declared as she vigorously rubbed her eyes with her hands.

  Yikes... What was I supposed to do now? Making a girl cry was bad enough, but making an empress cry...?

  “Your Majesty.” Kneeling beside Petralka and gently offering her a handkerchief was Garius. Then he got back to his feet and looked at us. “You may have stolen Imarufe Bisurupeguze, but the fact remains that thanks to your actions, the threat was eliminated. Considering that we did grant the JDSF a free hand in this situation, it has been decided, after much discussion, not to punish the parties involved.”

  In other words, since Minori-san had been with me, they had chosen to view the whole thing not as my work, but as falling within the anti-disaster measures the JSDF had been permitted to take, and I was to avoid punishment.

  I let out a breath of real relief.

  “The matter of the storeroom, however, will warrant investigation,” Garius said. “Even those favored by Her Majesty should not be able to prance in and out of it so readily.” His expression was firm. It seemed to say that they would let me off this time, but there wasn’t to be a repeat.

&nb
sp; Believe me, sir, I understand.

  “You may be interested to know,” Prime Minister Zahar put in, “that subsequent study has revealed the reason the number of sprites dropped so low.”

  “What? Really?” I asked.

  The Prime Minister nodded. “It seems some of the sprites had escaped to the other side.”

  “The other side?”

  “Your world,” Petralka said, still rubbing her eyes. “Through the... what was it? Hy-perr-space tunnel.”

  I was struck speechless with surprise. Minori-san and Hikaru-san looked almost as shocked as I was. Maybe I’d had an inkling, but...

  “Some of the magical power and sprites seem to have gone through the tunnel into your world,” Petralka said. “You have said there is no magic where you come from, haven’t you? Perhaps it’s unsurprising, then, that some such would flow through an open door.”

  “But that...”

  Surely that meant they would have to close off the hyperspace wormhole. And that meant no more connection with Japan. That was, if they even knew how to close the portal. Did we understand it well enough to even do that?

  “In order to prevent the further escape of these forces, we’ve had the entrance closed for the time being. That should solve the problem for now.”

  “Closed...?”

  So Japan and Eldant really were cut off?

  What—for real?! Hey! I needed some time to mentally prepare...!

  “Ah,” Petralka said, shaking her head when she spotted my distress. “Only temporarily.”

  “Wha?”

  “A lid has been placed over the hole. That should allow us to prevent the further hemorrhage of magical power. On reflection, we believe we have been too laissez-faire in the past. The hole has been protected by a fence and a small guardhouse, but that has been it. It’s time proper facilities were built to oversee it.”

  Petralka and Zahar between them informed me that for the time being the portal was being blocked off by a sort of “atmospheric lid,” but that in the future, a cover—or maybe more of a gate—would be created to prevent the actual escape of magical power.

  Honestly, I had just kind of assumed that physical barriers wouldn’t have been an impediment to magical energy. So many fantasy works had taught me to think that way. But I guess if you could build a lamp that had sprites in it, or a “magic tank” like Lauron carried, or for that matter a weapon like Imarufe Bisurupeguze—all of them demonstrated that Eldant technology was capable of containing magical energy within a specific space. So why shouldn’t they be able to prevent it from flowing away? Maybe they could keep another episode like this from happening.

  “So... everyone’s safe now, is what you’re saying?”

  “Mm.” Petralka nodded.

  I was just heaving another sigh of relief, when—

  “Therefore, Shinichi, do not take matters so lightly into your own hands again. Understand?”

  “Yes, ma’am...”

  My shoulders slumped as Petralka glared at me once again.

  Several days later. Classes were over for the day, and we were at Eldant Castle, in the body-double training room. It had taken things in the castle some time to settle down after all the excitement, the upshot being that it had been quite a while since we’d worked with the doll. For that reason, we were all there today: me and Minori-san, Myusel, and Hikaru-san, along with Loek and Romilda.

  Lauron, apparently still arriving ten minutes early, greeted us when we got the room. Well, it wasn’t such a bad thing for her to follow her rules, as long as they didn’t suffocate her life. Probably. I thought.

  Also with us that day was Petralka, who was between public duties.

  “Okay, let’s get started,” I said, and Lauron began the training. As a warm-up, we had her imitate Petralka’s movements with the doll. It copied the empress’s every motion, as if she were standing by a mirror.

  But now came the hard part.

  “Okay, now I want just Lauron to do it.”

  “Yes, sir.” Lauron nodded—then moved from the wall, where she’d had a clear view of Petralka, to the middle of the room.

  Petralka herself came and stood next to me.

  Lauron and the Petralka doll were left in the center of the room, encircled by the rest of us. Lauron took a single deep breath—to calm herself down? To focus? I wasn’t sure—and then she extended her hands in the direction of the double and slowly began to chant.

  “Ia ma esu reruu fo esu surae ruree fo esu kou ruree fo nori zurou fo suruto esu shisabu fo iteirosua ia riu redoro ti shi irarobumetto eshiirupu uorofu imu suredoro.” I take upon myself the True Words and the rights of the Chieftain of Earth...

  And as we watched, the Petralka doll gradually started to move.

  It lifted its arms, which had been hanging limply at its sides, and put its hands one on top of the other in front of its body, so that it looked downright regal. I’d told her earlier to do this, so it wasn’t really a sign that Lauron had figured out Petralka for herself.

  But it was a little different from when she had mechanically imitated someone else’s actions. And that was a sign that she was growing, too.

  I cocked my head in the direction of the double. “Think you could stand a little more, you know, self-importantly?”

  “Self-importantly...?” Lauron cocked her own head in return.

  “Yeah, like... Cross your arms, stick the right foot out a little bit.”

  “What is this about self-importance, Shinichi?” Petralka grumbled at my instructions. I guess she really didn’t know how she came across...

  “We have to exaggerate things with the doll, Your Majesty,” Hikaru-san broke in, smoothing things over. I was grateful.

  “Hrm...” Petralka still didn’t sound thrilled, but she didn’t complain anymore, either; she just leaned against the wall to see how this would go.

  Lauron moved her hands a little. The figure changed its posture accordingly. Crossed its arms, stuck its right foot out a little bit. And it pulled its chin in just a tad, as if looking imperiously down at somebody...

  “Ooh!” I found myself exclaiming. For the first time, the way Lauron moved the double looked Petralka-ish without Petralka serving as a model.

  Everyone else looked impressed, too. There were wide eyes all around.

  “Can you have it walk over and sit in the chair?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  I moved a chair from a spot near the wall so it was closer to the Petralka doll. Then I stepped back again, and Lauron started the doll moving.

  Before, Lauron would just cry when I gave her instructions like that...

  For a second, I worried about what I would do if she burst into tears again, but the Petralka doll didn’t seem to be aware of my concerns; it started walking easily. It strutted to the chair like a model, then sat down and crossed its legs. The edges of its lips turned up ever so slightly, at once adorable and yet imposing, like it was about to make some royal demand.

  “How’s that?” Lauron asked us.

  “I think that’s really good,” I said, and everyone nodded.

  Not perfect, not yet; and she was doing it in response to detailed instructions—but just the same, she hadn’t needed to imitate Petralka directly. Lauron was putting her own spin on things.

  Like when I had said “a little more self-importantly.” I had told her what attitude I wanted, but it was Lauron who figured out how to show it.

  “But why the sudden change?” Hikaru-san asked, tilting his head.

  “I’ve been thinking a lot,” Lauron said with the ghost of a smile. “What Shinichi-sensei said... It got me thinking. I’ve always been so sure that I have to do certain things, be a certain way. Otherwise, I might make a mistake I can’t take back.”

  Loek and Romilda looked at each other, thoroughly perplexed. Huh. I guess they never had heard the story behind Lauron’s scrupulous behavior.

  “But then we saved everybody by stealing Imarufe Bisurupeguze. That made me
realize... by setting up rules to follow, I’d been running away from thinking for myself.”

  Then, she smiled. She wasn’t copying this smile from anyone else—it welled up from her own heart.

  “That’s great,” I said, returning Lauron’s smile.

  “I’m going to go through the motions you taught me,” Lauron said. “If there’s anything wrong with them, please let me know.” As she spoke, the Petralka figure got to its feet. It twirled in place, then picked up the hem of its dress as it did a curtsy.

  “Awesome, that’s great!” I said, impressed by the smooth movements of our “second” Petralka. Heartened by my praise, the doll smiled, then placed the back of its right hand against its cheek and burst out, “Ho! Ho! Ho!” in a high-pitched gale of laughter.

  “Hah, it sounds just like her!”

  I had never actually heard the real Petralka laugh like that, but it had such plausibility! Every “li’l aristocrat” should laugh like that once in a while!

  “W-We do not do such things!” Petralka exclaimed from beside me, the only one to look annoyed at the doll’s display.

  “You have to admit, though, it’s in character.”

  “Such is not our concern! We insist that our laughter is more refined and elegant!”

  “Refined, elegant laughter, huh? I’m trying to remember if I’ve ever heard that from you...”

  “Shinichi!” Petralka glared at me. Then she turned to Lauron, pointing a finger at her accusingly. “And you, Lauron! Why would you cause the doll to do something simply because this moron demands it?”

  “Ah... I’m very s—”

  “Starting tomorrow, you shall enter our service as a lady in waiting! You must be able to imitate us without any help from Shinichi, or certainly from ourself—so observe us closely! You understand?”

  “Y-Yes, Your Majesty!” Lauron nodded vigorously, with just a touch of panic.

  Well, this was just Petralka’s way of doing something I had already asked her to do. We had decided it would be best if Lauron could get a feel for Petralka’s behavior and personality up close.

  “Wait...” It took a moment for the full impact of Petralka’s command to sink in for Lauron. But when it did, a look of absolute shock spread over her face.