Fiesta for the Observers

by Gakuto Mikumo

  Kojou was faintly hopeful as he asked, “So if you restore from the backup…Natsuki’s gonna come back?”

  However, the backup twirled around on top of the bed for no apparent reason.

  “Sorry! That might not be possible! Memories are one thing, but I don’t think this body can take the strain of using spells! In the first place, there’s not enough magical power!”

  “…I see. So this really ain’t gonna work unless we destroy Aya Tokoyogi’s grimoire, huh?”

  “Totally. Or you could wait ten years for me to grow up like I was before, kyun?”

  “There’s no way we’re waitin’ that long!”

  Kojou sighed, aggrieved, at the backup’s completely unconcerned manner of speech.

  It was a moment later that the flat-screen TV nestled into the wall of the cabin came on unbidden without anyone touching the remote control. What now? Kojou thought as he looked over dubiously.

  A badly made CG teddy bear floated up onto the screen.

  “—Finally got a connection. You hearin’ this, Li’l Miss?”

  Asagi shrieked at the teddy bear on the TV. “M-Mogwai?!”

  Kojou knew the name. This was the avatar of the five supercomputers that administered Itogami Island—Asagi’s AI partner.

  “…What are you doing popping up in a place like that?”

  “’Cause your smartphone ran out of juice. I used the broadcast signal to hack in. Sorry, but there’s more trouble on the way. I’d like you to give me a hand, but…”

  “Oh, really. I don’t wanna.”

  Asagi turned off the TV without the slightest hesitation. However, the TV turned back on again instantly, to a display of Mogwai on its hands and knees.

  “Please, I’m begging you!”

  “I said NO. How much do you plan on making a normal high schooler work here? Thanks to you, the first day of the festival’s a complete write-off.”

  Asagi tapped the power button on the remote control, rapid-fire, as she spoke. When she saw that wasn’t going to do any good, she moved her hand toward the TV’s power cord. Mogwai desperately shook his head in alarm.

  “Wait, wait, wait, this problem totally affects you, too, Li’l Miss!”

  “Hah? How so?”

  “There’s a weird spatial distortion popping up with Saikai Academy’s campus at the center of it. Any device using magical power is inoperable inside it, and it seems to cancel all spells in operation, too.”

  “…You’re saying it neutralizes spells?” Asagi asked skeptically.

  Mogwai nodded gravely. “That’s the short version.”

  “Sounds nice and peaceful.”

  “If this wasn’t an artificial island, I might agree with you—”

  “Ah…!” Asagi exclaimed, finally grasping the gravity of the situation.

  Itogami Island was a man-made island, a city floating on the Pacific Ocean constructed from Gigafloats linked together.

  Of course, normal technology could not make a giant city with over five hundred thousand souls float on water. The Demon Sanctuary of Itogami City was a city reliant on magical spells.

  “You don’t mean the spells reinforcing the Gigafloats are being canceled, too?!” asked Asagi.

  “Yep. Hardening, mass reduction, spatial stabilization, ghost repellers…every kind of spell you can think of is losin’ power. Right now it’s still only affecting the area around Saikai Academy, but if the area of effect increases at this rate, it’s gonna get…a bit rough.”

  Asagi clutched her head and sighed hard. “…This is the worst.”

  The cause of the magic nullification was not yet clear, but sooner or later, the city would become unable to support its own weight, and Itogami Island would collapse. It certainly wasn’t something she could just ignore.

  “So y’see, we’re gettin’ everyone we can on deck to work on strength calculations and reinforcement plans and evacuation guide programs. We’ll pay good money.”

  “Well, I understand where you’re coming from now…but it’s pretty tight on this end, too, so I can’t just run to the Management Corporation at the drop of a hat. The monorails are still down, right?”

  “I get ya. I’ll get something whipped up on this end to g—”

  The television screen upon which the teddy bear avatar was displayed suddenly blacked out.

  “…Mogwai?”

  Above Asagi and Kojou’s heads, the sound of a giant explosion reverberated, fiercely rocking the hull of the Oceanus Grave II.

  Kojou let loose a shout as he tumbled onto the bed from losing his balance.

  “What now?!”

  At some point, the ship had lost its regular lights, switching to emergency lamps instead.

  They already had Sana’s sudden change and the anomaly affecting Itogami Island to worry about. Those two were trouble enough, but now Kojou and Asagi had to switch their attention to the one remaining problem. Kojou remembered what that was as impacts continued slamming against the ship.

  The backup looked out of the window as she stated, “It’s an escaped prisoner, meow. Looks like he’s coming to board the ship from the front, mew.”

  Kojou sighed as he shot the backup a frosty look.

  “…That’s fine, but you’re massively out of character, y’know. Well, if it’s no worse than this, Vattler’ll take care of it. He got us here just so he could draw ’em to this ship, after all…”

  But the backup had a somber look about her.

  Kojou saw the crimson flames in the nighttime sky reflected in the young girl’s pupils. The air was thick with intense demonic power: a powerful surge of energy far surpassing the norm. It might well have been Vattler calling a Beast Vassal.

  The next moment, a single, searing beam assaulted the ship, creating a large explosion in its wake. A portion of the ship was engulfed in flames as debris scattered and broke all about. Something had hit the deck of the Oceanus Grave II with tremendous force.

  In the center of the explosion was a young blond man wearing a white coat. Flames burned around Vattler as he lay on his side, blood covering his whole body.

  Vattler had tried to counterattack against the assaulting escapees, but he’d been the one that got blown away—? Him, an Old Guard vampire—?

  The backup knocked her knuckles against her own head and stuck out her tongue.

  “This doesn’t look so good…kyun.”

  Even as her needlessly overdramatic pose annoyed him, Kojou grabbed her and Asagi’s hands and rushed out of the cabin.

  6

  A little before the prisoners’ raid set the Oceanus Grave II aflame…

  …There were two girls on the great pier of Itogami Harbor.

  One was a tall girl wielding a long sword. The other was a girl in a nurse outfit, carrying a silver-colored spear. They were Sayaka and Yukina, following in Kojou’s wake.

  Sayaka seethed with rage as she looked up at the extravagant cruise ship floating atop the nighttime sea.

  “What are you thinking, Kojou Akatsuki?! Staying in the same room as a girl in your own class, with a d-double bed in it…that shameless pervergenitor…!”

  The girls couldn’t see the interior of the gigantic luxury yacht from the wharf they stood upon. However, Sayaka had sent a shikigami made out of thin metal plate to keep an eye on Kojou and the others. For Sayaka, well educated in the arts of curses and assassination, using ritual magic for reconnaissance was part of her specialty.

  Technically, Yukina could use the same spell, but Sayaka was far more skilled with it. Of the two of them, only Sayaka the Shamanic War Dancer could penetrate the anti-magic ward deployed all across Vattler’s ship to peer within.

  “Sana is with them, too, isn’t she? So they’re not alone,” Yukina countered.

  “Now that you mention it, I think so, but those two get along really well! Right now Asagi Aiba is smacking Kojou Akatsuki with a sandal.”

  “That’s…getting along well?” Yukina murmured.

  Relying
on Sayaka as an intermediary, Yukina had a thin grasp of the current situation aboard the ship. As a result, Yukina’s mental image inflated on its own; in her head, something major was going on between Kojou and Asagi.

  For her part, Sayaka continued to concentrate her mind on her shikigami, tilting her head with a thoroughly mystified look.

  “Aiba Asagi’s such a beauty. Why doesn’t Kojou Akatsuki act like he’s aware of it?”

  “Um…I don’t really think you are one to talk, Sayaka…,” Yukina reprimanded gently. Her senior from the agency was also somewhat known for her lack of self-awareness.

  And then, before she could say any more, she spun the tip of her spear toward the darkness behind her.

  “—Incidentally, are you not the one who forced Akatsuki-senpai and Aiba upon each other, Duke Ardeal?”

  A voice with a snobbish echo to it floated down from the dark air.

  “Oh, you noticed, did you? There’s a Lion King Agency Sword Shaman for you.”

  A golden mist riding the wind coalesced into the form of a young man wearing a white coat—Dimitrie Vattler.

  Apparently, he’d been watching them while they’d been observing the ship. It was only Yukina’s extremely sharp spiritual senses that allowed her to notice the vampire’s aura while transformed into mist.

  “…Do you want Akatsuki-senpai to drink Aiba’s blood?” Yukina demanded. “Why are you going out of your way to offer a sacrifice to the Fourth Primogenitor?”

  Vattler smiled casually as he replied.

  “Because I thought it was more amusing that way. The fastest way to get Avrora’s Beast Vassals to awaken is for Kojou to drink the blood of a qualified spiritual medium. I think that girl has an excellent chance to make the grade.”

  “Why do you intend on granting the Fourth Primogenitor that much power?”

  As Yukina asked her question, the expression she gave Vattler was one of dead seriousness.

  To Vattler, a blood relative of the First Primogenitor, the Lost Warlord, the Fourth Primogenitor, from a cost-benefit perspective, was an enemy. For Vattler to engage in conduct beneficial to Kojou multiple times was very odd indeed.

  Even Vattler’s lust for combat—how he craved to fight opponents more powerful than himself—was not a sufficient explanation. After all, the other nobles and elders of the Warlord’s Empire silently approved of Vattler’s conduct; Vattler having been named ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary was proof enough.

  Vattler replied to Yukina with a question of his own in an apparent effort to deflect hers.

  “Yukina Himeragi…I wonder if you realize the true reason you were chosen to be Kojou’s watcher?”

  Yukina knitted her brows in annoyance, suspicious of a trick.

  “What do you mean by that…?”

  Yukina had been told that she’d been chosen to be Kojou’s watcher because she was the only Sword Shaman similar in age to him who could stay close without arousing suspicion. She didn’t think there was any other reason.

  Vattler gazed with apparent delight at Yukina’s reaction.

  “Allow me to change the question, then. What is the Fourth Primogenitor to begin with? If only three vampire primogenitors, the pillars of the race, ought to exist, why is there a fourth?

  “If Kojou becomes a complete Fourth Primogenitor, we might learn the reason why a fourth came into being. Also, fighting and consuming Kojou in that state sounds very amusing.”

  Vattler laughed as his vulgar thirst for battle finally revealed itself in full. It was a full-throated laugh he normally kept well under wraps.

  Yukina subconsciously regripped her spear as she glared at the man. “Duke Ardeal…you are such a…”

  Sayaka, having silently listened to their back and forth all this time, poised her sword with a similar level of enmity naked to the eye.

  Looking at both of them with a highly satisfied smirk, Vattler abruptly turned his back to them.

  “You don’t need to make such scary faces. It’s quite all right—that is for well into the future. Having found my beloved after all this time, I simply must draw out the enjoyment. Besides,” Vattler murmured, “Kojou is not tonight’s guest of honor—”

  A malignant aural wave rolled off Vattler’s entire body. He was glaring at a large, unfamiliar silhouette standing at the tip of the pier.

  It was a man wearing black armor from the neck down, with a huge sword slung over his back. His unkempt, gray hair resembled the mane of a wild beast. His skin had the color of steel. He didn’t have any obvious demonic characteristics, but he certainly didn’t look like a normal human being.

  “An escapee from the prison barrier…!” exclaimed Yukina. She and Sayaka immediately turned their weapons toward the new arrival.

  There was a silver manacle covering the gauntlet on the man’s left forearm. He, too, was one of the jailbreakers chasing after Natsuki Minamiya in search of complete freedom from the prison barrier.

  He reached toward the giant sword at his back. However, before he could draw it, Vattler unleashed his attack. Without warning, Vattler’s Beast Vassal appeared in the sky and spewed a sickly green beam, striking the man dead center and enveloping him in an enormous explosion.

  Yukina stood in shock as she watched the head of the pier collapse.

  “D-Duke Ardeal—?!”

  The Old Guard vampire’s blow hadn’t held back even a little. She didn’t think anyone could endure a hit like that. Surely it had been a surprise attack, leaving no opportunity to put up a defensive ward.

  However, Vattler shot the smoke-enveloped remains of the head of the pier an expectant look.

  “I have no need for an opponent who’d die from just that. There’d be no need for me to trouble myself.”

  “—Then I shall repay thy words with interest, Dimitrie Vattler!”

  A silver-colored light sliced through the hovering cloud of smoke.

  Kicking off the ground and leaping high, the armored man drew the massive great sword from his back and pounded it home into Vattler’s Beast Vassal. The monstrous, deep green serpent was dozens of meters long, yet its entire body shuddered with an anguished roar; beams of light scattered from it as it exploded in every direction. Then, the armored man sliced toward Vattler, defenseless with the loss of his Beast Vassal.

  “Gwah?!”

  Sustaining a merciless slashing attack from the flank, Vattler’s tall form was blown away. He sailed all the way to the Oceanus Grave II, colliding with it, scattering rubble that also buried him and hid him from sight. Fragments of the ruptured Beast Vassal poured down upon the ship, causing explosions and fires in multiple locations.

  “Duke Ardeal!” Yukina exclaimed.

  “He cut…a Beast Vassal?! No way…?!” said Sayaka, her eyes wide in astonishment.

  A vampire’s Beast Vassal was a summoned creature from another world, using vast magical energy to take physical form.

  By their very nature, being masses of magical energy themselves, they could only be defeated by slamming even greater magical energy into them.

  However, the armored man had felled one with a single blow of his sword. Even though Yukina and Sayaka had just witnessed this with their own eyes, it was still a hard sight for them to easily believe.

  The armored man leaped toward the deck of the ship in pursuit of the wounded vampire.

  Yukina and Sayaka hastily pursued the man in turn. Kojou and the others were inside the burning ship. They didn’t think Kojou, in his present state, could do anything against an opponent who’d defeated the likes of Vattler with one blow. Protecting Asagi, an ordinary person, or the age-reduced Natsuki seemed an utterly impossible task for him alone, but…

  A new man suddenly stood before the girls. He had red hair, a small stature, and an inappropriately bright, wide smile on his face.

  “Ooh…he really went in big. Tch, I’m late to the party, dammit!”

  He spoke in a voice of ready admiration at the sight of the ship ablaze; p
erhaps his appearance reflected a so-called fiery personality.

  Yukina stopped where she stood and raised her spear.

  “Who are you…?!”

  As she asked it, she remembered the man’s face. He was the prisoner called Schtola D.

  The corners of his lips rose as he looked back in amusement at Yukina, now in a combat stance.

  “What’s this…? In this Demon Sanctuary, even nurses work as Attack Mages?”

  “Eh?”

  “Well, fine. I owe you one for stepping on my pride, little nurse—!”

  Yukina didn’t have the time to retort, I am not a nurse!, but it was apparently a trivial matter to Schtola D. He raised his right hand high above his head, swinging it down at once.

  Yukina bit her lip. It was his invisible slash, the mysterious attack that even Snowdrift Wolf, able to nullify all types of magical energy, could not completely block. Since she couldn’t nail down the timing or distance, deflection seemed the better option—

  Yukina raised her spear, relying on intuition alone. She couldn’t dodge an attack when she didn’t know the enemy’s striking range. She had no choice but to block it.

  But just before Schtola D’s attack came at her, a silhouette danced right before Yukina’s eyes.

  “—What are you trying to do to my Yukina, you little shrimp?!”

  Sayaka’s long hair swayed as she lashed out with her long silver sword.

  One of the abilities of Sayaka’s sword, Lustrous Scale, was to nullify physical attacks.

  Through severing space itself, the area sliced by Lustrous Scale became a momentary barrier that was utterly invincible against physical attacks.

  And so, Schtola D’s invisible slash slammed into the invisible wall before Sayaka’s eyes, bouncing off and petering out.

  Schtola D’s face twisted in malice.

  “…That’s a nice trick you’ve got, bitch!”

  He had absolute confidence in his own attack; seeing it blocked had really gotten his blood flowing. It was quite a troublesome personality trait.

  “I’ve got this, Yukina. You go help Kojou and the others!”

  Having thus spoken, Sayaka glared at the escaped convict with red-hot rage.