Cradle of Stars

by Reki Kawahara

  He felt like he heard a familiar, shrill howl off in the distance suddenly, but looking back, there were only families and couples happily passing one another on the sidewalk. Of course, the massive form of an Enemy would not appear from behind a building there.

  He passed through the large halls of the shopping center on the first floor with its many shoppers strolling beneath the Tanabata Festival decorations and jumped into the residents’ elevator before breathing a sigh of relief.

  Haruyuki had been born the year his parents bought this condo in the large multiuse building that was just a five-minute walk from Koenji Station. Of course, his mother had known she was pregnant before that, and his parents had moved there with the intention of living together as a family.

  But his parents had divorced when he was in second grade. He had been told it was because his father was cheating on his mother, but since the few memories he had of his parents as a couple were of all of them laughing together, he felt like they’d had a good relationship. But his father had left, essentially brushing off the weeping young Haruyuki clinging to him, and he hadn’t seen him once ever since. If the divorce had been amicable, then his father should have been given the right to see his child. The fact that he hadn’t meant that his mother had refused to let his father see him—or that his father had said he didn’t want to.

  It was probably the latter, Haruyuki thought, staring absently at the elevator display as it changed one floor at a time.

  One time not long before the divorce, his mother and father had argued in the living room late at night about who would get custody of him. Having woken suddenly, Haruyuki listened to the thorny exchange from the hallway. Were they each trying to get sole custody? Or were they trying to foist it on each other? This, too, was probably…

  The elevator gently decelerated, waking Haruyuki from his ruminations. He was sure he’d been thinking so much about the past lately because of the student council presentation “Time” at the school festival the week before. But it didn’t feel as much like a sharp needle stabbing into his heart as it used to.

  His mother was apparently not coming home today. Still, he no longer felt like she had abandoned him.

  Ever since she was little, his mother had been a fighter and a bit of a sore loser—at least, according to his grandparents, who ran a cherry farm in Yamagata. Her grades had always been in the top of her class. So even after she grew up and got a job with a foreign capital investment bank, got married, and became a mother, she was still always fighting something. That was just how Saya Arita lived, and Haruyuki couldn’t say a thing about it.

  As the display lit up with a large 23, the elevator doors opened, and he stepped out into the empty hall. He turned to the right and rounded the corner, and when the door of his apartment came into view, he was for some reason not particularly surprised to see a small doll in front of it. He had probably realized subconsciously that the sound he’d heard on Kannana Street before was not the howl of an Enemy but rather the roar of a large electric motorcycle.

  The doll jumped up when she noticed Haruyuki silently approaching, the red hair tied up on either side of her head shaking. “What?” she prodded, grinning. “You’re not gonna say, ‘Wh-wh-wh-why are you here?!’”

  “I can’t be surprised like that all the time, you know,” Haruyuki replied, smiling in return. “I kinda had a feeling you’d come, Niko.”

  Yuniko Kozuki—the second Red King, Scarlet Rain—pursed her small lips as though slightly embarrassed. “Tch! So I guess you finally figured me out. I gotta work a little harder next time or somethin’…How about I smash the balcony window and come flyin’ in?”

  “D-d-d-don’t! If you did that, I’d get yelled at until the day I die!” Haruyuki hurriedly shouted.

  “Ha-ha-ha! Kidding! It’s just a joke!” Niko laughed, seemingly satisfied, and then tucked her hands behind her suddenly. “Why would I do something like that, Big Brother?”

  The surprise switch to angel mode nearly shut down his brain. He managed just barely to brace himself and keep from staggering. “S-so then, what on earth do you…?”

  An innocent smile playing on her lips, Niko shifted the large backpack on her back. “Obvious, isn’t it?! We haven’t had a sleepover in aaaaages!”

  …I don’t care if you sleep over—you’re always welcome—but it would really help me out if you could at least e-mail me or something beforehand. And you say “ages,” but it was only eight days ago that you last stayed over…

  Muttering and grumbling, Haruyuki showed Niko into the living room and then peered into the fridge. “Niko, do you want milk, grapefruit juice, oolong tea, mineral water, or milk?”

  “Hey, c’mon!” the angry voice of normal mode roared instantly. “You said milk twice! You tryna be my mom or somethin’?! Like, telling me to be like Raker or what?!”

  “I don’t think you could manage that, even if you did drink milk…”

  “What’d you just say?! But since you’re asking, I’ll have the milk!”

  “Nothing at all! And understood!” He pulled a chemically reinforced one-liter bottle out of the fridge and poured two glasses of milk. While he was at it, he washed a bunch of the cherries that had just arrived from Yamagata, set them in a glass bowl, and carried it out with two small plates.

  The moment he set the tray down on the dining table, Niko’s puffed-up scowl transformed into a glowing smile. “Oh! Cherries! And they’re huge, too!”

  “I didn’t tell you? My grandpa and grandma run a cherry farm in Yamagata. It’s cherry season now. They always send us a ton at this time every year.”

  “A ton every year?! Huh. I shoulda come last year, too!”

  “I wasn’t a Burst Linker in July last year…”

  “Not important! So like…Can I have some?”

  “Oh! Yeah, go ahead.” Haruyuki pushed the glass bowl into the center of the table.

  Niko delightedly snatched one of the large Satonishiki cherries and shouted “Thanks for the grub!” before popping it into her mouth. She had no sooner bitten into it with a small splch than a smile of bliss found its way to her lips.

  “I didn’t know you liked cherries so much, Niko,” Haruyuki remarked as he stuffed a cherry into his own mouth.

  Niko spit the pit out onto the plate before replying. “I didn’t tell you I like them best after strawberries? Like, when I first met Cherry Rook over there, I was all ‘I’d rather have that, switch avatars with me.’ And he was all ‘Uhhh.’”

  “Huh. Now that you mention it, you’re kinda like a cherry somehow, Niko.”

  He looked her over where she sat across from him. She was wearing a dark-gray tank top layered over a red boat-neck T-shirt, and perfectly fitted cutoff jeans. Her slender build and brilliant-red hair were kinda like a cherry, he thought before finally noticing that the girl wasn’t just red on her head but all the way down to her face.

  “O-o-okay, look! Don’t just go saying such embarrassing stuff all of a sudden!”

  “Huh?! I—I didn’t mean anything weird.”

  “’Course not! …But, like, if you say that, Haruyuki, then, like, let’s just leave it at that.” Her face still red, she turned away curtly and stuffed two cherries into her cheeks at once.

  He didn’t know what was so “embarrassing” about what he’d said, but he was glad the cherries had come that day, and he took a drink of his milk.

  Ding-dong! He heard the sound of chimes, and a small window announcing a visitor was displayed in his field of view. For some reason, the hand he raised reflexively stopped in midair. A shiver of premonition crawled up his back. If he was forced to say, it was like the sensation of floating, mixed with the anticipation and terror of the moment right before a roller coaster drops.

  Fortunately, Niko was absorbed in the cherries and noticed nothing. He swallowed hard before he touched the respond button.

  The feed from the camera at the first-floor entrance was shown in the window. And pictured there was t
he smiling face of Kuroyukihime, who had supposedly driven off down Kannana Street twenty minutes ago. Haruyuki twisted around ninety degrees in his chair and asked in a tight and tiny voice, his back rounded toward Niko, “K-K-K-K-K-Kuroyukihime?! Wh-wh-wh-what’s going on?!”

  “Oh, I was actually on my way home, but then I got this uneasy feeling. So I figured I’d come help you study and check out this feeling at the same time.”

  The Black King’s super-senses are to be feared! A chill ran through his heart, but he managed to somehow produce a smile. “W-w-w-w-w-w-well, that’s great. Thanks. Um. Wh-what about Master?”

  “Unfortunately, Fuko had a thing. She said, ‘Hello to Corvus and whomever.’”

  Master’s super-senses are also to be feared. Shivering once again, Haruyuki mustered up his courage and pressed the entry button. “P-please come on up then.”

  “Thanks. Be there in a minute.”

  When the window disappeared, Haruyuki slowly turned back around.

  Naturally, Niko had noticed him talking and was sending a hard stare his way as she twirled the stem of a cherry between her fingertips. “So that was Lotus—I mean, Kuroyuki?”

  “Y-yeah. Good guess.”

  “It’s written all over yer face. Honestly. Are you freaked out or happy?” Niko snorted indignantly before leaning back in her chair. “Welp, guess I’ll leave the rest of these cherries for her then.”

  Exactly one minute later, Kuroyukihime rang the bell to his door, and no sooner had she come face-to-face with Niko in the living room than a dangerous grin was popping up on her lips. “I knew it. I suspected something like this.”

  It was Sunday, so Kuroyukihime was also in street clothes: a layered tunic of black fabric with a white floral design and leggings that ended just below the knee. Her sleeveless shoulders were dazzling, but he didn’t have the mental leeway to appreciate them as he urged her to a chair.

  “Please, sit down. I’ll get you something to drink. Um, what did you want?”

  “Milk, of course,” Niko said, grinning.

  Kuroyukihime arched an eyebrow. “While I don’t dislike milk, why the ‘of course’?”

  “’Cause you still got room to grow, y’know?”

  “Wh-what are you looking at when you say that?! I am not dissatisfied with the status of my own growth!”

  “Oh-ho. So you’re deliberately going for lightweight, then.”

  “Y-you are certainly not one to talk!”

  “I’m gonna grow plenty from here on out.”

  “Hmph, it will be too late to panic three years from now, after all.”

  “So you are panicking, then.”

  “I am not!”

  Listening anxiously to this exchange, Haruyuki managed to fight for an opening and interjected, “So, K-Kuroyukihime, what did you want?”

  “I’ll have milk,” Kuroyukihime said, glaring at him.

  “R-roger.” He retreated meekly into the kitchen and let out the breath he’d been holding.

  This wasn’t the first time Niko and Kuroyukihime had run into each other at the Arita house—he remembered quite well a similar development when Niko had slipped into his house six months earlier, pretending to be his cousin. He’d have to be on his toes for the time being, at least.

  He poured milk into a third glass and carried it out with a new small plate. He set these in front of Kuroyukihime, who was sitting beside Niko for some reason, and gestured toward the cherries on the table.

  “Please have some, if you’d like. They’re cherries my grandfather grew.”

  “Oh! They’re quite large. Thank you.” It seemed Kuroyukihime didn’t dislike cherries, either, and she happily reached out for one. She popped one into her mouth and grinned. “They’re very good. What cultivar are they?”

  “The old Satonishiki. There are a lot of new genetically modified types these days, like to make them sweeter or super-big. But they’ve basically always grown these at my grandparents’ farm.”

  “I see…I’d like to visit your grandparents’ cherry farm sometime.”

  “You can. Like, during summer vacation or something,” he replied. And then hurried to add, “Oh! B-but it’s by Higashine in Yamagata, so a day trip isn’t really an option.”

  “Mm. That’s fine with me. As long as it’s no trouble for your grandparents, I could stay the night, or two nights, or three.”

  “I-it wouldn’t be any trouble at all. In fact, I think my grandma and grandpa would be super-happy.”

  “Well then, perhaps I’ll take you up on the offer.”

  “Please do! Cherries taste best when you pick them right from the tree!” The instant Haruyuki said this, there was a loud bang.

  Niko leaned forward in her chair. “I’m going, too.”

  “What?”

  “I wanna go, toooo! I wanna eat fresh! Picked! Cherries!” Niko cried in a voice that was hard to tell if she was in angel mode or normal mode.

  “Niko, you’re not a little kid anymore, right?” Kuroyukihime patted her head with one hand. “So what do you say at a time like this, hmm?”

  “S-stupid Kuroyuki. It’s not even your grandpa…” Gritting her teeth in vexation, Niko turned back to Haruyuki and bowed deeply, Kuroyukihime’s hand still on her head. “Haruyuki, c’mon…I’m beggin’ ya! You gotta take me, too. Please!”

  “Y-you don’t have to beg. Of course it’s okay. My grandparents’ house is big, so it can accommodate a bunch of people. The building’s pretty old, though.”

  “R-really?! Yessss!!” Niko yanked herself back up like she was going to fly off her chair and knocked Kuroyukihime’s hand off her head. “Sweet! Summer vacation! It’s already set in the schedule in my heart, so no take-backs!”

  “I-I’ll have to ask them about when we can come…”

  “Yeah, yeah. But the sooner the better! Oh! But. Hmm.” Niko abruptly started mumbling, so Haruyuki blinked hard. And then the smile on Niko’s lips turned into something a little bitter. “Oh, it’s just that I was thinking…At any rate, before we eat fresh-picked cherries, we oughtta finish those guys off.”

  “I suppose so. I would very much like to.” Kuroyukihime also nodded deeply.

  “Those guys” were, of course, the Acceleration Research Society—the White Legion, Oscillatory Universe. They had adopted the Seven Legion joint-attack policy proposed by Niko at the meeting of the Seven Kings that day. But there would be no attack until they could prove where the Society’s headquarters were.

  “Um.” One of the few remaining cherries dangling from his fingers, Haruyuki switched gears and told the two kings, “The Blue King said if anyone brought information about the headquarters, he would send a scouting team and check the matching list in the area, but just that’s not enough to prove that the Eternal Girls’ Academy’s Minato Area Number Three is the Society’s home base.”

  “You’re exactly right.” Kuroyukihime reached out for her glass of milk, drops of water condensed on the sides. “All those Society people are likely Oscillatory members, and at the same time, all of Minato Ward is Oscillatory territory. With the privileges of the controlling Legion, their names wouldn’t normally be on the matching list.”

  “So then…how are we supposed to get proof?” Haruyuki bit his lip lightly.

  “You gotta let me apologize for one thing first,” Niko said, a serious edge to her voice, as she sat up straighter in her chair.

  “Huh…?”

  “Like, that’s actually the reason I came over. Haruyuki…and Kuroyuki, I’m sorry for racing ahead like that at the meeting today without talking to you first.” Her pigtails bobbing up and down, Niko bowed her head deeply.

  Even Haruyuki, who was generally a little thick, understood what Niko was talking about. Her proposal for a joint concentrated attack on the Acceleration Research Society in the middle of the meeting. And indeed, he had felt it was a little sudden. But as a result, they had likely succeeded in putting a degree of pressure on Ivory Tower and the White Legion, so it s
eemed to him that there was no need to apologize now.

  Kuroyukihime apparently felt the same way, and she patted Niko’s shoulder as a faint, wry smile crossed her face. “No need to humble yourself like this. If you hadn’t said it, Niko, I would have made a similar proposal…Although, well, if you’d given me word in advance, I think we may have been able to coordinate better.”

  “That’s just it.” Niko lifted her face and glanced out the window with a stern look. “I’ll be blunt. The reason I couldn’t talk to you earlier about the meeting today is that the opinion’s still split with my gang.”

  “Split?” Haruyuki parroted, and Niko looked back at him with eyes that did indeed house the force of a king.

  “Yeah. Put simply, some members—well, some of the executives—insist we shouldn’t put any more into our relationship with Nega Nebulus. I managed to persuade them to agree with the joint attack, at least, right before the meeting.”

  “The executives…So, like, Pard-rank?”

  “Yeah. The other two at Pard’s rank, the Triplex. Lemme just say, both of ’em care super-loads about Promi and me. Which is exactly why maybe…They think just the indefinite cease-fire agreement with Negabu puts Promi in danger. And you know, you guys are squaring off against the other Legions and fighting, so. They feel like maybe they’re gonna come after Promi sooner or later, and as the LM, I can’t say I don’t get that.”

  “I see. Their concerns are quite valid. The situation is such that I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Radio and his ilk were to take note of our cease-fire and demand you withdraw from the Six Legion mutual nonaggression pact.”

  “Cool as a cucumber when you say that, but…” Niko smiled bitterly and shifted to sit cross-legged on her chair, placing her hands on her slender ankles. She sat in silence like that for a moment, but then suddenly said in a tone that was somehow brusque, “…In fact, I’m basically of the mind that Negabu and we have already thrown our lots in together.”

  “Huh…?” Haruyuki’s eyes grew wide.

  Niko glanced at him and then turned to the side for some reason before standing up and speaking even faster. “I mean, we have, though. We hold Nakano One, and if the five Legions decided to launch an all-out attack on Negabu, that territory would be in the way. So they tell me to hand it over, and if I just say ‘Sure, no probs,’ then there’s not even any point in setting up shop as a Legion. In the end, our only choice’d be to form a genuine alliance with you and fight together.”