“Yes, that’s right. The Marlay are followers of Ahf. But we get the blessings of the god without having to give it our logs, and we can control what it sees, too. That’s because we can use part of the Faceless Power.” Nonimora smiled as she spoke, but this information was shocking to Akuto.
“So that means that the black mages’ utopia actually existed all along?”
“So it would seem. But it’s only possible because of the Faceless Power.” Korone had heard the same thing from Nonimora before Akuto. She explained this to Akuto, and added something else.
“But we don’t know exactly what the Faceless Power is, or what effects it may have. However, we have seen a similar power.” She glanced over at Keena.
Akuto didn’t want to say it in front of Nonimora, but he knew exactly what she was talking about. He remembered the moment when Keena had altered everyone’s memories.
“Hmm, it feels like stuff’s starting to come together.” Akuto looked over at Keena.
She paused and looked up at him, before turning away with a pout.
“Anyway, we’re going to maintain altitude over the jungle and come down in the village. Nonimora Kananoni, as a relative of the Empress, has invited her for a visit. That’s our official pretext. Of course, our real reason is, as Nonimora suggested, to study the power of the Jeweled Branch. We’ve brought an investigation team along with the knights, so keep that in mind.” Korone finished her explanation. Akuto had heard the same thing from Joji, the old knight, several times.
“I’m aware. Let’s get to work, then,” Akuto said.
Korone headed for the control room. She was steering the ship all by herself. When Korone was gone, Nonimora started to perk up even more.
“Alright, let’s start with some Hem-Hem!”
“No, you promised not to do that onboard the ship... Actually, I’m not going to do it at all...” Akuto pried her off of him, and then, since she still looked upset, offered to make her something to drink.
“Look, there’s a bar. I can make you something. Of course, there’s no alcohol, but I can make something you like...”
But as he stood up, someone grabbed him and pulled him back. It was Keena, not Nonimora.
“What is it?” Akuto asked. Keena just fidgeted as she pulled on his sleeve.
“Come on, what is it?” He asked again. Keena spoke in a small voice.
“Um... should I... do it too, you think?”
“Huh?” Akuto leaned closer, unsure of what she was saying.
Keena blushed as she continued. “Ackie, if you want... we can do it.”
“Do what?”
“Um... Hem-Hem.” Keena was staring into his eyes.
She didn’t look like she was joking.
“Um... isn’t that... kind of wrong?” Akuto said seriously, as he backed away from her.
“Ackie!” Keena pulled on his sleeve again, but he shook her off and headed for the bar.
“Haha... Um, what do you want, Keena?”
Nonimora was overjoyed to see this, and began to bounce around on the sofa
“Oh? Ooh? Ooh? So did you fall for Nonimora’s charms? Did you?”
“No, I didn’t...” Akuto said, frowning. As he made something for them to drink, he changed the subject.
“So, does the Jeweled Branch itself have any kind of power?”
The box with the Jeweled Branch was on the table. It was the thing that Nozomi Sasahara’s family had protected for generations. Nonimora’s face took on a serious expression.
“The first member of magical civilization was said to be the Emperor. My ancestor, you see. The Jeweled Branch tells those whose royal blood is especially strong that the choosing of the next heir has begun. That’s what it was made for, I think.”
“And if it was kept hidden in the Sasahara household...”
“That means that the imperial family in the capital wanted the line of succession to be hereditary.”
“I see. So that’s why... There’s a lot of history around it, huh?” Akuto went back to the sofa and put the drinks on the table. Suddenly he felt something soft on his left arm. Keena had grabbed on to his arm again.
“What’s wrong?” Akuto asked, but Keena didn’t answer. She just rubbed her body against him.
“Rub rub...” She murmured as she rubbed her cheek against his bicep, and pressed her chest against his forearm.
“Listen, you’ve gotta stop that...” Akuto disentangled himself again. Keena pouted unhappily. It was unclear if she was upset, or just not certain what to do.
“You’re acting really weird today,” Akuto said, but all Keena did was fidget. She didn’t say anything.
“Oooh! You guys are having fun! I guess I’ll rub up against you while I continue talking about important things!” Nonimora said, as she grabbed his right hand and started to do what Keena was doing. But when she opened her mouth, strangely, she was in fact talking about important things.
“It’s said that there are several candidates for the throne, that is, descendants of the first Emperor, scattered around the globe. The line which eventually came to rule the Empire continually betrayed them.” While she was talking, Keena had grabbed tightly onto Akuto’s arm again. Now he couldn’t brush both of them away.
“And they say that the Jeweled Branch is also the key that will activate a ship that travels to the stars,” Akuto added, and Nonimora nodded.
“That’s right. The Ship that Goes to the Stars flew through space once, and it brought back part of the Faceless Power. That’s why I can use part of it. That’s what that Liradan was saying.”
“Then that power is...” Akuto began, but then Korone walked into the room. Some time had passed since they’d left port. Akuto thought that they might’ve arrived already, but he was wrong.
“I’m sorry to interrupt. I have a report.”
“What is it?”
“This ship is going to crash.”
“Huh?”
“It’s descending. It is no longer responding to my commands.” She was saying this so calmly that it didn’t sound like anything important, but it was a serious situation.
“W-Wait. How? Are we under attack?”
“No, if anything, we were the attackers. The cause is unknown, but control of the ship was taken over from inside. And then the ship used its self-defense weapons to shoot down the two royal guard ships near us.”
“Taken over from inside? That’s impossible. There’s nobody in here but us...”
“Hence the mystery. But we have to accept reality for what it is. That is: this very luxurious ship is about to crash. We should prepare to evacuate.”
“...G-Got it.” Akuto stood up and ran to get his travel bag. Fortunately, he’d put all the things that he and Keena would need in a large bag that he hadn’t opened yet.
“Huh? We’re crashing? Really? It’s been so quiet.” Keena turned a confused look toward Korone.
Korone nodded.
“I’m afraid it’s true. In order to make the voyage as pleasant as possible, the soundproofing and position stabilizing are top-notch.”
Korone forced open the cabin door. Suddenly the wind came blowing in. When they walked over to the opening, they could see a green carpet of jungle spreading out below. It seemed oddly close, and they could tell that they were descending while staying perfectly level.
“We’ve already reached the island. We’ll just fall into the jungle,” Korone said.
Akuto turned back towards Keena and Nonimora. The two of them didn’t seem bothered. Nonimora seemed to be having a great time. Well, Keena could fly, and there wasn’t much to worry about in Nonimora’s case.
“But be careful. The jungle is full of mana-absorbing plants. The mana within is unstable.”
By the time Korone finished, though, the others were already outside the ship. “Oh... Right.”
“Huh? Then I can’t fly? ...Wait, I can’t fly! Gyaaah!”
“Hahaha! Don’t worry! Just look for a tall tree
in the jungle and try to bounce from one leaf to another on it. You’ll be fine!” Nonimora said and laughed.
—It’s crazy, but I guess it’s our only hope.
Akuto grabbed Keena as he fell. When he looked up, he saw Korone, slowly descending in her parachute.
2 - A True Hero
“The Empress’s ship has vanished?” Lily asked. Junko had brought her this piece of classified information. The two of them were facing each other across the student council desk.
“It just happened a moment ago. Of course, this is extremely classified, so I wanted to make sure you heard it and nobody else did,” Junko whispered.
“Who’s responsible?” Lily asked. There was a mix of anger and suspicion on her face. She clearly had a possible culprit in mind, but Junko didn’t have an answer for her.
“There’s no information yet. But no matter who it was, he’s with her, so it should be fine..”
Lily tapped her fingers on the desk, annoyed.
“Akuto Sai? Of course, it’s stupid to worry about the Empress herself. What I’m asking is whether C-MID8 is responsible.”
“What do you want to do about this?” Junko asked. Lily grimaced.
“You must be an idiot, if you don’t know the answer. I’m going to crush C-MID8 because I don’t like them. Ever since that Nonimora girl showed up, everybody else has been really concerned with the fate of the Empire. But for me, this is all I’m interested in.”
“Then it’s a personal vendetta? I came to you because I wanted to protect the others from whatever plot is unfolding...”
Junko leaned forward, her face flush, but Lily was unmoved. She reached out a hand and thwapped Junko’s forehead with an index finger.
“Idiot. Just come out and say that it’s for Akuto Sai. And let me tell you something. Whether it’s politics or anything else, most of the world is dictated by personal objectives. You could even say that selfish vendettas were the driving force behind humanity’s evolution. Remember that. Someday, we’re going to be priests. And when that happens, if you’re still unsure of yourself, it’ll be too late.”
“That’s crazy...” Junko said, putting a hand to her forehead.
“Whether you believe it or not, someday you’ll see for yourself. Nobody does this job just to protect the empire. It’s possible that C-MID8 could even issue an order to your family, the Hattoris. Well, you violated an order like that once, so you already understand that.”
“No, I...”
“No need to defend yourself. If you understand what I just said, then go persuade your father.”
“Huh?” Junko was confused by this sudden change of topic.
“Royal guard ships were shot down. The knights aren’t gonna like this. Though I’m sure that C-MID8’s got a way around the problem. Probably they’ll blame the Marlay or something.”
“Oh... I see.”
“Which means that the Hattori will be the ones commanding our forces for war. No, we can’t even let things get to that point. War’s easy enough to start when a country’s leaders see that the people want it.”
What Lily said made sense, and Junko was embarrassed that she hadn’t thought of it herself. She drew away from the desk slightly.
“Yes... I understand.”
“Civilian rule is pointless. Whoever is the best at manipulating the populace comes out on top. And that’s the problem with it.”
Lily laughed.
Suddenly a message came in from Hiroshi.
“...Excuse me. What’s up?”
It was Hiroshi’s voice. He sounded like he was in a hurry.
“I’m about to initiate pursuit. I’ve found one of them.”
“Got it. Send me regular updates on your position.” Lily ended the call, and grinned.
“Okay, they’ve started to make their move.”
“You’re going to follow Hiroshi, right? Should I go with you?” Junko asked. Lily shook her head.
“No. You handle your dad, first. And if Hiroshi found someone, that somebody is a decoy. He’s terrible at tracking people down, and there’s no way he wasn’t noticed. But the one thing we do know is that they’re on the move, so I’m going to go the opposite direction of Hiroshi. I need to wait for his next update and then get the trio ready.”
Junko nodded, but she said to herself that there was no way she could ever beat the student council president at anything.
○
Lily’s guess was right. Kei and The One were watching Rubbers race out of the capital city center, with Hiroshi in hot pursuit.
“Alright, our idiot pursuer is following the rubber man.”
There were people around them, so The One was communicating telepathically. They were in the government district, in late afternoon. Kei and The One looked like a handsome young boy taking his big dog for a walk.
“Even when he’s not in rubber form, he’s still a giant skinhead,” Kei laughed.
“Rubbers seems to know the kid, anyway.”
“Probably from the war at the school. I don’t know the details, though. But I don’t like the kid in the Brave Suit. He’s probably met Kento.” For a single instant Kei’s smile vanished, as he glared coldly at the rapidly-fading Hiroshi.
“Did USD say something?” The One asked.
“We met yesterday. I was able to talk to him for a while, but nothing much had changed. He doesn’t suspect me at all.”
“Did he say anything about the Faceless Power?”
“Nothing more than what you said,” Kei replied. “It’s a power we need more than anything. That’s all.”
“I see. So, are you ready?” The One said suddenly.
“Stop asking that. I’m fine.” Kei laughed again, as the two of them entered a nearby building.
○
“Dey thought dey outsmarted us, but we outsmarted ’em instead!” Michie Ootake laughed to herself on top of a nearby building. She was one of the student council trio. Her specialty was the use of small mechanical bats, which made her great at pursuit missions.
“I’m curious about that building, though,” Yoshie said. She hadn’t seemed to have heard Michie at all. She lifted the goggles she was using as binoculars, and turned to the small Liradan at her side, Keisu.
“Keisu, you remember anything?”
“I’m afraid not. You know I’m not the type who remembers anything.”
It was not just humility. Keisu was the rare Liradan who was an idiot, to the point where she was inferior even to a human. With her old clothes and manner of speech, she was practically the first Liradan.
“That’s right. Now, how shall we pursue them?” Yoshie asked Michie.
Yoshie and Keisu were working with the trio. Yoshie had built a new type of mana canceler using her analysis of Keisu’s abilities. Keisu’s body was unable to be detected by the modern system of the gods. Yoshie had used this to create a field around her that would shield them from the gods’ detection. While Hiroshi was attracting C-MID8’s attention, they’d used it to hide themselves completely from their eyes.
“I dun think we can get inside da building... I’ll contact Arnoul and Kanna...” She sent an encoded message to Arnoul and Kanna Kamiyama, the other two members of the student council trio, who’d already gone on ahead. But the answer that came back was a negative one.
“We can’t follow them anymore, gyah. But we saw them get into the elevator, and there’s only two sub-basements, so we’ll just have to look at how far down they went...”
But her next words were surprising.
“The elevator light went out on sub basement 2 and didn’t come back, gyah.”
“So there’s basements below it...” Yoshie put a hand to her forehead in thought, as if she had some idea what might be down there.
And then she clapped her hands together in surprise, and immediately sent a telepathic message. Its target was Fujiko.
“Hey, Eto, do you remember that set of coordinates?”
○
“
Alright... I’ll talk to the student council president. Until then, don’t do anything reckless,” Fujiko said. Her voice was calm, but inside her blood felt like it was about to boil over. The only reason she didn’t do anything immediately was that her self-preservation instincts had won out over her rage. She went to the student council room, and skipped all the introductions, assuming that Lily had already heard it from the trio.
“It would take too long to explain.”
“Everything they told me, they heard from Yoshie Kita, and she doesn’t make any damn sense. So what’s the deal? I understand that there’s something down there in the basement of that building,” Lily asked. Fujiko spoke in hushed tones, even though nobody was listening.
“That building’s basement. I figured out what it is when I investigated the coordinates. Only Keena Soga and I went there, so nobody remembers it, but that’s the spot where we did the ritual of the Demon King’s rebirth.”
“I remember that...” Lily said, astonished. “Rebirth... I only heard about it, I didn’t see for myself, but that’s when he became a real Demon King, right?’
“Yes, that’s right. I’m the one who put him into the device,” Fujiko sounded slightly proud.
“But then... don’t tell me that they’re...” For once, Lily looked a little uneasy.
Fujiko nodded.
“They’re trying to give birth to a new Demon King.”
“But Akuto Sai was born somewhere else right? Probably, at least. So why go there...?”
“When a human is born to be a Demon King, like Akuto Sai, they’re first born as a child. It’s possible that only one person like that can exist at a time.”
“Then that means there’s no way at all a normal person can become a demon king,” Lily said, as if trying to make herself feel better, but Fujiko shook her head.
“I feel like an idiot, being proud of something embarrassing I did, but you remember when Akuto fought here at the academy, right?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Back then, I was cultivating his cells to create a wave that could control the demon beasts. And that rubber man stole them.”
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 11 Page 4
