“This is what I was worried about. Of course Akuto can’t do it,” Yoshie said. She was right.
Akuto kept dodging her attacks. It was easy for him, but Korone wasn’t going to run out of energy either. The battle would continue forever.
“So does this just go on forever, then?” Keena suddenly asked.
Korone grinned, and answered in a way that she didn’t expect.
“Of course it would, if I only ever went after the Demon King. But if I went after somebody else with a blow that even the Demon King himself couldn’t stop...”
She swung the hammer back again and this time charged in a different direction. This time she was heading away from Akuto. She was heading towards where Keena, Junko, and Keisu were standing.
“She’s coming after us!” Yoshie gasped.
Of course, Korone’s body was now totally exposed to Akuto. He could stop her easily. But...
“What will you do? If you don’t kill Korone, Keisu dies. And Keena Soga and Junko Hattori die as well,” Korone said. As she raised the hammer high, Akuto ran out of time to make his decision.
“Now die!” Korone’s cruel hammer struck at Keena, Junko, and Keisu.
Akuto’s expression twisted. And then he whispered... “Coward.”
“Hahaha! Is that wrong?” Korone laughed.
The hammer came down from above where they were standing. There was an explosion and a shock wave rippled through the tiles.
The hammer was slow; you didn’t have to be Akuto to dodge it. In fact, two of them already had. Junko had grabbed Keena and jumped, but Keisu...
“I’ve won...! Now it’s over!” Korone yelled.
Keisu was right under the hammer. There was no dodging it. They couldn’t see any bit of her. But her parts, which had exploded into tiny little bits, scattered on the floor.
“Now it’s impossible to seal Zero. There is no point in fighting now. Zero will not disappear no matter what you do,” Korone slowly lifted the hammer. She smiled when she saw Keisu’s remains under it.
“And that means that even if you defeat me, Zero’s rule shall endure. But you can’t defeat me.” It was a perfect declaration of victory.
She was right. In a way, it was probably better to have Kazuko rule than Zero. Everything Akuto and the others had done was now a waste of time. But the light hadn’t disappeared from their eyes.
Korone realized that something was wrong. “Why aren’t you falling into despair? Don’t tell me...”
Korone began to speak into the void. She was probably talking to Zero. She had one mouth, but the words belonged to two people. “Did anything change?”
“What is this...? Something approaches me.”
“Approaches me? Aren’t you on the moon?”
“I am referring to the moon. Something approaches the moon.”
Zero’s words were a shock to Kazuko. “Impossible...” Korone said. “There aren’t any rockets left that can go to the moon.”
“But a shuttle is on its way,” Zero’s voice said, and then Korone turned to Akuto.
“What did you do?”
“What you destroyed was a doll we built last night. It moves, but it’s empty inside.” Akuto grinned.
Yoshie had made a fake Keisu doll that night. Even without an AI, they didn’t have to worry about Zero noticing it. Zero couldn’t sense Keisu anyway.
“Then where is the real one?” Korone said with a shaking voice.
“On a shuttle that was stored in a museum. Supposedly it still works,” Akuto said.
Kazuko must have known the one he meant, because the fear in her voice rose. “But there’s no rocket capable of getting it to orbit...!”
“Someone was there to help us out,” Akuto’s grin widened.
“Brave...!” Korone said, shocked.
“He can take her all the way up to the edge of the gravity well. And Zero can’t detect him either. That’s right; he left two nights ago. He was able to get it going fast enough for it to reach in two days,” Akuto said.
“You...! Demon King! You coward!” Kazuko yelled.
○
—I can get her to satellite orbit. This shuttle used to go between the moon and an orbital station. It has the ability to penetrate the atmosphere, too. It can’t get to satellite orbit on its own, though.
Hiroshi remembered what Kento had told him two nights ago. He had checked the location of the museum on the map, picked up the real Keisu and carried her in his arms, and then flew to the museum with his mana canceller active. He snuck past the security guards and went into the building from the roof, and then looked up at the now-antique shuttle.
“You’re going to carry this up to orbit?” Keisu said, impressed.
They were in the exhibit hall, with the lights turned off. The hall was laid out like a giant warehouse, and in its center was a dusty old shuttle the size of a passenger jet. It had glider wings, something you almost never saw in the Empire since mana flight became commonplace.
“And once you get it up to orbit, some friends of CMID-8 will be there to fuel it. There’s still fuel left up there for rockets and satellite course corrections.”
“And the shuttle can get us to the moon and back, right? Let’s go, then.” Keisu said, impressed.
Of course, this plan was Kento’s idea. It was hard to know if he could be trusted, but this was the only plan they had left.
“What’s this Kento guy thinking, anyway?”
“Let’s not worry about it right now. Let’s just do it,” Keisu said as she walked around to the side of the shuttle.
Hiroshi lifted her up and floated several meters above the ground, then brought her over to the shuttle’s hatch and opened it manually. The airlock inside was manual too, and worked fine even with the shuttles electronics offline. It was totally dark inside, but Keisu didn’t seem to mind as she walked forward.
“We can do a maintenance check and repairs once we get to the satellite dock. For now, don’t touch anything.” Hiroshi waited for Keisu to nod, then closed the hatch and headed for the wall switch to open the large doors to the exhibit hall.
The doors were big enough to get the shuttle in, so they’d be big enough to get it out, too. But they ran off of mana, so once he opened them, it would alert the guards. He’d have to act fast once it was open.
He hit the switch, flew back, and then got below one of the shuttle’s tires. “Here we go...” He used the suit’s gravity control to lift the shuttle itself up. It wasn’t heavy, but he needed to be careful not to slam it into any walls. He lifted himself off the ground as he carefully slid the shuttle out of the hall. Then he started to rise faster into the sky.
A lot of people saw it, but few questioned what it was. It was hard to tell the difference between it and any other flying bus. Even those who could tell quickly forgot about the old, flying shuttle.
Of course, the guards would notice soon, and they’d file a report. Kento was going to do something to keep the report from being read by anyone who mattered, but of course, they still had to get it repaired and supplied fast. Even if Kazuko knew they were plotting to go to the moon, once they were off, nobody would be able to stop them.
Eventually Hiroshi reached orbit and brought the shuttle into the satellite maintenance dock. The thin strand of the space elevator was stretching downwards to earth, and at its edge was a cylindrical facility.
These days, people called it the space station. Its job was to generate power and control the satellites in orbit. There was a hole in one end that functioned as a dock. As soon as the shuttle arrived, dozens of people in protective suits swarmed out and silently began to inspect and refuel it.
Hiroshi tried to talk to them, but realize that he had no way to do so. And they didn’t seem interested in talking to him. Several boring hours passed.
“The instrument check is finished,” Keisu said, waking up from his dull reverie, “Everything’s working fine. The shuttle’s fueled up and ready to go. Get us into orbit, pl
ease.” She was contacting him from the radio in the shuttle’s cockpit, where she was sitting in the pilot seat. The lights were on in the shuttle now and he could see her through the window.
“The shuttle was designed to supply oxygen to its crew, so I’ve set the system to an environment where humans can operate,” Keisu continued.
Hiroshi looked back at the Satellite Conservation staff, who were backing away from the shuttle. He watched them go, but they neither spoke nor motioned to him.
—When it was just me, everybody waved at me...
Hiroshi felt a little lonely. Then he gasped.
—At some point I’ve started to expect people to like me. This is probably how people always react to Boss.
Only a few people really cared about what was going on in the world. The rest just did their jobs. They deliberately avoided thinking about whether it was right or wrong to launch this shuttle, or which side they should join. If he was in their place, he would’ve done the same thing. But the act of just carrying out the task one was given was probably what Akuto meant when he talked about the “stories” he hated so much. They wanted to protect the story that they were just ordinary people, who had no power to change anything. And that was what had made him a hero, and Akuto a Demon King.
—But if everybody doesn’t believe in one big story, the world will stop running, and the shuttle won’t fly either. Do I have to fight to protect the story too?
Hiroshi couldn’t help but question himself, and suddenly he felt depressed. He thought about how he was carrying some heavy burden with a power that wasn’t his own.
—What is there that I can do with my own power?
Then he shook his head, reminding himself that he needed to focus on his work, then picked up the shuttle and leapt out of the maintenance dock into the blackness of space. He could see the blue light reflecting off of the Earth below, and in the distance he could see the pale light of the moon.
He pointed the cone of the shuttle towards the moon. Then he moved around to the front, and gave a signal to Keisu in the driver’s seat. “Do it.”
“Leave it to me,” Keisu answered. She turned on the engines and the shuttle began to accelerate, becoming smaller and smaller in his field of vision. In space you could see forever, but still, the shuttle was a point of light in a few seconds before vanishing entirely.
○
“You’re the coward. But now the tables have turned. All we have to do now is wait for Keisu to seal Zero,” Akuto said.
“Grah... you little bastards!” Kazuko screamed angrily with Korone’s voice. Then she turned to the teleportation circle.
This time it was Akuto’s turn to stop her. “You’re probably trying to go to the moon, but even if I can’t hurt you, I can at least keep you away!” he said, slamming his fist into the abdomen of her armor and blowing her back.
Korone fell back several meters before stopping herself. He could see panic on her face. Now it was his turn to stop her from getting into the circle.
“I know Kazuko wants to get into the circle... But why is she in such a hurry?” Junko asked Yoshie.
Yoshie nodded and answered, “Keisu said that up on the moon, Zero couldn’t stop her. Keisu was made to operate on the moon originally.”
“No, they knew that. So they probably have an army waiting for her. We predicted that they would, which is why we came here to the teleportation circle too...” Junko said.
“True, but think about how mana works. You can’t put an army on the moon. The only thing you can use up there is solar energy. Armies use a lot of energy, you couldn’t deploy them for long.”
“So now that things have changed, there’s probably an army heading here...” Junko looked towards the entrance. Just like she thought, they could hear footsteps in the distance.
“You handle them. If we can keep them out until Keisu seals Zero, we’ve won,” Yoshie said.
“Leave it to me. I’ll push them back!” Junko shouted as she created her clones. With a howl she ran out into the hallway, and began to emit the same vast power she’d used before.
Yoshie could hear the sound of gunshots and clashing swords, and she knew that Junko was succeeding.
Junko nodded to herself. They’d more or less succeeded in their goal of buying time. But there was an uneasy look on her face. She was looking at Korone.
“But... that means there’s only one thing the enemy is going to think,” Yoshie said.
“What do you mean?” Keena asked.
“They’ll try to take down Akuto no matter what it takes,” Yoshie said quietly as she pointed at Korone. Korone had been trying to break past Akuto, but now she’d given up on her attacks and was just standing there.
“Hasn’t she given up? Or maybe Zero was sealed and Korone is turning back to normal...” Keena said.
But Yoshie muttered something to herself and turned on her chainsaw. Then, Korone suddenly raised her hammer high. Then she turned on the rear booster and began to rapidly accelerate forward; the same powerful attack she’d kept using. But this time she had a different target.
“No!” Akuto and Yoshie started to run.
Korone was trying to bring the hammer down on herself. The armor opened, exposing her body.
“No!” Yoshie screamed.
In the next moment, there was a terrible crashing sound. Then there was a spine-chilling sound of something going “squish.”
“Gwah...!” Akuto spat out blood. He’d thrown his body on top of Korone’s and blocked the hammer blow himself.
No, it wasn’t right to say he’d blocked the blow. The mana he used to protect himself was less powerful than the hammer. He’d taken the blow instead of Korone.
“Akuto!” Yoshie jumped in from the side to knock Akuto away, dodging the next blow, which was aimed at him.
“I told you yesterday, stop doing that...” she said as she rolled along the ground with him.
“I just... can’t help myself. But I was willing to make the sacrifice,” Akuto managed out through the pain.
“That’s not a sacrifice. If anybody should be sacrificed, I’m sorry, but you should sacrifice her.” Yoshie got up off the ground and stood in front of Korone with her chainsaw. But even if she could dodge the hammer, she couldn’t deflect Korone’s blows like Akuto could.
“I’ll make it work. And my body’s regenerating right now. I won’t die.” Akuto was lying on the ground, but he forced himself to stand up and let out a voice like a moan.
“Believe me! Even you can’t block the next blow. Just don’t do anything!” Yoshie said as if ordering him.
Korone smiled and raised her right hand, ready to hit herself with the hammer again. If Akuto tried to block that blow too, he wouldn’t be able to regenerate in time.
“Don’t! Yoshie yelled.
Akuto, with a power he didn’t know he still had left, moved faster than anybody else and flung himself in front of Korone’s body again.
“Oh my. You truly are a fool.” Kazuko’s mocking words came out of Korone’s mouth with her voice.
“Laugh if you want,” Akuto said.
The hammer’s booster turned on again. And then...
“No! Korone! Wake up!” Fiercer than the sound of the booster, louder than the sounds of Junko’s battle outside, Keena’s voice overwhelmed every sound in the room.
Everyone froze, like the atmosphere had suddenly turned to ice. Even Korone was no exception.
“Aah...”
The only ones who knew what had happened were Keena and Akuto. As he looked right into Korone’s eyes, Akuto saw a trace of her true self. She had the same expressionless look as ever, but it was definitely Korone.
“This won’t last long. Please get away from me. We will see each other again in the next world,” Korone said. It was a strange thing to say, just like most of her words. But Akuto could feel the weight in what she spoke.
“Korone..!” He stretched out a hand towards her, but she quickly removed her hand fro
m the armor’s covering and pushed him away, hard.
“Korone...!” Akuto was knocked back. Yoshie was waiting to grab him.
“Let me go... Korone’s back to normal!” Akuto yelled, struggling.
But Yoshie shook her head. “No. If she’s back to normal, then that’s all the more reason...”
He knew exactly what she meant. In the next moment, her expression turned back to Kazuko’s, and she began to communicate with Zero again.
“Zero. Why were you unable to control this Liradan?”
“The reason is unknown. And because it is unknown, this Liradan may pose a future threat,” Zero answered with Korone’s mouth.
“I see. Then let us destroy it,” Kazuko said.
“No!” Akuto screamed.
Korone grinned. Now Kazuko was back in control. With a terrible smile, she ejected Korone from the armor. From the dangerous height in which she sat, her body fell forward.
“Korone...!” Akuto screamed, knowing exactly what Kazuko was trying to do. But there was nothing he could do; Yoshie was holding him tightly.
“Don’t go. Just get inside the circle. I’ll handle the rest...” Yoshie tried to drag Akuto away, but he didn’t move.
The armor instantly changed into flight mode again, and the hammer booster activated, once again heading for Korone’s exposed body. Akuto saw Korone falling through the air. She looked the same as she always did.
“...!” He couldn’t speak. He saw her lips form the word “goodbye.” The hammer slammed into her body, sending her limbs flying in all directions.
“Korone!”
“Korone!”
Akuto and Keena both screamed. The sound of the booster echoed as if to laugh at their cries. Then the hammer flew straight into the teleportation circle and vanished.
Yoshie let go and began to shout as soon as she saw the light from the circle. “Now that she’s inside, they’ll try and destroy the circle! Hurry and get inside!”
Then they heard Junko as well. Her voice was almost a scream. “They’ve brought bombs! They’re self-destructing! I’m coming back! Hurry into the circle!”
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 9 Page 7
