The Roses of Tartarus

by Gakuto Mikumo

  Right after that, they heard a vroo-vroo-vroom, the puttering of an obnoxiously loud engine.

  The old-fashioned scooter, sporting a gasoline engine that was quite rare nowadays, climbed up the pedestrian ramp and entered the parking lot.

  “Ah… There they are! Kojou! Yukina, over here!!”

  Nagisa was waving from the back seat of a scooter. In front of Nagisa and gripping the handle was an unfamiliar woman wearing windbreak goggles. “Who’s that?” Kojou asked, knitting his brows.

  During that time, the white scooter stopped in front of Kojou and Yukina. Nagisa hopped right off. Removing her helmet, she turned toward the scooter’s driver and bowed her head.

  “Thank you for the send-off, Miss December.”

  “Hey, hey. I told you, no ‘miss’ necessary.”

  The girl named December spoke to Nagisa in a flustered tone. Then, she shifted her eyes toward Kojou and said:

  “You’re Nagisa’s big brother?”

  “Y-yeah. I am, but…”

  When the bewildered Kojou replied, December shot him an amiable smile. Even with the big goggles still on her, it was clear she was quite a beauty. On top of that, she was far younger than he’d assumed.

  Then, December gazed at Yukina with apparent deep interest and said, “And over here is your…girlfriend?”

  “Nah, this is Nagisa’s classmate and our neighbor.”

  “I see, your neighbor…” She smiled in amusement before offering her hand to Kojou. “Call me December. Pleased to meet you.”

  “Ah, same.”

  Kojou gave the girl’s pleasantly cool hand a shake.

  Nagisa stood at December’s side, for some reason proudly puffing her chest as she said, “She was a help in all kinds of ways. You know there was an explosion at Keystone Gate, right? She was with me right around then, and she looked after me when I fainted, then sent me off all this way, so she really took good care of me. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for December.”

  “Th-that so?”

  Kojou winced a little in the face of his rapidly speaking little sister. She seemed like a completely different person than the gentle Nagisa that morning, but if push came to shove, this was what he would call the real her.

  He was relieved that Nagisa had made a complete recovery. He wondered if that was due to her encounter with December.

  “Sorry, seems like my little sister caused you some trouble. Thanks.”

  “You are very welcome. It was my pleasure to take care of such a cute girl.”

  Returning Kojou’s words of thanks, December teasingly curled up the corners of her lips. Then she shifted her gaze to the interior of the glass-walled supermarket.

  The store, having a tidy and functional layout, was packed to the brim with various food products. The empty fresh-fish shelf stood out, but even so, that was nothing that impacted people’s everyday lives.

  “How peaceful.”

  “Ah?”

  “Even after an incident like that, they’re lined up in front of a store, buying groceries like nothing happened… A reassuring sight, don’t you think?”

  “Mm, yeah…”

  The way December murmured as if it wasn’t her problem made Kojou uneasy, but he showed he was listening anyway.

  December made a little giggle as she turned her scooter’s key in the ignition. Pruu! With an unstable rhythm, the engine started, letting out the tinny, trademark sound of its exhaust.

  “Later, Nagisa. We’ll meet again. Kojou and Miss Neighbor, too. Bye-bye!”

  With a loud putter and a boisterous noise from the vehicle, December took off. For a while, Kojou and Yukina watched the rising white exhaust smoke in a daze.

  “Ohhh, Kojou, you actually bought the milk, didn’t you? Okay, let’s head home. We’ll have stew tonight!” Nagisa’s characteristically boisterous voice had returned now that she was in high spirits. She turned to Kojou once December vanished from view.

  Following after his little sister, who was practically skipping with each step, Kojou let out an exasperated sigh. He couldn’t mentally reconcile this rambunctious girl with the seemingly separate person who’d behaved so demurely that morning.

  “She’s the usual Nagisa, huh?”

  “So it would seem.” Yukina’s face brightened. “I’m so glad.”

  Yukina, being in the same class as Nagisa, might have been even more thrown off by the sudden change in her than Kojou had been.

  “More importantly, senpai, did you notice? Miss December, she’s—”

  “Yeah,” Kojou cut in, nodding along. He’d felt something like a jolt of static electricity when shaking December’s hand. It was a stimulus he specifically felt when there was strong demonic energy.

  “A demon… So it wasn’t just my imagination…”

  “I believe she is likely a D-type—a vampire. She was not wearing a demon registration bracelet, though…”

  “So an unregistered demon like me…” His expression grew conflicted.

  In Itogami City, a Demon Sanctuary, there was no discrimination or stigma toward demons. Through registering as demons via the Gigafloat Management Corporation, they acquired not only voting rights, but subsidies for housing and medical care, assistance in finding work, and a variety of other types of support. All you had to do was show the demon registration bracelet on your wrist at any convenience store or supermarket, and your purchases were discounted and tax-free.

  Put conversely, it was illegal to enter the special district unregistered without a very good reason.

  Even so, there were some who rejected demon registration. There were two types: wild cards like Kojou who, for political reasons, were tolerated in silence by the government and watched but treated as if they didn’t exist—and criminals.

  There was no way they could speak a word of that to Nagisa, who adored December.

  “Himeragi.”

  “Yes?”

  “You said a terrorist’s objective is to cause social instability, right?”

  “Ah yes. Of course there are exceptions, but as a rule of thumb…” Yukina appeared curious as she replied to Kojou’s seemingly aimless question.

  His cheeks twisted, as if he’d just been forced to eat vegetables that he hated. “You remember what December said? It’s reassuring to see people lined up buying food.”

  “Eh…?” Yukina’s eyes widened as she realized something.

  The reason people could remain calm after so many shipping incidents was because these events hadn’t directly impacted their own day-to-day lives. Even if there were some shortages of goods, the supermarket outlets were still brimming with food. This was because Itogami Island had a vast store of food supplies.

  Then, if something more was to happen, and those stores too were lost—

  “Tartarus Lapse’s next target… It couldn’t be…”

  “It’s just a wild guess, but I’ve got a bad feeling about this…!” Kojou muttered in a quiet voice so Nagisa, walking ahead of them, would not overhear. “Their next target’s the large-scale food stockpile—Island East’s Great Pile.”

  5

  The black car for public use in which Asagi rode was driving on a road that looped around the exterior of Itogami Island.

  Being on an artificial isle, the roads inside Itogami City itself were a complicated labyrinth of curves—and multiple vertical layers at that. The construction left car navigation systems largely worthless, and driving inside Itogami City was itself often said to be as difficult as piloting a jet fighter.

  Sumire Aiba was smoothly driving along this complex assembly of streets. She had been a pro driver for a bodyguard service company right up until she married Asagi’s father.

  Asagi thought that her smooth driving, to the point that you didn’t even feel her accelerate, was exceedingly pleasant and all the more frightening for it. Rumor had it that no matter how tangled the route, Sumire during her career arrived at her destination within 0.1 seconds of the appointed time, give or ta
ke. Just trying to imagine what kind of driving she’d do if she was actually serious gave Asagi a chill.

  “Coming home late tonight?”

  That one and the same Sumire turned toward Asagi, sitting in the back seat, and gently struck up a conversation.

  Asagi awkwardly nodded. “I believe I probably will. The Island Guard’s server seems to have taken quite a bit of damage…”

  “That so? I made lunch for you, so eat it if you like, ’kay? I made sandwiches so you could eat one-handed if need be.”

  “Um, thank you very much.”

  Asagi spoke her thanks as she noticed the heavy box-shaped parcel on the seat. Programming work employed physical endurance, and superb was the worst one could call Sumire’s cooking. Asagi was genuinely grateful for the boxed lunch.

  “Did Pa…Father say anything? About today’s incident.”

  “Mmm. Nothing. He’s not one to speak lightly of such things, after all.”

  She continued to drive as she spoke in a slightly lonely sounding tone.

  “I suppose he isn’t,” Asagi agreed.

  “But he was worried about you, Asagi. He wondered if this work of yours might involve you in an incident like this.”

  “Oh, come on… Him? Worry…?” Asagi murmured in a nonchalant manner. “No way.”

  It was the next moment that the rear tires let out a loud screech as the car forcibly changed lanes. Struck by the ferocious acceleration, Asagi was shoved into the seat behind her. It was rough, very un-Sumire-like driving.

  “S-Sumire…?!”

  “Don’t speak. You mustn’t bite your tongue, after all—hold on tight!” Sumire shouted, speaking with a sharp tone that sounded nothing like her normal, gentle self.

  With a blow that seemed to toss them upward, the public-use car danced in midair. The scenery Asagi saw through the front window was scrolling in a seemingly impossible direction.

  Sumire had deliberately rammed her front wheel into roadside concrete blocks, making the car jump.

  Doing a U-turn, Asagi and Sumire’s car leaped over the central divider, landing smack in the middle of the opposite lane.

  And then—

  The world shuddered, accompanied by a great boom. A huge explosion had occurred right beside them.

  “Wha…?!”

  Smacked around while bathed in the blast wind, the car’s body audibly vibrated.

  The impact ferociously shook the road itself. Asagi’s insides were struck by the unpleasant feeling of being hoisted upward.

  The cause of the explosion was a broken-down car parked on the road’s shoulder. The broken-down car had burst into smithereens, as if aiming for the precise instant Asagi and Sumire were passing by.

  “Wh…what the hell…?!”

  “A car bomb. A trick often used by guerillas in conflict zones. If you eat one at point-blank range, even antiballistic armor won’t hold up.”

  The car powerfully slipped along its way, with Sumire using precise counter-steering and accelerator control as she regained her poise as if nothing had happened. The car proceeded to accelerate swiftly as it evaded the metal fragments pouring down.

  The aftereffects of the explosion had left a crater in the road surface, with the surrounding asphalt enveloped by flames. Road signs and guard rails that took direct hits from scattering fragments were in tatters.

  “A car bomb… You don’t mean that this car was the target…?”

  Asagi went pale as she asked. If not for Sumire’s reckless change of routes, their car would surely have charged right into the center of the explosion. And engulfed by it, the two would have surely died instantaneously.

  Goosebumps covered her entire body as that fact finally sank in. Her fingertips wouldn’t stop shaking.

  “It’s quite possible. This is a Gigafloat Management Corporation public vehicle, after all—”

  Despite all that was happening, Sumire was quite calm. “We’ll have to take the long way,” she murmured in apparent dismay, heading for the exit of the beltway. It was composure unthinkable in a human being, especially after narrowly avoiding an attempt on her life.

  “Sumire, how did you know? That it was set up as a car bomb.”

  “Hmm, how, I wonder? Intuition, maybe?”

  Sumire tilted her head as she replied, fully serious. Apparently, even she couldn’t put it into words very well. Astonished by her mother-in-law’s reaction, Asagi felt a whiff of fear.

  Somehow, she felt very stupid for being the only one who was afraid.

  “Don’t tell me, this is why you came to pick me up, Sumire? Because you thought I might get involved in another terror bombing—”

  “Is the boxed lunch all right?”

  Sumire did not reply to Asagi’s question as she checked on something else. It was only then that Asagi finally realized she had been clutching the boxed lunch against her.

  “Ah yes. I think it’s all right.”

  “That so? I’m very glad.”

  Sumire gazed at Asagi’s face through the rearview mirror, a big grin on her own. Then there was a vroom as she pushed on the accelerator once more.

  “Let’s leave cleaning up this mess to the Island Guard. We’re gonna fly.”

  6

  Takehito Senga gazed at Itogami Island’s sunset from an abandoned factory near the harbor. Itogami Island—a Demon Sanctuary both a mass of cutting-edge construction technologies and a sorcerous construct.

  Formed of four gigafloats, each was designed to move independently to absorb the effects of typhoons and tsunamis and to keep damage from flooding to a bare minimum.

  One of each was located east, west, north, and south—each with a sorcerous purpose.

  The east was Seiryuu, the west was Byakko, the south was Suzaku, the north was Genbu—in other words, a feng shui Four Heavenly Kings arrangement. Itogami Island itself was placed according to one giant feng shui ritual.

  By using Itogami Island’s own construction, his tactical qimen could reach its very pinnacle. This was the truth behind the Eight Trigrams Formation Takehito Senga had employed. It had a radius of over a hundred kilometers by using Itogami Island itself as the power source.

  The barrier would last another four days, but the island would surely be wiped off the map before then.

  Wiped clean by the Roses of Tartarus—

  Teacher, can you hear me?

  He heard a boy whose voice had yet to crack over the earphone mic on his left earlobe. The speaker was a homunculus teenage boy—Logi.

  “I hear you, Logi. I saw the smoke from the explosion.”

  The light of the explosion on the beltway allowed Senga to clearly see it for himself, even from his location. It was the flash of light from the car bomb Logi had set. The metal fragments scattered by a car bomb could not be easily fended off, even by a military armored car.

  Three years. Back then, when certain circumstances brought Logi into Tartarus Lapse’s fold, it was Senga who had taught him how to use car bombs. Logi had addressed Senga as Teacher ever since.

  About that, sorry—I failed.

  Logi spoke with a tone oozing with angst, like a child who had failed to pull off a prank.

  “Failed?”

  Yeah. Driver with good intuition. Escaped just before the bombing.

  “Is that so? That’s a Demon Sanctuary for you—normal methods will not suffice.”

  Senga’s murmur was calm and composed, not rebuking Logi in the slightest.

  Bombs were a simple but highly reliable method of assassination. Also, it was impossible that Logi would have slipped up on the detonation timing. For someone to escape from the boy’s attack in spite of that meant they were not dealing with any normal foe.

  I really am sorry, Teacher.

  “I don’t mind. It does not impede the plan. If they think it was indiscriminate terror, it will serve as a distraction.”

  …Yeah.

  Logi let out a dejected voice. He felt a strong sense of responsibility by nature.


  Senga spoke to him gently. “I don’t think there will be a problem, but just to be sure, perhaps some help from this end? Tell Carly and Raan to remain on standby until December instructs otherwise.”

  Understood. I’ll head there right away.

  Then Logi cut off the call.

  Senga removed the earphone mic, stuffing it into his pocket without fanfare. Then, he slowly lifted his face. Spread around the abandoned factory site were what seemed like mountains of rusted scrap metal. Among them stood a small-statured girl, her youthful beauty like that of a Western-style doll, with the warehouse district immersed in dusk at her back.

  “It seems I have kept you waiting.”

  “I don’t mind. I overheard an amusing conversation.”

  When Senga spoke to her, the girl shook her head with a sway of her long hair. Her tone was quite adult, but her lisping voice was appropriate to her apparent age. Senga fondly narrowed his eyes as he broke out in laughter.

  “Natsuki Minamiya… Fifteen years it’s been, yes? You never change.”

  “And you’ve grown old, Takehito Senga. Yet, what is inside you seems not to have grown at all.”

  Natsuki wore a cold expression, her scorn apparent.

  The last time he had seen her in Europe, Senga had been in his mid-twenties. At the time, Natsuki was an ordinary human being, her age exactly what it appeared to be. It was Senga himself who had taught Natsuki how to form a pact with a devil, thus providing the impetus for her to become a witch.

  “I haven’t changed, you say…but I could say the same about you. The demon-slaughtering Witch of the Void—”

  “That is not so.” Natsuki snorted, bored of the conversation. “Tartarus Lapse—a Demon Sanctuary wrecking crew with a fancy title, but even now, you’re just using children for your own ends, Takehito?”

  “I am offended that you would characterize my work as ‘using’ them. I merely teach them how to employ their powers, just as I once did for you.”

  “You claim the children destroy Demon Sanctuaries of their own will?” Natsuki’s voice carried a faint whiff of anger.

  Senga nodded deeply as he acknowledged, “That I am not even Tartarus Lapse’s leader is proof by itself. It is another who leads them.”

  “However, if I defeat you, the Eight Trigrams Formation will be broken… I will take my time questioning you about the rest afterward.”