Right Arm of the Saint (17 page)

No—

In a place a short way from the battleground, one girl stood.

She was unarmed. All she had was a cell phone and a little notepad computer. From her posture, she had no combat training; he felt no magic power from her. She was neither combat personnel nor demon, a mere human being.

She had the aura of someone in the passageway by chance who’d come to see what was going on and had happened upon the battle.

As Eustach gazed at her trembling form, his face scowled in suspicion, for the uniform she wore greatly resembled that of the Lion King Agency’s Sword Shaman.

Though the chance they were comrades was not high, perhaps it was best to neutralize her just in—

Amid his thoughts, Eustach shook his head.

It was not necessary. Even if the Sword Shaman herself came after him, she could do nothing against Eustach and Astarte. Not anymore.

Besides, to take the girl’s life here was meaningless.

She would die soon enough as it was. Not only her but every person who lived on this island.

Yes. This forsaken land built by criminals, Itogami Island, would soon sink into the sea.

Kojou Akatsuki awoke amid the thin darkness of twilight.

He faintly heard a sound. He didn’t recognize the landscape, but it seemed to be a park near the coast.

His outstretched arm felt cold, perhaps because he was lying atop the concrete on his side. That made it a less comfortable place to sleep. His cheek conveyed pleasant warmth.

“Senpai… Would you mind getting up already?”

Kojou suddenly heard a voice above his head. It was Yukina’s voice, seeming to pout somehow.

“Sorry… Five more minutes.”

Feeling like he was watching a dream, Kojou’s lips meekly made the request. It’d be a waste to pull away from this tranquil warmth that seemed to envelop his head. But…

As Kojou heard a “Good grief” and a light sigh above his head, something pinched his cheek.

“Do not get carried away. This isn’t the time or place to be doing this.”

With an “
Ow
,” Kojou opened his eyes without thinking, realizing the unexpected existence of a girl at point-blank range looking down at him.

“H-Himeragi?”

“Are you finally awake, Senpai? Making someone worry about you that much… You’re really quite something.”

Yukina spoke in an uncommonly sarcastic tone.

Seeing her expression, Kojou remembered what had happened. He and Himeragi had encountered Eustach at the pharmaceutical company lab; then he’d sustained an attack from a battle-axe meant for Yukina.

A blow powerful enough to slice through his heart and smash his torso to bits.

It wasn’t a wound even a vampire could survive.

“I see… I died, didn’t I?”

“Yes.”

Yukina bit her lip as if remembering what she’d seen at the time. And as her face seemed close to tears once more…

“A little while after you died, your wounds healed on their own… Even the blood spatter came back, as if time was rewinding itself…”

“So that’s why I’ve been sleeping here for a while, huh?” Kojou asked while pressing on his right shoulder. The shoulder, which ought to have been severed by the bardiche, was attached to his torso, which should have been torn to pieces, not even a flesh wound remaining on either of them.

Of course, his uniform shirt was still wrecked, but it was still wearable—as long as he didn’t mind looking a bit like an anarchist.

As Kojou’s fingers wandered, seemingly confirming the state of his wounds, Yukina glared bitterly.

“If you’re going to come back to life, please say that
before
you die. How much do you think I worried about you…!”

As Yukina spoke, she held Kojou’s head and began beating it with her fist. As Kojou was about to object to the absurdity of that, he realized his head had been resting on her lap. Yukina had been here the whole time until Kojou revived.

As Kojou looked up at Yukina’s tear-filled eyes, he made an exasperated sigh.

“Sorry I made you worry, but I didn’t know. So this is what that Avlora was talking about.”

“Avlora? The prior Fourth Primogenitor said something about…?”

As Kojou slowly rose up, Yukina watched blankly with wavering eyes.

“Yeah… She said, to the Primogenitors, immortality isn’t a power, it’s just a curse.”

“Curse?”

“Primogenitors don’t die. Even if you impale their hearts or crush their heads, they still live on. To live alone for centuries or even millennia, even if you
want
to die… Yeah, you can’t call that anything but a curse.”

Yukina watched silently while Kojou grumbled as if making a sigh.

Even though vampires were said to be ageless and undying, that did not mean they were completely invulnerable. In particular, their brains, which controlled their magic power, and their hearts, which governed the circulation of their blood, were lethal vulnerabilities.

Even for the Elders, receiving severe damage to either meant certain death.

However, as the Fourth Primogenitor, Kojou’s body was different.

Even his completely destroyed heart had regenerated; most of the blood he had lost had flowed right back into him.

But there would be no coming back if he managed to get himself turned to ash like vampires in legend.

“Even so, why did you shield me like that?! Curse or not, you had no proof you could come back for sure! What if you didn’t come back to life?!” Yukina asked Kojou with a tone of genuine anger.

“Well, that’s true, but I’m still glad.”

“What are you glad for?!”

“Er, that you’re all right.”

A curious expression came over Yukina as the words came casually out of Kojou’s mouth.

She had an expression like that of a broken doll, too anguished to either laugh or cry.

“…And…that makes you glad?”

Yukina’s lips weaved the words without emotion. Kojou tilted his neck a bit, seeming perplexed.

“Eh?”

“You would have been better off not shielding me. Have you forgotten already? I came here to kill you, Senpai.”

Yukina murmured expressionlessly, seemingly without emotion.

Kojou’s eyebrows grimaced as if to say,
The heck are you talking about?

The aura Yukina gave off that moment was just like that of the girl called Astarte. Just like the sad homunculus girl, bound by the orders of her creator.

“What that Armed Apostle said is the truth. I’m a disposable tool. I realized it long before, but I just didn’t want to admit it. My biological parents sold me for money; I was raised as a mere tool for fighting demons… That’s why, even if I die, no one will be sad, but you’re different, aren’t you, Senpai…?”

“Himeragi…”

Hanging her head in shame, Yukina turned away from Kojou, seemingly holding back tears.

Kojou finally understood why Yukina had hesitated in the middle of the battle with Eustach.

Only fourteen years of age, a Lion King Agency Sword Shaman bearing enough combat ability to overwhelm a Lotharingian Armed Apostle. Wielder of a demon-slaying spear, a combat expert raised solely to fight demonkind.

That was why, faced with Astarte, likewise constructed as a tool for combat, Yukina had seen that they were alike. That was why Eustach’s words had hurt Yukina so much—they’d hit too close to home. That was the cause of her hesitation.

Kojou thought that maybe
he
had been the reason Yukina was so hard on herself. In the several days since he’d met her, she’d continued
to watch him the whole time, seeing him struggle to live as an ordinary human being in spite of having obtained the power of the Fourth Primogenitor.

Yukina had abandoned a normal, everyday life to obtain her combat prowess.

And here was Kojou, who had been granted power mightier than anyone’s, who’d chosen that banal, everyday life.

Perhaps to Yukina, Kojou’s actions looked like a rejection of how she’d lived her life until now.

That’s why she’d said it.

That it should have been her who died, not Kojou…

“…”

As Yukina remained motionless, still covering her face, Kojou gazed at her with a puzzled expression.

And he realized he was faintly indignant.

It wasn’t that he didn’t understand how Yukina felt, but her reasoning was messed up any way you looked at it.

It wasn’t a good thing for her to be hurt instead of Kojou.
What the heck is she saying?
he thought to himself. However, right now it was probably difficult for Kojou to convince Yukina with mere words. After all, in a manner of speaking, his very existence was causing her pain.

The sight of Yukina’s curled back felt all too ephemeral, as if she’d disappear the moment he took her eyes off her. She was like a little lost girl in tears.

That was irritating Kojou more and more.

“Now, hold on here, Himera…gi!”

“Eh…?”

As Yukina kept her back to him, Kojou tried to gently reach out and touch her shoulder. However, sensation apparently hadn’t returned in full to Kojou’s barely regenerated flesh and blood. As he tried to stand up, he lost his balance, falling right on top of Yukina.

Yukina’s body went rigid at Kojou’s completely unanticipated action. Pressing down on her as if embracing her tightly, the incident put Kojou in rigor as well.

Even so, Kojou couldn’t abandon Yukina now, so he remained locked like this without moving.

“Um… What are you doing, Senpai?”

After a while, Yukina asked him with a low voice that seemed angry. Kojou replied with an intentionally pained-sounding voice.

“Er, it’s aftereffects from when I almost died earlier, so…”

“You’re lying, aren’t you?”

“Er… Yeah.”

Without a word, Yukina, still held down, continued to glare at the silent Kojou. For a while Kojou wondered how he could excuse himself, but he changed his mind midway.

In this situation, he thought it best to lift Yukina’s spirits, even if it made her a little angry in the process.

And so, with Yukina’s body still rigid, Kojou gently brought his face to her neck. He took in a deep whiff of the scent of her hair. The odd sensation from the nape of her neck made Yukina let out a yelp.

“You smell good, Himeragi.”

Kojou informed her of his thoughts with frightening bluntness. Yukina’s shoulders trembled a little.

“Wh-what are you saying, all of a sudden?!”

“Your hair’s so silky, too. It feels good.”

“Please stop that! Wh-where are you touching?!”

“You’re softer than I expected, Himeragi. And really light…”

“S-Senpai! Th-that tickles, geez!”

“…You really do smell great.”

“So you really are a pervert…!”

With tears welling up at the edges of her eyes, Yukina made a yell devoid of strength.

Kojou still had his lips right at Yukina’s ear.

“Yeah, that’s right.
Pervert
is fine. So don’t go saying you should’ve died instead of a pervert like me.”

“Th…that has nothing to do with it, does… Ah, aah!”

As Yukina attempted her rebuttal, Kojou put his tongue against Yukina’s neck and blew his breath onto her. Yukina’s body twisted as if desperately trying to escape from within Kojou’s arms, but her struggles were weakening.

“Besides, I don’t at all get this thing of you being raised to be a tool, Himeragi.”

“Eh?”

“I mean, you’re so cute, Himeragi.”

“Quit saying things like that right n… A!… St!”

As Kojou gave the nape of Yukina’s neck a long-winded lick, strength drained out of Yukina’s entire body. Somewhere along the way, her white skin had developed a pinkish tinge.

“Yeah, maybe it wasn’t your parents who raised you, Himeragi, but I can tell just by looking that the folks at High God Forest took really good care of you. I mean, you said yourself you had fun training to be a Sword Shaman, didn’t you?”

“I get it… I get it already, Senpai… Please forgive me! I can’t take any more of…!”

“R-right.”

As Yukina asked in a frail voice, Kojou’s arms around her loosened a little.

After all, if he’d let her go completely, he’d have fallen right on top of the exhausted girl.

“…”

Breathing rather roughly, Yukina touched up her uniform without a word.

Then, her eyes still moist from tears, she glared sharply at Kojou.

“This time I know for certain. You truly are an indecent person, Senpai.”

“Er, no, I don’t really think so. Besides, what you were doing there, Himeragi—”

“Hai? I did…what?”

“…Er, never…mind. Sorry, I got carried away.”

“Well, reflect on it! Goodness…”

Yukina made a violent sigh as she spoke.

Seeing that Yukina was somewhat noisy and rather resolute, and therefore back to her usual self, a smile spontaneously came over Kojou.

Seeing this, Yukina glared at Kojou with her eyes half-closed.

“And what are
you
grinning at?”

“Er, I was thinking you really are cute, Himeragi.”

“………”

Yukina silently poised Snowdrift Wolf. Kojou inhaled as his expression changed.

“W-wait… Put that spear away!”

“Seriously, cut it out already! This
really
isn’t the time and place for us to be doing this. Have you forgotten
why
you almost died?”

Yukina spoke with a hard voice, her blade still aimed at the nape of Kojou’s neck. She seemed quite confused as to whether she should be angry at him or at herself, or simply blush. Judging that it would not be wise to provoke her further, Kojou tightened up his expression.

“Okay, got it. Suppose you’re right… Er, by the way, where is this? Where’d the old man and the girl go?”

“This is a public park behind the Sfelde Pharmaceutical Lab.”

Yukina slowly lowered her spear.

As she’d indicated, Kojou could make out the outline of a familiar building behind him.

“As that artificial Beast Vassal’s attack set off the building’s alarm systems, I carried you here while you slept, Senpai. I do not know where the Lotharingian Armed Apostle and the girl have gone.”

“I see… Kinda worried about that. They said something weird, after all.”

Kojou’s face grimaced as he muttered.

They’d said, take the treasure, sink the island. Certainly that’s what they’d said.

From the words alone, it sounded like nothing but a foolish fantasy, but it was beyond dispute that Eustach had a clear objective and had prepared accordingly. There was every possibility they’d already made their move.

The sun was already sinking under the waterline; darkness was enveloping the area.

Having been killed by Eustach, it’d taken Kojou some four or five hours to recover. He hoped it would not prove a fatal delay.

“Right… The news…”

“Huh?”

Kojou dug out his cell phone and looked it over as Yukina made a somewhat dubious face. Maybe she didn’t know that you
could
check the news with your cell phone, but he had no time to explain now. If Eustach had already started a disturbance, there was a high probability there were already reports about the incident.

With that thought, Kojou looked over the screen, inhaling a bit.

What he saw was an endless list of e-mail notifications…

The senders were mostly Yaze and Rin.

Their e-mails were to tell him that Keystone Gate had been assaulted by someone and that Asagi, at her part-time job inside the Gate, was still trapped inside.

On the floor the intruders had passed through, they saw a tragic scene.

More than sixty security personnel were laying all over the area, gravely wounded, the scent of their lost blood filling the air. About ten of them could somehow move on their own power. However, they no longer had any combat ability remaining; their hands were full from performing field medicine for their comrades.

The only unwounded person left was Asagi, gazing at the tragedy in a daze, half-absentmindedly.

That was when Asagi’s cell phone rang. The facilities within the Gate had suffered severe damage from combat with the intruders, but somehow the cell phone relay station had emerged unscathed.

With a sluggish, robotic motion, Asagi checked the screen of the cell phone.

When she saw the name that was displayed, her eyes suddenly came back to life.

“—Kojou?!”

“Asagi…! I’m so glad! Are you all right?”

She heard Kojou’s voice via the cell phone. For no real reason, that somehow brought tears of relief pouring out of Asagi. Her voice rose shrilly, as if she’d plotted to vent her anger the entire time.

“Geez, what the hell…? I’m not all right at all! The Public Corporation got attacked, there’s a lot of people hurt. I’m trapped in the rubble of a building… What’s wrong with those people?!”

“You saw the people who attacked? A hard-ass old man in priest robes, right? A humanoid Beast Vassal, too.”

“You know them?!” Asagi asked back, dumbfounded. At the same time, fierce concern advanced upon her.

Why would Kojou know what those who’d attacked Keystone Gate looked like unless he’d somehow come across them before Asagi had? If that was the case—

“Yeah. I almost died thanks to those two.”

“Almost died…?! Kojou, you…,” Asagi simply exclaimed at Kojou’s blunt confession. Normally he’d just make some banal joke to make light of it, not that she’d have believed a word of it, having seen the atrocity the intruders had committed with her own eyes. There was no doubt Kojou really had stared death in the eye.

But Kojou spoke with the same laid-back tone he always did.

“Anyway, looks like you’re okay right now. More important, where’d those two go?”

“Down. They seem to be headed toward the lowest level of the Gate.”

Asagi spoke as she got back on her normal track. She wasn’t the only one who’d been through something horrible. Kojou understood. She felt like that thought alone had rescued her.

Asagi opened the notebook computer that she’d been hugging like a protective charm the entire time.

She accessed the maintenance division’s server and checked the situation inside the Gate.

Opening every bulkhead along the way, the intruders had already reached the thirteenth level. What lay ahead was a structurally reinforced area, but their arrival at the bottommost level was now a simple matter of time. It might have taken them two hours at the most.

“The lowest level… Huh. Do you know what’s there, Asagi?”

“Like I should know. The only thing that should be on the lowest level is the Anchor,” Asagi answered while tapping her keyboard.

“Anchor?”

“Anchor Block. You know that Itogami Island is formed of East/West/North/South Gigafloats, right? It’s kind of like a platform for holding the linked main cables in place.”

“…And there’s something real important about that?”

Kojou asked like something in his gut just wouldn’t settle down. With a “Huh?” Asagi scowled.

“As if. It’s just a stupidly tough mass of steel. It soaks up all the
Gigafloat shocks and vibrations from waves and wind to keep Itogami Island from breaking apart.”

Itogami Island’s four Gigafloats separating was a last resort to avoid the sinking of the entire island. Furthermore, the connecting sections had gaps and flexibility suitable to protect against dangerous vibrations from windstorms and uncomfortably high waves. That meant the four Gigafloats were always supporting one another, just like how a table’s four legs kept it stable.

Put another way, the entire burden of keeping Itogami Island together fell on the place where the Gigafloats were connected.

“…So what’s that precious treasure the old man talked about…?”

“Precious treasure? Whaddya mean?”

“I dunno, but apparently the old man came to this island to get it back…”

“Even if he said that, no one would put anything valuable like that in the Anchor Block. You wouldn’t be able to look at it or take it back, after all…?”

Asagi sank into thought as she realized Kojou’s words were bugging her in an odd way.

The
precious treasure
part bothered her. It was difficult to believe a priest learned in the strict tenets of Western religion would go raiding the Demon Sanctuary of another country out of lust for material possessions.

No, in the first place, what did
treasure
mean to a man of the cloth…?

“Asagi?”

Concerned that Asagi had gone quiet, Kojou called out to her.

Asagi took a deep breath as if to shake off her doubts.

“Hold on. I’m checking something—wait, the hell?! This is military secret–level firewall, isn’t it?!”

Asagi was beside herself at the deep red alert displayed on her computer screen. There was a happy glint resting somewhere in her eyes. Her competitive spirit had been piqued.

“So you can’t find out what it is?”

“Like hell I can’t. Who do you think you’re talking to—Mogwai!”

Asagi summoned the AI, which had settled on silence, with one press
of a hot key. The supercomputer’s avatar casually appeared atop her screen.

“You’re a real slavedriver, m’lady. Really, I was built so that I couldn’t lay my paws on something like this, but…my partner requests it, so I guess I must.”

“Ah, you get it, don’t you? So break that firewall, now!”

The AI grumbled in a listless tone as Asagi punched in her administrator override code.

Before the AI executed the order, its aura shifted for just a moment.

“I’ll break it, but…you’ll regret this.”

What does he mean?
thought Asagi. A moment later, her eyebrows shot up.

“Eh? This is… No way, you’re kidding me…”

All Asagi could do was murmur as she looked at the image from the Anchor Block in shock.

“So that’s…what it is…”

Kojou slowly lowered his cell phone, his call to Asagi finished.

They’d finally solved the puzzle. Everything was connected together.

Eustach’s objective in coming to Itogami Island. Why he sought the power to break barriers.

Kojou understood all of it.

Certainly it was as the man had said. If he succeeded in his objective, an unbelievable disaster would befall this island. The island really might sink.

What Eustach was after was in Itogami Island’s lowest section, the Anchor Block—and within it, the keystone at the center of the main pillar from which Keystone Gate derived its name.

“Senpai…let’s go. We have to stop them.”

Yukina got up, staring intently at Kojou as she spoke. Kojou looked back as if perplexed by her words.

“Stop? Us, stop that old man…?”

“Yes. According to Aiba, it’ll still take a little time before they arrive at
the lowermost level. We can probably still reach them in time with Aiba’s cooperation.”

Yukina looked dead serious. With Asagi able to access the management corporation’s main server, they’d know every route in the entire Gate. On the other hand, Eustach and Astarte seemed to be taking a stupidly blunt, straightforward approach, breaking every bulkhead along the way. With Asagi farming out the shortest routes to them, they should be able to circle ahead with time to spare.

“But the two of us go, and do what…?”

He spoke with honest doubt. Seemingly in surprise, Yukina stopped moving.

“I’ll go save Asagi. On the way I’ll get Nagisa and my mom, who has a lifestyle like a stray cat, off the island. But that’s the most I can do.”

“Senpai…what are you saying? Itogami City’s Island Guard can’t stop that homunculus’s Beast Vassal!”

“Haven’t you lost sight of what you’re here for, Himeragi? I tried to catch the old guy because it was legitimate self-defense, but that’s not necessary now.”

Kojou spoke with a devil-may-care tone.

Though the culprits in the demon hunting case, they’d revealed themselves through causing such a huge uproar. There was no longer any reason for Kojou and Yukina to apprehend them.

For that matter, since the damage to the Island Guard had demonstrated how dangerous Eustach and Astarte were, Kojou’s actions in wrecking the warehouse district would be accepted as unavoidable much more easily.

“I can’t stop the Armed Apostle old man… I know that all too well from what Asagi told me. And I don’t understand it, but what the old man’s doing, in one sense it’s
just
…!”

“Even if that’s the case, to put everyone living on this island in danger is…”

“Wrong… Yeah, it might well be…but who’s right can’t be decided by me. I can’t make that choice. I…mustn’t make that choice!”

Kojou groaned his words as if someone were wringing them out of him. Yukina listened in silence.

It’d be like declaring himself emperor.

An emperor’s decision set people in motion. An emperor’s decision changed history.

But was there any evidence to prove that decision had been just?

To set the world in motion meant the consequences for the world were on your shoulders alone.

A normal human being couldn’t prepare himself for that. He’d break under the weight of the decision.

The battle with Eustach was no longer a duel between him and Kojou Akatsuki.

That Lotharingian Armed Apostle had declared war against all of Itogami City.

This wasn’t a battle a mere high school student was permitted to involve himself in.

Kojou Akatsuki could no longer fight him. To challenge Eustach in battle, Kojou would have to himself accept that he was not a mere high school student but a being equal to an entire national army by himself—a Primogenitor, he who should rule a Dominion.