Golden Days Read online

  “I’ll kill you!”

  “Uwaagh?!”

  Just barely evading the attack, Kojou yelped as he retreated to a nearby a wall. The blade of the long sword in Sayaka’s grip had deeply impaled the bed Kojou had been resting on a moment prior.

  Sayaka split the bed in two, repositioning her sword as she said, “Don’t run, idiot! You’re the worst!”

  “Wait, calm down! What the hell did I do—? Agh!”

  “Ah…?!”

  As Kojou leaped, the bandages slid right off him. Kojou’s naked body was blatantly exposed before the pair’s eyes. Witnessing this from up close, Kanon stiffened, frozen in place.

  For her part, Sayaka was swinging her sword when her eyes widened, her movements coming to a halt.

  “Wha…?! Wh-why are you showing that to me, Pervogenitor?!”

  “It’s your fault for coming out swinging outta nowhere, dammit!!”

  “Shut up! Be quiet! Turn to ash!”

  Sayaka’s face was beet-red as she flailed her sword about. There was no longer any stance or form to it. Kojou shielded Kanon from the indiscriminate swings as he retreated.

  Finally, wheezing and out of breath, Sayaka wobbled and sank to the floor. “I-it’s because you’re like this that Yukina…that Yukina’s life is all messed up…!”

  Still gripping the hilt of her sword, she raised her voice like a child and began crying.

  Dumbfounded, Kojou watched Sayaka as tears streamed down her cheeks. Her actions, which came off as deranged, left him in a state of utter confusion.

  “K-Kirasaka…?” As tears continued to mar Sayaka’s face, Kojou timidly called out to her. “What happened to Himeragi? Where is she?”

  “Akatsuki, Yukina is in the room next door. But you should put these clothes on first—”

  As Sayaka continued to cry, it was Kanon, finally recovered from her shock, who answered in her stead. Her words reminded Kojou of his current state.

  “A-ah. Right. My bad.”

  Pulling up a blanket to hide his body, Kojou accepted the clothes offered to him: boxers sold at a convenience, a brand-new pair of pants, and a shirt, still wrapped in vinyl.

  “A uniform for our school? Did you get this, Kanase?”

  “I am sorry. Your clothes were all shredded, Akatsuki, so…” Kanon bowed her head in spite of having done nothing wrong. “I am sorry for getting them without your permission.”

  “Don’t be,” he said, shaking his head. “That’s a big help. That bastard Meiga Itogami got me pretty good and all…”

  “Meiga Itogami… He’s a fugitive from the Prison Barrier, isn’t he…?”

  Sayaka still had tears welling in her eyes when she murmured, her voice sounding like an echo from the bottom of the Earth. She glared hatefully toward Kojou with unfocused eyes.

  “Yes… He hurt Yukina, didn’t he…? So did you take his head, Kojou Akatsuki?”

  He grimaced. “No, I didn’t take his head. What is this, the Warring States period?”

  At Stratum Zero of Keystone Gate, with all those sacrifices made, Kojou had still been unable to defeat Meiga. He searched his hazy memories and could faintly recall someone stopping the Beast Vassal that Kojou had unleashed just before it could burn Meiga to cinders.

  It had been an enormous mass of demonic energy rivaling even Kojou’s Beast Vassals. All sight of Meiga vanished during the momentary gap when the lightning lion’s movements were sealed. It was a being controlling demonic energy on par with the Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor—that being had impeded Kojou’s attack and had saved Meiga’s life. Kojou and Yukina being brought out of Stratum Zero and left on the beach was probably this person’s doing, too.

  “More importantly, is Himeragi safe?” Kojou asked Kanon once he finished dressing, shaking his head at the situation. The identity of the interloper tugged at his mind, but there were more pressing matters.

  “Yukina is safe, but…” Kanon kept staring at Kojou as she swallowed the words she was about to say.

  A moment later, someone entered the room, walking over the remnants of the kicked-down door as if there was nothing strange about it at all.

  She was a beautiful elf with light-green hair. Beneath a white cloak, the woman was wearing a white priestess-like outfit that came with a custom, no-slip skirt. Riding upon her shoulder was a beautiful black cat with golden eyes.

  When Kojou looked over at her in surprise, she mischievously narrowed her eyes.

  “Mm-hmm. So you have awoken, Kojou Akatsuki. How is your physical condition?”

  “You’re…Professor Kitty?! Oh, so you’re the one who found us…” Kojou sighed when he realized the true identity of the self-addressed Big Sis mentioned by Kanon.

  Now that he thought about it, of course it had been the Lion King Agency’s Yukari Endou—the woman chasing after Yukina—who had been the first to find them as they were lying on the beach. He could also accept her being brazen enough to call herself Big Sis.

  “I have heard most of the circumstances from Yukina. It seems my bumbling disciples have caused you quite a bit of trouble.”

  Yukari looked from the destroyed bed to the crying Sayaka and bowed her head.

  Kojou, getting an inkling that her unexpectedly admirable conduct was really a way to deflect questions, twisted his lips as he said, “Ah, nah… It wasn’t really any trouble but… I mean, what is this situation? Where the heck am I?”

  Suddenly, a middle-aged man with a shady visage appeared behind Yukari, replying, “This is my laboratory, Fourth Primogenitor.”

  It was a face Kojou recognized, but his presence was even less expected than Yukari’s.

  “You’re…Kanase’s dad…?” Kojou murmured, sounding and appearing utterly dim-witted.

  He belatedly glanced at Kanon, whose cheeks were red as she lowered her eyes, conflicted. This shady-looking man, Kensei Kanase, was the former court sorcerous engineer for the kingdom of Aldegia as well as Kanon’s adoptive father.

  “I pulled a few strings and hired this man to examine Yukina. Thanks to that, I have created a debt to the Aldegian princess that I had not desired to create,” Yukari explained, seeing through Kojou’s confusion.

  “Examine Himeragi?” Kojou’s expression turned grave. He didn’t know and didn’t care to whom Yukari had created that debt, but that she was so set on having Kensei Kanase’s help bothered him.

  Yukari gave a nod rich with implication. “That’s right. At present, this man is the world’s leading expert on Faux-Angel.”

  “Faux-Angel… What?”

  The unexpected phrase threw Kojou for a loop.

  Faux-Angel was a sorcerous ritual passed down in the magically advanced kingdom of Aldegia. It was the forbidden, secret art of spiritually evolving a human being to create an artificial angel. Once upon a time, Kensei Kanase had used that ritual on Kanon, his own daughter.

  “Wait a—‘Examine,’ you said… What does Faux-Angel have to do with Himeragi…?!”

  As Kojou’s lips trembled, Yukari gazed at him rather coolly as she pointed out, “It would seem that something is on your mind, Fourth Primogenitor.”

  Kojou averted his eyes and clenched his fist. He recalled the pure-white beam that Yukina had unleashed at the height of the battle with Meiga Itogami. The bizarre symbols etched in the air, the vast spiritual energy surpassing human limitations—they greatly resembled the power that Kanon had once controlled when she became a Faux-Angel. The purging light had been called spiritual essence at the time.

  “Himeragi…broke Meiga Itogami’s encroachment of Nod… Was that the power of Faux-Angel?”

  “The encroachment of Nod…you say? So that man has mastered Fangzahn to such an extent…” Yukari sighed like she admired him. In response, Kojou shot her a reproachful glare.

  “He said his spear was a discontinued weapon from the Lion King Agency.”

  “Yes. Fangzahn is a divine armament developed by the Lion King Agency. It and the Schneewaltzer are like sibli
ngs. However, the black one is a failure.”

  “What’s Meiga Itogami doing with a thing like that?”

  When Yukari made her statement like it had nothing to do with her, Kojou’s dismay was evident as he replied with another question. Having seen Fangzahn’s might for himself, he couldn’t simply accept it being referred to as a failure.

  However, Yukari smiled boldly, seemingly testing Kojou. “I believe you already have a hunch.”

  “…Meiga Itogami is involved with the Lion King Agency.”

  Pained by the thought, Kojou spat out the words. Yukari quietly nodded in affirmation.

  “Correct. He was an Attack Mage dropout hired by the Lion King Agency as a magical researcher—a developer of new divine armaments. However, that applies to when he was an ordinary human being.”

  “Meaning, before he became a jiangshi?”

  Resting his body against the broken bed, Kojou sullenly crossed his arms.

  As a person, Meiga Itogami came off as the soft, intellectual type. Kojou could accept his real identity being that of a researcher. Compared to Yukina, a proper Attack Mage, Meiga’s skills in weapon techniques weren’t any better than that of a regular martial artist. What made him frightening was the immortality of his jiangshi body as well as Fangzahn’s abilities.

  “I do not know the finer details, only that the man died once in an accident during a Fangzahn experiment. When he appeared before the Lion King Agency once more several years later, his body was as it is now. As for whose doing it was, well, I have my guess.” Yukari snorted in irritation.

  “Who?” Kojou spontaneously pressed.

  “Senra Itogami—Meiga’s grandfather.”

  The name made Kojou hold his breath.

  Senra Itogami—it was a name known by every resident of the island. He had been famous worldwide as an authority on sorcerous construction. He was also the person who designed Itogami Island. Certainly, a man like him could have recovered his grandson Meiga’s corpse and revived him as a jiangshi…

  “I heard there was quite a bit of controversy over how to treat Meiga upon his return. But in the end, the Lion King Agency accepted Meiga Itogami’s return to the organization. After all, his revival as a jiangshi did not mean his prior memories had been lost, and his genius for divine armament development was quite impressive, you see.”

  “So you hired a human being who ought to have been dead as a researcher?”

  “If the Lion King Agency didn’t hire demons, I wouldn’t be with them, would I?”

  The elven Yukari received Kojou’s reproachful-sounding words with an unconcerned laugh.

  If they had exceptional abilities, they’d use demons like Yukari or minors like Yukina and others. That was the Lion King Agency’s way. Special government agency or no, he supposed they couldn’t deal with large-scale sorcerous disasters unless they were willing to let the ends justify the means.

  “Of course, that doesn’t mean the terms of employment are the same as for a human being. Meiga was obligated to undergo regular medical checks and counseling, and an observer was assigned to him.”

  “An observer…?”

  That piece of information shook Kojou. He was trying to reconcile his past encounters with Meiga with his own current situation.

  After a brief pause, Yukari replied, “Touka Fujisaka, Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency—wielder of the ancient divine armament once dubbed Snowdrift Wolf.”

  “The first…Snowdrift Wolf, then…?”

  Kojou could hardly choke the question out. Even Sayaka, still sitting on the floor, opened her tear-drenched eyes wide in surprise. There was a divine armament before Yukina’s Schneewaltzer known as Snowdrift Wolf—apparently, that was news even to Sayaka.

  “Touka…? What happened to her?”

  “She is no longer with us. She was most recently dispatched on an emergency mission befitting a Sword Shaman. We never saw her again. It was immediately afterward that Meiga Itogami fell to become a sorcerous criminal. Before Natsuki Minamiya captured him and threw him into the Prison Barrier, he killed thirteen Attack Mages of the Lion King Agency.”

  “Because this Touka woman died, huh?” Kojou let out a heavy, pained sigh.

  Yukari casually shook her head and said, “Though it was not such a simple tale, it became the version on the surface—that Touka Fujisaka was mortally wounded fighting a group of shamans all by herself, dying in the process.”

  “‘…On the surface—? So there’s more to her story…?”

  When Kojou inquired further, Yukari smiled thinly. “Yes. The truth is slightly different. Surely, Touka dying in the line of duty is not enough for Meiga to hate the Lion King Agency so?”

  “Yeah… I guess not,” Kojou agreed.

  If Touka Fujisaka was slain by sorcerous criminals, Meiga’s anger would logically have been directed at the perpetrators. As a reason to become a sorcerous criminal himself, murdering his Lion King Agency cohorts—it just didn’t match up.

  But that only held up if the Lion King Agency was telling the truth.

  “Touka did not die—she evolved.”

  “Evolved…?”

  Yukari’s words, ignoring the prior chain of events, instilled a vague uneasiness within Kojou.

  “A side effect of Snowdrift Wolf: artificial spiritual evolution leading to a shift into a higher-dimensional being… In other words, angelification.”

  With Kojou and the others at a loss for words, Yukari surveyed their expressions before making a particularly blunt statement.

  “Touka became a Faux-Angel…just as Yukina is becoming one now.”

  3

  Meiga Itogami awakened atop moist, magically produced soil. It was commonly known as graveyard soil.

  The rumor that cursed soil granted vampires power was merely an old wives’ tale—but as one of the four great elements, its effectiveness as a sorcerous catalyst was real. Thanks to this, the majority of the wounds Meiga had suffered in his battle with Kojou Akatsuki had already healed. However, it was not Meiga who had provided the soil.

  Meiga slowly sat up, surveying the area without a word.

  He was on the deck of an enormous cruise ship.

  Someone had filled a pool normally reserved for guest use with the catalyst soil. Furthermore, they had also erected a simple barrier around the pool—a barrier that increased the base regeneration speed of undead flesh. The owner of this setup apparently knew the intricacies of the undead well. Without fanfare, Meiga’s black spear had been placed at the side of the pool.

  “I see you are in high spirits, Meiga Itogami. How do you feel upon your awakening…?”

  As Meiga rose to his feet, he heard a beautiful voice mixed with laugher coming from above.

  A young man was standing at the edge of the upper deck. His elegant blond hair danced in the moonlight.

  It was a vampire wearing a pure-white three-piece suit. In his hand rested a glass containing a deep-red liquid.

  “I see. So it was you who intercepted the Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassal at Keystone Gate’s Stratum Zero… Dimitrie Vattler, Duke of Ardeal.”

  Meiga, brushing soil off his entire body, strained to produce a smile as he sighed.

  Meiga’s martial artist uniform was singed, and he had lost his beloved pair of glasses. Still, having been attacked by a Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor, escaping with no more than that level of damage was nigh miraculous.

  Seizing the momentary opportunity when Fangzahn had been neutralized, Kojou Akatsuki’s summoned lightning lion had attacked—and what had saved Meiga from that attack was an enormous serpentine Beast Vassal with bladed scales covering its entire body.

  If it was a Beast Vassal from Dimitrie Vattler, known as the vampire closest to a Primogenitor himself, even resisting a Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor was no great mystery. And so, Vattler had brought Meiga, rendered immobile, out of Stratum Zero.

  “I’m sorry, but I took the liberty of giving you a corpse’s ar
m to replace the one that the Fourth Primogenitor destroyed. I judged that a jiangshi’s regenerative ability could not repair it, you see,” Vattler said, tossing him a carefree smile.

  “No… I thank you for being so considerate.”

  Meiga courteously bowed his head. A jiangshi, a warped thing to begin with, did not have regenerative ability on par with an Old Guard vampire. He might have been immortal in name, but if his flesh was destroyed, that would be the end for him. There was no way to regenerate lost limbs save stealing the missing components from other corpses and sewing them together. Vattler’s reasoning was spot-on.

  “However, do allow me to ask. Why did you save me? If you are aware of Stratum Zero’s existence, you have realized our true objective, haven’t you?” Meiga inquired suspiciously.

  “The return of The Cleansing, yes? I look forward to it,” Vattler replied without missing a beat.

  Meiga narrowed his eyes in slight annoyance.

  “If the project succeeds, humanity shall gain the means with which to eradicate all demons from this world—even you, and the vampire primogenitors, won’t be able to avoid destruction.”

  “Then I want to see The Cleansing revived all the more.”

  Vattler’s smile was exquisite. Meiga sardonically raised the corners of his own lips.

  “Even if your whim results in the extermination of all demons?”

  “But of course,” said Vattler, ferociously baring his fangs. A somber darkness swayed within his beautiful eyes. “Perhaps you didn’t know… The so-called Old Guard vampires, we’re all bored stiff of this whole eternal life business.”

  Quietly tilting his glass, Vattler trickled the deep-red liquid down his throat. The ghastly aura rising from his entire body was such that even Meiga, whose body purportedly lacked any warmth, shuddered from the chill he felt in his spine.

  “The world facing its demise would be the greatest of amusements remaining to us—wouldn’t you agree, Meiga Itogami?”

  “Then I shall strive to live up to your expectations, Your Excellency. It is the least I can do to repay you for saving this false life.”