Golden Days Read online

  “Um, excuse me. My friend’s house is just up ahead—”

  “Your friend’s name?”

  A stout guardsman kept his protective mask on as he directed his attention toward Kojou.

  Kojou pointed to the mansion behind the barricade and answered, “Er… Asagi Aiba. That’s Aiba’s house.”

  “Miss Asagi Aiba, is it? Please present your permit.”

  “Huh? Permit?”

  The guardsman’s unanticipated demand made Kojou, beside himself, parrot back the words.

  “Entering the area requires a permit from the Gigafloat Management Corporation. Those without one are not granted entry.”

  “Uh, wait a sec. I mean, I never needed a permit to come here all the time bef—”

  “Senpai.”

  When Kojou tried to debate the point, Yukina gently tugged on his arm. Kojou gasped, his expression hardening.

  At some point, the armed guardsmen behind the barricade had raised their guns. The barrels of the military-style machine pistols were plainly trained on Kojou’s center mass.

  If Kojou tried to force his way through the barricade, there was no doubt the guardsmen would fire. That was their duty.

  “Let’s go, Himeragi.”

  Pouting, Kojou spread both arms wide and began heading back down the road. He didn’t understand the circumstances, but he instinctively knew further negotiations were pointless.

  But the encounter wasn’t entirely fruitless. He knew one thing for sure.

  He knew that the absence of the real Asagi was not something she chose. Someone was isolating her. Someone who could control even the Gigafloat Management Corporation as they willed—

  “Thank you for your cooperation.”

  As Kojou kept walking, visibly irritated, the armed guardsman spoke those words in a businesslike tone directed at his back.

  Kojou didn’t turn around once.

  4

  Wearing her familiar school uniform, Asagi replied to the questions with a refined, smiling face. She was appearing as a guest on a channel broadcast locally on Itogami Island.

  “………”

  Visibly annoyed, Motoki Yaze remained on his side in bed as he watched Asagi on TV. Objectively, the scene was picture-perfect, but it played out so naturally that it felt unnatural. The Asagi being interviewed was a fake. Kojou and the others had probably realized something was off by now.

  Put another way, it meant that unless you were someone who knew her as well as Yaze and Kojou, you’d never notice she was a fake.

  He understood why the Corporation would set Asagi up as an idol to the point of perpetrating such an elaborate fraud. Itogami Island had incurred heavy damage at the hands of the Roses of Tartarus, and numerous citizens had been temporarily displaced. Itogami Island needed a charismatic symbol of recovery to deflect their irritation and dissatisfaction.

  In that sense, Asagi was a most suitable candidate. She was the genius programmer who’d saved Itogami Island from the Demon Sanctuary destruction group, and on top of that, she was a genuine high school girl. That was more than enough reason to promote her and slap the label of “local idol” onto her.

  And by using Asagi’s image in the media, no one would notice that Asagi herself had vanished from sight. The Gigafloat Management Corporation was using her popularity to isolate the awakened Priestess of Cain from the world at large.

  It really was a farce.

  However, even if he had a decent grasp of the situation, there was nothing Yaze could do about it. His leg had finally healed after being shot by Tartarus Lapse, but the internal organ damage from overuse of his Hyper Adaptation power and overdose of boosters was simply too great. For a while, it would be futile to even try to monitor Kojou, let alone use his abilities in combat.

  On top of that, Yaze had been unable to contact Koyomi Shizuka—one of the Three Saints of the Lion King Agency, who he called his girlfriend—ever since the incident.

  In the end, all Yaze could do was look pissed off as he watched the fake Asagi on TV.

  All of a sudden, the door to his hospital room opened without a knock. In walked a man who could have been the poster child for the upper class. He was Kazuma Yaze, Yaze’s brother who was ten years his senior and born of a different mother.

  “How are you faring, Motoki?”

  Kazuma, wearing a close-fitting European-style suit, looked down at his jersey-clad younger brother as he posed the question. With naked wariness on Yaze’s face, he looked back at his older brother without a word.

  Kazuma, an elite with a doctorate from a famous university in the North American Union, was chief manager of the City Administration Office of the Gigafloat Management Corporation, making him a very busy man. Yaze didn’t think his older brother would pay a hospital visit without a very good reason.

  “What’s going on, Bro? Why’d you drag me to a place like this?” Yaze asked as he examined the unfamiliar, post-transfer hospital room.

  Yaze had been brought to a hospital in Island North’s research district attached to a pharmaceutical company. It was a high-tech, antiseptic building, a facility oriented toward clinical trials of new drugs rather than toward medical treatment. Immediately after being admitted, his cell phone and all other electronic devices had been confiscated; thanks to that, Yaze had been unable to inform Kojou and the others of his hospital transfer.

  However, Kazuma looked back at his younger brother’s annoyed face, a curious expression on his own as he asked:

  “Are the accommodations not to your liking? I did ask them to give you the finest private room available.”

  “That ain’t the problem. The hell are you thinking? You keepin’ somethin’ from me?”

  “I will hide nothing from you. Such a thing would be meaningless.” A sarcastic smile crept onto Kazuma’s lips.

  Yaze was a Hyper Adapter—a natural psychic who didn’t rely on magic. If certain conditions were met, he was capable of overhearing the conversations of others even in places several kilometers away. Kazuma understood his younger brother’s power better than anyone.

  “I had you transferred for the sake of security. We would be unable to protect you in a normal hospital room, you see.”

  “Protect? Me…?”

  The unexpected words coming from Kazuma’s mouth brought an incredulous look to Yaze’s face.

  “Who would wanna come after a guy like me—?”

  “You will succeed the Yaze family name, on the surface at least, in place of our assassinated father.”

  Kazuma’s declaration interrupted his younger brother’s question. For an instant, Yaze stiffened, unable to comprehend its meaning.

  “You mean I’ll…be the head of the family…?”

  “That’s right. Of course, this will be in name only until you are legally an adult.”

  “That’s crazy! There’s no way everyone else is gonna accept that!” Yaze shouted, forgetting he was in a hospital.

  Being head of the main branch of the Yaze family meant you’d be commander in chief of a gigantic financial group, influential in the worlds of politics and business since ancient times. It wasn’t the kind of role any average joe could take on.

  If you didn’t have overwhelming political backing to keep the power-hungry heavyweights of the family in check, you’d be eaten alive before long, and you’d wind up living out the rest of your days in misery.

  “In the first place, I ain’t cut out to be head of the family! You’re way more suited for that than I am!”

  “I am merely the child of our father’s lover. If I had at least inherited the family’s special ability, I might have been able to manage somehow, but no Hyper Adaptive power has ever manifested within me.”

  Kazuma stated the cold, hard facts. Generation after generation, the Yaze family bloodline had turned out numerous excellent Hyper Adapters. Akishige Yaze, the current head, was said to possess a particularly strong power. And such power had never manifested in Kazuma. If it took unquestionable
might to inherit the Yaze family name, this was the reason Kazuma could not be chosen as the successor.

  “But you’re different, Motoki. You are a direct descendant of the family of the Four Forbidden Symbols. To shut up the old men so they can’t complain, you must be the next head of the family.”

  “And…what’ll you do if I say I won’t cooperate…?” Yaze asked, his voice sharp.

  However, unruffled, Kazuma smiled.

  “I wouldn’t particularly mind. If you abandon your right of succession, surely no one will actually make an attempt on your life. But would you be fine with that? You do realize, if it comes to that, no one will be left to protect your mother.”

  “So you didn’t plan on letting me choose from the start.” Yaze fumed like a child.

  Shaking his head and with no intention to apologize, Kazuma continued. “Not to worry. I’ll handle all the real work and troublesome formalities. Guardian, adviser, grant me any title you prefer. Of course, if you want to do all those things yourself, I will not stop you.”

  Yaze groaned, shaking his head dramatically and flopping onto the bed. He pointed at the screen of the still-on TV. He casually asked, “Just to make one thing perfectly clear, you’re not the one who set up that farce, are you?”

  “Asagi Aiba…the Priestess of Cain, yes?”

  Yaze thought he heard his brother click his tongue. Kazuma knew Asagi well because she had been friends with Yaze for so long. Kazuma didn’t look upon the Gigafloat Management Corporation using Asagi any more fondly than his brother did. Knowing this, Yaze’s expression loosened a bit.

  “At this point in time, there is still a chance to save her…if you cooperate with us, that is.”

  “With us…?”

  Yaze knitted his brows in response to Kazuma’s strangely casual demeanor. After all, Kazuma was implying that he had someone’s cooperation already.

  Stealing the position of the head of the Yaze family and physically securing Asagi—in a certain sense, this was a revolt against the Gigafloat Management Corporation. Yaze couldn’t of a single person that would willing go along with such a reckless plan.

  “What’s your angle here?” Yaze challenged.

  Then he felt the wavering of the air directly behind him. Suddenly, a small-statured individual appeared in a previously empty corner of the hospital room.

  “Have you finished speaking with your guardian?”

  When Yaze wheeled around in surprise, he heard a voice—lispy, but haughty nonetheless. Looking over, an extravagant, frilly dress swayed in the corner of his field of vision.

  “The heck are you doing here…?” Yaze exclaimed as he stared at the woman seemingly melting into view out of thin air.

  In contrast to her doll-like appearance, the woman possessed a mysteriously compelling force.

  She was an English teacher at Saikai Academy—and Yaze’s homeroom teacher to boot. She was also known as the Demonslayer, the cold, heartless Attack Mage who struck fear into the hearts of the sorcerous criminals of Europe.

  “I owe a debt to your father and the Board of Directors of the Gigafloat Management Corporation. If you have concerns about your career options, I would be happy to discuss them with you, Motoki Yaze.”

  With a broad smile, Natsuki Minamiya—the Witch of the Void—spoke those words with an amused chuckle.

  5

  Beneath the sun’s scorching rays, characteristic of Itogami Island, Sayaka Kirasaka stood in front of an apartment building. She carried a large instrument case for a keyboard over her left shoulder, while her right hand was pulling along a wheeled suitcase. In her right hand, Sayaka gripped a silver key.

  It was a smart key, commonly used at apartment complexes, but Sayaka held it as if it were an expensive work of art.

  “This is… This is the key to Yukina’s apartment…!”

  Her shoulders trembled as she spoke, deeply moved.

  Sayaka was looking up at the apartment building where Yukina was staying for the purpose of monitoring the Fourth Primogenitor. That day, Sayaka had been given an entry key to Yukina’s room which lay just ahead.

  “Receiving this means I’ll be Yukina’s roommate once again…! This means the Lion King Agency officially accepts cohabitation, right?!”

  “Eee-hee-hee-hee!” Sayaka couldn’t help letting out an eerie laugh as she released the auto-lock and entered the apartment building. Her destination was Room 705—Yukina’s room. Next door, Room 704, was the residence of Yukina’s target for observation, the Fourth Primogenitor—Kojou Akatsuki.

  Rising to the seventh floor by elevator, Sayaka gazed at the nameplate reading AKATSUKI as she said, “I don’t care for living next to Kojou Akatsuki, but one must bear goodwill toward one’s neighbors, so if I must, then I must. It wouldn’t be bad to at least wake him up when he oversleeps and enjoy meals together from time to time, though!”

  She somehow sounded like she was making excuses as she spoke to herself, cheeks reddening. She made her way to Room 705 and unlocked the door.

  “Sorry. I’m letting myself in, Yukina.”

  There was no sign of Yukina and Kojou having returned home. “Pardon me,” Sayaka murmured in a small voice as she entered Yukina’s room. On paper, the room belonged to the Lion King Agency, so Sayaka was not forbidden entry, but she still felt a smidgeon of guilt for invading someone’s personal space.

  But Sayaka’s sense of guilt evaporated the instant she saw the room’s interior.

  This was because Yukina’s room had next to nothing placed within it that felt indicative of a personal life.

  It had a simple, some-assembly-required–style bed and cabinet, and a small dining table. This was the entirety of the furnishings added to Yukina’s room. In the open closet were spare Saikai Academy uniforms and a precious few articles of personal clothing. Sayaka herself had selected and sent most of that personal clothing for Yukina.

  “Ugh, I should have expected this…”

  Looking around the lifeless living room, Sayaka let out an exasperated sigh.

  Yukina hadn’t changed at all since their time in High God Forest. Her mission for the Lion King Agency was her whole life. She stripped away all things that were unrelated to the mission. It was almost as if she was asserting that she, herself, might vanish at any moment.

  It came off as just too pure, and moreover, fragile, forlorn—

  It was something that really got under Sayaka’s skin.

  To Sayaka, who’d lost her own family at a young age, Yukina was more like a sister than any of her own blood relatives could ever be. That was why she wanted Yukina to be happy. Even if she could not escape her duty as a Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency, surely she was capable of finding a piece of happiness to call her own.

  And Sayaka felt it was her duty to teach that to Yukina. In other words, she felt that she’d insufficiently made her case. She had to more thoroughly demonstrate her feelings of love, more thoroughly convey just how precious Yukina was to her. She had to tell Yukina that people would be sad if she ever disapp—

  “…Wait, what?”

  Sayaka’s eyes fell on the front of the cabinet, which contained textbooks and the like. Something small and wooden had been placed on top—a box. Inside were things that, put bluntly, could only be described as junk: Hakone Hot Springs resort leaflets, the stub of an already-used ferry ticket, an empty candy box with a Halloween design drawn on it, and a little cat plushie that looked like something out of a game center. And a picture of Kojou Akatsuki—

  In Yukina’s room, one that didn’t feel lived in, it was only around this little box that Sayaka sensed a gentle warmth. She didn’t really want to guess at their particular significance, but she did understand that these objects were Yukina’s precious memories. No doubt, many of these memories were connected to Kojou Akatsuki. That annoyed Sayaka greatly.

  “Somehow, that ticks me off. Damn you, Kojou—”

  Sayaka pursed her lips as she sat down on Yukina’s bed.
/>   Bringing Yukina’s pillow to her face, she inhaled deeply and basked in warm, fuzzy emotions. If Yukina had found something precious to her, then Sayaka would be happy for her, but she didn’t care for it having been due to Kojou Akatsuki’s influence.

  After all, that man was the World’s Mightiest Vampire, an extremely dangerous individual, and a pervert on top of that, someone who had committed all kinds of indecent acts upon not just Yukina, but Sayaka as well. The mere presence of that man at Yukina’s side made Sayaka’s heart stir.

  However, now that she’d obtained a key to Yukina’s room, she didn’t intend to let him run wild. Thereafter, Sayaka would keep Kojou Akatsuki under strict observation to see to it that he did not subject Yukina to further negative influence. In all likelihood, that was why the upper echelons of the Lion King Agency had dispatched her— No, Sayaka was sure of it.

  “Hmm?”

  Renewing her determination, Sayaka stood up, whereupon her expression abruptly hardened. She’d discovered a device Yukina had placed right behind the little box, almost as if trying to hide it. The unadorned device had a blunt warning sticker on its surface announcing that it was a special medical package not for sale outside the Demon Sanctuary.

  “What’s this…? A do-it-yourself testing kit…?”

  Sayaka violently snatched up the container. The seal had been broken. Inside was the sort of analytical chemical that made an assessment based on a single drop of blood. Next to it was graph paper for estimates based on shifts in core body temperature.

  “Yukina…”

  When she looked at the numbers displayed on the graph paper, Sayaka paled, her lips trembling.

  As if struck by nausea, her eyes remained open wide in astonishment as she sank down to the floor then and there.

  Sayaka remained there, unmoving, as the rays of the setting sun filtered through a gap in the curtains, dying the side of her face red.

  6

  On the terrace of a second-story café just outside of Keystone Gate—the giant building standing at the center of Itogami Island—Kojou and Yukina were sipping their respective drinks.