Labyrinth of the Blue Witch (22 page)

The squad leader nodded respectfully as La Folia raised her eyebrows in mild surprise.

Sayaka was very familiar with the title “Wizard of the Four Fists.”

It meant an expert in close combat who had mastered wizardry and martial arts to a very high level. One of them was employed by the Lion King Agency as a martial arts instructor. Even though it was during their apprenticeship, Yukina and Sayaka had challenged that monster simultaneously—and neither of them could lay a single finger on her.

A monster of equal standing was taking care of Kanon Kanase. Knowing this, an expression of relief came over La Folia. It was an honest expression with nothing hidden that was quite unlike her.

Then, the princess turned to Sayaka, who had pulled back just a little.

“I would have liked to watch the course of events a bit longer, but it seems I am out of time. I must depart this nation immediately.”

“Ah…yes.” For a moment, La Folia’s seemingly abrupt statement brought a dubious look over Sayaka, but she soon realized the princess’s true intent.

If the princess left Japan, Sayaka’s mission would be over. She would be able to move according to her own judgment. Surely she would be able to go aid Kojou and Yukina until the Lion King Agency assigned her a new mission.

An opaque expression came to La Folia’s face as she spoke.

“You have gone through quite a bit of trouble on my behalf. I shall ask the Lion King Agency to give you suitable rest and recreation time until your next assignment.”

It was a pleasant smile rich in meaning, conveying a secret shared by them alone.

“You have my thanks, princess.”

Sayaka made a fervent nod as she gripped the hilt of her long sword. Their role in the incident was not yet finished.

Kojou and the others headed inside the crumbling cathedral. Yuuma had teleported. Kojou and Yukina were hit by fierce dizziness and tossed onto a hard, dusty floor.

Yuuma didn’t know why she’d teleported not only herself, but Kojou and Yukina along with her. But she had some vague idea.

She figured she probably wanted someone to see the instant she had fulfilled her objective, the instant she fulfilled the purpose for which she was born into this world—

“Natsuki’s…the key to the prison barrier?” asked Kojou.
What’s that supposed to mean?

Natsuki Minamiya continued to sleep in the chair in the cathedral’s great hall.

She was wearing a laced-up, frill-heavy dress. It was a sweltering outfit to be wearing on Itogami Island, where summer was year-round. But it suited the doll-like, still-sleeping girl to a truly frightening degree.

No doubt the shock wave from Yuuma’s having breached the prison barrier by force had been conveyed inside to Natsuki. There was a trickle of fresh blood flowing down one of Natsuki’s temples.

But Kojou still couldn’t understand at all what Natsuki, who’d disappeared on the day before the Hollow Eve Festival, was doing in a place like this to begin with. He wondered if the Natsuki sleeping here was really the Natsuki that Kojou knew.

“—Think about it. How do you send prisoners into a prison in other-dimensional space even the Gigafloat Management Corporation can’t locate for certain?” Yuuma gave the still-sleeping Natsuki a cold glare as she spoke. “Natsuki Minamiya, the Witch of the Void, is the jailer, gatekeeper, door, and key of the prison barrier. In the first place, Prison Barrier is the name of a spell to seal away vile sorcerous criminals—and she is the only one who can use it.”

Kojou listened to Yuuma’s explanation without a word. When she put it that way, the logic was simple enough.

Prison Barrier
was a spell Natsuki maintained. That was why she was inside the cathedral. And that was why breaching the ward conveyed the shock wave directly to her body.

“Witch” was a title borne by women who’d formed a pact with a devil. They employed power identical to that devil’s through the devil familiar Guardians. In so doing, they could retain human bodies while controlling magical power rivaling that of upper-rank demons, with spell-casting skill surpassing even the most accomplished of sorcerers.

But a pact with a devil came with a price.

The price Yuuma had paid was the installation of the “Dispel the Prison Barrier” program. She was born and raised to fulfill that command alone, having been granted spatial control power in exchange.

He wondered what price Natsuki had paid—

Was the prison barrier itself the answer?

Continuing to seal this giant, empty prison by her lonesome until the day she died—what if that was the curse imposed upon her when she made her pact with her devil?

Yuuma spoke as she looked around the dimly lit cathedral.

“This cathedral is Natsuki Minamiya’s home. She’s been living here the whole time. She hasn’t been outside even once in the last ten years. She remains asleep here, all alone.”

Kojou objected. “That can’t be right. Natsuki’s been working as our teacher at school all the time!”

Natsuki Minamiya was Saikai Academy’s English teacher. She was also Kojou’s homeroom teacher. She had a big mansion on prime land in Itogami City where she lived with Astarte and Kanon. What reason would she have to spend her nights in a bare, empty cathedral, sealed away in another world?

But Yuuma made a sad laugh as she shook her head.

“The Natsuki Minamiya you know is an illusion the real one created with a spell. She’s just a dream of the pathetic girl you see here.”

Yuuma’s words made Kojou forget to breathe.

“An…illusion…?”

He couldn’t object and say,
It isn’t possible
. Surely it was a trifling matter for a witch of Natsuki’s power to create a clone with substance that could act like a normal person.

Now there was a reason for her bizarre youthfulness—or rather, Natsuki not having physically aged since her youth.

More important, Kojou couldn’t think of any explanation he could accept as to how the girl sleeping in the prison barrier, looking exactly like Natsuki, could be anyone else.

Yuuma walked toward the girl as she continued to sleep.

“It’s meaningless to shatter one of her illusions. That is why LCO stayed its hand until now. That is, until her real body returned to our world so that the prison barrier could be released.”

The blue knight floating up from her back raised a giant fist as if wielding a hammer. A single blow from the Guardian against the defenselessly sleeping little girl would end her life with the greatest of ease.

Yuuma seemed to be forcing her voice out from her throat.

“The criminals in the prison barrier are held captive inside her dream. If she is slain, the prisoners will be freed.”

“—After you free them, what then?”

Kojou’s abrupt question brought Yuuma to a halt.

“If you were born only to dispel the prison barrier, what’ll you do after you finish your duty? Do you think your mom’s gonna pat you on the head?”

“Kojou…”

“No she won’t… It’s just like you did with that grimoire that burnt up, she’ll toss you away like yesterday’s garbage, won’t she?! Is this really what you want, Yuuma?!”

Kojou blocked Yuuma’s path, shooting her a glare with the still-sleeping Natsuki behind him.

She seemed ready to break into tears as she smiled and shook her head. “I know that, Kojou. I know more than anyone the meaninglessness of what I’m doing.”

“Then—!”

“But I can’t fight the program that decided it! That’s my price for my pact with my devil!” Yuuma shouted in an anguished voice. For some reason, she looked like a little girl even while in Kojou’s body.

“The program’s all I have. If I accept that it’s meaningless—my being born into this world—everything about me is meaningless, too!”

“You’re wrong!”

Kojou put a foot in front of him. The force of it drove Yuuma back a step.

“You said it yourself. I’m here for you. I accept that your life has meaning. You don’t have to follow that stupid program!”

His powers as Fourth Primogenitor were stolen, his own flesh and blood were stolen, yet even so, Kojou’s declaration lacked any hesitance. For a single instant, Yuuma’s eyes made a look like a tearful smile.

“…It sounds like you’re proposing.”

“Huh?”

“You were always fine saying stuff like that since way back, Kojou. You really have no idea how much trouble that’s caused me… But thank you. I’m happy… Really, it’s…”

It’s enough,
Yuuma’s lips mouthed. Kojou couldn’t even yell for her to stop.

He couldn’t, because by then Yuuma had already vanished. She’d leaped through space without any warning, emerging in Kojou’s blind spot—behind the still-sleeping Natsuki.

Then, the blue knight, wounded all over, swung its steel fist down to crush her—

“Ugh?!”

It was a radiant silver-colored spear that squarely took the fist’s blow. The girl wielding it, dressed in a blue dress straight out of a fairy tale, swung her spear over her head to impede the giant knight’s arm.

“—Himeragi?!”

The blue knight was nearly twice as tall as the small-built Yukina. When accounting for the armor surrounding it, its mass must have been ten times hers. It wasn’t an attack to be taken straight on.

But Yukina’s spear easily breached the armor of the witch’s Guardian and destroyed that fist.

Yuuma’s expression hardened.

“I see… That spear is a Schneewaltzer…”

It was a purifying spear that nullified all magical power. It was the worst match possible for a witch’s Guardian, which was magical energy taking physical form.

“The Lion King Agency dispatched me to watch over the Fourth Primogenitor.”

With a
ting
, Yukina’s spear audibly ripped through the air as she swung it around. The three-pronged tip of her spear turned straight toward Yuuma’s heart. Her position had been eloquently conveyed: namely, now that Kojou’s attempts to persuade Yuuma had failed, she would show no mercy.

“—I am taking back the body of Kojou Akatsuki!”

Yuuma laughed on the spot and instantly glanced at Kojou, who remained where he stood.

“You’re too soft… With the power in that spear, if you attacked my real body you’d settle this right away… Is it Kojou’s influence stopping you? So you’ve been taken in by Kojou’s silver tongue, too?”

Yukina seemed oddly sulky as she shot back. “That’s not so! I-I’ve simply decided this is best under the present circumstances! Now that the spatial control ritual has been destroyed and there is a prospect of the Fourth Primogenitor’s magical power running amok, I should prioritize recovery of his body, an exceedingly logical conclusion! Besides—”

“?!”

Before she finished speaking, Yukina kicked off from the cathedral’s floor. As she moved with the force of a typhoon, her spear thrust forward, aimed precisely at Yuuma’s chest.

“…there is no great difference in difficulty.”

Yuuma’s words were no bluff. At Yukina’s speed, enough to rock a beast man back on his heels, there was no way Yuuma, lacking any close combat ability, could cope. “Le Bleu!”

Yuuma commanded her Guardian to protect her. However, Yukina’s spear slashed through the blue knight’s thick armor like it was thin air. Bluish-white sparks scattered about as the blue knight roared in agony.

Yuuma clicked her tongue and bent space. She was trying to use a teleport to get at Yukina’s blind spot. But.

“It’s no use!”

Yukina turned around like she knew from the start she’d do that, slashing toward Yuuma’s destination point. It was her Sword Shaman ability to see the future. Simple surprise attacks wouldn’t work on her when she was using her Spirit Sight ability in the middle of combat.

The blue knight’s giant body staggered as fragments of its wrecked armor scattered about.

“So long as you control that body, your Guardian must employ most of its power to maintain the spatial link. It has very little combat capability remaining.”

“You have a point… Beating a Lion King Agency Sword Shaman’s kinda tough under these circumstances.”

Yuuma readily acknowledged the tide was against her. A Sword Shaman could fight on even terms with a vampire primogenitor. They were anti-demon combat pros, not people a mere witch could take on without a plan.

“You’ve forgotten, though? I don’t have to fight you fair, you know—!”

Yuuma teleported just after she spoke. She’d leaped into the air where Yukina couldn’t follow, high above the floor of the cathedral.

“Oh n—?!”

Yukina’s face froze as she realized what Yuuma intended. The blue knight had activated an offensive spell. It was a beginner-level fireball spell, but when unleashed with a witch’s magical power, it had force on the level of a bomb. And Yuuma had selected as her target neither Yukina nor Natsuki, but rather, the stonework roof of the cathedral above the still-sleeping Natsuki’s head.

Even Snowdrift Wolf, able to nullify any magical energy, was powerless against falling rock. She had no way of protecting Natsuki against several tons of mass obeying the call of gravity.

But by the instant Yukina felt despair, Kojou was already sprinting over.

“Daaaa—!”

Kojou picked up Natsuki’s tiny body and rolled onto the floor. A moment later, falling stone crushed and pulverized the chair Natsuki had been sitting on.

Yukina’s eyes blinked in shock.

“Senpai—?!”

Kojou had anticipated Yuuma’s attack faster than she, a Sword Shaman, could peer into the future. That fact took her by surprise.

The answer to the question tugging at her came from Kojou’s own lips.

“Sorry, Yuuma. I haven’t forgotten the face you make when you’re going for a three-pointer.”

Kojou made a daring smile as he lifted up his dusty face. Kojou had never forgotten his close childhood friend’s specialty. He’d been watching out for Yuuma to make a long-range shot from the beginning.

Yuuma’s face twisted in great anguish as she landed. “Kojou…! How can you still smile like that?! I deceived you! I’m a witch made to be a criminal from birth! I’ve been destroying the city you live in and hurting your friends—!”

Kojou stared back in amazement at the painful shout coming from his old friend.

“Yuuma…”

Suddenly, his field of vision was dyed scarlet. Fresh blood was flowing from his own forehead into his eyes.

“What the…heck is this…?!”

Kojou was in shock as he realized he was bleeding.

It wasn’t a wound sustained during the roll. There was no pain. But Yuuma’s beautiful skin was ripped in various places and was fiercely bleeding.

There was only one possibility he could think of. It was Yuuma’s body crying out.

The forced link to take over Kojou’s body, drawing out the magical power of the Fourth Primogenitor, calling a Beast Vassal, even for but a single moment, the wounds to her Guardian sustained in the fight with Yukina, one teleport after another—it was well beyond even a witch’s limits. Yuuma’s body had begun to fall apart, unable to endure the sheer output of magical energy.

“Yuuma!” Yukina’s voice shook. “Please stop this. If you release any more magical energy, your body will—”

“It doesn’t matter…!” The pain of the backlash was making her lips twist, but even so, Yuuma made a lurid smile. “Just a little more and my duty will be at an end. I’ll finally…be free…”

Yukina silently bit her lip. Then, she let out a very deep sigh. Without a sound, the silver spear whirled around as her glossy hair flowed downward. Only a single way remained to save Yuuma—

That was to settle the bout as quickly as possible.

“—I, Maiden of the Lion, Sword Shaman of the High God, beseech thee.”

Yukina’s lips wove a solemn chant. She danced along with her silver spear like a warrior praying to the gods for victory—or a priestess granted an oracle that heralded the victory to come.

“O purifying light, O divine wolf of the snowdrift, by your steel divine will, strike down the devils before me!”

The silver spear emitted a flash of light, the explosive spiritual energy flowing into it twice as much as before. That flash surrounded Yukina as she sprinted. Yuuma hadn’t seen what Yukina was doing. The blow from Snowdrift Wolf was aimed straight at Yuuma—and thrust through the heart of Kojou’s body.

Or it would have, had Yukina not stopped her attack. The tip of the silver spear did not reach Kojou’s chest. Yukina had hesitated in her attack in a span less than the blink of an eye.

Yuuma moved, not letting that tiny opening go to waste.

The blue knight’s giant fist swung toward Yukina’s flank. Yukina barely managed to receive the blow with her spear. But she could not stop inertia. Her small body was sent flying, sending her crashing down onto the floor several meters away.

“Himeragi!”

As Kojou rushed over, Yukina dismissed him and wobbled as she rose.

“…I’m all right… This is nothing…”

She reached out to the silver spear, picking it up, only for it to roll onto the floor once more. Her arms were numb from having squarely received the blue knight’s attack.

Yuuma spoke as she watched Yukina sit on her knees.

“You’re a kind girl.”

There was no mockery in her tone. Indeed, her tone was drenched in open envy.

“The Lion King Agency’s secret weapon, able to nullify any magical power… there’s no way to really tell if even an immortal vampire would come back from being impaled with a Schneewaltzer. That’s why you stopped. You didn’t want to kill Kojou’s body—”

Yukina somehow got back to her feet by using her spear in place of a cane.

“…I do not know what you are referring to. That was just a little carelessness.”

She was no longer in any condition to fight; at the very least, she couldn’t hope for anything like her usual combat ability. She couldn’t properly grip her weapon in any event. Yuuma spoke as if pitying the wounded Yukina.

“It’ll end the same no matter how much you try it. You understand that yourself, don’t you?”

If Yukina couldn’t harm Kojou’s body, she had no hope of victory no matter how many times she rose back up.

“Senpai…”

Kojou supported Yukina from behind when it seemed like she might fall over.

He put his hands on the silver spear so that both were gripping it together.

“Kojou…why…?” Yuuma asked, with her expression seeming to say,
Do you understand whose body you’re aiming that spear at…?
The Schneewaltzer was a purifying spear able to slay even a rimogenitor. Kojou impaling himself with that spear was reckless, virtual suicide.

Kojou declared with an impetuous laugh…

“Sorry, Yuuma. I’m gonna send you packing and take my own body back. I mean, with this body, I can’t go drinking Yukina’s blood
like usual
.”

Yukina’s lips made a sour curl.

Wresting the spear from Yukina’s hands, Kojou charged straight toward Yuuma.

“Let’s go, Yuuma—from here on, this is my fight.”

Snowdrift Wolf was heavier than he’d expected. However, it wasn’t too heavy for him to wield. “Kojou—!” Yuuma shouted in anguish.

Then, she vanished. A teleport—!

But Kojou had anticipated that from the start.

Yuuma could not attack Kojou—or rather, her very own body.

If she caused harm to her own body, the spatial control spell would be broken and Kojou’s consciousness would return to his own flesh and blood. For her part, Yuuma would return to her own wounded body, unable to do any more. If Kojou came at her with the intention of killing his own body, Yuuma really had no choice but to run.

And Kojou knew where she’d go.

Yuuma’s objective was to take out Natsuki. With Kojou away from Natsuki’s side, that was naturally where Yuuma would jump to—to the place she could kill Natsuki in her continued sleep.

So Kojou didn’t wait.

Before Yuuma had even reappeared from her teleport, he threw the spear with everything he had.

When Yuuma returned from teleporting, she saw the silver spear flying through the air, aimed at her heart.

“Ugh…! Le Bleu—!”

Realizing she’d never evade it, she commanded her own Guardian to defend her. The heavily armored blue knight crossed its arms to block the spear. Without spiritual energy of his own, Kojou’s throw did not imbue Snowdrift Wolf with its proper, magic-nullifying properties. It couldn’t breach the Guardian’s defense—!

“It didn’t work?!”

Kojou slid into despair.

The next moment, a small girl wearing a blue dress cut into his peripheral vision.

Making an elegant smile, she spun around in midair and unleashed a ferocious spinning back kick into the butt of the spear, stuck in the blue knight’s arms…

“—No, senpai. This victory is ours.”

Before Yukina finished speaking, Snowdrift Wolf released a dazzling glow. She had employed a kicking foot to infuse the spear with spiritual energy rather than her numb hands.

Imbued with a Divine Oscillation Wave, the Lion King Agency’s secret weapon ran through the blue knight’s crossed arms, impaled it through its armored torso, and sank deep into the chest of
Kojou Akatsuki
.

Yuuma seemed beside herself.

“This is insane… Why, Kojou…?”

Her murmur vanished in a high-pitched shock wave that sounded like the shattering of glass.

The spatial control spell had been nullified; the recoil made the air itself shudder.

The blue knight’s body seemed to melt into the air itself as it vanished.

All that remained was Kojou’s body, slowly falling with his face up, almost like a marionette with its strings cut.

But what Kojou’s back felt was not the hard sensation of the floor, but something soft and supple wrapping around him. Yukina had caught Kojou’s body from behind just as he was about to hit the floor.

The scars of the deep spear wound remained in Kojou’s chest. However, the blow had just missed the heart. It was not a fatal blow to a vampire possessing a high level of regenerative ability.

It was a grave wound nonetheless. Kojou Akatsuki made a frail moan as he pressed down on his bloody chest.

“Ow…”

Yukina let out a sigh of relief as she peered down at the look on the Fourth Primogenitor’s face.

It was not a gallant face, nor a tragic one. It seemed a bit listless somehow, but it was the look of a common high schooler—it was the face he always wore, and one she knew very well.

Yukina put her hands over both his ears, as if to keep him from hearing, as she murmured gently to herself alone.

“Welcome back, senpai—”