Labyrinth of the Blue Witch (4 page)

Nagisa Akatsuki called out as the firecrackers filled the air with noise. “Kanon, congrats on getting out of the hospital!”

She was a third-year middle school student, just like Yukina and Kanon, and also Kojou’s biological little sister. She looked a bit more childish than other girls her age, but as a whole, she was a very capable little sister. Her looks were on the cute side; her grades were so-so. She was skilled at every kind of housework. Her biggest flaw was her propensity to talk too much, but rather mysteriously, she never seemed to irritate anyone with it.

Most of the food on the table was her home cooking.

Kanon looked around with an embarrassed but grateful expression as confetti fell all over her body.

“Um, ah… I’m sorry to have made you go through all this trouble just for me…”

Nagisa spoke in an even brighter voice, as if seeing Kanon like that only encouraged her further.

“What are you saying? You’re today’s guest of honor. Here, sit, sit! Eat, eat! I’m really proud of this salad. It’s got homemade dressing with walnut, peanut, and sesame in it. This here’s Tanaya’s Itogami Croquette Deluxe. This here’s the Nagisa Special Red-Hot Chili Beans Grand Finale. The Neapolitan carbonara pasta’s almost finished boiling, too.”

Kanon smiled pleasantly but awkwardly, perhaps cowed a bit by Nagisa’s vigor. “Th-thank you.”

Yaze, brazenly sitting right next to Kanon, immediately reached out with his chopsticks.

“Whoa, this is delicious. That’s Nagisa for you. Have you gotten even better?”

Asagi happily put a hand to her cheek as she brought some soup served cold to her lips.

“It really is. Her being Kojou’s little sister is kind of a waste.”

Kojou, chased off to the corner of the living room, glared at the girls with a dumbfounded look.

“Why are you all here at Kanon’s recovery party, too?”

“Hey, don’t say that. It’s something good to celebrate, the more the merrier, right?”

“Just so you know, Kojou, I paid for the meat you’re eating.”

“Ughh.”

Kojou made an exasperated sigh at Yaze and Asagi’s thoroughly shameless behavior. Actually, Kojou still had no idea why they’d suddenly proclaimed they were coming to his place.

The fact was, their having come was making it a bit easier for him anyway.

Even if it was a recovery party for an acquaintance, he naturally felt a fair bit of awkwardness at the prospect of eating a meal surrounded by girls the same age as his little sister.

Asagi suddenly posed a question while taking a break from her food.

“…So, what
is
your relationship to Kanase, anyway?”

Whatever impression her looks gave, she was a voracious eater. Nagisa plopped new food onto Asagi’s empty plate time and time again.

“I explained yesterday. Kanase was getting treatment for her illness at Magus Craft, and Himeragi and I gave blood to help out. Right, Himeragi?”

“Yes. Th-that’s right. I’m sorry to have worried you all because we were in such a hurry.”

Kojou and Yukina smoothly gave their explanations. They’d made sure their stories matched for just such an occasion. But detecting that such a smooth excuse was unnatural in and of itself, an obvious look of doubt came over Asagi. “So, what’s the business with the princess?”

“Well, like I said, Kanase’s dad was the royal sorcerous engineer of Aldegia when he was younger, so that’s why she was coming to visit.”

“Hmm.”

Kojou and Yukina’s explanation differed notably from the truth, but given the relationships between the various people, it wasn’t much of a lie, either. Though Asagi clearly didn’t buy the whole thing, she apparently gave up on pursuing the matter further.

Instead, it was the final participant who spoke from the direction of Kojou’s room.

“Hmm…so this is Akatsuki’s room. Surprisingly normal. Hmm, very interesting.”

“Could you, like, not go into other people’s bedrooms and look under their beds, Tsukishima?” Kojou called out in a shrill voice, watching Rin from behind as she leaned down to the floor.

She was known for acting cool and collected with everyone else no matter who they were, but her behavior toward Kojou was a little different. Rin, whose father was a famous scholar of demonic biology, was exceptionally well versed about the characteristics of demons. Thanks to that, Kojou felt that Rin acted from time to time like she’d figured out he wasn’t a normal human being.

That said, she’d never looked at Kojou with any hint of hostility. Evidently she had no intention of rocking the boat. She came off as the classical amused observer. No doubt her insistence on coming to the Akatsuki residence was part of that inquisitiveness.

Rin seemed to take great interest in Kojou’s shelf.

“I found an album. Can I take a peek?”

“Go ahead, but that’s just something from elementary school. Doubt it’s got anything interesting.”

Kojou had meant to warn her to take good care of it, but the girls seemed to all get a different idea. Now Asagi and Yukina gathered around Rin, looking much more interested now that he’d opened his big mouth.

As she flipped the album’s pages, Rin raised her eyebrows in apparent amusement.

“Aw, widdle Akatsuki. Hmm, he looks much the same, doesn’t he?”

Yukina stared intently as she conveyed her own impressions.

“So senpai was an elementary schooler once, too. Cute…perhaps?”

“What’s with the ‘perhaps’?! Just say I was, dammit!” bitterly complained a dejected Kojou.

Kanon giggled and smiled as she listened to the exchange. “So this is from just before Kojou moved to Itogami City, huh?”

Asagi was the one who checked the time stamp on the photo. “Seems that way. All the other ones were clearly taken when he was still in primary.”

Kojou had met her immediately after moving to Itogami Island some four years before. Kojou had only just entered middle school.

“Who’s that? They’re together in a lot of these photos.” Yaze picked up the album as he asked.

Kojou was photographed with a teammate in the same basketball uniform. The youth was heavily sunburned but was a primary schooler with a very energetic face.

“Ah yeah, that’s Yuuma.”

“Yuuma?”

“Someone we played with when we were little kids. Pal from basketball when I was young… We were kinda like two rotten apples in a barrel.”

“Really,” went Rin, narrowing her eyes in apparent admiration.

“Quite handsome. Completely wasted on a friend like you, Akatsuki.”

Kojou lamented, his lips twisted like that really hurt.

“What’s that supposed to mean?! So what if my friend looks better than me?!”

For his part, Yaze glared at the photo with an expression that didn’t look fake at all.

“Shit. I thought
I
was Kojou’s only good friend, but to think the guy before me looked this awesome!”

Asagi scowled, looking like she deeply resented this. “You two are both totally creeping me out…”

Kojou’s eyes bulged on reflex.

“What, me, too?!”

Nagisa burst into laughter. “Unlike Kojou here, Yuuma was definitely popular with the girls back then.”

“Yeah.” Kojou grudgingly nodded. His old friend was very popular with the ladies.

Then, as if only just remembering, Nagisa whipped out her cell phone and opened up her mail screen.

“Oh right, I got an e-mail a little earlier. Yuuma’s arriving at the airport at nine o’clock tomorrow morning.”

Yaze looked back in visible surprise. He stuck out a quivering finger at Kojou’s album.

“Huh? You mean
he’s
coming to Itogami Island?” Kojou replied with a tone of indifference as Nagisa carried in a plate full of pasta.

“That’s right. Apparently a relative twisted some arms and got Yuuma a Hollow Eve Festival ticket.”

The whole reason he’d dug up the old album in the first place was to prepare for the reunion with his old friend.

“That’s right, you said you’d promised to show someone around town this year, didn’t you, Akatsuki?” Rin spoke as if her suspicions had suddenly been completely cleared up.

“Yeah. I promised I’d show Yuuma around the island,” Kojou said as he brought some pasta to his lips.

Rin had a satisfied look on her face, smiling at Asagi as if to console her. “If it’s to show a friend around, it can’t be helped. Right, Asagi?”

Asagi, having returned to her seat at the table, assaulted her food once more with even greater vigor. “It’s fine. I figured it was something like that anyway.”

Nagisa beamed at the sight of her cooking rapidly disappearing.

Asagi suddenly gave the food a rest and looked at Yukina seated beside her. Asagi drew close to her face and asked in a whisper, “Hey…did you know about Kojou’s friend coming…?”

“No,” said Yukina, shaking her head in apparent disappointment. “This is the first I’ve heard of his plans for the festival.”

The two traded a glance and sighed at the same time.

“That’s just like him.”

“…It is, isn’t it?”

What the heck’s that all about…?
Kojou wondered; for no concrete reason, seeing the two express such an odd amount of sympathy for the other made him feel uneasy.

Despite much concern and consternation before it began, the party ended peacefully and festively.

Kanon, the guest of honor, happily listened to Nagisa’s ceaseless banter and Yaze’s stupid stories without a single disagreeable look on her face; getting to observe Kojou’s private life apparently made Rin content as well.

Asagi and Yukina were in a heated rhythm and dance video game duel, their tension level approaching desperation for reasons unknown. In one corner was Yukina, boasting superhumanly fast reflexes; in the other was Asagi, possessing a genius’s intuition and deep knowledge of computer algorithms. Their white-hot battle resulted in the pounding out of unheard-of high scores, but ended without a clear winner. Kojou had a hard time telling if they were getting along great or if they hated each other’s guts.

Since Asagi and the others hadn’t made any preparations to stay the night, they had to leave in time to catch the last train home. Only Kojou and three middle school students remained in the Akatsuki residence.

Apparently Kanon and Yukina were going to sleep over in Nagisa’s room. Kojou, the odd man out, holed up in his own room and tucked himself into bed immediately.

Kojou and Nagisa’s mother, who bore the impressive title of chief of research at one of the corporations in the city, didn’t get back home for one or two weeks at a time. For her not to have returned by this hour meant that she was probably sleeping at her workplace yet again.

That said, surely even she wouldn’t miss out on a home visit when the lab was shut down for the Hollow Eve Festival. Besides, Yuuma was arriving. Tomorrow looked set to be another rambunctious day.

Kojou stared up at the ceiling for a good long while as he thought deeply about things like that.

It was business as usual, but he couldn’t sleep.

Kojou had been a night owl to begin with, and the tendency had only grown stronger since becoming a vampire. It had gotten extreme enough that he would’ve preferred to be asleep during the day and be up at night if he could.

But that would of course impact his high school life, and besides, Nagisa would no doubt notice he was a vampire if he did such a thing. That was something he had to avoid at all costs. He couldn’t let her know that her own big brother had become a demon.

In the midst of another sleepless, worry-filled night, Kojou’s ears heard a rather reserved voice.

“…Akatsuki.”

For an instant, he thought he was hearing things, but when he looked harder, Kojou saw that his bedroom door was ever so slightly open. He could see beautifully glittering silver hair through the crack.

“Um, are you still awake?”

“…Kanase?”

When Kojou replied in a small voice, Kanon poked her face in with a relieved look. She politely bowed her head and entered the room. Then, she quietly shut the door behind her.

She was dressed in pajamas that stretched to her knees. The pale blue fabric being the same color as her eyes, they suited Kanon particularly well.

Kojou turned toward Kanon and sat up, giving her a bewildered look. For a moment, he wondered if this was “stealing into someone’s bedroom” like he’d heard rumors about, but instantly dismissed the possibility. He didn’t think a girl like Kanon, raised by nuns and even dubbed a saint, would engage in such behavior.

“What is it, at a time like this?”

“I wanted to have a private conversation with you.”

“Conversation?”

“Yes,” said Kanon, nodding with a serious look.

Kojou moved to the corner of the bed and gave Kanon space to sit down. Kanon blushed a little as she settled her hips down next to Kojou. Then, she put on another meek look and continued, “I wanted to speak to you about Faux-Angel.”

Kojou’s expression turned grave.

“…Do you remember when you became an angel?”

Faux-Angel was a being brought into existence by using sorcerous means to shift a human body to that of a higher being. Kanon, naturally suited to being a powerful spirit medium due to the Aldegian royal blood coursing through her, had been selected as a test subject. And for a time, she had arrived at an angelic form indistinguishable from the real thing. However, she’d paid a heavy price as part of such a reckless experiment, conceived to turn a human being into an angel by force. She’d been pitted into deadly combat against fellow Faux-Angels; finally, Kanon’s own self-awareness began to fade away. Furthermore, the Faux-Angels produced through such means were viewed by others as mere weapons.

In the end, Kojou and Yukina were able to save Kanon from the horrible circumstances that had befallen her. However, neither of them had any intention of telling Kanon any such thing.

Besides, the truth was, Kojou had more
fought
her than saved her. A single misstep and Kojou and Yukina would have killed her. They thought that telling Kanon such a thing would only bring her greater anguish. When they’d heard Kanon had no memory of her time as Faux-Angel, both thought her amnesia was really for the best.