Labyrinth of the Blue Witch (6 page)

Itogami Island’s central airport was completely jammed with travelers.

On this day, the Friday of the last week of October, they were heading to festivities the night before the Hollow Eve Festival itself. There were numerous events scheduled to begin in the evening, resulting in the first real flood of tourists from off the island.

The road connecting the airport to the monorail station was heavily congested, completely taken over by people dragging their luggage along. Kojou and the others wedged themselves through the crowd, somehow finally arriving at the airport terminal.

Kojou raggedly exhaled as he looked up at the time on the electronic billboard.

“Looks like we made it in time…?”

The time was already past a quarter after nine in the morning. However, there was still no sight of the person he was meeting. From the looks of it, he might have been in the crowd around luggage pickup; maybe quarantine and customs inspection was taking a while.

Nagisa was fuming in anger.

“Well, it’s your fault! You took so long getting ready that we had to work up a sweat, too. And I picked up such awesome clothes! Why’d you have to sleep in on a day like this? I can’t believe it, it’s just unreal.”

It figured—however heavily her shoulders heaved, her word output did not diminish in any way.

“Sorry already! Thanks to the fuss last night I was wide awake and couldn’t sleep!”

“You were worked up from remembering Kanon visiting your room, weren’t you? It’s so embarrassing!”

“U…gh…!”

Kojou was at a loss for words as Nagisa hit the mark. Kojou didn’t have the nerves of steel it would’ve taken to sleep soundly after getting stimulated so much that his urge to drink blood had kicked in.

Kanon bowed her head, feeling responsible for some reason. “I’m so sorry, Akatsuki. It’s my fault.”

Today, she was wearing a plain and simple gray cotton dress. But the plain outfit only served to emphasize Kanon’s extravagant silver hair even more, bathing her in attention from the people at the airport.

“Nah, don’t worry about it, not your fault, Kanase.”

It was Yukina who spoke with a tone that had a conflicted twinge to it, giving voice to Kanon’s feelings. “…But I wonder if we really should have come, too? I hope it’s not a bother…” Yukina was wearing a one-piece polo outfit with knee-high socks. Of course, the guitar case was over her back, as always. For that reason, she looked like a member of some kind of band.

Actually, most of Yukina’s personal clothes had been picked out and sent over by Sayaka. Kojou couldn’t help but imagine Sayaka getting chills while picking them out, but he wasn’t surprised her choices suited Yukina very nicely.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. This is your first Hollow Eve Festival, too, Yukina. It’s more fun if you come around with all of us. It doesn’t take any more time to show one person around than it does three. Right, Kojou?”

Nagisa wrapped her arms around her friends’ shoulders without restraint as she spoke in a cheerful tone.

Kojou made a generous shrug of his shoulders.

“I’ve got no complaints about you keeping Nagisa company. Yuuma said it was fine, too.”

Nagisa added a “yeah,” nodding without hesitation.

“Yuuma was happy we’re bringing friends along. Yuu’s been nice to girls since waaaay back.”

“Yeah.”

Kojou made a light sigh as he kept pace with Nagisa’s comments.

Kanon was Nagisa’s friend to begin with. There was nothing for Kojou to find wrong with their hanging out anyway. Besides, if he’d let Yukina be, she’d tail him for sure, saying it was part of her watcher duties. In that case, it was more relaxing to have her where he could see her. No, Kojou had another reason for sighing.

“…So, what are you two doing here?”

Kojou whirled his head toward a boy and girl watching him from the shadow of a pillar. One was a schoolgirl with an extravagant hairstyle; the other was a young, short-haired man with headphones hanging around his neck. Both had very showy carnival masks over their faces. Maybe they’d meant those to be disguises; at any rate, they stood out so much that it had the opposite effect.

Realizing her identity had been exposed, Asagi reluctantly took off her mask.

“…You have done well to see through our perfect disguises.”

Kojou was too flabbergasted to even think about laughing. “You call
those
perfect? They’re way too obvious. Where’d you get that mask, anyway?”

Yaze proudly puffed out his chest as he stroked the lifelike peacock feathers of his mask. “Oh, just one of those places selling stuff for the costume parade.”

“So what, you’re bored stiff so you came over here?”

“Geez, what’s wrong with that? We just wanted to get a look at your friend’s face. We’re heading home after that.”

“Yeah,” added Asagi. “We wanna see what your childhood friend looks like, Kojou. Just think of it like we’re just passing through.”

“I could’ve just introduced you,” Kojou replied. “You didn’t have to hide and watch like that.”

Kojou recalled that both Yaze and Asagi had been present when the rendezvous had come up in conversation. Perhaps they were both displaying an unexpected amount of consideration, thinking that they didn’t want to intrude on his reunion with his old friend. He shook his head in exasperation at how they must’ve thought he’d cruelly brush them off. Then—

Without warning, someone called out to Kojou from above their heads in a very loud voice.

“…Kojou!”

It was a rich alto voice that carried across the packed terminal with impressive clarity.

As the voice hit him, Kojou reflexively looked up to see a human silhouette descending upon him. Someone had slid down the stair rail and leaped right in front of Kojou’s eyes.

It was a girl with a very excitable air about her.

Her hair was in a short bob with the ends curled up. She wore a sports brand hoodie over her torso. Her long, curvy legs extended beyond her short pants. Her slender calves and rugged basketball shoes made for an oddly cute pair.

“Whoa?!” exclaimed Kojou.

Kojou somehow managed to catch the girl, right in front of Asagi and the others’ shocked eyes. As a result, the two were in a tight embrace as Kojou gave the girl a dumbfounded look.

“Y-Yuuma?!”

“Heya. Long time no see, Kojou.”

The girl called Yuuma narrowed her eyes as she made a mischievous smile. Her smiling face was off-the-charts adorable in a very boyish way. Kojou put her down with an annoyed look.

“…You almost made my heart stop there. You’re just totally reckless, you know that?”

The girl laughed eloquently, looking around the area. She seemed to finally notice that her antics had drawn the attention of the entire lobby upon them. She stuck her tongue out a bit as if slightly put off, looking at Kojou. Kojou was about to let out a very deep sigh when Nagisa stepped between them, as if to keep him from doing so.

“Yuu!”

“Nagisa, you’ve grown so beautiful. I didn’t recognize you.”

“Oh, there you go again…! I sent you a picture practically yesterday.”

“No, no. The real thing puts the picture to shame.”

You’d think that line was sweet enough to make your teeth rot, but it was oddly persuasive when coming out of a girl’s mouth.

Asagi gazed dumbfounded at the Akatsuki siblings’ conversation with the mystery girl as Yukina, standing beside her, grabbed her shoulders and strongly shook her.

“What’s this? What’s going on here?!”

For once, Yukina sounded completely baffled. “D-don’t ask me, I have no idea…”

The watcher of the Fourth Primogenitor had no idea whatsoever how the meeting with the boy he’d apparently been friends with back in elementary school had morphed into an intimate conversation with a beautiful girl.

Finally regaining her senses, Asagi forced her way to Kojou and asked, “Hey, Kojou. What’s the meaning of this?”

Kojou seemed at a loss as he looked at his friend, who looked much more bloodthirsty since he’d last checked. “Of what?”

“Who is this person?”

Yukina circled around Kojou’s back as she asked. Strangely, she and Asagi seemed like comrades in arms. Kojou, the pincer movement having cut off all avenues of escape, uncomfortably shrugged his shoulders.

“My childhood friend. Duh.”

Yukina and Asagi interjected at nearly the same time.

“This is a girl, though?”

“And a really good-looking one?!”

Kojou looked even more bewildered.

“…What are you guys worked up for? You saw the picture back at my place last night.”

“Oh yeah, you never actually said you were meeting up with a guy,” Yaze calmly pointed out.

“Muu,” went Asagi and Yukina, biting their lips in silence.

Now that he mentioned it, sure, when Kojou said he was meeting an old friend, they naturally thought he meant a guy, but neither sibling had ever actually said so. Indeed, thinking back to the picture they’d seen, the person seemed too pretty to be an actual boy.

Plus, the vestiges of the person in the picture were evident on the face of the mystery girl Nagisa was happily speaking with. So, they were indeed one and the same. QED.

“—So they’re friends from your school, Kojou?”

The mystery girl approached Asagi and the others, who had not recovered from the shell shock of which she was the cause, and made a very warm smile at them. She wasn’t much taller than Asagi, but her tight frame without a single bit of excess flesh created a near-perfect body shape, which seemed blatantly unfair.

Plus, she had that radiant, smiling face. If she wanted, she could probably make anyone young or old, of either gender, swoon for her.

But perhaps because it was old news to him, her smiling face didn’t even make Kojou bat an eyebrow.

“Yeah, these girls here are Nagisa’s classmates,” Kojou explained.

Kanon and Yukina introduced themselves in that order. After that, Kojou pointed at Asagi and Yaze.

“—And these two are just passing through.”

“Who’s just passing through?!” Asagi angrily replied on pure reflex.

Kojou scowled with a look of dismay. “You’re the one who told me to think of you like that!”

Watching the exchange between Asagi and Kojou with amusement, the girl made a textbook formal bow.

“Ha-ha-ha, thank you for taking such good care of Kojou for me. Yuuma Tokoyogi. A pleasure to meet you.”

Kojou and the others ditched the lethal crowds at the monorail and took a bus to Keystone Gate.

It was the biggest building in Itogami City and the facility used to administer the entire island, but at the same time, it was the site of the island’s No. 1 collection of top-brand stores, making it stellar for killing time.

It also came with a library for visitors to the Demon Sanctuary and souvenir shops, so it was common sense for natives giving tourists a tour of Itogami Island to start there.

After giving the library a once-over, Kojou’s party entered a small cafeteria Yaze had recommended. The interior seemed a little retro, but the place had a pretty nice feel to it.

Since there weren’t any tables for four available, the three middle school students and high schoolers split up and sat separately. High schoolers Asagi and Yaze formed one group and Kojou and Yuuma formed another. Kojou and Yuuma had gone to pick up the meals, automatically relegating Asagi and Yaze to remain in their seats, looking out for everyone’s things.

Yaze made a sarcastic smile as he watched Asagi exercise bad manners, sipping on her glass of ginger ale through a straw.

“…You don’t look all that enthused.”

Yaze tossed Asagi a sarcastic smile as he watched her ignore good manners as she blew bubbles into her glass of ginger ale.

“You look like you’re having plenty of fun.”

Yaze nodded a firm
Yeah!
“Not exactly as nice as my senior year girl, but this Yuuma chick’s not bad looking, especially those legs and hips. She looks slender, but her chest is actually pretty nice.”

Yaze had his arms crossed as he made an earnest comparison.

Asagi still couldn’t quite believe it, but this guy actually did have a girlfriend. Furthermore, she was two years his senior, a third-year high school girl. She was considered a bit eccentric but was a cute girl who wore glasses.

Thanks to his real-world exploits, Yaze ended up giving Asagi high-handed advice from time to time, something that irritated her to no end.

“I see what’s got your goat here,” Yaze continued. “Who’d have thought Kojou had a jewel like this hidden away somewhere? Well, it looks like that moron Kojou has no idea what kind of advantage he has here.”

Asagi casually poured on the scorn, not denying the fact it had her goat.

“That moron’s head stopped developing back in elementary school.”

Sometime during all this, the Yuuma in question was coming back carrying a tray covered in food. It was a straightforward order with hot dogs, onion rings, and the like.

“Here you go. I tried to order something appropriate, but this should be all right?”

Faced with that invigorating, smiling face, Asagi blushed in spite of herself.

“Ah, er…thank you.”

Truth be told, she was the type Asagi had a hard time with even without Kojou being involved, but it was difficult to hate Yuuma when she was giving you that friendly, smiling face.

Looking down at Asagi’s feet, resting lazily under the table, Yuuma made a pleasant smile mixed with a rise of her brows.

“Those sandals.”

“Huh?”

“Engel limited edition colors, right? From that magazine collaboration thingy.”

“That’s right… You really know your stuff.”

“They’re cute. They look really good on you.”

“Th-thank you.”

Asagi couldn’t help but smile broadly. She’d had a secret love of the sandals she was wearing that day and finally got a pair as a reward after applying with fifty handwritten postcards. It wasn’t something she’d brag to other people about, but of course she was glad that someone out there recognized their value.